Players are not immune to injuries during the NFL preseason.
It’s still a game and any forceful tackle can end someone’s season or worse, their career.
It took one hit from Lawrence Taylor to end Joe Theismann’s career.
The same goes for the tackle that ended Bo Jackson’s dominion as a two-sport athlete.
As long as the two lines clash at the line of scrimmage, anyone can go down hard.
Just look at what happened to running back J.K. Dobbins of the Baltimore Ravens.
Around the nine-minute mark of the first quarter, Lamar Jackson called for a pass play.
Dobbins initially motioned to block but made some stutter steps to set up a screen pass.
If Jackson had more time to throw, he might be able to find one of his receivers downfield.
Unfortunately, an edge rusher from the Washington Football Team sneaked past one of the Ravens offensive linemen.
That left Jackson with two options: run the ball himself or make the short pass.
When you draft JK Dobbins in Fantasy football today and he gets injured 10 minutes later 😭 pic.twitter.com/JZmkHtkNtY
— David Kalk (@davidkalk18) August 29, 2021
He chose the latter and Dobbins took off after the catch.
However, he only had Bradley Bozeman as the lead blocker.
Meanwhile, approaching toward Dobbins were Washington’s Jordan Kunaszyk and Jimmy Moreland.
Bozeman wasn’t able to stop the two defenders as they accidentally sandwiched Dobbins for the tackle.
Optimism turned into a nightmare as Dobbins was clutching his left leg after the play.
He needed assistance getting off the field.
An MRI scan on the injury later confirmed that Dobbins will be out for the season due to a torn ACL.
Suddenly, the hopes of an explosive season for the former first-team All American went up in smoke.
But even if they are a man down, it doesn’t mean that the Ravens ground attack can be taken for granted.
Pounding The Ground Is Their Calling Card
The Ravens are a cheat code in terms of the running game because it’s like they have three running backs.
With Dobbins out, Gus Edwards will take most of the snaps from the backfield.
In his third year with Baltimore, the Liberia-born Edwards rushed for 723 yards and six touchdowns during the regular season.
Anything less than 1,000 yards this season will be a failure for him, especially now that he’s the featured back.
Gus Edwards updated projections:
🚌 1,300 total yards
🚌 8 TDs➡️ https://t.co/lSKt0hgH76 pic.twitter.com/t4RGKPkLvF
— PFF (@PFF) August 29, 2021
However, Jackson can also punish opponents with his nimble feet.
He’s coming off back-to-back seasons with at least 1,000 rushing yards and there are no signs of him slowing down or being figured out by other teams.
Edwards and Jackson form a potent one-two punch for the Ravens ground game which is the identity that they live and die with.
But if they need reinforcements, backup quarterback Tyler Huntley seems to have the shifty movements too.
That’s more of wishful thinking, but they can sign up a free agent running back.
Wayne Gallman is still available and did fairly well despite the faulty New York Giants offensive line last season.
Rashaad Penny is also having some troubles holding onto his roster spot in Seattle
With or without signing another back, the Ravens will continue to run full steam ahead.
They are a smash mouth team that is not afraid to repeat their ground attack until the defense stops them.
Only the end zone is their limit.
NEXT: Ravens Suffer Huge Loss With J.K. Dobbins Injury