John Harbaugh Takes A Deep Into Ravens Offense

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Coach John Harbaugh pinpointed several areas of the Ravens offense that need to improve, including the run game.

He is prepared to make the necessary adjustments to attack teams more aggressively.

Despite the perceived troubles, the Ravens were ranked in the top half or middle of the NFL for several offensive categories, including:

Points per game: 22.8 (17th)

Yards per game: 378.8, (6th)

Passing yards per game: 233 (13th)

Rushing yards per game: 145.8 (3rd)

Still, Harbaugh contends the team left several plays on the field.

“Our called run game wasn’t as good this year as it’s been the last couple of years," he said. "Our called run game was the best in history in 2019 and 2020, and this year, it just wasn’t. Why? We didn’t have the explosive plays. We didn’t have … We were seventh, I think, in the league in yards before contact, and we were toward the bottom in yards after contact. So, the called run game … Now, our run game is pretty good statistically. We were in the Top 5 in both categories, but it was mostly scrambling yards.

"So, you can credit Lamar [Jackson] for that. You credit Tyler [Huntley] for that. Those guys did a good job of that, and we appreciate that, but we’ve had those in the past."

The Ravens did not do a good job protecting their quarterbacks. Baltimore allowed 57 sacks, which ranked second in the NFL behind the Chicago Bears, who allowed 58.

However, the Ravens dealt with several injuries on the offensive line, including the loss of left tackle Ronnie Stanley after just one game.

"We had too many hurries, too many sacks, which kind of negated some of our scramble yards," Harbaugh said. "The last part of the offensive formula that really hurt us was just too many penalties. [There were] a lot of pre-snap penalties that we have to get cleaned up. Those are penalties that we just don’t need to have happen. We’re not lining up the right way or we’re … You have young guys out there. You try to formation some things up a certain way. We have to look at all that and do much better in the penalty area, because now you’re gaining yards, but you’re making up for lost yards in penalty yards. So, I think that kind of accounts for the yard discrepancy and the point discrepancy."

The Ravens are confident they can build on the players on the current roster kind of choose the scheme direction wisely. Several players, most notably J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, Marcus Peters, and Stanley, are expected to come back healthy after missing last season.

Baltimore was one of the top teams in the league in terms of RPO. However, that was a product of more quarterback-driven runs and play-action.

The play-action game was solid early with all the big plays, but the team must choose a direction in terms of:

The scheme run game

More RPOs

The ball coming out on time in rhythm

The movement passes

The play-action passes off of runs

No-huddle-type strategies.

"How do we want to order it? Where do we want to put our resources into? Harbaugh asked. "That’s where we’re going to go to work on the next couple weeks, and you do that based around the players that you have. We know who our quarterback is going to be. We know who certain pieces are going to be, but where are we going with our running backs? Where are we going with our offensive line in terms of building that? Those are places that everybody knows.

"Can we add a tight end or not? Do we need to add a receiver or not? Those are the things that we’ll be looking at.”