The Baltimore Ravens sit at 9-2 and they are compiling some absolutely bananas stats on offense so far this season.
The Baltimore Ravens are the best team in the NFL.
If you doubt this notion, there are only few other viable candidates for this honor in the New England Patriots and the San Francisco 49ers. The Ravens have already obliterated the Patriots and the 49ers head to M&T Bank Stadium Sunday for a match up of arguably the two best teams in the sport.
One thing that isn’t debatable is that the Ravens are the best offense in the NFL. I wanted to highlight some of the crazy stats associated with this 2019 Ravens offense to date. The first of which is that the Ravens have already scored 386 points this season through their 11 games played. The team record is 409 points and with 24 points against San Francisco next week, they will break the team record with four games remaining in the season.
This is not to assume they pile up the 24 points needed, but with an offense averaging 35.1 points per contest, it’s hardly a stretch to see that happening. To further the stat, with 13 points on Sunday, this would already be the second highest scoring Ravens team in franchise history. With a quarter of the freaking season to go!
Here’s another crazy stat from @ESPNStatsInfo on Twitter:
Last night, the Ravens recorded their 3rd consecutive win by 34 points or more, becoming the 1st team in NFL history to win 3 consecutive games in a season by at least 34 points.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 26, 2019
The Ravens' +184 pts diff is the best by any team through 11 games since the 2009 Saints (+186). pic.twitter.com/wwUiNDYQxk
The 2009 Saints went on to win Super Bowl XLIV and the Ravens are hopeful that their season will culminate in the franchise’s third Super Bowl Trophy this year in Miami which is coincidentally enough where the 2019 season started. This is the smash mouth drag them out Ravens we’re talking about here, dominating the opposition with a stronger offense than defense. Truly uncharted waters here in Baltimore.
We can’t talk about the 2019 Ravens without talking about MVP front runner Lamar Jackson. Some stats here from Gordon McGuinness at Pro Football Focus on Lamar:
That is absurd. Jackson is currently tied for the NFL lead with 24 passing touchdowns this season with fellow MVP candidate Russell Wilson. The 24 touchdowns put Jackson nine touchdowns shy of breaking the Ravens single season record for passing touchdowns in a season.
Jackson is also hitting on 66.9% of his passes which would be the Ravens record for completion percentage in a season passing Joe Flacco in 2016 who finished at 64.9%. He sits just outside of the top 10 in the NFL in this metric as well. Jackson’s 8.1 yards gained per attempt also put him on pace to break Vinny Testaverde‘s team record of 7.6 set in the team’s inaugural season.
Let’s take a look at some of the rushing exploits of this team. They currently sit fist in the NFL averaging 210.5 yards per game which is 64.9 yards more per contest than the 49ers team that comes to M&T Bank this Sunday. Their 17 rushing touchdowns lead the NFL as well.
Jackson is ninth in the NFL in rushing with 876 yards and leads the NFL at 7.1 yards per carry, a number that is hurt by kneel downs. Mark Ingram is 12th in the league in rushing yards with 778 on significantly fewer carries that the top eight running backs on the list. His 5.2 yards per carry rank him tied for first among running backs with over 84 carries this season with…… his teammate, Gus Edwards. HOLY RUN GAME BATMAN!
If Jackson averages his 79.6 yards per game the rest of the season, he would finish with 1,274 rushing yards which would be good for the sixth best rushing season in Ravens team history. Jackson also has more rushing yards this season than the Dolphins, Falcons, Jets, and Bears. This guy is a cheat code.
The Ravens have failed to score on consecutive drives (excluding end of half scenarios) just twice since the Bengals game in Week Six. Ravens punter Sam Koch has just four punts since the bye week and only has 22 on the season through 11 games. To his credit, his average of 46.4 yards per punt ranks him in the top 10 overall in the NFL.
We all know how good this Ravens offense has been this season but a deeper dive into the numbers really helps to quantify just how unprecedented this is. The defense has been coming along nicely as well moving up to fifth in the NFL in points per game allowed at 18.4 and coming in just outside the top 10 in giving up 322.7 yards per game.
That’s a recipe for a seven game winning streak and looking like the NFL’s best team. And that’s exactly what the 2019 Baltimore Ravens are.