OVER/UNDER 4,000 passing yards for Flacco

**wickedsolo** · 05-21-2012, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by ballhawk

Over

I think the defense takes a step back this year.. with a brutal schedule (a who's who of the nfl's better offenses) its going to be on flacco and cameron to score more points than in years past. Joe gets 4000+ as a result of playing from behind more frequently.

Hope they aren't playing from behind too much.

**wickedsolo** · 05-21-2012, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by JAB1985

Oh i understand why hes here, just sad that he still is. We can with him.

I do believe that they can win a championship with Cam as the offensive coordinator. It's definitely possible.

However, that is also - IMO - reliant upon the defense playing top notch all season long. I think the defense could take a step back this year without Suggs and JJ due to learning curves from Kruger and Upshaw. If Reed does indeed retire (doubtful, but still a possibility) then the D would be an even bigger question mark.

I just think if the D falters Cam isn't flexible enough to be consistently able to call an offensive game plan that puts enough points on the board.

**ballhawk** · 05-21-2012, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Hope they aren't playing from behind too much.

I hope so too but we have lost a lot of pieces this offseason. It almost feels like a rebuilding year for the D...new coordinator and a bunch of new faces. No suggs, no JJ, no redding, no depth behind reed/pollard....

I dont think this team is going to have a choice but to manufacture more points.

**Kyle Cactus** · 05-21-2012, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Boldin has been here for 2 seasons now and hasn't cracked 900 yards or 75+ receptions in either year. The problem is Boldin isn't a great fit in the Coryell offense and granted, Torrey will take a lot of that pressure off of him, but Cam is still the one calling the shots and history has shown that Cam runs his offense through the RB and not the receivers.

I'd say Torrey is the only receiver with a legitimate shot to break 1000 yards and that's only because of the nature in which they use him.

Torrey - I'll say somewhere between 55-65 receptions for 900-1000 yards.
Boldin - Maybe 60-70 receptions for 800-900 yards.
Dickson - 40-50 for 500-550 yards.
Pitta - 35-45 for 300-400 yards.
Rice - 60-70 for 500-600 yards.
J. Jones - 25-35 for 300-350 yards.

So, at best you're probably looking at around 3500-3800 yards. Flacco is pretty consistent and has produced the most yards from a QB under Cam.

Good post wicked. I think it's highly likely Torrey Smith overtakes Boldin in terms of total receiving yards. Here's what I'd project as of today...

Flacco - 3800 yds, 26 tds

Torrey - 65 receptions for 1040 yards.
Boldin - 50 for 680 yards
Jones - 30 for 400 yards
Dickson - 45 for 450 yards
Pitta - 50 for 500 yards
Rice - 65 for 580 yards

I guess I'm a bit pessimistic about Boldin for this season, and after the way last season finished I see Pitta being more productive than Dickson.

**Mike8272** · 05-21-2012, 04:04 PM

I'm going to say either just under, or just over. Something like 3,800 yards or 4,100 yards. With his new receiver options hopefully he can surpass the 4k mark. And off what he was saying about wanting a more open offence it sounds very positive, and hopefully he backs up his claim of being the best QB in the NFL!

**Strange Bru** · 05-21-2012, 05:51 PM

I think after finding out what Joe Flacco had with Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin, Joe may start making more audibles. That plus if the D is truely that much worse without TSizzle for a couple of months the O may need to make things happen. I don't think the D will be that affected by the loss of TSizzle, because the Ravens have always made the right substitutions on D when players get hurt, but I still think Joe Flacco will go 4000+ yards this year. I know he has had 2,971 in 2008, 3,613 in 2009, 3,622 in 2010, and 3,610 in 2011 something will happen.

**leachisabeast** · 05-21-2012, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by ballhawk

I hope so too but we have lost a lot of pieces this offseason. It almost feels like a rebuilding year for the D...new coordinator and a bunch of new faces. No suggs, no JJ, no redding, no depth behind reed/pollard....

I dont think this team is going to have a choice but to manufacture more points.

People say it's going to be a rebuilding year for the Ravens D every offseason, yet we finish in the top 5 almost every year. We did lose some key players, but we have added talented young players over the years on defense who now need to step up. We still have Ed Reed, Haloti Ngata, Ray Lewis, Webb, and Suggs will be coming back at some point in the season, you should never consider a defense as a rebuilding defense with those calibre of players starting.

**Ravenswintitle** · 05-21-2012, 06:45 PM

I think it will be close to 4K on one side or the other. To me the difference is improving on the dropped passes. They had plenty of attempts and got close but too many drops. And blame the OC if you want to but they were a dropped pass away from the SB and this team is a smash mouth team first and foremost (although that's evolving).

They didn't sign the highest paid FB in the league to go pass happy IMO

**ballhawk** · 05-21-2012, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

People say it's going to be a rebuilding year for the Ravens D every offseason, yet we finish in the top 5 almost every year. We did lose some key players, but we have added talented young players over the years on defense who now need to step up. We still have Ed Reed, Haloti Ngata, Ray Lewis, Webb, and Suggs will be coming back at some point in the season, you should never consider a defense as a rebuilding defense with those calibre of players starting.

You assume that suggs will be back, and even if he does come back it will be way late in the season and he will be nowhere near 100%. Basically we have lost almost half of our front 7, our DC, and a couple very important role players (zib, nak). What happens if reed or pollard go down for an extended period? At the moment, 2012 looks as much a rebuilding year for this D as any other year since 2002. I dont think the D will look anywhere as dominant as 2011...i sincerelly hope im wrong.

And dont get me wrong...i like the new guys coming up and trust the entire organization as far as infusing the team with defensive talent..just have to temper my expectations for this year.

**scbgirlxo** · 05-21-2012, 07:21 PM

I said under because Cam is who Cam is. He ran the same simple offense at San Diego that he does here and I doubt he will ever change his philosophy. BUT I do think Joe's yards will be the highest hes had yet. I think he could have a 3900 yard season. He won't have more attempts than last season because he actually had high attempts but I think his completion percentage will go back up and thus will have more yards. He'll have some consistency with his receivers and the young receivers will be more comfortable in the offense. I also doubt 10 out of our 12 games will be against top 10 defenses like it was last year.

**Ravenswintitle** · 05-21-2012, 09:13 PM

come on people, check the stats and stop with the blame Cam bandwagon. Flacco had more attempts last year than a lot of very good QBs but his completion percentage was under 60%. He was #10 in the league in attempts but other than Colt McCoy, you have to go all the way down to Blaine Gabbert to find someone with a worse percentage.

It's about accuracy and receivers who can catch the ball.

**wickedsolo** · 05-21-2012, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by Ravenswintitle

I think it will be close to 4K on one side or the other. To me the difference is improving on the dropped passes. They had plenty of attempts and got close but too many drops. And blame the OC if you want to but they were a dropped pass away from the SB and this team is a smash mouth team first and foremost (although that's evolving).

They didn't sign the highest paid FB in the league to go pass happy IMO

They sure didn't use him in the way that they had probably thought about using him though. How many passes to the flat for no gain did they send Vonta Leach on?

Originally Posted by Ravenswintitle

come on people, check the stats and stop with the blame Cam bandwagon. Flacco had more attempts last year than a lot of very good QBs but his completion percentage was under 60%. He was #10 in the league in attempts but other than Colt McCoy, you have to go all the way down to Blaine Gabbert to find someone with a worse percentage.

It's about accuracy and receivers who can catch the ball.

It has nothing to do with how many attempts Flacco had. The problem is the scheme and the overall offensive philosophy. Cam has never had a QB throw more than 3600 yards and change. That includes Brees, Rivers, and Flacco.

I agree that there were a lot of problems in the passing game that were not directly related to Cam, but when you have receivers running the same routes every single game with little-to-no variation then it's going to make it that much harder for Flacco to capitalize on those attempts. Likewise, it's going to be that much more difficult for Boldin or Torrey or whoever to make a play on those passes because they're not designed to get receivers into space. There were A LOT of contested passes last year.

I'm not going to say that it is impossible for Flacco to go for over 4000 yards this coming season, but I sincerely see it as being highly unlikely. Especially if the ground-n-pound is really working. A big reason why Flacco had so many attempts last year is because the running game couldn't get going. If the running game gets going this year, Flacco won't be asked to throw the ball nearly as much.