[Hammock Parties]

Excellent post from a Ravens fan.

We don't have bad receivers. I think Housh and Mason are being overrated by non-Ravens fans, but they're still fairly solid. The issue, of course, is that they're all the same. Not only are they all possession receivers, but really, none of them are even all that close to being a deep threat. I've hardly ever seen our receivers burn anybody this year, and that takes away one of Flacco's best assets, the deep ball. I mean, it literally takes it away for the most part. Sending Boldin on all of those routes may help underneath, but it takes him out of the game.

I think this also could explain why Flacco is putting up such good numbers, but the perception of him and the performance of the offense is down. It may also indirectly explain our poor red zone performance. Flacco has the nice stats, the YPA and the passer rating. That SHOULD make the Ravens offense strong despite struggles in the running game. The problem is how it's getting done, without big plays. If you drive down the field for 80 yards on 10 passes but stall in the red zone, it doesn't do much other than kill the clock and get you a few points. It's basically forced to be a conservative offense without a running game. That severely limits what you can do.

The passing game is good at that kind of thing, getting first downs. But when you have to get several of them just to score a touchdown, your luck is going to run out at some point. It certainly makes sense as a way of explaining the second half struggles. When asked to describe the Ravens' second half offense, you don't think of nightmarish incompetence, you probably just think "bleh" and try to remember what we did. It's just utterly forgettable and once we fail to get one of those first downs, the drive is over. No turnovers, no displays of hapless incompetence, just our offense running in a manner that doesn't support the odds and typically falters.

That's the thing that can happen when you have a bunch of possession receivers who don't excel at getting separation. Reading the thread about regretting the Housh for Clayton swap, I think that point is spot on. Harbaugh (whose drafting and FA philosophy I generally love) and Oz got a little greedy here and didn't think about the big picture. Blind talent accumulation doesn't work if the pieces don't go well together.

So that's pretty much it. The offense needs big plays. Certainly a better running game would help a ton, as Rice rarely busts anything out thanks to the OL (please move Oher to RT, I really don't think LT makes that much more of a difference). But speaking about the passing game, teams just don't respect our big play potential. The Ravens have a growing number of needs in the 2011 draft, but a deep threat would make the top of my list, with the possible exception of LT (which I'd lean towards).

Now, what does this mean for the rest of the offense? How much are they to blame? I absolutely think our run blocking may still be the biggest problem with the offense as a whole. The Ravens had a second year Flacco nursing an injury, terrible receivers, and pass protection that wasn't as great as everyone thinks it was. Yet they ranked close to ten spots higher. Why? Because the run blocking went from one of the best to one of the worst this year with so many players out of position. Our passing game is much more viable when there is good run blocking, because you actually run a real, efficient conservative offense. I think Rice lost a bit of his shiftiness as well, but that's not a huge deal.

Now...Cam and Flacco. I definitely don't think it's Flacco. He's running in an offense that may suit his strengths but doesn't have the type of talent that needs to play to it. Without that deep capability, a big part of Flacco's game is taken away for the most part. He still gets a few big ones out there, but there just isn't enough versatility to work with. I'm also becoming increasingly reluctant to blame Cam. People talk about us not establishing an identity, that's because we can't.

The running game is too weak and the passing game is too one dimensional (based on talent). Now, I don't think he has some secret element that will ruin us if we fire him and a fresh mind with new ideas could be just what we need, but I don't think he has the perfect opportunity to run an explosive offense that we think he does.