The Baltimore Ravens just spent the last two weeks displaying an unparalleled level of ineptitude compared to that of the rest of John Harbaugh's tenure as head coach. It certainly wasn't the first time the Ravens lost consecutive games, and it wasn't nearly the first time the Ravens have been blown out under Harbaugh's guidance. It was, however, the first time during the current regime that the Ravens have displayed such an inability to score in consecutive weeks with a healthy Joe Flacco.
I've listened to arguments from friends and co-workers that the issue is coaching, and I've heard others say the issue is personnel, but it's quite clearly a combination of the two. Then, of course, there's Flacco's back injury. The nature of Joe's back injury was kept quite purposely ambiguous by the Ravens staff. It was originally reported to be a disk issue, and then the Ravens corrected that report and stated it was not. It's entirely possible the problem was simply muscular in nature, and I'm inclined to believe that considering the number of hits Joe has taken and still gotten right back up. As someone who has suffered since the age of 18 with pressure on his sciatic nerve from a bulging disk, I can safely say that it takes much less than punishing hits to leave one immobile and in utter agony on the ground.
Whether it be muscular or spinal in nature, Joe Flacco's injury has led to the team to be cautious about the types of plays and situations to which the veteran quarterback is exposed. That worked for about the first two weeks of the season, and maybe Marshal Yanda's exit had as profound an impact as many believe, but the Ravens ran the ball down the throat of the Bengals with and without Marshall Yanda three weeks ago. I think, instead, the Ravens put together a plan to take pressure off Joe and keep him relatively untouched and unharmed, but that plan was easily dissected by both the Jaguars and Steelers coaching staffs. To make matters worse, when both backup right guards struggled to handle pass rush, the offensive staff failed to make creative and effective enough adjustments to compensate for a lack of protection on the right side.
The Ravens starting offensive tackles, ironically, might comprise the best tackle tandem in the league. Ronnie Stanley and Austin Howard both rank in the top ten in both pass protection and run blocking for offensive tackles in the league, and Howard actually ranks second overall in run blocking thus far. Having excellent tackles and injured interior offensive linemen isn't exactly a new situation for the Ravens. Both Alex Lewis and Marshal Yanda suffered from major injuries last season, and even though the Ravens ultimately finished 8-8, they never struggled this hard to move the football.
What does all of this mean then? Well it likely means that the Ravens offensive staff is going to have to come to grips with the fact that they simply won't be able to impose their will on the ground the way they did against the Bengals now that Marshal Yanda is out for the season. They cannot simply hope to run the ball down the throats of opposing defenses without first spreading them out to a degree through the air. With strong tackles and blocking tight ends but poor interior linemen, the Ravens are going to have to design plays to allow Joe to roll out of the pocket to find receivers deep downfield the way he did in Gary Kubiak's schemes in 2014. It seems silly that what should be the fastest receiving cops in team history has proven easily the most dysfunctional thus far. The Ravens shouldn't abandon the run. On the contrary, they should absolutely use a more balanced attack, but they need to find ways to buy time for Joe to find receivers further downfield rather than simply relegating themselves to forcing the run and having Joe throw almost exclusively short passes out of fear.
The Oakland Raiders provide a good opportunity to get the offense going. Unlike the Steelers, the Raiders don't have a highly ranked pass defense. Oakland's pass defense, despite the ferocious pass-rushing of Khalil Mack, ranks 20th in the league, and their run defense is even worse at 24th. The absence of Derek Carr unquestionably takes pressure off the Ravens defense, but Carr's backup, E.J. Manuel, beat the Ravens with the Bills in 2013 despite his own lackluster performance. Even with Carr the Raiders were struggling to get their offense going not unlike the Ravens.
The fact that this game is on the West Coast adds another challenge for Baltimore. The Ravens have struggled since the 2013 season to win games on long road trips, and they've twice lost to the Raiders during that time. This game might seem to some like a chance to face a decapitated team, but I'd more characterize it as an opportunity to show that they can make adjustments and once again run a functioning offense and stout defense on the road. Khalil Mack will likely terrorize any offensive linemen he faces, and Jack Del Rio typically schemes well against the Ravens no matter which team he's coaching. The Ravens staff will have to find ways to account for and neutralize Mack in order to move the ball. This game is no sort of slam dunk, but it's an opportunity to get back on the right track.
Many Ravens fans may have already resigned themselves to belief that this team simply isn't good enough to make the playoffs this season, let alone make a legitimate run at a Super Bowl. It certainly appears that way right now, and I couldn't blame anyone for believing that. The Ravens have been once again snake-bitten by injuries early on, and the season-long or at least lengthy absences of players such as Dixon, Yanda, Lewis, Gillmore, Young, Williams, and Woodhead would appear to league Baltimore without too many key pieces. I would argue, however, that Baltimore still has enough impact players to beat the teams they'll face over the next month as those teams are all dealing with quite significant injuries themselves. The question will be whether or not the coaching staff can figure out ways to put the players they have in positions to be successful. The return of Brandon Williams and Danny Woodhead should provide a spark on both sides of the ball, and replacing Lardarius Webb with Jaylen Hill as nickel corner should alleviate major issues in the secondary. This isn't yet a good team, but they can be if pointed in the right direction.
Because of the late nature of this post, I apologize that I'm going to have to post the predictions for each game with just scores as I've run out of time to type explanations for each.
THE PICKS
BILLS AT BENGALS- BENGALS 27-17
JETS AT BROWNS- JETS 23-14
PANTHERS AT LIONS- LIONS 38-20
49ERS AT COLTS- COLTS 31-28
TITANS AT DOLPHINS- DOLPHINS 17-14
CHARGERS AT GIANTS- CHARGERS 26-23
CARDINALS AT EAGLES- EAGLES 33-21
JAGUARS AT STEELERS- STEELERS 28-17
SEAHAWKS AT RAMS- RAMS 30-24
PACKERS AT COWBOYS- PACKERS 34-28
CHIEFS AT TEXANS- TEXANS 38-27
VIKINGS AT BEARS- VIKINGS 23-13
RAVENS AT RAIDERS- RAVENS 23-17
IF THE RAVENS LOSE A GAME AGAINST A STRUGGLING TEAM WITHOUT ITS STARTING QB, THIS WILL LIKELY BE THE LAST WEEK I CAN REASONABLY PICK THEM TO WIN UNTIL THEY MAKE DRASTIC CHANGES. LET'S HOPE THEY DON'T MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL.
AS ALWAYS
GO RAVENS!!
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