Despite winning five straight games and moving into first place in the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens had a lot to prove in their Thanksgiving Night clash with the Cincinnati Bengals. Lamar Jackson got the green light after dealing with a toe injury earlier in the week. And the two-time MVP was expected to snap out of his slump against the lowly Bengals.
Instead of a return to form, Jackson had one of his worst games of the season Thursday. The All-Pro QB completed just 53.1 percent of his passes for 246 scoreless yards. He once again was a non-factor as a runner. He took three sacks. And Jackson turned the ball over three times, throwing an ugly interception and losing two fumbles in the Ravens’ nightmare 32-14 loss.
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The prime time flop was Jackson’s fourth consecutive poor performance. And fans are starting to wonder what happened to the quarterback who had been a perennial MVP candidate.
Lamar Jackson’s slump continues in Ravens’ ugly Thanksgiving Night loss
Jackson returned from a three-game injury absence in Week 9 and threw four touchdowns against the Miami Dolphins. But in his next three games, he totaled one touchdown and two interceptions while failing to top 200 passing yards and completing less than 60 percent of his throws.
On Thursday, Jackson surpassed 200 passing yards for the fifth time this season. In fact, the 246-yard effort was his second best output of 2025, behind only his year-high 288-yard performance in Week 3.
However, he failed to score a touchdown for the third straight game. He’s now fumbled four times in the last four games and committed five turnovers in the last three games.
Thursday’s performance is particularly disheartening for Ravens fans as it came against a Bengals team that entered Week 13 with the worst overall defense in football. Cincinnati has the league’s worst scoring defense. The team’s defense ranks 32nd overall, 32nd against the pass and 31st against the run. And the Ravens could only muster 14 points.
Frustrated fans took to social media demanding answers on Jackson’s midseason disappearing act.
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JacobsMovement wrote:
“Lamar Jackson has 3 turnovers and no TD's against a defense Caleb dropped 47 on btw.”
DivaD4K added:
“Dak Prescott genuinely is better than Lamar Jackson”
Frank Ammirante commented:
Lamar Jackson looks like a former perennial Cy Young winner who is coming off Tommy John surgery and looks like a shell of their former selves.
Lamar Jackson just gave a Christmas gift to the Bengals defense on the 2 yard line.
C’mon kid 😂 pic.twitter.com/5TMMa4Ctwp
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) November 28, 2025
Live look at Lamar Jackson trying to hold a football pic.twitter.com/Xq5xvFHepl
— Brian Sutterer MD (@BrianSuttererMD) November 28, 2025
Lamar Jackson 3 turnovers vs the worst defense in the NFL pic.twitter.com/BYoKTCdaqw
— BillsOnReal (@BillsOnReal) November 28, 2025
Lamar Jackson for the last month pic.twitter.com/jD60n2ApXy
— NFL Memes (@NFLHateMemes) November 28, 2025