Entering Monday Night Football, the Ravens have rushed for at least 100 yards in 43 straight games, tied with the 174-77 Steelers for the longest streak of its kind in NFL history.
It’s difficult to ignore the power of the Ravens rush game since the streak began in 2018. It’s also no coincidence that this was the year Lamar Jackson took over as Baltimore’s starting quarterback. With only 50 games played in his career, he ranks 11th on the most rushing yards made by a quarterback in history with 3,185 career rushing yards. Everyone he falls behind has played over 100 games. He’s on par to breaking the record by the end of his career.
In 2019, Jackson broke Michael Vick’s record for the most rushing yards made by a quarterback in a single season. He finished that season with 1,206 yards, crushing Vick’s record of 1,039 yards.
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2019 was not only a monumental year for Jackson, but also for the Ravens as a whole. They broke the record for the most rushing yards in a 16-game season for any team in NFL history with 3,296 yards. Coincidentally, the Ravens broke this record while competing against one of their division rivals, the Steelers, who happen to currently hold the record for the most consecutive games with at least 100 rushing yards.
The record the Ravens are hoping to beat in tonight’s game is 44 consecutive games from the Steelers 1974-77 teams. The Steelers all-time leading rusher Franco Harris (11,950 yards) competed during those years to help secure their decades-long record. During that legendary run, the Steelers also won the 1975 and 1976 Super Bowls. While this current Ravens team hasn’t won a Super Bowl during it’s similar run (not yet, anyway), they have made it to the postseason each of the last three seasons.
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Suprisingly, the Ravens don’t even lead the NFL as a team in terms of rushing yards this season. They are ranked fourth behind the Browns, Cowboys and Titans, respectively. The Ravens average 164.5 rushing yards a game with 5.2 yards per carry. They have 658 total rushing yards through four games.
So far this season, Jackson has rushed for the most yards on the Ravens with 279 yards. He leads all NFL quarterbacks, but ranks at 18th in comparison to every player in the league.
Behind Jackson is Ty’Son Williams (164 rushing yards), Latavius Murray (151 yards) and Devonta Freeman (41 yards). Currently, three running backs sit on the injured reserve list: J.K. Dobbins, Justice Hill and Gus Edwards. Despite battling one injury after another in the backfield after another, the Ravens have somehow managed to keep their streak alive… though not without some controversy.
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The Ravens were close to breaking this streak last week, though. During the last play of the game against the Broncos, which the Ravens won 23-7, Jackson decided to rush a play with three seconds so they could keep their active streak. The Broncos coach Vic Fangio wasn’t too happy about it, since normally teams will kneel and let the clock run. But, the Ravens wanted to tie the record.
Will Baltimore top 100 tonight? So far this season, the Colts defense has allowed 456 rushing yards with an average of 114 yards per game.