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Help could be on the horizon for the Baltimore Ravens and their much-maligned offense in the form of the return of their best and most important player. Hours before they faced off with the Cleveland Browns in Week 15 on December 16, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport, reported that the team is hoping to have unanimous league MVP-winning quarterback, Lamar Jackson, return to practice this upcoming week and start against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 16.
“Lamar Jackson is expected to be back soon,” Rapoport said on a broadcast the morning of the game. “My understanding is that the team anticipates that he’s going to be back at practice this week and described as ‘hopeful’ that he’ll be able to start against the Falcons on Christmas Eve.”
Jackson hasn’t practiced since December 2, which was the Friday ahead of their Week 13 matchup with the Denver Broncos where he would suffer the sprained PCL that has caused him to miss their past two games. The team has gone 1-1 during his absence with a 16-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 14 and a 13-3 loss to the Browns in Week 15.
The Ravens will host the Falcons at M&T Bank Stadium on December 24 at 1 pm EST and the game will be broadcasted on FOX. If he does not return to the lineup, third-year pro Tyler Huntley will be slated to make his seventh career start in place of Jackson and third straight.
Will Offensive Struggles Persist?
In his absence, the Ravens’ offense continued to have issues in the red zone and mustered just three points against a struggling Browns team that was allowing almost 25 points per game heading into Week 15.
After the game, head coach John Harbaugh said that the unit needs to be “better in terms of moving the ball through the air, making plays in the red zone, not turning the ball over”. They struggled to do all of the above and it resulted in their ultimate demise in a very winnable game against a division rival this past weekend.
“That’s winning football; our guys know that. It starts with that,” Harbaugh said in a postgame press conference. “We have to just have a better passing game, basically. It’s not a good enough passing game right now across the board to do the things that we’re hoping to do.”
He went as far as to call improving the passing game “priority one” for the unit and coaching staff moving forward. However, their passing attack, or rather lack thereof, wasn’t what doomed them against the Browns this past week. Offensive coordinator, Greg Roman’s lack of commitment to their resurgent running game which averaged 9.2 yards a carry through the first three-quarters of the game is what cost them the opportunity to rally back and ultimately prevail.
Since the return of third-year running back J.K. Dobbins last week against the Steelers, their ground appears to be not only clicking on all cylinders but is currently the only functional and most explosive aspect of their offense. After racking up 176 yards on 19 carries heading into the fourth quarter, Dobbins and backfield mate Gus Edwards got one carry between them in the final 15 minutes.
Despite recording his second straight game of over 100 rushing yards and averaging nearly 10 yards per carry (9.6), Dobbins didn’t touch the ball again or even reach his career-high threshold of 15 carries in a single game.
As much as the Ravens want to focus on improving their passing game, Roman refuses to lean on the one part that has been the most effective, productive, and proficient in the meantime. Instead, he continues to dial questionable play calls to air the ball out on early downs to almost no avail more often than not.
He could be setting up the offense with more favorable modest to short-yardage situations by keeping it on the ground, especially against a defense that struggles mightily to stop the run as the Browns have all season long. When Jackson inevitably returns, he will be doing so in a passing game that Ravens’ analyst Sarah Ellison called “broken” in a postgame Twitter post and it’s hard to argue with her otherwise.
She doesn’t believe that the Ravens have the scheme or requisite talent at the wide receiver position to “fix” one of the biggest issues with their passing game which is a clear lack of explosive playmakers.
Even though they have a 36-year-old DeSean Jackson that can still stretch the field at times, a solid possession receiver in Demarcus Robinson, and thrid-year pro Devin Duvernay who got off to a hot start to the year but has cooled down precipitously since, none of them have proven they can be consistent difference makers as pass catchers.
The last month of the regular season is not the point of the year to be trying to work out kinks or experiment with something that is clearly out of sorts without much hope of getting much better outside Jackson playing at an MVP level every week. It is the time when an offense should have already found its identity and the Ravens have theirs with Dobbins and Edwards both available and producing, they just have to fully embrace it and settle for marginal improvements and contributions in their passing game based on their available talent.
Ravens Still Believe in Tyler Huntley
Despite going 1-1 in their last two games without Jackson and with Huntley at the helm for seven of the eight quarters, the team remains unwavering in the ability of their high-caliber backup to hold down the fort until their star starter returns.
“This guy knows what he’s doing,” Harbaugh said. “He plays with his heart. He’s very much capable of doing all the things that we need to do in the passing game. It’s not that; it’s everything else. We just have to improve on all of those things.”
While veteran guard Kevin Zeitler admits that having their best player and arguably the most dynamic playmaker in the league back in the lineup, he also acknowledged that the offense was able to put points on the board consistently with Huntley under center in 2021 when Jackson missed time.
“Lamar is a heck of a player. He can do things that no one else can do,” Zeitler said in a postgame press conference. “He is definitely part of the puzzle, but, as I think we have all said here, we believe in Tyler. Last year, we were able to score a bunch with him back there, too. Everyone has a role somewhere somehow. We did some things well, but we were not able to put it all together. We have to get it figured out.”
In Huntley’s four starts last season, the Ravens averaged nearly 20 points a game (19.5) which included a 30-point outing against the eventual Superbowl Champion Los Angeles Ravens, although six of those points came via interception return for a touchdown from their defense.
Nevertheless, with this defense backing them up and holding opponents to an average of just 13.3 points per game since Week 9 after they acquired two-time All-Pro inside linebacker Roquan Smith, they should be able to remain competitive in every game moving forward, especially when Jackson gets back.
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