Lamar Jackson injury update: Ravens QB leaves with cramps, returns to lead comeback win

Tom Gatto

Lamar Jackson injury update: Ravens QB leaves with cramps, returns to lead comeback win image

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson left Monday night's game vs. the Browns in the second half because of cramping. The Ravens announced he was questionable to return, but Jackson reentered the game in the fourth quarter and led Baltimore to 11 points in less than two minutes to help give his team a wild 47-42 win.

Jackson went to the locker room in the third quarter and was not on the field for most of the fourth.

He was replaced by second-year backup Trace McSorley, who ran once and threw two incompletions (one was a drop) in a three-and-out on his first drive. Cleveland QB Baker Mayfield scored a 5-yard rushing touchdown on the ensuing drive to help give the Browns a one-point lead.

McSorley had to leave the game on his second drive after suffering an apparent knee injury. Jackson had just returned to the field by then and came back in. He looked fit as he rolled to his right and threw to a wide-open Marquise Brown, who raced past the Cleveland defense for a 44-yard touchdown with 1:51 remaining. Baltimore added a 2-point conversion by J.K. Dobbins to take 42-35 lead.  

MORE: Lamar Jackson’s mysterious ‘cramps’ absence had all of Twitter making poop jokes

"I was still coming out [onto the field] no matter what," reigning MVP Jackson replied when asked if he would have returned had McSorley not been injured. "It was crunch time. It's win or go home for us right now."

After Cleveland tied the game 42-42 on a Mayfield-to-Kareem Hunt 22-yard TD pass, Jackson led Baltimore on one last scoring drive, capped by a 55-yard field goal from Justin Tucker with two seconds remaining. Baltimore recorded a safety on the final play of the game, after Cleveland attempted multiple laterals, for the final margin.

"I got back to myself. I was cramping. I got that right. I was cramping, and I had to get some IVs in me," Jackson said.

Jackson had rescued Baltimore (8-5) in a victory that kept it in the thick of the AFC wild-card race. He rushed nine times for 124 yards and two touchdowns while also completing 11 of 17 passes for 163 yards. 

He was playing in his second game since being activated from the Ravens' reserve/COVID-19 list.

Material from Stats Perform News was used in this report.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.