When the Ravens were on their bye earlier this month, quarterback Joe Flacco said that he wanted the offense to be in attack mode when they got back on the field.
The Ravens have won both of their games since returning to action, but attack mode wouldn’t be a particularly apt description of the offense’s approach. They picked up 219 yards in a Week 11 win over the Packers and 294 yards against the Texans on Monday night with points often coming off short fields provided by the defense and special teams.
The latter game saw punter Sam Koch hit as many passes that gained at least 20 yards as quarterback Joe Flacco, who actually came up with a longer gain on a scramble than he did on any of his throws. Flacco said after the game that “it’s probably not super-realistic” to think the Ravens can make a playoff run without getting better on offense.
“There’s a couple of shots for us to have out there and maybe make the game [go] our way,” Flacco said, via ESPN.com. “If you give yourself two shots, and you rely on hitting only those two, there’s going to be games when you don’t hit them. By the end of the season, you don’t want to have to just turn it on when you have to; you want to be doing it all the time.”
Coach John Harbaugh said Flacco was “spot on” in his assessment and it will be hard to find many people arguing that the Ravens don’t have room to improve. Whether they have the pieces to make that happen is a different question and they’ll likely continue leaning on the other units until there’s a more definitive answer.