The Baltimore Ravens offense took the league by storm in 2019, breaking the single-season team rushing record while Lamar Jackson sliced up defenses on a weekly basis en route to an MVP award. While that was the case last year, it appears that opposing defensive coordinators have taken the offseason to dissect the Baltimore offense and now have it pegged to a point that they know what's coming. That's, at least, how Jackson sees it, telling The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday that players know what the Ravens are going to run.
"They're calling out our plays, stuff like that," Jackson told Eisen, as transcribed by NFL.com. "They know what we're doing. Sometimes stuff won't go our way if they're beating us to the punch."
When pressed a bit more, Jackson said he can hear defenders calling out the Ravens plays before the snap.
"Yeah, they definitely do," Jackson said. "Like, 'run' and stuff like that. 'Watch out for this, watch out for that.' Sometimes that's what's going on."
Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman doesn't appear to be too worried about his quarterback's concerns.
"Calling out plays on the defense is nothing new," Roman said on Thursday, via ESPN's Jamison Hensley. "They're going to be right sometimes. They're going to be wrong sometimes. I think we know that. But that's definitely an element of the game. It always has been and probably always will be."
Roman said that the Ravens' offense includes plays with built in audibles.
"Some quarterbacks audible or have the freedom to audible every play," Roman said. "Sometimes that works out well for them, sometimes it doesn't. Some people don't do it at all. I would say we're somewhere in between there."
Naturally, knowing what's coming is going to be a tremendous disadvantage for the Ravens, who make their living off of a dynamic rushing attack that features multiple backs along with Jackson. While the offense may be a bit predictable, it still hasn't stopped Baltimore from averaging 170.1 rushing yards per game, which is the current league-high. The Ravens are also averaging 28.4 points per game this season, ranking eighth in the NFL. While that may not be the No. 1 spot where they sat in 2019, that's still not too shabby.
Where the predictability of Baltimore's offense seems to be hurting the most, however, is in the passing game. Jackson has taken a bit of a step back from his MVP season of a year ago. Over his last five games, the Ravens quarterback has completed just 59.56% of his passes and is averaging 187.4 passing yards per game. He also has seven touchdowns to go along with four interceptions over that stretch.
While Jackson's currently numbers are not quite what they were during his MVP season, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose defense will look to contain Jackson on Sunday night, has not seen any decline in Jackson's play. Belichick said that Jackson, along with continuing to make plays in the pocket, continues to be a threat as a runner.
"He's got a few of them," Belichick said of Jackson's ability to get big gains in the running game. "Watch the Philadelphia game … Pittsburgh. Just because they're not 80-yard touchdowns, he's got plenty of 20-yarders, scramblers for first downs. You've got to respect him. That opens up things for other people as well. I don't think he's lost anything in terms of running the ball."
