Ravens open it up in opening win

Flacco has career day in passing attempts, passing yards and TD passes

Apparently, the Ravens' preseason emphasis on throwing the ball in just about every possible situation was not just a passing fancy.

Joe Flacco came out flinging on Sunday, and the Ravens rang up their biggest offensive performance - in terms of total yardage - since the franchise moved to Baltimore.

Flacco set career highs in passing attempts (43), passing yardage (307) and touchdown passes (3). The Ravens piled up 501 yards and put up 38 points. I suppose you have to consider the competition, but the Kansas City Chiefs came to play and simply ran into a Ravens offense that had too many ways to move the ball.

Cam Cameron had hinted at this with his wide-open offensive attack in the preseason opener against the Washington Redskins, but everybody just kind of assumed that the heavy emphasis on the pass had more to do with sorting through the team's extra receivers than any overall change in offensive strategy.

The pass/run ratio moderated some during the ensuing preseason games, but the receiver auditions continued, and it was easy enough to conclude that the running game was already set and the Ravens' run-first philosophy was still in place.

Maybe it is. Maybe Cameron just decided to throw the Chiefs a curve … and a change-up … and a slider … and a few fastballs down the middle.

But when Flacco dropped back to pass seven times in the Ravens' first eight offensive plays of the game, it was certainly fair to wonder.

"Yeah, I think we wanted to put the ball in the air and go from there," said Flacco, who drove the offensive unit 54 yards before the Ravens settled for a 44-yard field goal by Steve Hauschka. "That was pretty much the game plan for the most part, and we were able to do that."

The Ravens mixed it up a little more on their second possession, but Flacco threw the ball seven times on a 70-yard drive that ended with a short touchdown pass to Willis McGahee.

Flacco spread the ball around to seven receivers, connecting with Mark Clayton and Todd Heap five times each and hooking up with each of them on a touchdown pass.

Still, during John Harbaugh's post-game news conference, the question hung in the air like the ball that floated into Clayton's hands for the 31-yard touchdown that put the Ravens ahead to stay. Has the Ravens' coaching staff made a conscious decision to depend on a more pass-oriented attack this season?

"We're going to throw more, if it's going to help us win a game," Harbaugh answered.

"At the end of the game, running the ball is probably the key. But we also made some great throws. Whether we end up throwing more when it is all said and done, there's no way to predict that."

They will continue to throw if Flacco has anything to say about it. He had some trouble putting the ball where he wanted it at times but said he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to air it out.

"It's awesome. It's so much fun," Flacco said. "As a quarterback, that's what you want to do. You want to sit back there, let your O-line take care of you and get the ball to your receivers."

Whether that was a one-time deal or the new way to play like a Raven isn't clear, even to the young quarterback.

"I think we're going to take it game by game and see what we can do," Flacco said.

"We'll see how teams try to play us. We're just going to go out there, and we're going to stick to our game plan and see what works best for us."

Flacco had unprecedented success moving the ball through the air, but the thing that stood out most about Sunday's victory might have been the Ravens' ability to move the ball pretty much any way they wanted. There were some mistakes - most notably the interception that Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson returned 70 yards to set up a go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter - but the Ravens turned up the running game in the second half and answered every challenge.

"Everybody wants to say we don't have weapons," Harbaugh said. "I think we have weapons, if you want to use that term. We have really good players who can make plays, and those guys made plays."

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