AFC North Roundup: Flacco struggles, Browns botch winning FG

-B- Joe Flacco might look like Joe Montana when he plays the Steelers, but he is playing like Joe(y) Harrington against everybody else. Flacco threw the ball 52 times against Seattle yesterday. He only completed 29 of those passes and finished with a putrid 4.9 yards per attempt. Flacco continues to dump the ball off to his RBs and TEs on almost every throw and seems to lack the confidence to consistently throw the ball down field. Yesterday, he only completed 5 passes to wide receivers. Dinking and dunking the ball might have been successfull agains the Steelers, but it is only going to get you so far in this league. 

The Ravens play calling continues to be bizarre as well. Ray Rice only had 5 carries yesterday. Granted, the Ravens got down early but it is so strange to only rush the ball 5 times with one of the league’s best RBs.

The only way that Baltimore is moving the ball on offense is by throwing 6 yard passes in the flat to Rice, Ed Dickson or Dennis Pitta. Cam Cameron refuses to run the ball and Flacco refuses to go outside or deep with his throws. 

Batimore might have beated the Steelers twice, but they have some major issues on offense. They may be perfectly constructed to beat the Steelers, but you have to be able to gameplan for and defeat other teams if you want to win championships.

Also, I present to you the move Marshawn Lynch pulled on Ray Lewis and Jarret Johnson without comment:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
1w8M3lzsW9g[/youtube]

-B-  Cleveland botched the snap and failed to convert a 22-yard FG that would have won the game for them against the lowly St. Louis Rams yesterday. They lost the game 13-12. This is the exact kind of thing they have come to expect in Cleveland and I almost feel a little bit bad for them. 

The Browns did get great games from Colt McCoy, Chris Ogbonnaya and Greg Little, though. They have some nice young players and even though they looked awful at the end of the game, I think they can still steal a game against one of the AFC North teams. McCoy even gave the Steelers fits at times last year.