Brown seeks return to form
Drop in production irritates wide receiver; Collins, J. Hurst healing
John Brown can’t wait for November to end.
In his last four games, the Ravens wide receiver has caught eight passes out of 21 targets for 91 yards and zero touchdowns. That’s a far cry from his first seven games when he had 28 receptions for 558 yards and four touchdowns.
Brown still leads the offense in receiving yards (649) and touchdown catches (four), but he acknowledged before Wednesday afternoon’s practice that the drop in production has been irritating.
“When I sit back and think about it, November has kind of been like a down month for me,” he said. “I feel like I haven’t been making the plays that I made in September and October. It’s just due to the fact of teams with their schemes and not getting many opportunities. But I think we’ve got something in the plan.”
Brown’s recent stretch could be linked to a shift in the team’s offensive strategy. Since rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson replaced injured starter Joe Flacco against the Cincinnati Bengals on Nov. 18, Jackson has averaged 22 passes in his two starts compared to 42.1 throws for Flacco.
But Brown said Jackson’s presence under center has actually forced opposing defenses to abandon schemes of bracketing and doubling him they had been using in the past to limit his explosiveness.
“With Lamar being in, teams have been giving me the one-on-ones,” he said. “We just haven’t been taking advantage of the opportunities.”
Brown finished with one reception for 25 yards in Sunday’s 34-17 victory over the Oakland Raiders, but dropped a potential catch and had a 48-yard reception in the fourth quarter wiped out by a holding penalty on rookie right tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
“If you don’t have the penalty, he would probably be more productive,” coach John Harbaugh said. “He had a couple shots. I’m sure ‘ Smoke’ [Brown’s nickname] would like to have a few of those. They were tough, maybe tough catches, but he makes those a lot of times. … So I’m not too worried about it, but I agree that he’s a guy we want in there. We want him making plays. The deep stuff is something that he can excel at and the crossing routes and those kinds of things. We want Smoke to be a big part of it.”
Collins, Hurst on the mend: Alex Collins did not practice Wednesday, but the Ravens running back said his injured foot is much improved from last week when it was so inflamed that he had difficulty walking. Still, he initially resisted the idea of sitting out Sunday’s 34-17 rout of the Oakland Raiders.
“With my mindset, I always want to be out there,” he said. “I always want to be moving and running around because all the plays are better when you’re going through the motions. But it was definitely more of a film standpoint for me just to let it heal. So any chance I get to be out on the field, I’ll definitely make that attempt, but last week was more of a rest week for me.”
Collins, who started the team’s first 10 games, still leads the offense in rushing yards (411), touchdown runs (seven) and carries (114). But his touches have dwindled as undrafted rookie Gus Edwards gained 115 rushing yards and one touchdown in a 24-21 win against the Cincinnati Bengals on Nov. 18 and 118 rushing yards against the Raiders.
Collins said the plan is to take part in practice Thursday and/or Friday, and coach Harbaugh characterized Collins as “day-to-day” before Sunday’s game at the Atlanta Falcons.
Right tackle James Hurst was limited to individual exercises and light drills Wednesday, marking his first appearance on the field since Oct. 20, when the team announced he was dealing with a back injury. On Friday, Harbaugh said the problem with a disk in Hurst’s back had given way to a calf ailment caused by an issue with his nerve root, a fiber bundle from the spinal cord that carries sensory neurons to the central nervous system.
“Very exciting for me,” Hurst said. “It’s been really frustrating just sitting and watching. So I’m excited to be back out there and start playing again.”
More work for Bowser: Outside linebacker Tyus Bowser played 20.7 percent of the defensive snaps Sunday, his highest rate on defense since Week 1, when he played 31.3 percent of the snaps in a 47-3 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills.
Bowser has played on less than 20 percent of the defense’s snaps in seven games, was active but did not play against the New Orleans Saints in Week 7, and was a healthy scratch against the Tennessee Titans in Week 6. He sounded hopeful that he did enough to warrant more playing time against the Falcons, but said his top priority is concentrating on improving his game.