We need to let go of the notion that the Ravens can be a run-first team; not this year

[goldenelite28]

The only problem I have is that we seem to alienate two of our best players when we go on the road.
If we didn't resign Rice and we didn't make Leach the highest paid FB then I would have no problem with passing so much. If we put the money into the o-line and WRs then we would be playing to our strength by passing more.
Instead we seem perfectly content with leaving some of our best players out of the gameplan. It's hard enough to win in the damn league and yet we seem to try to do it without our best players.

[Kevlar]

If I can remember correctly, there once was a time where Joe Flacco was criticized for being to quick to dump off passes to Ray Rice, instead of properly going through his progressions.

I don't think its as much of a criticism as it is an observation. If you try to run 70 percent of your offensive plays through one guy, teams are going to key on that one guy. Like Houston did. Take that one guy away with an adequete athletic defender, and what can you do? Joe didn't have his saftey valve, Rice was blanketed. It was tough for them to make anything else happen.

[bmorecareful]

I don't think its as much of a criticism as it is an observation. If you try to run 70 percent of your offensive plays through one guy, teams are going to key on that one guy. Like Houston did. Take that one guy away with an adequete athletic defender, and what can you do? Joe didn't have his saftey valve, Rice was blanketed. It was tough for them to make anything else happen.

Right, but if you pull a safety or LB out of the box to spy Rice that should leave one less defender in the middle of the field. The offense should adapt to that scenario and get guys moving across the middle--drag, hook, and in routes, etc. Get the ball out quickly over the middle, and if they try to swat the ball down get the OL putting helmets into groins and roll Flacco outside the pocket.

It's so easy to say, that you wonder why in the world are they not doing these things? It's just bizarre. They either can't or won't adjust the offense on the fly when playing on the road. I wish we knew definitively which one it was.

This is all the more reason to not give up on the no-huddle offense, even on the road. The no-huddle has its warts including time of possession problems, but this team just won't ever win it all with Cam calling the plays. The less play-calling Cam does, and the more Joe does, the better this team will be if nothing else but it appears to me that Joe is willing/able to adapt.

[Kevlar]

Right, but if you pull a safety or LB out of the box to spy Rice that should leave one less defender in the middle of the field. The offense should adapt to that scenario and get guys moving across the middle--drag, hook, and in routes, etc. Get the ball out quickly over the middle, and if they try to swat the ball down get the OL putting helmets into groins and roll Flacco outside the pocket.

It's so easy to say, that you wonder why in the world are they not doing these things? It's just bizarre. They either can't or won't adjust the offense on the fly when playing on the road. I wish we knew definitively which one it was.

This is all the more reason to not give up on the no-huddle offense, even on the road. The no-huddle has its warts including time of possession problems, but this team just won't ever win it all with Cam calling the plays. The less play-calling Cam does, and the more Joe does, the better this team will be if nothing else but it appears to me that Joe is willing/able to adapt.

I have no clue. Maybe Joe doesn't see the field that well and can't find the open guy? Maybe Cameron wasn't calling all those designed dump offs and Joe was just immediately checking down if his primary read wasn't open? No way for us to know unless you have a good scanner or know someone on the team.

[srobert96]

While you bring up some good points, it's still not holding water to not be a run first team on the road. We can't pass the ball effectively on the road and haven't been able to for the past 2 years apart from two games against the Steelers and the Patriots in the AFCCG.

If we are going to get beaten like we did on Sunday passing the ball that may times, that Redskin fury guys prediction will be right, and we'll finish off the year 8-8. I don't even think we should be a run first team, just a balanced team, we have maybe the best RB in the game, so it's stupid to just say we can't revolve the game around Rice because teams will spy him. That's like saying, we should not blitz that much with Suggs back because teams are going to double team him.

The defense isn't anywhere near what is was last year, so we probably wont be able to get away with running it as much as we did last year down the stretch, but if we can stay on the field longer as an offense and not have as many three and outs, maybe the defense will have a better chance, because right now our defense is almost always on the field. Frankly, I don't really understand how you can defend us being a pass first team on the road with what happened down in Houston, I'd really rather not have that happen again, just because it's been a long time obsession in a lot of fans heads that we should finally become the Green Bay Packers on offense, because we are simply not built for that. I am not willing to go 8-8 just so we can be identitfied as a pass happy team. I don't mind it at home, because clearly it does work with no crowd noise. But with the way our Oline is built, we may aswell pound the ball with our all pro back behind our all pro fullback, because that's what gives us the best chance to win.

The Ravens are not built to do any one thing effectively. There needs to be balance and creativity. The offense is not successful when they are run happy and and they are not successful when they are pass happy. Last year the Ravens offense tried the run happy approach. The Ravens were consistently in 3rd and greater than 5 situations.

The Ravens are not a good running team. They are slightly above average. Everyone assumes because Rice is such a good all around back that the Ravens are a good running team. The Oline was not good enough to go toe to toe with defenses running the ball last year and that line was much better than this year's version. Some OCs can make changes to their scheme and game planning to account for a weak oline but that is not the case with Cam.

If we become a run happy offense we will see short gains on first and second. On third down everyone in the stadium will know it is a pass. The defense will pin its' ears back and the oline will not be able to stop them. Our receivers will not get separation and we will still have 3 and outs. That has been the Cam offense since he has been in Baltimore.