Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is not happy with the current state of passing game
Through the first four weeks of the 2020 regular season, the Baltimore Ravens’ passing attack is ranked near the bottom of the league. Their 180.8 passing yards per game is ranked 31st in the league, barely edging out New York Jets, and starting quarterback and reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson isn’t satisfied.
“No, I’m not happy because I would like to connect with my guys on those passes,” Jackson said. “I feel like there are a lot of yards and touchdowns we’ve been leaving on the field when we don’t connect. That’s probably why our passing isn’t where it’s supposed to be. But I feel it’s early in the season.”
One area in particular where Jackson and his targets have struggled to connect consistently is down the field. Many of those yards and touchdowns he believes were left on the field came on incompletions deep down it.
Second-year wide receiver Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown is the Ravens’ top target and the primary deep threat in the passing game. He possesses the blazing speed to get behind any individual defender and blow the top off of any coverage. His 26 targets, 16 receptions, and 242 yards are all first on the team through the first quarter of the season
However, he hasn’t been able to showcase and fully unleash that aspect of his game because he and Jackson just haven’t quite been in sync during the early going of this season. They have shown that their chemistry is strong at times but have struggled to consistently connect on deep routes. Jackson strives for perfection and if confident in their ability to improve as the season progresses.
“For sure, it’s still a work in progress,” Jackson said. “We want to be perfect on the field. We haven’t been connecting on our deep passes. But we’re going to get there. It’s football. We’ve been finding other ways to succeed. We’re going to get better at it.”
Hollywood had quite to coming out party in his rookie debut in Week One of last season where Jackson hit him in stride for a pair of long touchdown receptions in the first half and he finished with four catches for 147 yards and the two scores.
He wasn’t able to keep up that incredible pace or produce another game like that for the rest of the year as he played through numerous injuries and was still not fully recovered from offseason foot surgery. The closest he got to replicating his sensational start came in the Ravens loss to the Tennessee Titan in the divisional round of the playoffs where he hauled in seven passes for 126 yards.
Nevertheless, Hollywood’s debut made the league fully aware of the speed and playmaking ability he possesses. Despite knowing what he can do to them in almost the blink of an eye, opposing teams are still devoting just one defender to him in man coverage on a regular basis.
He echoed Jackson’s sentiment about their deep passing game being a work in progress but acknowledge that they need to capitalize on those chances to make defenses pay for taking them lightly and doubting that they can consistently connect downfield.
“Teams know about me going deep,” Brown said. “When we get our chances, we’ve got to keep working on it and hit them when we’ve got the opportunities. We’re still building. We hit on a couple of passes; people wouldn’t even be questioning us.”
The Ravens passing offense will likely never rank among the top 10 in the league in passing offense with Jackson under center for the mere fact that they are a run-first team. While they thrive for a more balance on offense, they don’t desire to air it out at the same rate as some of the prolific passing attacks popping up around the league every year.
Baltimore is at its best and most dangerous when they can dominate on the ground and set up the passing game off of it. They have run the ball well this year so far and are ranked third in the league in rushing, however, they haven’t been as efficient executing their bread and butter and it has adversely affected their passing game in addition to the connection struggles between Jackson and his pass-catchers. If they can improve in both areas, their top 10 scoring offense will rank in the top five once again.