Ravens can’t win with Joe Flacco being the NFL’s most inefficient quarterback
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco leads the NFL in pass attempts this season. He ranks 29th in yards per attempt.
That is a formula for futility and defeats. Baltimore is 1-5 when Flacco averages less than 6.5 yards per attempt in a game, including Monday night, when 85 percent of his throws were 5 yards or shorter.
“Yards per attempt is a big correlator into winning,” offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said. “It’s just that simple. That’s one of the first stats I look at when you’re on the bus going to the airplane. That yards per attempt is important to us.”
Flacco has thrown 549 pass attempts — eight more than anyone else in the league. His average of 6.53 yards per attempt is better only than that of Carson Wentz, Blake Bortles and Brock Osweiler.
One of the reasons coach John Harbaugh fired Marc Trestman as offensive coordinator was the inefficiency in the passing game. That dink-and-dunk scheme didn’t suit a strong-armed quarterback like Flacco.
But the passing attack hasn’t changed much under a coordinator whose offenses used to be nicknamed “Air Marty.” In Mornhinweg’s game plans, Flacco has been relegated to checking down passes more than stretching the field.
Consider this: 83 percent of Flacco’s passes have been 5 yards or shorter, and 6 percent…