Will the Baltimore Ravens learn not to throw the ball over 40 times after the bye week?

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has thrown the ball at least 40 times in six straight games and the Ravens record is 2-4 during that time frame. Considering the circumstances with injuries along the offensive line with Ronnie Stanley, Marshal Yanda and Rick Wagner, that is a crazy amount of passing attempts.

Through the first seven weeks of the season, Flacco has 308 passing attempts which is the most in the NFL. Passing the ball 40 times while winning can work if your offensive line is healthy and you have receivers who can create yards after the catch. The Ravens don’t have a healthy offensive line and the Ravens don’t have receivers who can create yards after the catch consistently.

There is something seriously wrong to lead the NFL in passing attempts at 308 and only have five passing touchdowns on the season. But that is where Flacco and the Ravens are at this point.

Flacco’s inconsistency this season is part of the blame as to why the Ravens offense continues to struggle. But at the same time, the Ravens do not have the personnel to throw the ball 40 times every week and expect to win. It is on the Ravens coaching staff to finally recognize that.

In the Ravens last game against the New York Jets, the Ravens had 11 rushing yards which is the lowest in any game in Ravens franchise history. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said after the game (paraphrasing) that Ravens just couldn’t get anything going. Well coach, the Ravens only ran the ball 11 times. It is hard to establish anything whether it is the running game or the passing game when you only have 11 attempts.

People can talk about how the Jets entered the game allowing 85.5 rushing yards a game on defense which ranked sixth in the NFL at the time. However, the Ravens entered the game allowing 69.7 rushing yards a game which ranked first in the NFL. The Ravens stout run defense didn’t stop the Jets from rushing for 155 yards on the unit. However, the Ravens just quit running the ball after a short period.

What is amazing about only running the ball 11 times is the fact that the Ravens had a 10-0 lead in this game at one point. Wouldn’t running the ball make sense in that situation to try and close out the game? No, it wouldn’t. Not with these 2016 Ravens.

We are going to find out after the bye week if the Ravens are capable of learning from mistakes and we will find out if the Ravens coaching staff is good enough to correct them. A balanced attack on offense is what the Ravens need. Flacco at this point in 2016 is not capable of carrying the team by himself.

The Ravens coaching needs to help Flacco instead of asking him to do more than he is capable of.