OWINGS MILLS – An ice age enveloped Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on Sunday night.
Flacco threw a dozen consecutive incomplete passes during the Ravens’ 34-17 victory over the New York Jets, going the entire second and third quarters without connecting with his targets.
Flacco finished 10 for 31 for 163 yards, no touchdowns and one interception that was returned for a touchdown, bad enough for an unsightly 37.4 passer rating.
"Obviously, it was a cold streak," Flacco said. "We had opportunities to make plays, but we didn’t make them. They forced me to throw a decent amount of balls away. You don’t plan on missing 12 in a row. I don’t think you ever dismiss anything, but you do have to realize they’re a good defense. We were a little out of order in the second and third quarter."
Now, Flacco has dipped below a 50 percent completion percentage for the season with a 49.3 percent success rate.
That ranks him worst among NFL quarterbacks with at least 100 throws, and he’s only more accurate than Jacksonville Jaguars rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Kerry Collins.
While the Jets have a strong defense that features All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis, that only explains so much.
The Ravens are taking some lower-percentage shots downfield, and Flacco is also getting acclimated to new personnel at wide receiver and tight end.
"I don’t think we’re too worried about it," Harbaugh said. "We want the percentage to be higher, but you can be 70 percent and averaging four yards of completion or something like that. We’re not really interested in that. We want to attack people."
The Ravens’ top offensive play was a 52-yard gain on a short throw to running back Ray Rice out of the slot as he beat safety Eric Smith.
Flacco bought time with his feet on that.
"Ray was running a little option route out of the backfield and they just grabbed him, and threw him to the ground pretty much," Flacco said. "And every other route over there got cloudy at that point, and I tried to move around to make a play and see somebody get open. We were able to hit Ray coming back downhill. He did a great job of trying to find my eyes, stay in vision of me, and work back downhill to the ball."
In the second quarter, though, Flacco went 0 for 10 and had an interception returned 35 yards for a touchdown by Jets inside linebacker David Harris.
Flacco threw incomplete twice on deep throws to rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith.
"A lot of incompletions were on shot plays where they’re high risk-high reward plays," Harbaugh said. "They’ve low probability of completion, but when you get it, it’s a touchdown."
The Ravens cut wide receiver Derrick Mason and tight end Todd Heap, two of Flacco’s favorite targets, before training camp.
And Flacco has played without Lee Evans for most of the season due to his lingering ankle injury.
"We have not grown into our, I don’t want to say "easy" completions, but that’s something you kind of grow into," Harbaugh said. "You have those routes with those guys where that timing is right there and you kind of have a sixth sense about them."
TIME OFF: Harbaugh granted the team the entire week off following meetings and a running session Monday.
Harbaugh was influenced by injuries to Evans, cornerback Jimmy Smith (high ankle sprain), offensive guard Ben Grubbs (right turf toe), wide receiver David Reed (left shoulder), safety Haruki Nakamura (sprained posterior cruciate ligament, linebacker Dannell Ellerbe (hamstring), cornerback Chris Carr (left hamstring) and safety Tom Zbikowski (concussion).
"I’ll tell you, nobody likes practice more than me," Harbaugh said. "With our numbers, we just didn’t see a way to put together a viable practice. Our rehab is more important. We think the practices really would have done us more harm than they would have done us good."
The Ravens’ training complex will remain open for those that want to lift weights or review game videos or have rehab work to do.
Known as a taskmaster disciplinarian, Harbaugh’s decision surprised players.
"Shock, first of all," linebacker Jarret Johnson said. "I think it was a very wise decision. It’s easy to say we’re just going to work, we’re just going to grind and grind and grind. That just shows the maturity of coach Harbaugh to say, ‘What’s best for this team?’
"I think it shows a lot of trust on our coaches’ part because they know we’re going to go home and work out and keep in shape and do as much as you can to improve your body going down this stretch, but I was pretty shocked."
Harbaugh remains optimistic that all of the players could possibly return for the Ravens’ Oct. 16 home game against the Houston Texans following the bye.
"I’d probably be a little disappointed if we don’t get them all back," Harbaugh said. "Probably the No. 1 goal this week is to improve the health of our football team."
