The Ravens are fine, right?
When Lamar Jackson went down with a left knee injury two weeks ago, we said winning one of these two AFC North road games would keep John Harbaugh’s team in good shape. And thanks to last week’s victory in Pittsburgh, that’s exactly what the Ravens did. Any football analytics outlet — not to mention a look at the rest of the AFC playoff hopefuls — would tell you they remain close to a sure thing to make the playoffs with three weeks to go in the regular season.
Whether you actually believe the Ravens are fine is a different story after watching Saturday’s deflating 13-3 loss in Cleveland. Continuing to downplay the ongoing eyeball test because of a 9-5 record just means one is in denial.
Tyler Huntley not being as good as Jackson is neither a surprise nor the real issue coming out of Saturday’s defeat.
The problem is this offense appears broken, and it’s looking less and less likely that offensive coordinator Greg Roman is capable of getting it back on track in time for a serious January run. No, it isn’t all bad as Baltimore averaged 7.1 yards per carry against the Browns six days after gaining 5.1 yards per rush against the Steelers. But Saturday was the latest example of Roman lacking a proper feel for this offense as it’s currently constructed.
And running the ball and playing good defense isn’t going to work if the Ravens continue to be as woeful in the red zone as they’ve been since October.
To be clear, the Ravens absolutely should have run the ball more with J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards than they did Saturday with their first full drive of the fourth quarter being especially damning for Roman. After Browns kicker Cade York missed a 38-yard field goal try to keep the deficit at 10 points, Baltimore took over with almost 11 minutes to play and three timeouts, which translates to an eternity in the NFL. But instead of leaning into a ground game that produced their three longest plays of the day against one of the league’s worst run defenses, the Ravens passed six straight times and moved the chains only once before turning it over on downs at their own 46-yard line with 9:30 remaining.
Baltimore might as well have gone home at that point despite the Browns’ best efforts to keep the door open with another missed field goal on their ensuing drive.
Saturday’s clunker was hardly all on the coaching staff — though watching that ugly two-minute operation to close the first half was maddening — as players made critical mistakes in all three phases of the game. It’s just not your day when even Justin Tucker misses a pair of field goals, one of them being blocked less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
But head coach John Harbaugh spoke more to the big picture in assessing a stumbling offense that hopes to welcome Jackson back to the field against Atlanta on Christmas Eve.
“We have to just have a better passing game basically,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not a good enough passing game right now across the board to do the things that we’re hoping to do. That will be priority one. Every area can get better at something in certain things, but from an offensive standpoint, that’s something that we have to go to work on, and we will.”
But how when it feels like something different goes wrong with every passing miscue?
The thought of a healthy Jackson and his potential to get hot throwing the football certainly makes one feel more optimistic than watching Huntley and this offense operate Saturday, but these problems with the passing game aren’t exactly new. Since throwing 10 touchdowns and averaging 8.5 yards per pass attempt over the first three weeks of the 2022 season, Jackson has averaged an ugly 6.3 yards per attempt, which would have ranked 31st among qualified quarterbacks for the entire season entering Sunday’s action. Baltimore ranked 24th in Football Outsiders’ passing efficiency from Weeks 4-14 and entered Sunday a woeful 28th in expected points added per dropback dating back to Week 4, according to rbsdm.com.
No one is suggesting the Ravens need to throw more, but such poor passing efficiency isn’t taking you anywhere meaningful in today’s game, no matter how well you run the football. We know this passing game has never been about volume, but for context, that 2019 team ranked first in both Football Outsiders’ passing efficiency and dropback EPA as the MVP Jackson led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes.
That feels like an eternity ago, doesn’t it?
You can point the finger at Roman or acknowledge Jackson’s imperfections as a passer, but the overall organizational philosophy has led the Ravens to this point, leaving everyone from owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta to Harbaugh responsible as Jackson’s long-term contract status remains unresolved. Yes, this strategy of zigging while everyone else zags has been championed, but the Ravens are now asking a collection of No. 3, 4, and 5 options — at best — to be starting wide receivers after hanging their 2022 hopes on the development and health of 2021 first-round pick Rashod Bateman, who was lost for the season in late October. DeCosta trading former 1,000-yard wide receiver Marquise Brown was a reasonable move fetching good value, but putting such modest resources into reinforcing the position was always suspect even if Bateman had blossomed into the second coming of Jerry Rice this season.
Serious contenders aren’t counting on a 36-year-old DeSean Jackson or 2020 sixth-round pick James Proche to make critical plays in a division road game in mid-December. Whether because of lingering injury issues or too much attention in coverage being devoted to him, even All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews has wilted over the season’s second half.
This offense is far from fine after failing to score 17 points for the fourth time in five games since the bye week.
Playing at home against sub-.500 teams the next two weeks should help — assuming Jackson is ready to go for Week 16 as reports have suggested. The season is far from over, and there is still time to get on a roll ahead of a looming Week 18 showdown with Cincinnati, which remains likely to be an AFC North championship game.
But this is an offense looking more and more in need of significant change that goes beyond getting your quarterback back on the field.
