Baltimore Ravens Offense the Next Greatest Show on Turf

While the Baltimore Ravens will never be the St. Louis Rams Greatest Show on Turf offense from 1999, and let’s face it, no team will ever be, they could start drawing comparisons to some of the things Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and company did back then if they keep playing like they did last week.

Like the '99 Rams, the Ravens offense could eventually be elite, especially when you consider the Ravens personnel and philosophy.

Quarterback Joe Flacco looks like he is starting to take the so-called next step in the process of becoming one of the NFL's top quarterbacks. However, and as I’m sure New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan already knows, the key to stopping Baltimore’s potentially high-powered offense, is stopping arguably, the best all-purpose back in the NFL—Ray Rice.

The Ravens are a very fortunate offensive team on the cusp of becoming a great offensive unit. There are still several minor issues preventing them from being great, but last week in St.Louis proves those issues are closer to being fixed sooner, rather than later.

Many experts, and Ravens fans alike, believe that Baltimore is beginning to transition the offense to the arm of fourth-year signal-caller Joe Flacco. In my opinion, that is precisely what Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron wants everyone to believe.

I know the numbers, and the run-to-pass ratio, but that does not mean that Flacco is the heart and soul of the unit. While Flacco will be eventually, that title still belongs to Ray Rice. The success of this offense from week-to-week hinges on Rice's success. That success, as with all multipurpose backs, is not measured on rushing yards alone.

Like the Rams offense of the late 90s and early 2000s, many believed that if you shut down the Rams great QB, Kurt Warner, you shut down the offensive circus in St.Louis. Not necessarily true, as many teams found out the hard way, the rhythm of the Rams offense ran through the great Marshall Faulk.

Faulk, who was perhaps the greatest multipurpose back in the history of the NFL and was recently inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, could hurt you by running the ball and catching it out of the backfield.

During the days of Warner, Faulk and the Greatest Show on Turf, many NFL defenses thought the way to beat the Rams was to get pressure on Warner and play physical against his receivers. When that occurred, Warner simply turned to Faulk. He would dump off to him in the flat, or hand the ball off and watch as Faulk used his great vision and cut back ability turning small gains into big ones.

It was not until Bill Belichick put together perhaps the best game plan in the history of the NFL, when his Patriots, as 14-point underdogs, beat St.Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI. In New England's upset of St.Louis, Belichick's game plan was to remove Faulk, hit him every chance they got and disrupt the timing of the offense.

During a Week 10 contest of that same season, the Rams beat the Patriots 24-17. Faulk touched the ball 27 times and had 153 total yards with one touchdown. In the Super Bowl, Faulk was held to 21 touches for 130 yards and no touchdowns.

While that may not seem like a whole lot less, the Pats beat Faulk up and hit him on nearly every play. Current ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski once said of Belichick’s game plan against Faulk and the Rams, ":The best coaching job I've ever seen. "Not just that season, not in a Super Bowl, but in 29 years of playing and watching football.”

It was not unusual to see Kurt Warner throwing interceptions and fumbling the ball when Faulk was not available to him. His indecision on where to go with the ball was evident when Faulk was not an option for whatever reason.

The way to stop the Ravens is very similar. The Titans did it, and because they did, they stopped Flacco in the process. Tennessee made it a point to hit Rice early and often. They disrupted his routes coming out of the backfield by not allowing him off his blocks.

This prevented Joe Flacco from dumping off to Rice in the flat, which disrupted the entire rhythm of the Ravens offense. They held Rice to eight yards on his first six carries, and just as Rice had set the tone on the game’s first play against the Steelers by running for 36 yards in Week 1, the Titans set the tone by stopping him from the opening kickoff.

Rice finished with just 43 yards rushing, and even though he had 96 all-purpose yards, adding a touchdown in the process, Rice was out of sync, and the result was a horrendous day from Flacco. Joe Cool was anything but as he threw two costly interceptions and played very poorly in the 26-13 loss in Nashville.

Steelers fans still think that they beat the Ravens because they intercepted sacked and stopped Joe Flacco. It played a part, but they also stopped Ray Rice in a very big way.

Last week in St.Louis, the Rams entered the contest having allowed an NFL worst, 177.5 rushing yards per game. The Rams front seven was hell bent on stopping Rice and the Ravens rushing attack.

For almost 26 minutes, they did shut down Rice. Rice had just 22-yards rushing and was tied with his quarterback, as the Ravens second leading rusher late in the first half. Rice eventually broke through with a 53-yard run, and the yards began to pile for the Ravens, as they set a franchise record for total yards in a game.

Of course, the Ravens also knew the Rams would be keying on Rice, and that is why Cam Cameron called 18 passes in the Ravens first 27 offensive plays. Cameron even threw the ball against the weak Rams rushing attack on 4th-and-1 at one point.

What the Rams did not expect to occur if they stopped Rice, was Ravens rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, would become a touchdown machine. St.Louis nor nobody else on the planet figured Smith would have such a day when he looked more like a “drop Smith” in training camp and during preseason games.

They also relied on the fact that Flacco would not rebound on the road after last week’s performance against the Titans. They were wrong, as Smith, the former standout from the University of Maryland, and Flacco turned into Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

Flacco took a couple of shots down the field to the speedy wideout, and filling in for the injured Lee Evans, Smith's first three NFL catches were all touchdowns. Two of those TD’s were from distances of 74 and 41 yards.

The Greatest Show on Turf also had speed on the outside. They had Tory Holt and the very fast, Az-Zahir Hakim, who was a track star in high school. Like the Ravens with Anquan Boldin, the Rams also had an experienced veteran in Isaac Bruce.

Both Boldin and Bruce were similar in that they beat a defender with experience instead of speed, and both always seem to find the first down marker. They are both tough and seemed to score the important touchdowns. I am not saying that all TDs are not important, but these guys score the slump busters, the QB confidence boosters, the ones that seem to get a team headed in the right direction.

When the Ravens need a touchdown, it seems like Boldin has been there over the past two seasons, and Bruce was no different in St.Louis.

While the Ravens are not the new Greatest Show on Turf, they could be on the right track to having a great offense, especially with their personnel.

The Ravens offense still flows through Ray Rice despite what many think. Keep this in mind, when the Ravens were struggling on offense last season, it wasn’t until they made a commitment to go back to Rice in Week 15 that the offense started to roll once again.

The Ravens won more than their share of games over the past three seasons when Joe Flacco had a bad game. They did not win a whole lot of games when Rice did the same.

Believe it or not, The Greatest Show on Turf is not very different in terms of philosophy to the Ravens offense. Mike Martz and Cam Cameron are not very different in how they call a game. The Rams never seemed to be in a hurry to go anywhere, but somehow always arrived.

The Rams offenses’ led by Martz, were poor in clock management and never seemed phased by turnovers. Martz was as likely to call a certain play on 1st-and-10 as he was on 3rd-and-1. Does this sound familiar?

The '99 Rams possessed one of the greatest offenses in the history of the football. I know it is a very big stretch, and the Ravens have some distance to cover, namely Joe Flacco, and a few of his receivers to start drawing any comparisons to some great offenses, like the '99 Rams.

However, that distance is not as great as you think it is, and Baltimore has a chance to make a statement on Sunday, at home, against their former defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and his aggressive defense.

The Jets front seven looked bad against the Raiders last week surrendering 226 rushing yards. Flacco is a better QB than Jason Campbell is and should be able to keep the Jets secondary honest. He did last year during their Monday night opener in New York, throwing for 248 yards against the vaunted Jets secondary.

The Ravens offense is quicker and younger than the Jets and has the potential to create several matchup issues for New York, one of them being Ray Rice on any Jets linebacker.

The Ravens must come out of the tunnel with the same intensity they showed the last time they played at home, when they routed their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-7, in Week 1.

If they can, then Flacco, Rice, Cameron and company may be able to start thinking about setting goals similar to what Warner, Faulk, Martz, Holt, Bruce and company accomplished.