When watching the Baltimore Ravens game yesterday, in person, I couldn’t help but be perplexed by the fans’ reactions to the poor offensive showing. The boos came loud and they came often. I understand the team is not showing its true potential on the offensive side of the ball but the last thing you would want to do is send the team off to an away playoff game with a bad taste in their mouth.

Ravens fans are already known around the league as a bunch of complaining “newbies” without much football knowledge. I know this because I am a Ravens fan and I hear it from multiple sources all over the country. This is our M.O. as a fan base and it is rather insulting but I would not necessarily say it is untrue. Just listen to any pregame or postgame show on the 105.7 The Fan. About 85% of the callers complain about a certain player, play call or coaching scheme. The onslaught of calls about the futility of the offense is amazing. Very seldom do you hear a positive call saying how good the team is and how well they have performed even in the midst of a four game winning streak. Let us take a little time to go over some positive information about the Baltimore Ravens Offense.

We’ll start with the quarterback Joe Flacco:

Flacco has improved in all of these categories every year of his career: Total Yards, TD %, INT %, Passer Rating, and Yards Per Attempt.

Flacco is the seventh ranked quarterback in passer rating for 2010.

Let’s move onto Ray Rice:

In what some consider a “down” year, Ray Rice is ranked 3rd in the NFL in Yards from Scrimmage with 1776 yards. That is quite an accomplishment for a “down” season.

Against my better judgment and I hope this doesn’t jinx it, Ray Rice had zero fumbles in 370 offensive touches. I have a feeling this one is going to haunt me but it is a statistic worth noting.

Probably the biggest complaint will be that of the receiving corps. Why doesn’t Anquan Boldin have more yards? Why doesn’t Derrick Mason have more yards? Why doesn’t Todd Heap have more yards? Why doesn’t Ray Rice have more receiving yards? Why doesn’t T.J. Houshmadzadeh have more yards? Well, you just answered your own question. The Ravens just have too many weapons in the receiving corps to have one outstanding player. The job that Todd Heap has done this year has been a blessing. Heap is tied for tenth in the league in First Downs per Reception percentage at 75%. So, 75% of the time Heap catches the ball it is a first down. That is pretty impressive for what some considered being a player on the downside of his career. The offense has its ups and downs but in all it seems to have plenty of weapons to excel in a playoff setting.

The Ravens’ fans think they were justified in booing the offense this past Sunday since the offense did struggle and were only able to get 10 first downs all game but you can’t justify the possible repercussions if the players take this all to heart.

Right now Ravens fans are known to be like Eagles fans as far as being harsh and abrasive toward their teams are concerned. The problem is that Eagles fans are thought to be knowledgeable about the sport and Ravens fans are not. It is like one of my personal sayings, “Mean people bother me and dumb people bother me but mean AND dumb people bother everyone.” The negativity is just not needed when the franchise continues to succeed year in and year out. Let’s just hope the fans showing their negativity toward the offense isn’t the last thing on the players’ minds when they take the field on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Twitter @mpwherley