Ravens offense still has significant flaws that are holding them back
If the Baltimore Ravens have had one consistent weakness throughout the Lamar Jackson era, it has been their inability to draft, develop and find consistent impact players at wide receiver.
As Sunday's 17-10 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers showed, that still might be the case.
The Ravens' wide receivers turned in an absolutely dreadful performance that allowed the Steelers to hang around in the game and ultimately win it.
The biggest problem was drops.
The Ravens wide receivers dropped multiple passes on Sunday, including two different passes that should have been easy touchdowns.
Baltimore's first drive stalled out in large part because of a Zay Flowers drop on a deep pass down the middle, eventually resulting in a punt and taking points off the board.
Late in the first half, Rashod Bateman dropped a wide-open pass in the end zone that should have been an easy touchdown and resulted in Justin Tucker having to kick a chip shot field, a significant four-point swing in the game.
That was followed in the third quarter by Nelson Agholor dropping a perfectly thrown ball that would have been a walk-in touchdown had he caught it.
Overall, the Ravens' receivers were hit with seven dropped passes.
Considering how many points those drops took off the board, it is not a stretch to say they were the difference in the game.
Entering play on Sunday, Flowers was the only Ravens receiver with more than 10 catches on the season, but he was only averaging 10 yards per reception and had not yet shown big-play ability.
But those were not the only problems for the Ravens. There is still something that seems to be off with this offense and its inability to get out of its own ways in big moments.
With a chance to put the game away late in the fourth quarter after a Pittsburgh fumble, Jackson threw a terrible interception in the end zone to give Pittsburgh the ball for its game-winning touchdown. Baltimore ended up turning the ball over three times on Sunday, with Jackson being responsible for two of them.
The Ravens missed another chance to get points late in the first half when facing a fourth-and-two head coach John Harbaugh kept his offense on the field to go for it instead of kicking another chip shot field goal from Justin Tucker. The Ravens lined up to go for it, snapped the ball and threw an incomplete pass to end the half, leaving three more points on the field. Harbaugh said after the game it was a "miscommunication" and that the ball was never supposed to be snapped there. But that is a mistake that can not happen in a divisional game that is always close.
Until Baltimore gets more consistent play from its wide receivers and gets more impact plays out of them the offense is still going to have some pretty big shortcomings. Even with somebody as talented as Jackson running the offense.
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