It made sense that the Ravens would employ a ground-and-pound strategy against the San Diego Chargers last Sunday. San Diego’s defense was ranked No. 31 against the run – next-to-last in the league.
But the Ravens barely even tried running the ball at first. 
At halftime, the Ravens had accumulated just 14 rushing yards on six attempts, and they trailed. Their play-calling was getting lambasted on social media, that noted bastion of sober thought and rational judgment. Six runs and 20 passes? How could they just abandon the run against a weak rushing defense? Typical!
Well, there was an explanation.
The Chargers were loading up their front with extra defenders and sending them on “run blitzes,” a strategy designed to stop the run. It left their secondary less populated and more vulnerable, tempting Flacco and Ravens Offensive Coordinator Marc Trestman into passing more. The Chargers were confident the strategy would work because, they believed, their defensive backs could handle the Ravens’ receivers in single coverage.
It became easier for the Ravens to run the ball later in the tight, back-and-forth game. The Chargers backed off and began to fortify their secondary rather than their front because they knew it was a passing situation. The Ravens achieved the desired run-pass balance in the second half (19 runs, 20 passes) and
The Ravens prevailed, but Flacco can count on seeing more load-the-box defenses in the second half of the season, especially now that his top receiving threat,
Opponents are going to continue to feel confident about handling the Ravens’ young, unproven receiving corps with one-on-one coverage, freeing them up to try to stuff Baltimore’s running game. As was the case last Sunday, achieving the right run-pass balance – a winning balance – is going to be a challenge.
So far in 2015, the Ravens have failed to replicate their top-five rushing attack of a year ago. It’s not a total washout; Forsett is on pace for a second straight thousand-yard season. But as a team, the Ravens have surpassed 100 yards on the ground just twice in eight games. They’re tied with the Saints for 21st in the league in average rushing yards per game.
It’s one of the principal reasons why the offense has coughed and sputtered at times, costing the Ravens dearly in several games. Their offense thrives on being balanced, but it’s lacking that balance, mostly because opponents have consistently stacked the box, and in many cases, gotten away with it.
Going forward, the Ravens have to figure out how to run the ball more effectively against defenses girded to stop the run.
“With each and every team you play, really, their No. 1 priority is always to stop the run and get you in a third-and-long. That never changes, so we have to find a way to counteract that and continue to run the ball and balance our attack as much as we can,” Trestman told reporters earlier this week.
The easy answer is for Flacco to make plays with his arm, as he did against the Chargers. A lot of fans probably thought the passing game was toast when Smith went down in the third quarter; the Chargers may have thought so, too. But Flacco hooked up with
Another answer for improving the ground game is to just block and run better, but that’s not always easy when you’re outmanned up front.
The best antidote is for Flacco and his receivers to hook up on enough passing plays to make opponents pay for stacking the box. If the Ravens can make that happen and achieve balance on offense, you watch, they’re going to win more games.
