Time for Cameron, Ravens offense to come out firing

It’s no secret that Joe Flacco is a slow starter and the recent Thursday night game against the Falcons certainly was no different for the Ravens’ signal caller. The slow starts are even more pronounced on the road.

Flacco is a rhythmic quarterback and his calm, stoic and sometimes numb demeanor seems to benefit from a more fast paced offensive approach. He looks far more comfortable in the shotgun operating out of a no huddle attack.

Now the Ravens and Flacco defenders might tell you that running the no huddle on the road is a difficult task, particularly in a dome. And while I might agree to a certain extent with that thinking I do believe that it can be done given the proper timing.

Consider this…

* In Flacco’s 21 regular season road games the Ravens have scored 56 points in total during the first quarter for an average of 2.67 points

* The Ravens have been shut out in the first quarter in 10 of Flacco’s 21 road games and in 8 of the last 11

* During the last 11 road games Cameron’s offense has produced a TOTAL of 13 points, 1.18/game

Conversely at home the numbers while not prolific they are certainly better…

* In Flacco’s 20 regular season home games the Ravens have scored 106 points in total during the first quarter for an average of 5.3 points

* The Ravens have been shut out in the first quarter in 4 of those 20 home games and only once in the last 13

* Over the past 12 home games the Ravens have averaged 6.4 points in the first quarter

Clearly something has to be done to jump start the offense on the road early in games. Come out firing on all cylinders in a no huddle. Forget about the hometown crowd and those challenges. Seems to be when the fans in the Georgia Dome were at their loudest the Ravens’ offense was actually more effective and they helped keep a defense struggling to win on third down off the field.

I posted something nearly identical to this on my blog and my findings were fairly challenged in a blog comment. The anonymous comment stated (as submitted):

“I’d say your reaching a little bit here. Its called home field advantage for a reason. And to be honest, I dont know how bad that is. I’d like to see those numbers compared to the rest of the league. Because the Ravens certainly dont give up a ton of 1st quarter points at M&T Bank Stadium.”

Fair point, right?

I chose not to go through the last 11 road games of all 31 teams besides the Ravens. Instead I chose those teams like the Ravens, who made the playoffs in ’09 AND have a winning record in 2010. I also included the St. Louis Rams who had 2009’s most inept offense, mustering up just 175 points over the course of the 16 game season.