Ravens vs. Jaguars: Joe Flacco Showing Signs of Serious Regression

Do the Baltimore Ravens need to draft a new QB in the 2012 draft?

After watching Joe Flacco’s absolutely, horrifically, awful stink bomb of a performance on Monday Night Football against the Jaguars, it’s a legit question.

He is turning into the Dow Jones—sky-high one game (305 yards, 61 percent completion rate against Houston), to rock bottom the next (137 yards 3.6 yards per attempt against Jacksonville).

The Ravens didn’t have a first down until around five minutes remaining in the third quarter against a Jags defense that surrenders over 210 yards on average through the air.

Baltimore had one net yard in the first half. That is simply unacceptable. Even Tim Tebow was laughing.

If you can pressure Flacco early, and force him into a few poor throws, it seems as if his confidence takes a plunge. Remember the 10-of-31 performance against the Jets?

It’s a trend that opposing defenses can take advantage of and it’s something that is going to eventually crush the Ravens into submission.

They still have to travel to Pittsburgh, play Cincinnati twice (who historically has had the Ravens number) and San Diego. That means he still has four games against teams in the top four in passing yards allowed in the league. Add two games against the Browns and he has six.

It’s a huge concern and something that only Flacco can fix.

The Ravens have a Super Bowl-caliber defense. They have two future Hall of Famers in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, and Pro Bowlers in Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata. But they can’t throw the ball to Ed Dickson too.

The season has been mostly aces to this point, but now it’s time for some serious adjustments at 4-2. Flacco needs ignore the early pressure and remind himself that he has incredible options to throw to all over the field. Anquan Boldin over the middle, Torrey Smith deep, Ray Rice anywhere—the skill players are versatile.

Flacco didn’t look comfortable until the offense went into the no huddle, calling plays out at the line of scrimmage. Maybe it’s a case of the less time to sit back and think the better.

Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has a lot of thinking to do in the next six days to try and figure out what the heck is wrong with his QB and how in the world can he fix him in a hurry.

It’s too early to tell the Ravens to draft a QB in April, but the question is now hanging over the city of Baltimore.