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A Sea of Change in Baltimore Football

Written by Sock Dolager
Tuesday, 08 January 2008
Brian Billick is gone and all the world wonders who will be his successor? Much of the Raven world still questions whether his dismissal was the best decision. Just when it seemed that the Ravens would be Billicking around again next season with a new Offensive Coordinator, BANG-- in a flash, he was gone. Looking back over the Billick era it’s easy to recall Billick’s wells and not-so-wells. Like anyone else, he has his strengths and weaknesses, and many things that his public cheered and others that turned many off. Certainly a polished, though a bit verbose, speaker for a professional football coach, he most always had his way with the press and probably will be best remembered for his defense of Ray Lewis during the media week prior the Ravens Super Bowl XXXV victory at the conclusion of the 2000 football season when he deflected a bloodthirsty band of reporters from questioning Ray Lewis regarding his involvement in an altercation in Atlanta where two men lost their lives. He was also considered to be an excellent motivator and often called upon other professionals to speak to his players. At times he would even enlist the motivational talents of a few of his more demonstrative players to raise the levels of desire and competitiveness in their team mates. Indeed, before taking the field for Super Bowl 35, Billick had Ray Lewis deliver the locker room speech. Billick’s teams had their moments of glory and defeat, but overall, Billick had a winning record above 500, and always seemed to be able to bounce back after a disappointing season. Following a Cap Purge of players after the 2001 season, Billick came back with a team full of youngsters who performed surprisingly well. After going 6 and 10 in 2005, Billick, with the newly acquired Steve McNair under center posted the best Raven season record ever at 13 and 3. Billick was resilient. He was a master of planning and scheduling and was known for providing detailed schedules to his players in the years that they gained the playoffs indicating what was expected of them on a daily basis from the end of December right up to the Super Bowl in February. When it came to psychological games and tricks in preparing his players he often would use them. During the Ravens’ 2000 run at the Super Bowl, he disallowed any reference to the spoken word “playoffs” until the Ravens actually earned their spot. In a subsequent season that was not going so well and the Ravens entered their bye week with a less than desirable record, he came out of the bye week preaching a strict pseudo-belief mind-set that his team was starting a new season, even at zero. Strange as it may seem, Billick initially caught the eye of the Ravens nearly a decade ago because of his reputation as an offensive coordinator who directed one of the most prolific scoring offenses of all time in Minnesota. Who would have ever thought, that lack of offensive firepower over a nine year period would eventually contribute substantially to his downfall? And who would have believed that his success would ride on the back of a suffocating defense? Truth can be stranger than fiction. Whatever mastery of offensive maneuvering Billick had prior to coming to Baltimore, it never became evident here. Many say that his prior success in Minnesota came at the gifted and Randy hands of Cunningham and Moss whose pitch and catch routine was so simple and so effective that little if any offensive coordination was needed. Perhaps so. Others have claimed that it was at least partly the Ravens organization’s fault for not investing the team’s resources in offensive players to anywhere near the degree it had invested in the defense, and so Billick never had the advantage of fielding a stellar offensive line, backed by a stellar quarterback with fleet-footed sure-handed receivers. One would have to accede to the fact that there is more than an ounce of truth in that as well. Regardless of whatever shortcomings may have existed talent wise on the offense, however, something else always seemed lacking with the Billick led offensive deployment in Baltimore. The squad, unlike the defense, always seemed to be unprepared to a degree, and the plays were too often rudimentary without apparent forethought to future offensive advantage or strategic value to the game. Over the nine year period, running a successful screen play appeared to be more laborious and painful than a nine month human gestation period. Seldom if ever did it appear that the Ravens offense had its opponents defense off balance and unaware of what to expect. In brief, the Ravens offense played the majority of their games back on their own heels, while their defense, more often than not, saved the day. Even their most successful season of 13 wins and 3 losses could be largely attributed to outstanding defensive effort and some uncanny maneuvering by a healthy and elusive Steve McNair at quarterback. Billick’s reign as Head Coach also saw quarterback after quarterback race through the Ravens’ cavalcade of offensive failures. Some argue that none were any good as evidenced by their lack of success elsewhere in the NFL, but the talents of Cunningham, Grbac, Dilfer, and now possibly Redman, might argue that claim. In truth, whether it was a deficient offensive line, deficient play programming, or an overall deficient offensive scheme and plan that set up quarterbacks for failure, Billick’s quarterbacks in Baltimore were most always on the run at the snap spending more time and effort fleeing from collapsing and inverted pockets than looking for receivers. Billick’s quarterbacks got bashed around plenty and even if they weren’t sacked they’d frequently be hit, and hit hard. Many were injured. This past season McNair went down in the first game and after a few starts, Boller (who had been injured under Billick earlier in his career) went down also. Nevertheless, the team that was almost always appearing that it was in dire need of further drilling and honing to get it’s offensive plays right and appeared begging for more time to run through the execution of its rudimentary plays, let alone anything even close to complex, always seemed to be granted more free time by Billick instead of more time on the workbench. Such a dichotomy often made more than a few observers more skeptical of just how well trained Billick’s players were when it came to offensive execution and preparation as a unit. So it appeared reasonable to react favorably when news began to come down that Billick would return next season with a brand new offensive coordinator completely free of the yoke that Billick presumably had on the offense in prior seasons. It was also much hoped that such an individual would be fully qualified with credentials that boasted of prior success in leadership as opposed to merely the statement that “I knew Billick when..” as it appeared was the case with at least a few assistants that were hired previously like Offensive Line Coach/Assistant Head Coach, Foerster and former Special Teams Coach, Zauner. What happened? What made Steve Bisciotti decide to fire Billick so abruptly? Were words exchanged behind closed doors that we are not privy to? Did Billick refuse to comply with an expressed desire of Bisciotti’s on some aspect of leadership that the owner wished Billick to adopt? Did a Head Coach candidate with whom Bisciotti and the staff were enamored suddenly become available? Was there in fact a player mutiny of sorts brewing if a change in the Head Coach position was not indicated? Was the loss to Miami the last straw? Did Newsome and the staff believe that Billick should have played Smith much earlier in the year? No one knows exactly what was at the heart of Bisciotti’s decision, and we may not know until years hence, if then. What we do know is that even with the promise of a new Offensive Coordinator, Bisciotti believed that it was time to cut ties completely with Brian Billick—even on the heels of a disappointing season (that could at least in part be explained away by injuries) that followed the most successful regular season won-lost record in Raven history. Reactions to Billick’s departure run the gamut of emotions from being ecstatic to being disappointed. Those who are glad to bid Billick farewell may have justifiable reasons and those who are disappointed may be wondering if there exists a replacement that will produce an improvement. For say what you will about Brian Billick, there are more than a few doofuses out there who are masquerading as head coaches in the National Football League. Sure Billick had his shortcomings, but so did Don Shula when he left Baltimore. And for every Brian Billick, there are multiple John Mora’s, Marty Morningwheg’s, Jim Hasslet’s, and worse. The list goes on and on. So it’s onward, and hopefully upward, Ravens fans. Who’s in your future for the Ravens? Rex Ryan? Jim Garret? Mike Singletary? Jim Caldwell? Denny Green? Bill Cowher? Marty Schottenheimer? Or is it someone yet to be disclosed? Whoever it is, stay tuned. The book on Brian Billick in Baltimore is closed and a new volume in Ravens history is about to open with a new leader as the Head Coach and a brand new era in Raven football. And you as Raven fans are going to be eye witnesses who will relate these yet to be told stories to your grandchildren.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 January 2008 )