Was it actually Lamar Jackson with the late game heroics?

Or was it Baker Mayfield hanging until the very end?

I think it was Baker Mayfield, and the reason I think is a Baker Mayfield, because to me, when you look at Lamar Jackson, it was more of the same.

I mean, we've seen Lamar Jackson's heroics before.

No matter what.

The situation is no circumstances.

We may have sought a little bit differently because of the 44 yard hook up with Hollywood Brown, as opposed to him running the football on that last that last possession.

But the bottom line is Lamar Jackson, in terms of his heroics because of those wheels on him.

We've seen a lot of that.

We were looking for something like this from Baker Mayfield since he entered the National Football League and we finally saw it last night.

I think you could make a legitimate argument last night that even though he completed just 59% of his passes, that was the best game we've seen Baker Mayfield play in his NFL career.

He was that sensational last night, coming back and particularly in their fourth quarter, scrambling out of the pocket and throwing some of the passes that he threw and taking some of the chances that he took.

Hey showed a lot of guts, a lot of moxie and a lot of ability, similar to what we're accustomed to seeing what we were accustomed to seeing from him on the collegiate level.

It's not that Lamar Jackson wasn't sensational.

I'm just saying what we saw from our Lamar Jackson is what we've seen before.

We didn't see that from Baker Mayfield until last night.

I'm taking nothing away from Baker Mayfield.

He was excellent, and he deserves praise.

Today.

He's really grown as a quarterback.

And as I keep saying four head coaches in a little more than two years, remember Alex Smith in the beginning of his career with all those offensive coordinators, first overall pick When he got in a stable situation with a good coach, things went well.

I'm hoping that it continues with Baker Mayfield because that was really something an excellent performance.

The bigger statement was made by Lamar Jackson, the reigning and defending NFL regular season MVP Stephen A.

When Lamar Jackson was in the game, they had a 14 point lead.

Now you could say they got it.

You know, there were nine rushing touchdowns in the game.

They were touchdowns running the ball on both sides.

And if you want to say that, we all know Lamar Jackson can run and the threat of the run helps him in the passing game.

Well, yeah, but that's a really thing, and it will continue to be a thing in the playoffs and against good teams.

The threat of Lamar Jackson's run opens up some opportunities for him in the passing game.

Of course, Now I got to say this.

The big picture here is that Lamar Jackson's in the game.

They're up 14.

It certainly comes in.

It falls apart.

Baker looks great, and when they needed Lamar Jackson most on fourth down, really?

With the game on the line, fourth and five, Lamar Jackson comes hobbling out of the locker room and completes a 44 yard pass for a touchdown for the go ahead touchdown with the season on the line.

As you said and I pointed out earlier, Baker sitting there on the sidelines, nodding like, Okay, my turn and he did it.

Hats off to him.

Did that demoralize the Ravens?

Or did the Ravens believe in their leader?

Baltimore believed in their leader.

And you know why Stephen A.

With the game on the line, he then completed four passes to get them into field goal range.

Now they have the greatest field goal kicker of all time, Fine, but you need to get into range in order to win the game.

And he had to pass the ball in order to do it.

And that's exactly what he did.

The stakes weren't as high as Willis Reed with the Knicks in 1970 69 70 with the championship on the line against the Lakers, and he comes hobbling out hits a jump shot.

The stakes weren't that, but this was a big game Monday Night Football.

Ravens desperately trying to make the playoffs.

Brown's trying to make the statement and overcome Big Brother in the division.

One of the two and Lamar Jackson comes with the game on the line compromised and altogether five passes toe win the game passes to win the game.

He made the bigger statement.

The reigning M V P well First of all, you could look at it that way.

But first of all, Lamar Jackson's lucky he had his kick, as opposed to Dan Bailey in Minnesota.

He had there, Dan Bailey.

It might have been a different ball game.

My God, how awful he looked this past Sunday and missing those three field goals he missed for the Vikings.

But having said all of that to get back on track here, let's remember Baker.

Mayfield can't play defense.

All you could do is what you can dio.

So Baker Mayfield was.

It was it was operating in a 14 point deficit.

Baker Mayfield was the one that led them to 22 points in the fourth quarter.

Baker Mayfield was the one that repeatedly drove them downfield and put them in the position of go ahead scores.

He can't play defense for the Browns.

That's not his position.

But you can make an argument that he was under immense pressure similar to that of Lamar Jackson.

Lamar Jackson just had the ball last, and that's what it comes down to.

But when you consider the kind of heat that Baker Mayfield has been taken from, everybody myself included the kind of question marks we had about him, the way we were starving to see something that was reminiscent of someone worthy of being the number one overall pick in an NFL draft.

The kind of question marks that that came associated with him for him to go out there on Monday Night Football on that stage, with the recent history of the Cleveland Browns being what it is and to perform the way that he did, I got to stand down and give him credit where credit is due.

That was the bigger thing to me.

Lamar Jackson was pretty much more of the same because of his electrifying running ability.

Baker Mayfield showed me something.

There were two big questions, one for each quarterback, right heading into the game.

And there have been questions about them.

Ken Baker, Mayfield ever be a good quarterback, not just a solid NFL starter, which I think we agree that looks like what is upside.

It would be a solid daughter.

Can he be a really franchise winning quarterback?

And he showed that last night he could do that.

We saw that last night when we maybe wrote him off the question for Lamar, I think, was a bigger question.

Can he win when the pressure is on?

He was almost undefeated in his career, except for when it mattered most.

Then he was six against the Chiefs in the playoffs, right against the Steelers, with Roethlisberger.

And last night, with the light shining bright and really the season on the line for them, Lamar Jackson stepped up and did it.

And to me, the MVP showing he can be big when it matters most is the story out of that game.

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