Interesting Analysis of Joe's Home vs Road Performance

[OutsideRzAcE]

How do you explain the unexplainable?

“Break It Down” already tackled that mystery once this season, with all the fervor of a David Lynch script, back when Matthew Stafford and the Lions’ offense were sputtering at the start of the season.

Was Stafford’s unorthodox sidearm motion costing him some passes? Sure. Same goes for lapses along the offensive line and a high number of drops from the Detroit pass-catchers. But the conclusions reached from rolling back the tape on the Lions’ early games were vague.

The Lions offense had to get better, in theory, because there was nothing obvious holding it back. To that point, Stafford now leads the NFL in yards passing, and Calvin Johnson is tops in yards receiving.

And, in a lot of ways, the situation is the same when looking at today’s topic: the baffling difference in Joe Flacco’s play in road games compared to at home. In five games this season in front of the Baltimore fans, Flacco is completing 66.5 percent of his passes for 1,612 yards, 10 TDs, three interceptions and a 108.3 QB rating; in six road games, he’s hit his passes at a 55.3 percent clip for 1,238 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions, with a 70.2 QB rating.

What is causing the change? This week’s “Break It Down” attempts to figure that out …

 

http://nfl.si.com/2012/11/28/break-it-down-why-is-joe-flacco-a-better-qb-at-home/?sct=hp_wr_a1&eref=sihp

[cravnravn]

Good article, pretty much spot on, its a dam shame his play suffers that much on the road.

[RavenMad]

Very good article. Did anyone else notice how crap the routes were on most of those plays that were highlighted. Where are the patterns that force a safety to make a decision thus opening up an option for Flacco. Perhaps his confidence level is low on the road because he doesn't have confidence in the plays being called. Maybe the offense is kept too simple on the road because of communication problems and that makes things worse.

 

Perhaps next offseason, we should be spending half our time indoors with loud croud noise being pumped in through the speakers to give the offense a simulation of an away game and make them practice and learn how to do better.

[oldno82]

Good article and analysis and I can't disagree. Receiver routes and play calling have long been the reason I've criticized Cam in the past.

[vmax]

When the Ravens spread them out the results are good. I don't know why they don't push for the mis matches more often.

[yagersports]

The problem was they did attempt to spread the offense out early in the season on the road and the results were disastrous. Remember our 9-6 KC fiasco? We had our problems against Cleveland etc too. What I really like about this team is we're not even close to our ceiling yet.

 

This offense can do some real damage in the post season if they can find a comfort zone and get some things going.

 

As far as our pass rush, Suggs was getting to the QB alot last week. I think he's getting faster and faster. This will be a good test this week to see how far he's come. He was stonewalled in Pitt. I know he played the run well enough, but he trouble getting to Leftwich. I also like the way Kruger and Upshaw have been playing as of late.

 

We can continue to get better. On defense it's going to be keyed by our improved pass rush. On offense we need to find Joe's comfort zone more often on the road. Cam is going to have to be more flexible and inventive. If it's working, stay with it. Screw the gameplan. If the defense adjusts, you can always go back to your gameplan.

[varaven45]

There's no doubt that Joe has problems on the road Until he puts that behind him, this offense and team will struggle mightily on the road.

He's got to get this "monkey off his back". The sooner he does, the better chance our team has in advancing to the big game.

 

[oldno82]

Gee, I remember when the big monkey on Joe's back was the 2-deep zone.

[yagersports]

I'm not sure this is totally Joe's monkey. Sometimes I feel like he's doing what he can while being provided poor tools to succeed. I'm not much of an excuse maker but we've seen the receiver routes and we know that we have the WR's and QB to make it work consistently. It's not working consistently, so in my opinion that falls on offensive coaches as a whole.

 

We have the same glarring weakness on 3rd and short when we want to run the ball. I believe this to a be a function of the coaches as well. If zone blocking doesn't work for short yardage let's get away from it on the short yardage plays only.

[oldno82]

I'm not sure this is totally Joe's monkey. Sometimes I feel like he's doing what he can while being provided poor tools to succeed. I'm not much of an excuse maker but we've seen the receiver routes and we know that we have the WR's and QB to make it work consistently. It's not working consistently, so in my opinion that falls on offensive coaches as a whole.

 

We have the same glarring weakness on 3rd and short when we want to run the ball. I believe this to a be a function of the coaches as well. If zone blocking doesn't work for short yardage let's get away from it on the short yardage plays only.