Opinion: If Ravens offense struggles against a poor Redskins defense, the offense will never get it

I’m very close to losing hope for the Baltimore Ravens offense. This isn’t just about the slow start for the offense to begin the 2016 season. This is about following the Ravens since 1999 and not once have I seen a Ravens offense that can hold its own weight on a consistent basis.

And if the Ravens offense cannot get things going against a Washington Redskins defense this weekend that ranks 29th in yards allowed, 30th against the run, 25th against the pass, 32nd in third down defense (57 percent), 26th in points allowed and 23rd in red zone defense, I give up on this Ravens offense. I won’t talk about potential and excitement towards this Ravens offense for a very long time.

Before the season started, I understood that the Ravens offense would have some issues as key players could be rusty returning from injury due to the previous season, but the gameplan is mind boggling.

It amazes me how the Ravens offense can throw the ball 30 times in the first half in week 4 against an Oakland Raiders defense that entered the game allowing 136 yards against the run. And mind you, at halftime, the score was 14-6. I can’t tell you enough how dumb that game plan was and Ravens offensive coordinator Mark Trestman has his fingerprints all over it. The Ravens were panicking over an eight point deficit.

This offense has no commitment to the running game. Zero. If this Ravens offense gets stuffed two times in a row in the running game, the unit will abandon it. They seem to forget that you need to establish the run to help the passing game. Last week, the Raiders defense didn’t do anything special. The Raiders defense realized for most of the game that the Ravens offense just decided to quit running the ball until it was just about too late.

Trestman is the same offensive coordinator who will run the ball on 1st and 10, get eight yards, and decide to throw the ball two times in a row on 2nd and 2 and 3rd and 2. I’m just about fed up with the Ravens offense and don’t tell me that I’m overreacting because the Ravens are 3-1. That’s not a good enough excuse in my opinion.

I don’t know if it is a curse, I don’t know if there is something in that organization that reeks of inconsistency on the offensive side of the ball that has yet to be removed in that facility. I’m just about done with the excuses as to why the Ravens offense continues to struggle for consistency in moving the chains year in and year out.

In regards to Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, we have been following Flacco for nine seasons now and his notorious slow starts to begin games has reached its boiling point for me. I have been a supporter of Flacco from day one and I continue to defend him against the haters who look for any small excuse to not give him credit for anything positive.

I understand that the Ravens offensive line has been damn near pathetic this season. The offensive line can’t protect Flacco even on a three-step drop and the line can’t run block effectively either.

But there comes a time where you know the offensive line isn’t going to be perfect and Flacco is just going to have to make do with what he has and make quick decisions with the ball. I don’t know how much say Flacco has in the play calling with offensive coordinator Mark Trestman and I don’t even think knowing that is important. But what I do know is that common sense needs to be installed in the gameplan.

I’m tired of seeing a 3rd down and 15 and an obvious screen pass is called. I’m tired of seeing a 3rd down and 10 and a pass is thrown behind the first down marker. These short passes installed in the gameplan have amounted to next to nothing. The Ravens offense has not looked good in any of the four regular season games this season.

People will say it’s still early in the season give the Ravens offense an opportunity to build chemistry. If this were any other team, I would probably agree with you. But this is the Ravens offense. And during all of the years I have followed this team, I never seen real adjustments made on offense without seeing an offensive coordinator get fired during the regular season or a quarterback change during the regular season either.

Flacco and Trestman are obviously not going anywhere and yes I do believe that Flacco is the future for this franchise. So we are counting on them to get things right but history says that the issues we have seen early on in the regular season will continue for the rest of the season. I have little faith that this offense will get things right.

If the Ravens offense can’t get its act together against a Redskins defense that is arguably the worst defense in the NFL, just forget it for this year at least. The only thing positive that I will say about the Ravens offense this year is that talent is not lacking with this unit. This team has a lot of talent on that side of the ball. There’s enough talent to overcome the below average play of the offensive line.

The gameplan is the thing that is lacking.