Time For Lamar Jackson To Run: Ravens OL Can't Protect, Brazilian Field Favors It, QB Runs Destroy Cowboys

The Baltimore Ravens have massive issues on their offensive line. Their interior group is very much in contention to be labelled the worst in the NFL through two weeks.

The challenge increases this week, having to travel all the way to Brazil, with left tackle Ronnie Stanley (toe) unable to finish the last game and having to adjust to a soccer field, with major concerns already being raised about the conditions. It's inherently going to be softer and significantly different from what these players are used to. The offensive coordinator has called plays exactly twice in his career – once a tour de force and once a disaster, and after getting too cute for his own good blowing an 11-point lead to the Saints while abandoning heavy personnel and the run game, it’s hard to not to think there will be a major course correction Sunday.

It’s also hard to imagine that now, after two weeks of film of the guards and center getting eviscerated in pass protection (hate to say I told you so) and with twists and linebacker blitzes to the A Gap free runs at the QB, the Cowboys will not immediately attack. And one way or another that results in Lamar Jackson’s legs being a much bigger part of the equation – whether by design or just to survive.

Jackson, a team-first guy to a fault but one without a real contract after this season, will never comment on obvious personnel failures like this (he's used to it at WR and OL by now) but don’t conflate that with him not being acutely aware of how pathetic this five-man unit has been (third-worst pressure rate in NFL despite Jackson’s athletic wizardry).

I strongly suspect Jackson is getting himself prepared to have his legs be a bigger part of the equation that at this point in the season, and there are definitely strong indications in Cowboys game film going back three years to point the Ravens in that direction and also data from a decade of games being played in unusual international locations (not England, where the NFL is every year, but the rest of Europe and South America) that point to this being a heavy ground game with the QB quite involved.

“I’m a part of the run game,” Jackson reiterated Wednesday when probed about the lack of designed runs Sunday when the team was short on receivers and the passing game was failing. “Like I said, we inside the building, we watch the film and go over game plan … Sometimes the defense just doesn’t give us the look.”

Fair enough. And sometime the offensive coordinator needs to work a little harder to get into formations and fight for certain looks to become more attractive. Running doomed 11 personnel in the second half doesn’t qualify.

Follow The Numbers

In 10 years of games played outside of the US and the UK, the total QB running EPA is 1.24; in games played in the US in that span, the scramble EPA is 0.78. Defensive players have complained for years after games in South America or France or Spain or Germany about not being able to react and cut and how much of an advantage it is for offenses. Passing efficiencies are actually lower in these exotic international games, but the overall run EPA is massively different (-1.06 in the “exotics” since 2015; -2.45 everywhere else). That’s no fluke.

Cowboys Rushing EPA vs QB Runs:

2026: -0.85 (25th) 2025: -5.76 (29th) 2024: -28.82 (32nd)

2024-2026: -33.43 (32nd) Next Closest Team (31st): PIT -16.20

They lost to the Giants in large part due to QB Jaxson Dart’s legs and Jayden Daniels had the Commanders right in the game going to halftime with his legs a huge reason why before a silly play call decision was the precursor to another grisly dislocated elbow injury. Quarterbacks have 19 rushes vs the Cowboys this season (most in the NFL), for 126 yards (most) at 6.6/carry. Cowboys are 30th in EPA vs QB runs, they have been terrible against the run in general for year, and it looks worse now than ever when the QB takes off.

Consider:

There have been 13 QB carries vs Dallas this season that did not involve a situation of an aborted play, a kneel down, or an obvious dive situation with one yard needed for a first down. Somehow 9 of those 13 went for at least seven yards or more and five of them went for 14 yards or more. They’ve already allowed 10 first-down runs by QBs. Jackson’s first coordinator, Greg Roman, ran old-school stuff against Dallas Week 1 and they responded as if they did not know the QB was allowed to be a primary ball carrier.

(Memo to Doyle: We know you are smart, just keep it simple stupid when it’s time to keep it simple stupid and a lot of stuff that was done here worked for a reason and there is a time and place to go back to it.)

As for the issues the field might present – again, this is going to aid the cause of the offense much more than the defense and teams are routinely producing 400 yards or more on these lesser-used foreign surfaces – Jackson did not seem particularly moved by it. He does know how difficult slow starts can be to overcome, and how this team fell prey to them under previous staffs, and his legs and off-script ability can be a unique cheat code in a way the Cowboys seem to really lack the answers for.

“I can’t worry about that,” Jackson said of the field conditions. “I’ve just got to worry about us getting a dub … We done played on bad fields. I can’t dwell on that … I’m just locked in. I can’t focus on how the grass is going to be.”

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