After Week 16, I went out on a limb and said the Baltimore Ravens were one of the hottest teams entering the playoffs. A week, and an absolutely dominant performance against the Cincinnati Bengals later, the bandwagon is starting to fill up as others begin to realize what I noticed. The Ravens are improving in every single area of the game right as they’re getting healthy — a dangerous combo for anyone that has to go up against Baltimore.
Mark Schofield of Touchdown Wire noticed and pointed to a specific area where the Ravens have been improving. Though Schofield didn’t move Baltimore up or down the power rankings after Week 17, his words might carry a little more weight in light of the playoffs starting this week.
Schofield rightfully noted the Ravens’ downfield passing attack had been lacking recently. While the rushing attack found its footing over the last five weeks, quarterback Lamar Jackson was still keeping things short and tight when throwing the ball. It’s been a sore point for the offense all season, especially early in the season when Jackson’s deep accuracy was terrible but offensive coordinator Greg Roman kept dialing up long-developing deep shots. Finally, in Week 17, the deep ball returned and looked pretty good.
Perhaps the team took note, because early in their game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals the offense tried to force some throws downfield.
The fact they built a 10-0 early lead is a coincidence, I’m sure.
You saw some of those early shots from Lamar Jackson and while the results were mixed, this is a good sign for the Baltimore offense as we look ahead. Jackson could not connect with Marquise Brown on a deep post route, but a few plays later he hooked up with Miles Boykin for a 43-yard score.
Looking at Jackson’s throws on Next Gen Stats, it becomes clearer just how effective the offense was throwing deep.
Granted, the Bengals were missing two starting cornerbacks, and Jackson only connected on three-of-seven throws of 15-plus yards. But all three receptions were touchdowns and had wide receiver Marquise Brown caught the deep target that bounced off his hands, the numbers would be significantly better. Considering Baltimore’s rushing attack gouged Cincinnati for 404 yards on the ground — setting a franchise record — it’s hard to be too frustrated with the limited attempts and success downfield.
As Schofield noted at the end of his section about the Ravens, “if Jackson continues to take – and hit – on these deep shots in the next few weeks, the Ravens could be pretty dangerous.” We’ll see what happens against the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round but Baltimore’s deep passing attack might just be coming back at the right time for a deep playoff run.
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