With every shrug of his shoulders, quarterback Joe Flacco brushes off almost every tough question about the Ravens' struggling offense.
He'll usually preface his remarks with, "I don't know," and maybe he doesn't because the downturn the Ravens' offense has taken is perplexing.
The same goes for Flacco. After starting out the season on fire by throwing for an average of 317.2 yards in his first four games, Flacco has dipped to 189.3
Flacco has just more interceptions (three) than touchdowns (two) in since beating Cleveland 23-16 on Sept. 27. The Ravens are coming off a bye week after a 30-point loss to the Houston Texans.
The offense has scored just one touchdown in the last 10 quarters on the road. It has failed to register a touchdown in the first quarter five consecutive games.
"Nothing keeps me up at night. When I hit that pillow, it's out," Flacco said, when asked about his concern about the offense, to laughter. "Communication is definitely more of an issue when you're playing on the road. … There's ways that we just have to go about communicating better when we have to, and at times, limiting some of that so we can let our guys go play."
If Flacco is on the hot seat, he's doing a good job hiding that he's feeling the heat. But his team is 5-2 and in control of the AFC North.
A loss to the Browns on Sunday could change that. It'll be the first of three road games for the Ravens in the next four weeks, and they average just 15 points per game away from home.
"He's not hitting the panic button, so our offense is not hitting the panic button," fullback Vonta Leach said. "We got a lot of weapons. Joe is our leader on offense. He runs the show.
"If our commander-in-chief is not panicking, nobody else is."
While coach John Harbaugh has hinted he'll slow down the no-huddle offense and rely more on his running backs Ray Rice, Bernard Pierce and Leach, Flacco doesn't want the system to revamped totally.
That's the one thing Flacco appears certain about because doesn't shrug his shoulders when talking about it.
"We're not going to let it go. I think it's part of the reason that we've been very good at times, " he said of an offense that averages 32 points per game at home. "For us to throw that out would be a little bit foolish of us just because a couple times here and there we haven't played great offense.
"We're really building something here. That's a big part of it so I think we have to continue to make a big part of it."
