Lamar Jackson's Return Lasted One Play — and May Have Ended His Season

Three games of waiting ended in one snap.

Lamar Jackson dropped back on Baltimore’s first offensive play at Highmark Stadium, bounced a pass attempt toward Zay Flowers, and could not finish his follow-through — his right hand struck Buffalo pass rusher Greg Rousseau’s arm, the Associated Press reported. Jackson immediately looked down at the hand, appeared to point to his thumb, took a knee before he reached the sideline and was escorted straight up the tunnel.

The Ravens first listed him as questionable, then ruled him out before the first quarter ended, according to the Associated Press. He came back to the Baltimore sideline in the third quarter wearing a brace on his hand and thumb, USA Today reported. The play itself is on the broadcast — NFL on CBS posted the sequence of the throw and Jackson heading for the locker room.

Then came the news that turned a bad afternoon into a season-defining one. “That’ll be a surgery deal, he’ll go to (injured reserve),” Ravens head coach Jesse Minter told reporters after the game, via USA Today. “That’s a tough deal.” Injured reserve means a minimum of four games — and NBC Sports reported Minter said there is fear the injury will end Jackson’s season. Asked directly whether it could be season-ending, Minter’s answer was: “We’ll see.”

Jackson had not played since the first half of Baltimore’s Week 4 win over Tennessee, when he suffered the high ankle sprain that cost him three games, USA Today reported. The Ravens went 1–2 without him, and his return was supposed to restart a season that had slid to the bottom of the AFC North. Instead, his stat line for the day is a single incompletion — and the seven total touchdowns he produced across Baltimore’s opening four games now sit behind a surgery.

What followed him out of the game was almost as rough. Backup Tyler Huntley took over, hurt his right toe in the first half — twisted up under pressure and aggravated when he was sacked and fumbled early in the second quarter — and was ruled out, the Associated Press and NBC Sports reported. He finished 2-of-4 for zero yards, though he was on the field for Baltimore’s only touchdown, a Derrick Henry score set up by a Josh Allen interception, according to USA Today.

That left the Ravens on their emergency third quarterback: Joe Fagnano, a 25-year-old undrafted rookie out of Connecticut who had never taken an NFL snap. Fagnano entered in the second quarter and finished 10-of-21 for 91 yards with an interception and a lost fumble, Reuters reported — and even he hurt his right foot late in the third quarter before playing the rest of the way. Baltimore managed just 144 yards of offense all afternoon, NBC Sports reported.

Buffalo, meanwhile, led from its opening drive to the finish of a 36–10 win that moved the Bills to 6–1 and dropped Baltimore to 4–4 with a third straight loss, Reuters reported. And the Bills’ quarterback wrote history in the fourth quarter: Josh Allen’s 11-yard touchdown pass to DJ Moore with 12:18 left was the 259th passing touchdown of his career including the postseason, passing Hall of Famer Jim Kelly — who was in the building to see it — for the franchise record, Reuters reported. Allen finished 21-of-34 for 289 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score; a later touchdown to Dalton Kincaid made it 260.

The Sports Desk’s read: Baltimore’s season now runs through a rookie emergency quarterback and a Thursday night game against Jacksonville in four days — with its two-time MVP headed for an operating table and no promise he plays again this year. The Ravens survived three games without Jackson. Nobody in that building is pretending the next four-plus look the same.

Full game coverage, the box score and the play-by-play live in the Ravens at Bills Game Center.