Lamar Jackson and Ravens offense is the reason for hope in Baltimore
Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens offense is why there should still be hope in Baltimore:
You may never have thought that the Ravens would need their offense to carry them but that’s exactly what they need from Lamar Jackson and company. The Ravens have one of the worst defenses through four weeks. The defensive effort against the Browns could have gotten them beat by anybody; even the Miami Dolphins could have stood up to that. The offense has some kinks to work out but it easily the best thing going for this team.
The Ravens are first in the NFL in points per game and yards gained per game. They have the sixth ranked passing attack and the best ground game. Taking the Dolphins game out as an outlier, the Ravens average about 25 points per game. The Ravens need to get that number to 31 points per game if this defense continues to play at such a bad rate. That’s the problem. The offense is productive however they really need to score a little bit more in each contest.
The Ravens are a couple mistakes per game away from being special on the offensive side of the football. Against the Browns Chris Moore made a boneheaded play, Mark Ingram fumbled and there were a couple of bad passes.
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In the Kansas City game the Ravens got away from the run game and tried to win a shootout in Arrowhead. Lamar Jackson is good, but that’s a bad idea for 31 teams in the league. Against the Cardinals, penalties and a couple of Jackson misfires stopped promising drives.
The Ravens haven’t had a bad game on offense, but they have had costly plays. If the offense can clean that up, you’re talking about more points going on the scoreboard. Jackson is having an incredible season no matter how you slice it. If I told you that through four games he would complete nearly 65 percent of his passes, have 10 touchdown passes and have only two interceptions, you would think the Ravens would be 4-0.
What the Ravens need to do is to get back to leaning on the run game. Jackson is playing great however the offense is set up to be built off what happens on the ground. The Ravens already lead the league in rushing. Mark Ingram II averages six yards per carry and Jackson averages 6.6 yards on the ground. Gus Edwards is good for 4.5 yards per hand off. The Ravens actually have 140 rushing plays and 140 passing plays, which sounds insanely balanced. The thing is that some of those runs were on called passing plays and this team is built to be around 60 percent run plays.
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There are some things to work out yet the offense is the reason for hope. Lamar Jackson is special. Mark Andrews is awesome and Marquise Brown is finally a receiver that is working out for this team. If the Ravens double down on their strengths in the run game and eliminate a few dumb mistakes in each game, the offense could carry this team to a great season.