CINCINNATI -- In a season in which he already leads the NFL in oohs and aahs, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson delivered a highlight for the ages in Sunday's 49-13 rout of the winless Cincinnati Bengals.
Jackson's 47-yard touchdown run was part Michael Vick, part Barry Sanders. And it was all epic.
Using his speed to get to the open field, Jackson used a did-he-just-do-that spin move -- which he had choreographed a day earlier -- to produce what could end up being the defining moment in an MVP season.
It caused the Ravens sideline to gasp, made one teammate drop to the ground in awe and had Bengals defenders looking up to the video board to watch the replay in disbelief.
After Jackson's longest run of his career, Ravens coach John Harbaugh told his offensive coaches on the headset: "They’ll be watching that run for decades and decades. That’s one that everyone in the country is going to see by [Monday] afternoon."
In recording the longest touchdown run by a Ravens player in seven years, Jackson needed 10 seconds to cover almost half the field and reach the end zone, making nearly half of the Cincinnati defense look foolish in the process.
For a large portion of the game, Jackson surprisingly attacked the NFL’s worst run defense through the air. He only had 18 yards rushing on six carries in the first half before working his magic on his first drive in the third quarter.
Facing a 2nd-and-3 with a 28-10 lead, Jackson took the snap in the pistol formation and faked a handoff to running back Mark Ingram II on a run-option play. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley went to the second level and left Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap unblocked as designed. Dunlap bit on the fake to Ingram and crashed to the inside.
"They're put in a position where they have to choose Lamar or the running back, and sometimes they don't know what to do and they're stuck in the middle,” Stanley said, "and that's probably the worst thing you can do.”
Getting a kickoff block from tight end Nick Boyle, Jackson accelerated to the Cincinnati 37-yard, where he was one-on-one with safety Jessie Bates III. Jackson gave a head fake left, planted his left foot and zipped past Bates to the right.
"It’s funny because we put one of the receiver practice-squad players as a quarterback throughout the week, just to get the look, just to get the speed of it,” Bates said. "But even then, there’s not a lot of Lamar Jacksons being born.”
Taking three more steps to the Bengals’ 32-yard line, Jackson made the move that had generated six million views on the NFL Twitter feed by Monday morning.
He eluded linebacker Nick Vigil and safety Shawn Williams by pivoting and corkscrewing himself with a nasty spin move.
"I don't think nobody saw it coming,” running back Gus Edwards said. "I was ready for him to go down, but I guess you got to expect those type of things out of Lamar. He surprises you every game.”
He then ran side by side with Ingram to the end zone, capping a score that encapsulated his athleticism, balance and explosiveness.
"Man he’s just special, bruh," Ingram said. "I seen him do a lot of crazy stuff, but that game right there and that play right there? I wish I had a GoPro on my helmet for y’all to see that footage. It was probably the craziest thing I ever seen on the field in person."
The crazy part of this move is Jackson used it Saturday. Jackson performed the spin during a walk-through, although the result was much different.
“When I did it in the walk-through, I would’ve gotten hit. I would’ve," Jackson said. "It was Earl [Thomas] coming down [at me for the tackle]."
Jackson didn't look like a player who sat out Thursday's practice with an illness. The Bengals didn't look like a defense coming off a bye that had two weeks to prepare for a second meeting with Jackson this year.
On that dash, Jackson reached 18.59 mph, according to NFL NextGen Stats. It's the 25th time he's reached at least 18 mph as the ball carrier on a play this season, which is easily the most of any quarterback.
"They were going crazy [on the sideline]," Ravens linebacker Tyus Bowser said. "Everyone was, 'Ooh. Ooh. Oh my god. Oh. Oh.'"
Said fullback Patrick Ricard: "For me, watching it, I was jumping up and down. I fell on the ground, like, ‘Oh my god.'"
This marked the longest run by a quarterback since Cam Newton had a 62-yard rush on Dec. 10, 2017.
"You could see after he made that big run, some of the guys who missed [were] just looking up at the scoreboard watching the replay, kind of like, 'Man, how did he do that?'" Boyle said. "That's all credit to Lamar and how special he is. But you could totally -- he kind of drains them out a little bit because they're giving it their all but you still can't tackle him."
Asked if this was his best run, Jackson brushed off the question as if it were another would-be tackler, saying, "It don’t matter. We scored. Move on."
Jackson finished the day with 65 rushing yards, his sixth consecutive game with at least 50 rushing yards. This is the best streak within a season by a quarterback since Vick also had six straight similar performances in 2006.
“It’s ridiculous," Ravens guard Marshal Yanda said. "He’s obviously changing the game in every way."