What is up with Lamar Jackson and his Baltimore Ravens? The season didn’t start how we were hoping for it too. Maybe, part of the problem is John Harbaugh’s fixation with the 2x MVP and how he refuses to utilize the talent he has at hand. Case in point, Derrick Henry, who didn’t get to run the ball as much as we would have liked him to.

A few months earlier, John Harbaugh declared that he wanted Lamar Jackson to be the greatest quarterback in the league. Perhaps it’s this desire that has led him to experiment with the offense and deviate from tried and tested methods of scoring. Former Patriots safety, Rodney Harrison, asked John Harbaugh to abandon that train of thought and focus on winning games.

“I just keep thinking, I don’t see the same attitude, I don’t see the same mentality,” Harrison said on FNIA on NFL on NBC. “There’s a certain arrogance about the Baltimore Ravens thinking that, ’Hey, we got Lamar, we got all these weapons, we look good on paper, we can just show up and we’ll win football games,’ and the National Football League is not like that and I think they’re getting a good wakeup call. But I think they’d get back on track. ”

The 27-20 upset against the Chiefs was a bit shocking, especially after Isaiah Likely’s touchdown was ruled out. But it’s not about that. The team signed Derrick Henry to become more versatile at running the football but didn’t use him to the extent that most hoped for. Over the past two games, Derrick Henry has fewer rushing stats than Lamar Jackson and its mind-boggling.

“They need to feature Derrick Henry. It’s not about making Lamar Jackson the MVP; it’s about making Derrick Henry run the ball 20+ times wearing down the defense with those big physical offensive linemen,” Rodney Harrison later added.

Over the last two games, Jackson carried the ball 21 times over 167 yards and got 8 first downs. On the other side, Henry only had a total of 31 carries over two games over 130 yards. However, he did score a touchdown in each game. And here lies the problem: Henry only amounted for a single first down in the past two games. Is there a particular reason for the disparity in utilization?

Well, Harbaugh wants to make it such that all skill position players get their hands on the football. “We didn’t bring Derrick [Henry] to be the guy that gets the ball 30 times a game. He’s done that before. That’s really not the plan,” Harbaugh said. “I think that evaluation [of the run game] will be best made over the course of the season, and I’m very confident there’s going to be games where Derrick is going to go for 100-plus [yards] or more, and you’re going to be asking me why Zay [Flowers] only got two catches,”

Harbaugh’s statement has the former NFL coach Tony Dungy a bit confused. At the start of the segment, Dungy took a slight jab at the Ravens head coach for stripping the team of its offensive “identity,” and that’s what bothers the co-host.

John Harbaugh advised to revert to good old Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens are among few teams who aren’t “eating good.” Former NFL coach Tony Dungy’s advice to John Harbaugh is to take the whole team to Applebee’s and sort their hunger out. And no, it’s not about food, it’s about the hunger for winning games, which the Ravens haven’t done so far as they stand 0-2 at the start of the season.

“I think our buddy John Harbaugh needs to take the whole team to Applebee’s to eat because they don’t have an identity right now. They used to be ‘physical, pounding, run the football, beat you up on defense’ team and we’re not seeing that in the first two weeks.”

There’s another important matter to be discussed here. And that’s Mike Macdonald leaving the Ravens DC job to climb the ladder. His absence was felt when the Ravens blew a 10-point lead against the Raiders, something that’s very unbecoming of a team like Baltimore. Fortunately, Lamar Jackson is locked in and thinks that the team has got to do a better job.

“We’ve got to find our mojo and do what we do,” Jackson lamented. “Because that’s not us at all.” The Baltimore Ravens are about to play at the AT&T Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys. It’ll be interesting to see Jackson go against Micah Parsons. Can he outsmart him and the rest of the Cowboys? Will we see more of Derrick Henry’s explosive plays? More importantly, will the Ravens find their “mojo” again? Let us know what you think in the comments.

With that being said, do check out our latest Think Tank exclusive interview with Doug Sanders. It’s packed with insights on the current NFL season, college football, NIL, and much more