Why Are The Baltimore Ravens Letting Joe Flacco Ignore The Secret To Their Success?

BALTIMORE-January 16. – In the second quarter of the Ravens eventual defeat of the visiting Houston Texans it looked as if the Texans rookie head scratcher T.J. Yates was going to do it again.

Ray Rice & His Mentor Ray Lewis Are Two Major Keys To The Ravens Success

The Texans were moving the ball against one of the greatest defenses of all time and the Ravens offense was sputtering like an engine without oil.  In short, Baltimore seemed as if they were dropping out of Ball So Hard University.

The Ravens were steadfast defensively in the second half of the match-up with safety Ed Reed completing the transaction with a game winning interception that lifted the Ravens to the AFC Championship round to face the surging New England Patriots.

The end result of this game is not a shock. The Ravens when at their best have been the class of the AFC for not only this season but last year as well.  They were supposed to crush the Texans and send a message to Tom Brady and his minions that it was about to be on and popping.

But, they allowed a young albeit extremely talented Texans group show up and keep the game close for way to long. Shout-out to Arian Foster and J.J. Watt.

What continues to befuddle many is how Baltimore’s offensive coordinator Cam Cameron seems to be on this weird death-ride with his QB Joe Flacco.

Every team must have an identity within all three phases of the game.  The Ravens are best suited offensively to pound the football with RB Ray Rice touching the football at least 25 times a game.

28% of their game plan should be devoted to deep shots down the field to Torrey Smith and Aquan Boldin. The other five percent should be passes distributed to their tight ends.

This formula is a culmination of numbers assembled from games when the Ravens have dominated the situation from the first whistle to the last one.

Every few games, the decision is made to try and seemingly let Flacco pass his way into respect and possibly a better contract.

The playoffs are not the stage to try to inject a formula that does not work so well.  Flacco for all of his hooting and hollering in the media prior to the game was a liability to his club yesterday.

The numbers will display that Flacco passed for two TDs in the victory but sorry Jay-Z, numbers can lie sometimes. The truth is in both situations, Flacco was given the rock with excellent field position.

Now, when the situations presented themselves for Flacco to take over the game and assert his dominance, he was mediocre at best.

The Ravens desperately need to get the memo that their defense and special teams will not always be there to save their offense’s behind when they consistently produce three and outs because they decided to try and get their “Green Bay Packers” on.

It doesn’t matter how predictable it may be, Ray Rice needs to touch the ball 25 times next week or they will be in serious trouble when they visit New England.

Their defensive group lead by  Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Ray Lewis and Reed tends to always be in kill and destroy mode when especially when they are rested.

Joe Flacco

Yesterday, the Texans dominated the game in the time of possession battle in the second quarter. Is that the defense’s fault? Yes and no.

But the bottom line is that when your guys don’t even have enough time to sip on a Gatorade before they have to step back on the field to defend their home turf, you make their collective job a lot harder.

Joe Flacco is not a bad quarterback .However, he needs to remove the chip that is on his shoulder in his quest to try and prove that he is an elite one.

Nothing screams elite more than beating Tom Brady at home in the AFC Championship Game. Nothing screams elite more than a Super Bowl ring. Nothing screams elite more than being a leader, who as Reed was quoted yesterday as saying in regards to his entire team “win(s) by any means necessary.”

-Adrian Gregory Glover