If you were to peruse the Houston Texans schedule before the 2025 NFL season began, one of the matchups you would've inevitably circled would've been a Week 5 trip up north to face Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.
But now that we're just a few days out from this game, it's starting to look like it may not be Lamar Jackson that the Houston Texans defense needs to deal with.
During Baltimore's 37-20 defeat at the hands of the three-time defending AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Jackson exited the game in the 3rd quarter with a hamstring injury that could end up keeping the two-time MVP sidelined for multiple weeks.
Though there hasn't been an official update on Lamar Jackson's status for Sunday's game versus Houston, an informal update from Ravens head coach John Harbaugh made it sound as if his quarterback won't be returning to the field any time soon.
"There was no way he was going to go back into the game," Harbaugh said of Jackson on Monday, per Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. "The injury precluded it during the game. I know Lamar. If he could have gone in the game, he would've been in the game. That's how he is. But I can assure you that he would not have been able to go back in the game under any circumstance."
That statement provides a pretty grim outlook for Lamar Jackson's status this Sunday, and it shouldn't be a huge surprise that this is the case. For a quarterback whose superpower is his ability to run circles around opposing defenses, an iffy hamstring is one of the worst injuries he could be dealing with, especially going into a game where there are a pair of All-Pro caliber edge rushers hungry to get after the quarterback, as is the case with Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter.
Ravens may need to turn to Cooper Rush vs. lights out Texans defense
With all due respect to Cooper Rush, Baltimore's backup quarterback who has an impressive 9-5 record as a starter across an 8 year NFL career, this is not the spot you want him to have to make his first start of the 2025 season in. Through four weeks of the season, the Texans defense ranks 7th in yards per play, 5th in total yards allowed and 1st in points allowed, and to make matters even worse for the Ravens, it's a group that will need to continue playing desperate football until they've dug the Texans out of the 0-3 hole they started the season in.
We likely won't know until much later in the week whether Lamar Jackson will be officially ruled out, but for now, it wouldn't hurt for the Texans to watch some game tape on the former Dallas Cowboys backup. The good news: with Dak Prescott injured the Houston Texans got to see Cooper Rush up close and personal in Week 11 of the 2024 season.
In that game -- a 34-10 Texans win -- Rush threw for a career-high 354 yards. But don't fret, Texans fans... Rush's 75.9 passer rating was the 4th-lowest of his career as a starter, and the Texans were able to get after him early and often, sacking him 5 times, and that was without Will Anderson in the lineup.
The calculus figures to change a little bit with Rush in Baltimore as opposed to Dallas. The Ravens will be able to lean on Derrick Henry-led rushing attack, which Dallas didn't have the luxury of last year. However, John Harbaugh did indicate that if Rush's number is called upon, the Ravens will be ready to tailor the offense to his skillset.
"Everybody kind of knows what his game is, and he can play that game," Harbaugh said. "So if he's out there, it'll be geared toward him. We've got a lot of playmakers around him if he's playing."