When there’s a winner there’s a loser. Sometimes a player can do everything in their power to win a game and still lose. Just as often, a player’s performance can cost their team the game. These players are favorably called bobbleheads.
Baltimore Ravens: quarterback Lamar Jackson
It's rare for a player of Jackson’s caliber to end up as a bobblehead, but it doesn't matter how many MVPs you’ve won if you play like he did on Thursday, Nov. 27.
It may have been Thanksgiving, but someone must have told Jackson it was Christmas because he was giving gifts to the Cincinnati Bengals. In the first quarter, he fumbled the ball right into the hands of Bengals defensive end Cedric Johnson, but it did not end there. At the end of the second quarter, he just dropped the ball on the ground, and once again Johnson was there. Down two scores early in the fourth quarter, he threw a red-zone interception to linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr.
This poor play for Jackson is far from unexpected as this loss to the Bengals marked a third straight week Jackson did not throw or run for a touchdown. The Ravens are trying to make a playoff push in a wide-open AFC North, but if they want to do that, Jackson has to play better than this.
Minnesota Vikings: quarterback J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy did not have the privilege of playing on a holiday, which meant that the generosity he showed to the Packers defense on Nov. 23 simply came from the kindness of his heart.
For the first three quarters of this game, it would have been fair to say McCarthy didn’t do anything. He completed his first pass attempt in the Vikings’ opening series and would complete a whopping 11 more for the rest of the game, as he led the Vikings to just six points on two long field goals from place kicker Will Reichard, as they were completely shut out in the second half. He got them there with a measly 87 passing yards and a passer rating a 34.2.
It was in the fourth quarter that McCarthy realized that simple inefficiency wasn’t enough. It was then that he decided to start giving the ball away, as he threw interceptions on back to back drives which all but sealed a blowout loss for Minnesota, as they fell further and further into the basement of an otherwise very competitive NFC North.
Minnesota Timberwolves: power forward Julius Randle
It’s as if poor play is contagious in Minnesota, as Julius Randle crumbled in the Timberwolves’ matchup with the reigning Champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Randle has been very solid for the Timberwolves up to this point in the season; so far he’s second for the team in points and rebounds per game, even leading the team in assists per game and total points.
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None of that seemed to matter on Nov. 26 when Randle’s game was nightmarish for fans of field goal efficiency everywhere. Randle shot just two of 13 from the field in his 33 minutes of play. That adds up to an atrocious 15.4% field goal percentage.
When a guy misses 11 of the 13 shots he takes in a game where his team only lost by eight, you can only wonder how different things would be if a few of those had just fallen his way.
Marley Herndon is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @Dailylobo
