How I Dug Up Young Lamar’s Game Tape
So last Tuesday I’m sitting at my kitchen table drinking cold coffee, scrolling through old Ravens highlights. Saw another rookie QB struggling on Twitter and thought “Man, somebody should show this kid Lamar’s early magic.” That’s when I decided to hunt down his best beginner-friendly moments myself.
First thing? Went digging through my dusty external hard drives – found three labeled “NFL Misc 2018-2019”. Plugged the first one in and spent a solid hour clicking through folders like “AFC North Backup Files” and “Draft Class Compilations Trash”. Almost gave up till I spotted a folder called “L8R Vis”.
- Opened that sucker and found 30+ game recordings in weird formats
- Used that janky video converter Dave told me about
- Spilled coffee on my notebook when the 2019 Dolphins game finally loaded
Started clipping moments where Lamar made complex stuff look simple. Like that Week 6 Bengals play – clock winding down, pocket collapsing. I rewound that snap twelve times! Watch the feet: plants left leg, hops right foot sideways like it’s nothing while scanning the whole field. Casual flick to Hollywood Brown crossing – bang, touchdown.
Kept finding gold in broken plays. That Chargers game where his helmet speaker died? Pure playground ball. Paused at the 2:17 mark third quarter when protection collapsed. All-pro defenders screaming towards him. Kid just squats low like a damn frog then POPS vertical like a rocket, zips it between three defenders. Arm strength and decision-making compressed into three seconds.
My living room floor became a graveyard of sticky notes with scribbles like “spin move vs Rams at 3Q 8:32” and “look at Andrews’ eyes pre-snap KC playoff game”. Accidentally knocked over my marker collection making the timeline – cheap red ink still stains my carpet.
Now? Got four key games timestamped for beginners:
- 2018 Bengals comeback (that escape-artist throw)
- 2019 Dolphins comeback (pure willpower drives)
- 2020 Browns Monday Night (reads defenses like picture books)
- 2019 Rams (spin moves that made All-Pros trip)
The tape don’t lie. Rookie Lamar moved different – like he knew exactly where everyone would be two seconds before they got there. Studying those cuts made me forget to eat lunch three days straight. Still finding new details every re-watch. Kid was special.
