OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is playing one of the NFL’s worst teams a week after celebrating the most emotional regular-season victory of his career.
Will Jackson go from leaping for a winning touchdown against the Chiefs to getting blindsided by the winless Lions on Sunday?
"I’m still locked in,” Jackson said Wednesday. "I didn’t get on no high horse or anything, and be like ‘Oh, we just won a championship or something.’ Nothing like that happened yet. We still have a long season ahead of us.”
The Ravens (1-1) head to Detroit (0-2) as one of the biggest favorites in Week 3 (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Baltimore is favored by eight points on the road, and ESPN’s Football Power Index has the Ravens winning 71.4% of the time.
Jackson hasn’t spoken to his teammates about letdowns, and he doesn’t plan to do so. He can let his track record talk about how he beats the teams he is supposed to in the regular season.
When favored by eight or more points in the regular season, Jackson is a perfect 14-0 with 30 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Only Steve McNair (18-0) and Jim McMahon (15-0) have better records in the Super Bowl era when favored by eight or more points, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“Our guys understand that it's business,” Jackson said. "We wanted to win that game. We got the ‘W’, and we have to transition over to Detroit now. [We have to] focus on those guys, because those guys are hungry. That’s a fighting defense.”
The last time Baltimore lost a regular-season game in which it was favored by more than eight points was the 2017 season finale, when the Ravens were upset by the Cincinnati Bengals, 31-27, and got knocked out of the playoff race. That was also the final game before the Ravens drafted Jackson.
Since Jackson became the starter, the Ravens have won by an average of 17.2 points in games in which they were favored by eight or more points.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said it’s not challenging to quickly move past such an emotional win.
“Because when you watch the tape, you’re really watching it scientifically in a sense,” Harbaugh said. "There are so many things that we need to improve upon. We have 15 more games to play, and everybody is going to get better. So, you kind of get flipped into that mode pretty quickly when you start watching the coaches tape.”
Like he was in the fourth quarter against Kansas City, Jackson was extremely loose in Wednesday’s practice. He was dancing before drills began. He draped his arm over offensive coordinator Greg Roman and made him laugh. And Jackson even leapt up to touch the goal post, as if he was seeing whether he could dunk the ball.
"I think it makes the game fun for me, and it reminds you to have fun and treat it like [that],” said veteran running back Latavius Murray, who is in his third week with the Ravens. "So, him flipping in the end zone, that’s just the kind of stuff that really lightens the mood and just reminds you, ‘Look, this is a game, and it’s meant to have fun, and that’s exactly what we all should be doing.’”
Harbaugh said Jackson knows how to reach the perfect balance with his demeanor, whether it’s in his preparation or during practice.
"He’s very business-like, but also, he has fun,” Harbaugh said. "He’ll have fun with his guys. If something happens, he gets on guys. I think what you see is what you get with Lamar.”