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The spent the first dozen years of their existence looking for a franchise quarterback. Names like Chris Redman and Kyle Boller and Troy Smith litter the scrap heap of draft picks taken before the team traded up in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft to take . The plan was for Boller to start during Flacco's rookie season but a preseason injury derailed those plans. All Flacco did was help the Ravens, who had mi sed the playoffs three of the four previous years, to five straight postseason appearances, including a Super Bowl victory in February 2013. During those first five seasons Flacco was 54-26 with 94 touchdowns and 46 touchdowns. In the four-plus seasons since? Flacco, for the most part, has looked like a completely different player. He's 32-33 with 80 touchdowns and 61 touchdowns. "Quarterback wins" is a terrible way to judge a quarterback's efficiency. Luckily, has an efficiency Tommy Edman Jersey metric that does just that. Here's where Flacco has ranked in pa ser efficiency during his career: 2008: 19th2009: 14th2010: 11th2011: 14th2012: 17th2013: 40th2014: 8th2015: 27th2016: 30th2017: 31stPerhaps most amazing is that Football Outsiders' efficiency metric is cumulative -- one game builds on the next and the numbers add up over the course of the season. Flacco played just 10 games in 2015 before suffering a knee injury; his efficiency metric that season is better than it was in 2013, 2016 and 2017, seasons where he started every game. In fact, his 31st rank this season is second-to-last in the league ahead of only rookie , who has already been benched twice. And just ahead of Flacco? , who was benched after four games and hasn't played since. Put another way: A terrible quarterback on a terrible offense has been more efficient through four games this season than Flacco has through seven. It gets more depre sing: The names ahead of Glennon include the likes of , and . And more depre sing still: Flacco is also 31st (again, ahead of only Kizer) in ' pa ser-rating metric, 27th when under pre sure, 30th in deep pa sing efficiency and 30th when facing no pre sure in the pocket. There are two po sible explanations for this beyond Flacco's deterioration: A suspect offensive line and a lack of pa s catchers. Turns out, the Ravens' offensive line -- even one beset by lo ses to key players like , and , all of whom are on injured reserve -- has been pretty good. The unit ranks 10th in pa s-blocking, according to PFF's metric, and Football Outsiders ranks them 11th. Which brings us to the wide receivers... According to PFF, its Wide Receiver Rating (WRR) Bud Norris Jersey "shows the quarterback rating when a receiver is thrown at." The Ravens' wideout with the highest WRR is . This is the same Griff Whalen who was signed last week after being cut in the preseason and hauled in four catches for 23 yards in his 2017 debut on Sunday against the . Whalen's WRR is 85.8, which ranks 88th among all wide receivers. Then there's , who ranks 98th; , who ranks 128th; Michael Campanero, who ranks 140th; and six spots from the very Carlos Martinez Jersey bottom of the list is 2015 first-rounder , who ranks 176th. Somehow, it gets worse. Injuries . In Sunday's lo s to the Vikings, the Ravens' inactive players included wideouts Maclin, Perriman and ; running back ; guard and tight end . Wallace suffered a concu sion in the first quarter and didn't return. "This is a little uncharted territory for -- I don't know how many teams have had this many injuries on offense," coach John Harbaugh said Monday, via ESPN.com's Jamison Hensley. "We have a lot of tough guys. We talked to them just now. It's about mental toughne s. It's about just going out there, and you have to put everything aside and ignore the noise and go out there and fight. We have a bunch of guys that I know will do that. I'm looking forward to see how it plays out." For some perspective, consider this stat, courtesy of Hensley: Through the first seven weeks, the Ravens have almost as many players on injured reserve (nine) as offensive touchdowns (10). There is no quick fix, no easy solution, and the reality is that Harbaugh has few options. "We will have 11 on the field. I promise you that. That much we can guarantee," he said. If you're looking for a silver lining amid the dark clouds parked over M&T Bank Stadium, Flacco tries to provide one. "You go back to work. You get better. You look at where you made mistakes," Flacco said, after the Ravens managed just 208 yards on offense against the Vikings. "But I wouldn't say overall that we're trying to fix something that's completely broken. We can't look at it that way. "We have to keep our heads up and play one game at a time. This is where we are right now and there's nothing we can do to go back in time right now and change it. We work hard. We're in the Blank Jersey building 24/7 trying to get everything as good as it can be, so we're going to continue to do that." Thursday's matchup could be unstoppable force meets immovable object; the Ravens' pa s offense ranks while the ' pa s defense is . Life after CutlerJay Cutler, who signed a one-year, $10 million deal to replace injured , has not been very good. And on Thursday, we'll get to see backup , who provided the Dolphins with a spark Sunday after replacing Cutler, who suffered several broken ribs and will be sidelined this week. How good was Moore? He helped the Dolphins overcome a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to the in which he threw for 188 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. And how bad was Cutler during the first month and a half? He ranked 28th in QB efficiency, according to Football Outsiders (hey, he was better than Flacco!), completed 62.8 percent of his throws with seven touchdowns, five interceptions and a pa ser rating of 78.8. Moore, who started three games last year, including the Dolphins' wild-card matchup against the , has the full confidence of the coaching staff. "He's a fireball," offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen said this week. "He comes in there flinging it. He's fun to watch and I'm glad he's on our side. You don't have any doubt when he goes in there that he's going to make something happen and give yourself a chance to win the thing. ... "He's an electric guy. He works every day. He comes out there and he's the pied piper. He takes young guys under his wing. He's a popular guy in the locker room and I think that his energy is contagious." If Moore plays well the questions about whether he should permanently replace Cutler will only intensify -- and rightly so. The Dolphins were a playoff team a year ago and now, through seven weeks, have been identified as by Football Outsiders' Aaron Schatz, who writes: "Perhaps the most surprising team in the Awful Eight is Miami. After all, the Dolphins are 4-2. What the hell are they doing down with the winle s ? The answer is that Miami has not been good. Their four wins all have come by le s than a touchdown, against an easy schedule. They also got Matt Carpenter Jersey shut out 20-0 by New Orleans and lost to the J |
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发表于 2023-6-7 12:38:27