Ravens Determined to Get Better in Red Zone

Baltimore ranked in middle of NFL in scoring drives.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens coach John Harbaugh acknowledges the team has struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone.

Last season, Baltimore ranked 14th in the NFL in red-zone scoring percentage (touchdowns only).  The Buffalo Bills were ranked No. 1, followed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers. 

The prior season, the Ravens ranked 15th in the league. 

As a result, the team is focused on improving in that area. 

"We didn’t do a good enough job in the red zone down the stretch," Harbaugh said. "We had too many turnovers in the red zone. We had a bunch of turnovers in the red zone late, so that cost us points. Field goals are OK, but touchdowns are way better. We had too many field goals when you want to get touchdowns. The other thing that kind of led to that, I think the thing about the drives, not having the three-and-outs is good, but scoring drives, we didn’t have enough of those, because, probably, we didn’t have enough big plays. We led the league, or we were near the top of the league in big plays early, but the second half of the season, we didn’t have hardly any big plays.

"Watch all these games now that are being played; it’s a challenge to go all the way down the field and make plays play after play and put the ball in the end zone and then get it done in the red zone. You need some big plays, you need some easy scores, [and] we just didn’t have those. Those are the things you kind of look at and kind of make those decisions. That’s offensively the big thing."

Baltimore's offense did not perform that poorly this season despite a myriad of injuries.

Here's a breakdown of the Ravens offense this season and where it ranked among the league's 32 teams:

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)

Both wide receiver Marquise Brown and tight end Mark Andrews eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards on the season. It was just the second Baltimore tandem to reach the 1,000-yard mark in the same season, joining Michael Jackson and Derrick Alexander accomplished that feat in 1996. 

Still, Harbaugh wants more production. 

"We gained a lot of yards, but we didn’t do a good enough job of turning yards into points – that’s really what it boiled down to," Harbaugh said. "I think we ranked … It says here we ranked sixth in offensive yards per game, but you knew that, but [ranked] 17th in points. Why? Well, our field position wasn’t very good. We didn’t do a very good job of establishing field position all the time, because we gave up some yards on defense – that’s kind of the deal."

The Ravens need to do a better job finishing scoring drives. Harbaugh laments the number of times the team was forced to punt despite promising drives. 

Baltimore has to do a better job keeping their defense off the field. 

"We were the third-best offense in football on three-and-outs, which is a good thing, but the problem is we didn’t sustain enough drives," Harbaugh said. "So, we’d get two or three first downs, and then we’d get stopped and be forced to punt. We’d punt them down in there, the ball would get pushed out just a little bit and we’re backed up again. So, we had, I’d call a number of yards, are they empty yards or yards that didn’t translate into points?