The Baltimore Ravens' rushing attack has left its passing game in the dust

The Ravens have the "by land" part down – but they could use a little bit more of the "by air."

For the past two seasons, Baltimore has mastered an all-around rushing attack seldom seen in NFL history, leading the league in rushing in consecutive years. 

In 2019, Baltimore averaged a ridiculous 206.0 rushing yards per game, becoming the first team since the 1951 Chicago Bears (200.7) to average 200 or more rushing yards per game for the season. 

That year, the Ravens also broke the single-season rushing record, racking up 3,296 yards on the ground as a team and moving past the 1978 New England Patriots (3,165) for most all time. In addition, eventual unanimous MVP Lamar Jackson broke Michael Vick's record (1,039) for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single season, with 1,206. Jackson and Vick are the lone QBs in NFL history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

For context, the San Francisco 49ers finished second in rushing on the season in 2019, with 144.1 yards on the ground per game – 61.9 yards fewer than Baltimore. 

The Ravens got back to it in 2020, sprinting for 3,071 yards as a team and an average of 191.9 rushing yards per game, best in the NFL by a wide margin once again. Tennessee finished second, with 168.1 rushing yards per game.

The Ravens are currently riding a streak of 39 games with at least 100 rushing yards.

Still, despite the immense success on the ground, those rushing yards have yet to translate to a trip to the promised land for Baltimore, which lost in the AFC divisional round in both 2019 and 2020.

In a loss to Tennessee in 2019, the Ravens put up 185 yards on the ground but didn't score a touchdown, and they gave up 217 yards and a score to Derrick Henry and the Titans. Jackson passed for 345 yards – compared to 83 for Ryan Tannehill – but completed just 52.3% of his passes and threw more interceptions (two) than touchdowns (one).

Tannehill threw three touchdowns and no picks.

This past season, Baltimore exacted revenge on Tennessee in the AFC wild-card round, rushing for a whopping 236 yards and two scores while holding Henry, the NFL's individual rushing champion the past two seasons, to 40 yards and the Titans to 51 rushing yards total. 

But things came crashing down on Baltimore in the divisional round against Buffalo, in which the Ravens rushed for 150 yards – a low number by their standards – and didn't score on the ground. 

Jackson threw for 162 yards, no touchdowns and a pick.

As Baltimore prepares for the 2021 NFL season, questions revolve around the team's ability to get to the Super Bowl with a run-first approach and Jackson at quarterback. 

This past week, Ravens coach John Harbaugh addressed the matter of the passing game catching up to the rushing attack.

"We’ve spent the last two-and-a-half years or so building, probably, one of the most creative run games in the history of the National Football League, to be honest with you. ... So we’re certainly very happy about that, and now we want to bring that pass game along as well. It’s hard to do everything at once."

Rarely is a team as dominant in one area and as insufficient in another as the Ravens were last season. 

While Baltimore led the league in rushing, it finished dead last in passing, accumulating only 171.2 yards through the air per game and 2,379 passing yards total. 

The Ravens' 27 passing touchdowns were tied for 17th in the NFL, but their completion percentage of 63.3 was 25th, even though they finished with the fewest passing attempts in the league, at 406, 157 fewer than league average. 

Baltimore had been only slightly better in 2019, finishing 27th in the league in passing yards per game (201.6) while completing 65.7% of its pass attempts (10th). The Ravens did, however, lead the NFL in passing touchdowns (37) behind Jackson's 36 throwing scores. 

What does Baltimore need to do to shore up its passing attack? 

The obvious answer is to get a superstar wide receiver, and such thoughts have been floated regarding the Ravens' offseason moves, with the likes of Kenny Golladay and JuJu Smith-Schuster, among others, seemingly up for grabs.

But most on the internet are doubtful that Baltimore will shell out the cash to attract a premier wideout. 

In addition, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta doesn't seem too concerned about attracting big-name receivers this offseason.

"Basically, what I do is evaluate the players, and then if we like them, we’ll call the agent and we call the player," he said. "If they want to play for us, great. If they don’t, OK — that’s just the way it is. Not a lot of rocket science involved."

This past season, Marquise Brown led the Ravens in receiving with 759 yards on 58 catches. The Ravens have yet to have a 1,000-yard receiver with Jackson as the starter.

Baltimore most recently had a 1,000-yard receiver in 2016, when Mike Wallace finished with 1,017 receiving yards with Joe Flacco at QB. 

On Friday's edition of "Undisputed," Shannon Sharpe, who won Super Bowl XXXV with the Ravens, said that if he were a free-agent pass-catcher in 2021, making his way to Baltimore would not be at the top of his list of priorities.

"This is a run-based offense. I don't care how you slice it — this is a run-based offense. There's a reason why they finished last in passing."

Sharpe did note that there is a world in which a star wideout could elevate Jackson and the Ravens' passing attack a la Stefon Diggs, who arrived in Buffalo prior to last season and led the league in receiving yards (1,535) while working with third-year quarterback Josh Allen. 

"Now maybe if they got him a No. 1, maybe he can do for Lamar what Stefon Diggs did for Josh Allen. Maybe that's the case. But he's gonna have to feature him. You're gonna have to be less run-dominant."

The addition of Diggs indeed seemed to catapult Allen into another stratosphere, considering that the QB passed for 3,089 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2019 before putting up 4,544 passing yards and 37 touchdowns this past season. 

The coming weeks will tell if Baltimore is in the market to nab an elite pass-catcher on the outside or if it plans to continue pounding it on the ground in hopes of making it to the Super Bowl. 

But what's certain is that most of the time, flying to your destination is a lot quicker than taking the back roads.