Joe Flacco knows it's easy to point to his increasingly gaudy stats or the rainbows

he's uncorking with ease as proof that he's truly back.The Baltimore Ravens quarterback doesn't quite see it that way.Sure Cleveland Browns T-Shirt , he feels great. Yet he believes the credit for his team's hot start should go to the 10 guys on the field with him every play. They're the ones doing the hard work. Flinging the ball all over the place as he did in a 26-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night is the easy part."It's not like today was the toughest Pittsburgh Steeler games I've ever played," Flacco said. "I've played really, really tough football games against these guys and probably thrown for 150 (yards) but I take pride in some of those games because I battled really, really hard."The battle was easier this time around for Flacco thanks to a redesigned offense that focuses on creativity and diversity. Flacco completed 28 passes to 11 different players while finishing with 363 yards passing and two scores as the Ravens (3-1) created some early separation between themselves and the Steelers (1-2-1)."The way our guys battled up front today and the way our guys on the outside got open, it didn't have to be one of those (typical Steeler) games," Flacco said. "I was able to stand back there with confidence and not too many guys around me, and that helps."The 33-year-old Flacco stressed, "I'm not throwing the ball any different, we're a better offense."One that can attack defenses in a variety of ways. Flacco opened the scoring with a beautiful 33-yard strike to John Brown on Baltimore's first possession and added a 3-yard flip to running back Alex Collins later in the quarter. He wasn't quite as explosive, but perhaps even more effective in the second half while putting together four extended drives that ate up the clock and kept Pittsburgh's potent offense off the field.Ravens head coach John Harbaugh gave offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg an "A-plus" on game planning,"We want to be creative, we want to keep people off balance but yet be physical with what we are doing," Harbaugh said.Baltimore was able to do all three while ending a three-game losing streak to the Steelers, who find themselves tied with Cleveland for last in the division a quarter of the way into the season."We don't like where we are Cleveland Browns Hats , but we accept it," Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin said. "We understand that this is our doing. We just got to keep working."STEELERS SPUTTERPittsburgh's leaky defense has taken plenty of heat during the team's sluggish start. Yet the offense looked ordinary for stretches and downright overmatched in the second half. The Steelers managed just 47 yards and three first downs after halftime."I don't think I'm on the same page as anybody right now," Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after completing 27 of 47 passes for 274 yards with a touchdown and an interception. "I'm not playing well enough. I need to play better."He's hardly the only one. The Steelers did nothing on the ground. Pittsburgh ran for 19 yards on 11 carries."We were not able to find enough traction tonight," Tomlin said.FLAG DAYThe Steelers entered the game as, by far, the most penalized team in the NFL. For the first time all season, the opponents drew more attention from officials. Baltimore was called for seven penalties for 50 yards while Pittsburgh was flagged five times for 40 yards.INJURIESSteelers: Lost wide receiver and special teams ace Darrius Heyward-Bey to an ankle injury in the first half. Safety Nat Behre exited with a pectoral injury in the second half.UP NEXTRavens: visit Cleveland to play Baker Mayfield and the Browns (1-2-1). Baltimore has won five straight in the series.Steelers: Welcome Atlanta (1-3) to Heinz Field.The Future is Here with Browns QB Baker Mayfield - Film Review You know the story by now: after Tyrod Taylor’s concussion against the New York Jets, Baker Mayfield saw his first NFL regular season action and demonstrated why he was the first overall pick. He went 17-23 for 201 yards, and even caught a pass. And most importantly, he led the Browns from a 14 point deficit to their first win in 635 days.As the Browns showcased a new franchise player on the field, they also showed a willingness to support him through offensive innovation. The NFL too often takes successful college quarterbacks and tries to fit them into Peyton Manning or Tom Brady prototypes, instead of putting them in position to be successful at what they have proven they can do. I believe Baker can eventually demonstrate a Manningesque grasp of NFL schemes, but why not copy the blueprint of teams like the Eagles (Nick Foles), Rams (Jared Goff) Cleveland Browns Hoodie , and Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes) who have made their Air Raid quarterbacks comfortable by adopting college concepts and shredded defenses in the process?On Thursday night, I was pleased to see a number of non-traditional offensive concepts on the field. These weren’t earth-shattering changes, and the Browns have at least flashed these concepts with Tyrod Taylor on the field. But it is easier to establish an identity when your offense is on the field for sustained drives, and I hope over time the Browns continue to shift in this direction.Shotgun Hurry-UpThough it was to be expected in a 2-minute situation, Mayfield’s first drive was exclusively no-huddle offense with the exception of a stoppage after Joel Bitonio’s fumble recovery. All 5 plays were run from a shotgun formation. The Air Raid cannon of coaches including Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma (and many non-Air Raid coaches at the college level) have adopted the use of spread formations and tempo on offense in order to press defenses to their breaking points, not just to score in the final 2 minutes. It seems the Browns are at least open to varying tempos and playing from the ‘Gun, which is a great sign.With Baker in the game the Browns played either no-huddle offense or from a shotgun formation on 30 snaps while only taking 14 traditionally-paced snaps from under center. This meant 68.2% of their snaps came either from a shotgun formation or from the no-huddle (or both). And not only did the Browns shift into a more aggressive style, they were more successful when they did.Defining success rate as 40% of the yards to-go on 1st down, 60% on 2nd down, or 100% on 3rd/4th downs (as Football Outsiders has done to evaluate running plays), the Browns were successful on 18 of 30 plays where they used a shotgun formation or the no-huddle, which is good for a 60% success rate. They were successful on only 3 of 14 plays from a traditional pace under center, which is good for only 35.7% success rate.I don’t have data for no-huddle plays folded into this, but with Baker in the game the Browns are running more shotgun than they did with Tyrod through week 2 (58%) and they are near the league average (63%). They would still have a ways to go to out-shotgun Green Bay (95%!) and Philadelphia (82%) Youth Customized Cleveland Browns Jerseys , but they are having success on offense when spreading it out and/or going fast.RPOsAnother well-documented advancement in offensive strategy has come in the form of RPOs (run pass options). These are essentially called run plays that also have a pass option built in. The Browns are introducing RPOs more this year than ever before. I’ll have a separate post detailing some of the specific plays, but most of the Browns running plays had some sort of pass option built into the play on Thursday night.Outside of the red zone and the last drive where Mayfield and company were simply trying to kill the clock, the Browns ran 11 called running plays with Mayfield in the game. Of those 11, 8 incorporated some sort of pass option. I wrote a little about the way Mayfield and Oklahoma used RPOs off of their Counter run play here. And while Baker’s college offense relied upon Counter as its go-to run play, they probably ran even more RPOs off of their zone runs. Regardless, Baker has proven very capable of running RPOs. And with NFL teams already running them successfully, it seems like a no-brainer to continue down this road.CounterSpeaking of counter, we hadn’t seen a lot of it with Tyrod under center, but it made an appearance at least once in last Thursday’s game. Todd Haley has run Counter everywhere he has been, and it would be great to see him add in some of the wrinkles that Baker used at OU.Counter is a gap-blocked run that features three things:Misdirection away from the play in some formDown blocks to the playsideTwo pulling blockers who wrap around the front side of the play. Usually the backside guard kicks out while another player (a TE,FB, or the backside tackle) wraps around through the hole.The Browns ran Counter from a big set with 3 TEs and Carlos Hyde as the lone back. The pullers were LG Joel Bitonio and TE Orson Charles, who pull from the offense’s left (camera right). Bitonio’s job is to kick out the end man on the line of scrimmage, while Charles will wrap up the field to block any flowing pursuit.A number of things go wrong on this play that ultimately cause it to fail. The first is that pre-snap CB Morris Claibourne and OLB Jordan Jenkins switch places.On the snap www.brownsauthorizedshops.com , Jenkins flies around the edge, making it hard for Bitonio to adjust. However, Bitonio is able to redirect just enough to make Jenkins have to go around him, and Jenkins flies past RB Carlos Hyde.One of the nice parts about Counter is that the down blocks at the point of attack create double-teams on their way up to the second level. On this play RT Chris Hubbard and RG Kevin Zeitler double DE Henry Anderson on their way up to get LB Avery Williamson.However, Hubbard leans too hard into his double-team and is late to come off onto the linebacker, which allows the linebacker to cross Hubbard’s face.The final thing to go wrong on this play is that as Hyde evades Jenkins, he trips Charles. Unfortunately, as Charles is stumbling he can’t see the play develop and he cannot redirect to where he needs to be. If Charles can pick up a block he has the potential to make all the other mistakes disappear:Moving forwardIt will be very interesting to see what adjustments the Browns make to their offense now that Mayfield has earned the starting job. The Browns have made an investment in Mayfield and should continue to support him in every way possible, including designing an offense around what he does well. Continuing to evolve the offense will be important as opposing defensive coordinators adjust to what the Browns are doing.If last Thursday’s debut is any indication, there is some serious potential to update the playbook to go along with an updated depth chart.