I'm simply done giving the Ravens the benefit of a doubt. It's not that they don't have the play-makers or depth to win games, it's that the coaching simply isn't what it needs to be. The Ravens have suffered their last three losses to mediocre teams by painfully narrow margins. In each of these games, coaching has been a major factor that tipped the scales in favor of the opposition, and it's coaching that has left the Ravens 3-4 rather than 6-1. There are some troubling trends in each of these three most recent losses that we must examine to fully understand just exactly what it is the Ravens need to correct in their bye week.
The first such trend is the number six. For some reason the Ravens have possessed only six points (or less) in the first half of most of the games they've played this season. Much of this can be attributed to early attempts to establish the running game that have, for a few different reasons, led to early and frequent three-and-outs for the offense. The Ravens newly installed zone blocking scheme was largely to blame, but the Ravens went away from that scheme against Pittsburgh last week and still only rushed for 82 yards. As soon as the blocking improved, the health of the Ravens running backs became an extremely apparent issue. Ray Rice is beginning to get over his hip flexor strain, but Bernard Pierce is out with a nagging hamstring injury that meant Vonta Leach had to carry the ball late in the game against the Steelers. The Raven appear to be interested in signing former Bengals running back Bernard Scott if Pierce's injury takes a long time to heal, and this would be a great time to do so since the Ravens have extra time to get him adjusted into the offense. If the Ravens can re-establish the running game then they can utilize something that the Ravens have gotten away from this season: deep play action passes.
It's possible that the lack of deep passes off of play action is simply the result of poor pass protection for Joe and a lack of good run blocking to effectively sell the play action fake, but I would wager that play-calling differences from last year to this year are also largely to blame. Jim Caldwell clearly doesn't have faith in the Ravens deep passing ability at the moment. That, however, doesn't mean he should abandon it the way he appears to have done thus far. The Ravens have literally never had this much speed in their wide receiving corps between Jacoby Jones, Torrey Smith, Deonte Thompson, and Marlon Brown. I get the sense that Caldwell simply wants to get Flacco into a rhythm with first downs early in games and so he looks to move the chains with short and intermediate passes. That strategy, however, hasn't worked. The ONE thing I liked about Cam Cameron's play calling was his tendency to have Joe go deep early and often in games. I would greatly prefer Flacco attempting a deep pass or two in early drives rather than attempting unsuccessfully to run the ball. The result, of course, could end up being the same with a 3 and out, but maybe Joe actually connects with one of his speedy wideouts downfield and that play opens up things for the running game. Joe's arm strength is what he was originally drafted for, and it's the offensive factor that ultimately wins games for the Ravens--it must be utilized.
Offense alone can't win games for the Ravens. I believed the Ravens defense had improved over the 2012 version, and in many ways it has improved greatly. The Ravens have allowed an extremely low number of touchdowns in all but one of their games. In fact, if you exclude the first game of the season, the Ravens have allowed only 4 touchdowns through 6 games. That's incredible. What has not been incredible, however, is that the Ravens defense has allowed far too much yardage and that has given the Ravens offense far fewer opportunities to score. The Ravens run defense was gashed by Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and even Green Bay. The Steelers had a poor running game up until last week, but that had a lot to do with the absence of their starting running back, Le'Veon Bell. The Ravens couldn't stop the Steelers on major clock-eating drives that ultimately ended in enough field goals to edge the Ravens. This Ravens defense simply doesn't possess the run-stuffing ability it did for well over a decade behind the leadership of Ray Lewis. Jameel McClain just returned to action, but most of the linebacker corps is totally new and never played under the guidance of Ray. The Ravens starting safeties also don't appear as good in run support as Bernard Pollard or as good in pass coverage as Ed Reed.
Thankfully, the Ravens defense still dominates in the redzone. If the offense can simply turn early field goals in for early touchdowns then opposing teams won't run the ball nearly as much, and the Ravens can unleash the full fury of their talented pass rushers. Flacco has found Dallas Clark for two late game touchdowns in the last two games, and hopefully their chemistry will continue to develop. That chemistry may not be as strong as the chemistry Joe shared with Dennis Pitta, but that's fine because Pitta is reportedly only 3-4 weeks away from a return to the field for the Ravens. The Ravens simply have to take the bye week to get healthy and ready for a three week span in which they face a broken and desperate Browns team in Cleveland, a strong but not elite Bengals team in Baltimore, and an extremely troubled Bears team in Chicago. If the Ravens can win those two road games against teams with key injuries and win home game against a good team, then they'll get Pitta back just in time for a three game homestand against the Jets, Steelers, and woeful Vikings. It's tough to be terrifically optimistic while the Ravens are 3-4, but 3 of their four losses have been by 3 points or less and it should only take a bye week for the Ravens to get healthy and make the minor adjustments that should turn field goals into touchdowns and narrow losses into comfortable victories.
THURSDAY NIGHT PREDICTION
PANTHERS AT BUCCANEERS- Neither of these teams is exactly what one would call elite, but the Panthers are picking up steam with 3 wins in their last 4 games. The Panthers' defense is a top five unit with the fourth ranked run defense and the fifth ranked pass offense in the league. The Panthers also rank 7th in rushing offense. The only category in which the Panthers find themselves lacking is in passing yards per game wherein they rank 28th. That last statistic is what keeps them from being able to beat serious contenders, but the Panthers will manhandle just about mediocre or poor team...and that includes the Bucs. PANTHERS 33-13.
I know many fans are losing faith in the Ravens at this point. We've grown accustomed to a winning team in the last 5 years, and it's painful to see them lose games they easily could have won had they avoided minor coaching and execution mistakes. The Ravens simply shouldn't let a game be decided by a couple of coaching an execution errors as they should be putting up enough points so that an extra field goal or turnover simply wouldn't be enough to take them down. Hopefully we'll see the return of the Ravens running game and the Ravens deep passing game in week 9 against the Browns. If the Ravens can finally put together a legitimate offensive blow out win over a legitimate Browns defense then I'll be comfortable with them going forward. If not...well let's just hope they pull it off. DON'T LOSE FAITH BALTIMORE, THE RAVENS ARE GREAT AFTER BYE WEEKS!
AS ALWAYS
GO RAVENS!!!
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