Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns: Three Things We Learned
By Andrew Kim
Ravens need to spread the ball around and get run game going.
Not scoring a touchdown with the number of chances the Ravens got to go to the red zone is a reason why they deserved to lose the game yesterday. Regardless of penalties, the blocked field goal or the Michael Crabtree drop in the end zone late in the game; the Ravens offense has to be better than this if they want to be competitive in the AFC North.
Unlike previous weeks when they had offensive production, the Ravens did not have enough tight end usage as Maxx Williams had two catches for eight yards with the rest of the tight ends catching one pass each. Rookie Hayden Hurst made his debut but they limited his snaps as he had one catch for seven yards and should get him going moving forward. They invested a lot in the tight end position and need to implement them more as Flacco went away from them in this game.
Flacco forced a few passes to his wideouts when his tight ends were open. Willie Snead made his impact on third down known with tough catches but John Brown was limited by Ward as Crabtree has struggled with drops this year. Leading the league with six drops, Crabtree had a critical drop late in the game in the end zone that pretty much cost the Ravens the game. It is worrisome that he has this many drops like last year with Raiders when he was signing in the offseason to be a red zone target.
The Ravens run game has been inept this season regardless of the attempts and nothing changed in yesterday’s loss against the Browns. Collins had 12 carries for 59 yards as he went in and out of the game with Buck Allen took some snaps away from him with eight rushes for 34 yards and six catches for 44 yards. Allen fumbled late in the game with Collins dealing with fumbling issues recently as well.
Collins has just been ineffective in the running game this year and due to the game plan or the score at the time, the Ravens have just gone away from the running game at bad times this year. Flacco had 56 passing attempts this week as he is averaging around 45 pass attempts a game. This should not be the way to win games offensively for the Ravens.