The main focus of this post was supposed to be reaction to the coaches comments over this past week. Ravens fans have a ton of questions they want answered in the wake of the most lopsided loss in five seasons. You would hope the local credentialed media would ask the obvious questions. Would the responses be generic, cliche filled coach speak, or something worth quoting? Is it too much to ask for someone to ask the tough questions? Something like, “How do you explain Ray Rice getting nine carries?” Or, ” Why does Joe Flacco struggle on the road.” Even, “What adjustments need to be made to make your offense more consistent.” I watched a lot of video and the majority of questions were directed at the return of Terrell Suggs, how they plan on spending the by week, Tandon Doss’ first touchdown, nothing really addressing the loss, besides Coach Harbaugh’s often repeated quote, “Sometimes you get tossed out of the bar. You keep running in and they keep tossing you out.”
The only quotable piece I found came from Cam Cameron on the Ravens Game Plan show, when the topic of the home and road statistical differences came up. Cam had this to say:
“The bottom line is we need to take care of the football better, communicate better, we need to score more points, take advantage of opportunities, all those things. We’ve won a lot of games on the road too. Every year is a new year, and now is the time for us to go on the road and play well, period. End of story. No what ifs or excuses. Bottom line lets go on the road and lets play well. We got a road game coming up, now would be a good time to do that.”
Well, forgive me if I’m taking it out of context, but it sounds like Cam Cameron is placing all of the blame on the players. Not once did he mention the coaches having to do a better job. What I hear when Cam says, we need to play better is, “They need to execute the plays I’m calling because the plays I call work all the time.” He says not to make excuses, but the not scoring enough points, not communicating well, not taking care of the ball, those are excuses his contradicting self is making. We the fans want answers, accountability. Not excuses.
When the Ravens lose close games, the majority of fan base will let you hear about it. When you lose by 30, it’s no surprise the anger level increases exponentially and that the panic meter in Baltimore becomes increased. I mean one bad loss and all of sudden some peoples focus is on replacing everyone from the water boy up to Ozzie Newsome. Claiming now that Ozzie hasn’t drafted well enough lately and needs to go. Okay. Step back off the ledge for just a second.
There are certain things you can’t replace as much as people may want the Ravens to. Barring injury, Joe Flacco is the Ravens quarterback and will be for a long time. Joe Flacco is the franchise QB. Period.
The offensive line and the defense is as good as it’s going to get. You are not going to sign anyone who will make an immediate impact or turn things around for those groups. We want to keep Ray Rice and Joe Flacco here for a long time. Unfortunately, in a salary cap sport, you have to make some cuts to do that. We do miss Ben Grubbs, Jarrett Johnson and Cory Redding. But this is nothing new to the Ravens though. We have parted ways with some good players in the past in the same ways. Jamie Sharper, Edwin Mulitalo and Adalius Thomas come to mind. I’m sure there are plenty more. They have overcome transition years in the past. The injuries sure don’t help matters either. It just means that Courtney Upshaw, Terrence Cody, Paul Kruger and Jimmy Smith just need to grow up, fast. I know, easier said than done.
It is possible to win with a poor defense these days. Last year the Packers had the worst defense in football and went 15-1. The Patriots had the 31st ranked defense in the NFL and went to the Super Bowl. But the Pats strengths are the passing game with Welker, and tight ends Gronkowski and Hernandez. Of course Brady played to those strengths by hooking up with his tight ends for a record number of touchdowns last year. Welker would lead the lead in receptions with second in the NFL in receiving yards behind Megatron. Imagine if Brady ignored these weapons like Cam Cameron ignores Ray Rice. The Patriots would probably not be as successful.
That brings me back to Cam Cameron. Despite his stubbornness and smug attitude, Cam isn’t going anywhere. Steve Bisciotti just gave him an extension with the reasons being back to back 12 win seasons and why mess with a good thing. He was on the hot seat last year, and ownership felt he did good enough to earn a contract extension. He’s not going to get the ax after one loss. It would take an epic collapse of some kind in the second half of the season for Cameron to get fired.
You can’t do anything about changing the personnel on the field or the sidelines. The one variable that can be changed however is your approach to the game. Playing to your strengths. We’ll see if Cam Cameron can get out of his own way in the near future. After Cleveland on the road coming out of the bye, the Ravens schedule becomes increasingly difficult. The way they have side stepped landmines up to this point isn’t going to bode well if the plan doesn’t change.
Ravens Analyst
Mike was born on the Eastern Shore, raised in Finksburg, and currently resides in Parkville. In 2009, Mike graduated from the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland. Mike became a Baltimore City Fire Fighter in late 2010. Mike has appeared as a guest on Q1370, and FOX45. Now a Sr. Ravens Analyst for BSL, he can be reached at mike.randall@baltimoresportsandlife.com.