Have coaches figured out Flacco?

I read this article on the Ravens blog in the Baltimore Sun which is about how coaches may have figured out Flacco.  Basically the theory is that if you take away Flacco's first read (mostly Boldin I would assume) he can't go through his progressions fast enough and ends up dumping off to Ray Rice.

In the most recent game against the Pats Ray Rice and Derek Mason were both targeted 10 times and Mason had 100 yards.  Boldin did was targeted 5 times, had 4 rec and 63 yards.  Based on these numbers alone it does seem that Rice got an unusually large number of targets.  If you look at the previous games the first 4 weeks Boldin was always the most targeted receiver.  In week 5 Mason was the most targeted but Rice under up with the most receptions (only 4).  So perhaps there could be a trend there.

If you look at Baltimore's pass defense this year you could say they have been virtually impenetrable.  They have only given up 3 sacks once (v Patriots) have not given up more than 5 QB hits or 8 QB pressures in a game (Chargers once gave up 34 QB pressures in one game).  So Flacco has had all the time in the world.  One thing that is a little strange is why hasn't Housmanzadeh had more catches?  Maybe he is always the 2nd or 3rd read and Flacco can't get it to him in time?

It will be interesting in the next couple of weeks to see who gets the ball amongst the Ravens' WRs.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/blog/2010/10/espns_colin_cowherd_the_league_has_figured_out_flacco_doesnt.html