Joe Flacco rebounded from a miserable first half to finish the day compiling 345 yards through the air. He completed a career-high 35 passes on a whopping 62 attempts. That's a lot.
Did the Ravens call Flacco's number too much and did it play a role in the loss? It is certainly possible, for several reasons.
Everyone knows that you need to have a good mix of passing and throwing instilled into your offense. Even Tom Brady hands the ball off 42-43 percent of the time. The Ravens only rushed the ball 19 times compared to passing the ball 62 times. When they did run, they were pretty successful, as veteran Justin Forsett rushed for 70 yards on 11 carries.
However, they did not stick to the run when it was working. Granted, they were down 15-0 and in need to dig out of a hole, but it wasn't all that big of a deficit and it was only a one possession game throughout the entire fourth quarter. There are no excuses for that.
Listen, I love Flacco as a quarterback, and I think that the Ravens should put the offense in his hands. He's a leader and deserves to be one. However, 62 is just a whopping number, and it's one that has to change.
With Ray Rice getting released earlier today, the Ravens still have plenty of talented running backs. Justin Forsett posed to be a force in week one when he rushed for 70 yards on 11 carries, and rookie Lorenzo Taliaferro looked fantastic in the preseason.
And although Bernard Pierce did rush for only 14 yards on six carries against the Bengals, we are still talking about a guy that averaged 4.9 yards-per-rush in his rookie season.
The Ravens did dig themselves in a hole, and the running game was struggling mightily in the first half, but that doesn't mean that you should totally abandon the running game and let your quarterback throw the football 62 times. It's inexcusable, and this will likely have to change in order for the Ravens to win some ball games in the near future.