Misconception: The Ravens run a gimmick offense
Then there is the idea that the Ravens are using a gimmick offense. That’s why every time the Ravens have lost so far in the Jackson era, you hear that there is all the sudden a blueprint to beating the Ravens. There are five different blueprints guys. Do you see how this is getting old?
The Ravens aren’t using a gimmick offense. They are running an NFL style offense. When you watch the Ravens you’re not watching Navy Football. You see a lot of different looks and concepts. The passing game isn’t neglected. Yes it’s a ground and pound attack, but the Ravens don’t usually get stuck in one way of moving the football.
How to disprove this misconception: Getting more from the wide receivers
The Ravens wide receiver play was the biggest fuel for this narrative. Think about it. You have a quarterback running for 1,000 yards and you don’t even have a wide receiver close to that kind of yardage. In fact, the Ravens wide receivers in the 2019 season were some of the least productive in the NFL. Jackson favored his tight ends in a way that came off as if it were a crutch for him as a passer. In actuality it was the level of talent that the Ravens had at wide receiver that accounted for most of this skewed production.
Nobody had ever seen an offense with low receiver production be the most explosive offense in football. If the Ravens can depend more on their receivers, and be slightly less dependent of tight end production, Baltimore can get the same awesome results and shake the idea that they can only win one way. The Ravens can’t avoid having off days. It happens. What they can avoid is losing because they were “figured out.” The Ravens just have to balance where their production comes from just a bit, and this take will get cold.