ExtremeRavens Posted September 18 Posted September 18 Trying to interpret a social media post is often a fool’s errand, and Ravens coach John Harbaugh is famously not on X. Yet, when Baltimore’s Zay Flowers reposted a fan noting that the Ravens’ Week 2 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders marked the second straight game in which the second-year wide receiver had a “big” first half but that the Ravens “stopped getting him the ball” in the second half, it was at least curious. After Flowers was targeted nine times in the first half Sunday, he had just two — including one for an 8-yard touchdown — in the game’s final 30 minutes. “Not that I’m aware of,” Harbaugh said Monday afternoon when asked if there’s any frustration or contention from Flowers. “No, Zay’s been great. Had great conversations with Zay. I’m not aware of any of the social media stuff.” By Tuesday afternoon, the 2023 first-round draft pick had removed the repost, thus wiping it from his timeline. That Flowers would get significantly fewer targets in the second half against Las Vegas was not surprising — the Ravens twice led by 10 points and leaned on the hammering of running back Derrick Henry, who had 79 yards and a touchdown on just 11 second-half carries. But through the small sample size of the first two weeks of this season, Flowers has both been receiving a wealth of targets and getting the ball less in the final two quarters compared with the first two. In Week 1 against the Chiefs, for example, Flowers was targeted 10 times in the first half (including on four plays that did not count because of penalties) and on just four occasions in the second, despite the Ravens trailing by three points at the half and twice by 10 in the third and fourth quarters. Against the Raiders, Baltimore led by a field goal at the half and Flowers was targeted nine times in the first two quarters (six catches for 83 yards) and just twice in the final two (one catch for 8 yards). Still, it’s not as if quarterback Lamar Jackson hasn’t been looking Flowers’ way — his average of 10 1/2 targets through Week 2 is fifth-most in the NFL and higher than that of Deebo Samuel, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, CeeDee Lamb and Ja’Marr Chase, to name a few star wideouts. Baltimore’s offense also seems to be searching for its identity, something that will continue to be a topic this week as the Ravens prepare to face the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. “We’re definitely trying to take this offense to another level with just being able to do stuff on the field with Lamar,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Lamar has the keys to the offense. He’s the driver of that car. He drives it on the field, [offensive coordinator] Todd [Monken] is calling the plays, [and] the staff is putting the plan together, but Lamar has a lot of tools at his disposal, so that’s something that’s going to continue to grow and improve, and we’re going to build on that as we go. I think Lamar is doing a very good job with it, and I’m excited about what we can do with it.” Compared with last season, though, Flowers has been getting the ball a bit less in the second half. During his rookie year, Flowers was targeted 60 times in the first and second quarters and on 48 occasions in the second half and overtime, finishing with a team-high 77 catches for 858 yards and five touchdowns. In the 16 games he played (he sat out the regular-season finale), the Ravens led at the half in 14 of them and in some cases won by a wide margin, yet he still got a healthy amount of targets in second halves. Sunday, however, the Ravens led by a field goal at the half, and they trailed in Kansas City. Near the end of the game against the Chiefs, it was Rashod Bateman who Jackson was looking at when he missed a wide-open Flowers in the end zone. Against the Raiders, Flowers’ touchdown catch came on the first drive of the second half and he didn’t get another target until midway through the fourth quarter. Again, the Ravens twice led by 10 in the second half, including after Flowers’ score, and Jackson spread the ball around in the final two quarters with eight completions for 86 yards to five players. No one had more than two catches. Still, there were opportunities to get Flowers the ball. On Baltimore’s second series of the second half, Jackson tried to jam the ball into Bateman, who had two defenders close by. When the pass was thrown slightly to the inside, the defenders converged with linebacker Robert Spillane ending up with an interception after the ball ricocheted off the receiver’s hands. Midway through the Ravens’ next possession, Raiders cornerback Jack Jones was matched up on Flowers when the receiver gave him a juke and got behind him and the rest of the defense, throwing his hand up to signal he was open. Jackson instead opted for a deep out to Bateman, who appeared to be his first read and was open. Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers, bottom right, begins to break open during Sunday’s game against the Raiders, but quarterback Lamar Jackson threw to his first option, an open Rashod Bateman, top right. (NFL) For the rest of that series, Baltimore relied mostly on the legs of Henry, who chewed up yardage and clock and put the Ravens up by 10 again on a direct snap that he took in for a touchdown from a few yards out. There were other occasions when Flowers could have been targeted, including on the next series. On the second play of the drive, with Flowers open in the flat for a bubble screen to the left, Jackson instead pulled the ball and ran on the run-pass option. Jackson had a chunk of space to run, but when tight end Mark Andrews couldn’t hold his block, it vanished. Meanwhile, with three Ravens receivers against two defenders on the left, there was room to run had he instead opted to pass to Flowers if that was an option. Then facing a third-and-5 following a false start on Henry, Jackson tried to get the ball to Flowers but was unable to. With defensive end Janarius Robinson bullying Andrews into the pocket, Jackson was off balance and tried side-arming a pass to the receiver cutting across the middle. But Spillane knocked down the low throw, killing the drive. And on each of Baltimore’s final two possessions, Flowers was either bracketed in coverage or the Raiders’ pass rush eliminated any chance of Jackson finding his favorite target, ending any chance for a comeback. In the end, coughing up the lead was a bigger problem than Flowers’ lack of targets in the second half. Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers, top left, is well-covered by the Raiders’ defense as quarterback Lamar Jackson is about to come under pressure from the pass rush during Sunday’s game. (NFL) View the full article Quote
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