Why so good this year?

by raven on Jan 5, 2009 3:47 PM EST Comment 26 comments

Why, all of the sudden, are the Ravens back near the top after years of shortcomings? Why have we turned things around with essentially the same personnel? We can talk about injuries like all teams. We can point to a poised rookie QB. We can talk about Mason and Reed. We can look at a number of things but the biggest difference is our philosophy to simply try. To try new things. To try new players. To try to get away from the box that we have lived in for years.

Cam Cameron and John Harbaugh have the essentially the same type of team this year as our old regime had over the years. The difference lies in our new coaches willingness to listen and try. Yesterday Flacco missed on a number of deep balls to Clayton. That is only half the story. What Flacco did was stretch the field and upset the balance. An attempt can be as important as a completion. Clayton has been a target this year. Heap is getting down field. When we line up in the red zone the entire stadium is no longer expecting a lob to the corner of the end zone and a subsequent field goal. We no longer have to suffer through 6 yard outs to Mason when we need 7 for a first down.

The new Raven coaches have simply mixed things up and refuse to bang their heads against a concrete wall forcing the same 4 plays catering to a jumpy Boller. They have learned how to complement their outstanding D and not lean on it. Their interviews are humble and it is obvious that players have some say in their performance. They have continued to give Troy Smith a place in the O and must feel for his situation. They have developed a previously underused Clayton. They brought along a rookie QB 1/3 of a field at a time and measured his growth instead of yelling "damn it Kyle" every other play and then repeating the mistake. We no longer have Stover short kick kickoffs. We again understand the importance of our punter and special teams. We take chances to win. This did not develop during the first game but Cam and John learned. It did not take them 10 years however!

By breathing creativity into our humble O our defense has been able to return to greatness. All they ever needed was a lead or an occassional chance to rest on the bench for more than a minute. They were abused to mediocrity by the previous coach. When they have the slightest of openings we then get the Reed performances, the Ngata rushes, the Lewis seek and destroy D and the excitement from watching young guys playing to win-not lose.

A lot of talk and upside down bread and butter ruled our roost for years and now with some creative coaching and a whole lot of trying we are seeing what we should have witnessed many years ago. Steve Bischotti gave our old coach a second life but realized this is where we need to be. He has done a great job landing Cam and John while giving us all the team we knew we had.

The opinions posted here are those of the administrator of this blog and his loyal readers. They are in no way official comments from the team, and should not be misconstued as such, even though he thinks he could do just as well or even a better job!

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I think a better question might be

Why were we so bad last year?

2006: 13-3
2007: 5-11
2008: 11-5 and counting

2007 is starting to look more and more like an aberration. A locker room lost, too many injuries, a season gone bad.

The reality is that with the way our organization is structured to let the smart people (ie; Oz, Kokonis, Cam…) do their job, we are set up to succeed. Everyone throughout the organization knows their role (Good talent evaluators in Biscotti and Newsome among others ensures this) and is held accountable. They don’t let ego’s get in the way like so many other teams do. (Mike Brown CIN, Jerry Jones DAL, Millen Ex-DET, Danny Boy WAS….)

The talent has been here for the last 8+ seasons, save for the one massive rebuilding year in 2003.

by DT711 on Jan 5, 2009 5:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know…right now I don’t see your good years or your bad years being the “norm”.

7-9
10-6
9-7
6-10
13-3
5-11
11-5

Up and down. This year you guys look rather good, and I can’t see much happening next year to change it. The trends aren’t exactly in your favor though, not that they mean much. You guys need a few more solid seasons before 5-11 seems like a real aberration.

by steelguy99 on Jan 5, 2009 7:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Your right steelguy…we were too good player wise to have 7-9’s and 5-11’s. We were inconsistant like the regimes play calling. I’ve always said the best thing to happen to this team was the loss to the Patriots last year. It FINALLY sealed that staffs fate. The team wanted to mutany years ago. If we won that game, we’d be 8-8 with no Flacco this year. So, here we are!

by raven on Jan 5, 2009 7:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

fair enough

Although it’s a bit cheap to pick an arbitrary cutoff at 2002. Seven years, really? Ten years gives us the entirity of the Brian Billick and John Harbaugh eras.

8-8, 12-4, 10-6, 7-9, 10-6, 9-7, 6-10, 13-3, 5-11, 11-5.

And I’ll just throw out that in both the 7-9 and 6-10 seasons Ray Lewis was injured for a significant number of games. Missed 11 games in 2002 and we went 7-9. He missed 10 games in 2005 and we went 6-10. Ed Reed also missed the only 6 games of his career in 2005. I’ll unequivocally say that during this era, Ray Lewis has been absolutely essential to our defense. Looking at it that way, makes 5-11 look a lot more like an aberration don’t you think?

It was a disaster year for Baltimore, and it was well beyond Billick’s ability to control. It was a compilation of a bunch of mistakes (not taking good care of depth, our offensive fiasco and Billick’s inability fix it, a horrible 2004 draft class) and bad luck (tons of injuries).

Remember how everyone was ready to write our defense off as old and declining? Anyone want to do that now? I’d say Joe Flacco represents a huge difference between what were and who we are. Ray Lewis will eventually retire/move on, and that’s going to have an impact on our defense. It’s not clear how much the Ravens will be able to adjust to that (it should be easier than losing him to injury). However, for the first time in the history of the franchise, the Ravens have a young quarterback who actually projects to be a solid quarterback. That means the offense should project to get better, which should compensate for a decline in the defense. I also don’t expect the defense to completely fall apart without Ray Lewis either. It’s not like Ed Reed, Haloti Ngata, Terrell Suggs, and company are all of a sudden going to forget how to play football.

Incidentally, I have a theory that a draft class has it’s biggest impact on a team during it’s fourth year. This is a contract year for all draft choices 2nd round and below, so they have developed into their prime, but may not be on the team the next year. From our 2004 draft the only player on the team in 2007 was backup DT Dwan Edwards. It was a horrible class.

by math_geek on Jan 6, 2009 2:04 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Not as cheap as picking three years, it’s easy to pick and choose. Why not just show the entire history of the ravens with all coaches?

Good points about how your defense would be stronger without Ray Lewis now though. He certainly doesn’t look like he’s fading, but clearly he could be injured again. I don’t buy that last year was an aberration and the other losing seasons were because Ray Lewis was injured – that’s too bad, but if the entire ravens plan for 10 years was hinged on one man than the inconsistent record should be expected.

by steelguy99 on Jan 6, 2009 8:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think you meant that I said the team isn’t as dependent on Ray Lewis as it used to be. It would still be a hit to lose him for a long part of the season.

I don’t buy that last year was an aberration and the other losing seasons were because Ray Lewis was injured – that’s too bad, but if the entire ravens plan for 10 years was hinged on one man than the inconsistent record should be expected.

Well, um… yeah. I don’t think it was the plan, it’s just how the team worked out. Our offense has blown chunks for 10 years, and I seriously doubt that we planned to completely ignore the offense. The Ravens have actually been fairly consistent in investing on both sides of the ball. As an imprecise, but effective way to look at it, the Ravens in their 13 year history have drafted seven defensive players in the first round and eight offensive players. It’s just that the offensive players have not panned out at nearly the same rate (Kyle Boller and Travis Taylor remain our two legitimate first round busts).

In 2002 our offensive DVOA was -5.4, 24th in the NFL and our defensive DVOA was -6.6, 6th in the NFL. (Negative numbers are good for defensive DVOA).

In 2005 our offensive DVOA was -16.7, 27th in the NFL and our defensive DVOA was -11.1, 5th in the NFL.

Without Ray Lewis our defense went from amazing to good, but since our offense sucked anyways (and it always did) we were not going to be a winning team unless our offense was amazing. Very few teams defenses are amazing when you take away their best defensive player. See 2008 San Diego Chargers.

I expect as our offense improves this will be a much less significant issue.

by math_geek on Jan 6, 2009 12:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Only the raiders plan for failure. I’m just saying that until it’s proven to not be an aberration as W/L records go, it is one. I think the ravens have the pieces in place moving forward, but we’ll see.

I hear you on your picks not working out on the offense – our offensive draft in recent years seems to excel at underperforming.

by steelguy99 on Jan 6, 2009 1:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

whats our overall record when rays not on the field?

by raven on Jan 6, 2009 1:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

nice points guys…i just have trouble hiding my dismay over the way our team was managed over the years- even the SB year. we had some obvious positions to address and were too stubborn to do so. we didn’t bring in a good vet qb to go along with a vet D. we never got a 1-A receiver and milked what we could from marginal players. we spent 5 YEARS with Boller who never improved when a number of vet. qbs landed in other states. just a few pieces to be a high caliber team and we couldn’t close the deal.

we didn’t get/use a kicker who could drill deep kick offs- until this year. cavanaugh seemed to stick around forever considering how poorly he managed the O and the clock. it was a mess and waisteful. miami was our first playoff win since 2002! the old regime coudn’t beat good teams because the D couldn’t do it alone. they road the D’s back for every paycheck. maybe billick shouldn’t get the blame but he was a strong personality and why shouldn’t we think he had a bigger roll in the personnel selection. anyway, i’ll enjoy this new found success and try to refrain from anymore dead horse blogs.

by raven on Jan 6, 2009 2:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ray can still be beat in the passing game…when the Dolphins sent 2 TE’s out they really started to move the ball. running pass plays at our LB’s has always been a good game plan but teams still insist on going deep..thankfully.

by raven on Jan 6, 2009 4:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

what kind of coach lets the whole team down when their linebacker goes down. what those seasons with a hurt Ray did was expose the poor coaching even more. why didn’t the O pick it up for the team? because it was being poorly managed like always. why not make ray a player coach if that was the reason for our success and failures.

notice the trend of:
good season, worse, worse, good, worse, worse, good, worse (new coach)… was that because we peeked with easy schedules and got exposed when they stiffened. not sure but throwing it out there.

by raven on Jan 6, 2009 2:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Wow, surprised at you, raven

You don’t think that when a team’s best player is lost for a good chunk of games the team is going to suffer record-wise? Doesn’t matter if it’s offense or defense, losing a player or two is one thing, but losing the best on your team can easily be the difference between a winning or losing record. The history of the league is littered with examples, way too numerous and obvious to even consider going into detail about.

Rexx

by Rexx on Jan 6, 2009 6:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree. They’ve been calling Ray Ray our team’s emotional leader since we drafted him. Without him on the field, we lost that dimension. Also, the guy seriously puts in his time with the film. He directs the defense every snap. Lewis has been the soul of our defense for years, and losing him is going to affect its performance in a big way.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Jan 7, 2009 6:52 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The last two missing pieces came into place

Solid QB and Disciplined coaching staff

We have people who focus on the task at hand and strive to accomplish one goal after another. Whatever the league throws in front of us, that is what we have focused on. It is really sad to say it, but a lot of people who follow football do not truly believe in the fact that a different mentality from a coach or the front office towards the players can be a season changer.

There are the people out there who saw the numbers last year, saw the record, saw the loss to Miami, added in a rookie coach and QB with a bunch of loud and proud defensive players and equaled it to another losing season. I just heard on Pardon The Interruption from Tony Kornheiser that he does not think that the Ravens can consistently score 14-20 points a game on offense right now. He said we have to rely on the defense to get us 2 scores to win.

We were the team this year that everyone wanted to hate. It is a way better story to talk about if a rookie coach and QB fail rather than succeed because that is what is expected every time a QB comes into this league from college. And for a guy to come from 1AA, and a special teams coach, its better to say “Told you that they would be bad this year, look at who they have”

We have a new face, new image, and new mentality here. The talent has never been a problem, as we all know. It was just that we needed a new work ethic, and we got that.

You have to hate losing more than you love winning

by Mr MaLoR on Jan 5, 2009 5:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

I really can not stand Tony much and when ever the Ravens play a Monday night game he is usually the last person I want too hear an opinion from. As far as this season goes I couldn’t agree more that we landed a top future qb in Flacco and assembled a great coaching staff under the vigilant guidance of John.

This year we learned that starting a rookie qb can actually show great results under a very professional staff who will see through his success. If you go back too Kyle Boller and Brian Billick there wasn’t a sense of freedom for Boller it seemed like because of Billick’s mundane play calling. He stood by his quarterback till the end of his days but never really showed an effort too progress him or even admit the mistakes he had made in grooming him as a qb.

I love the approach this year with Flacco and they have gradually and responsibly used his abilities too benefit the offense. Even though we have still yet too see maturation for Flacco, we can all agree that the flashes of excellence we have seen this year have been nothing short of amazing considering he is still a rookie, but with his presence of mind I tend too forget that. The Ravens have not only taken the best approach this year with developing a franchise qb but in their team history as well. I am very thankful they got it right this time around.

by purpleonblack86 on Jan 5, 2009 6:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

right on….Billick was a helicopter coach and wanted to be the face of all issues..that is fine and noble of him but he suffocated Boller and others. I see Flacco talking more to the media than Cam/John…With Billick..he did all the thinking/justifying. You have to let guys make mistakes and own up to them. That’s growth.

by raven on Jan 5, 2009 6:58 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Billick had his successes but he also had a young and great D staring him in the face for years. He and Cavanaugh failed miserbly to get the O off the ground. Billick would do well getting a team (without Ray) to .500 (Lions) but until he sets his ego aside and stops trying to fit squares into circles his players won’t perform to their ability.

He said on numerous occasions that the plays were there but the players failed to execute. They failed to execute because his plays didn’t work or too much had to happen perfectly for them to develope. This didn’t work for a young Boller, Heap, Clayton, Taylor….. Cam on the other hand simplified without sacrificing creativity. He kept Heap home to block, concentrated on certain sides of the field and made Mason Flacco’s body guard.

The gimmicks kept the D off guard and made it easier for Flacco to throw without the opponent getting a good read on him. Boller spent more time with his back turned toward the line performing some lengthy fake hand offs only to turn around to be sacked, fumble or throw from his heals. When a QB should be concetrating on what’s in front of him Billick had the guy doing circles before looking down field. It was hard to watch.

by raven on Jan 5, 2009 6:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Back 2 Basics....

That’s what Cam’s guidance has done for this fairly young Raven’s offense. He is simply giving Joe the looks that will lead too his success now and years too come. Hopefully enough too prepare him for late game situations where we need his arm too be clutch. Billick’s way of defending Kyle no matter the mistake and simply almost ignoring his faults was really getting absurd at the end of last year and I was fed up with it. Good riddance too that man. What a relief!

by purpleonblack86 on Jan 6, 2009 3:39 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i’m glad you never drank the koolaide purpleonblack…some people defend the guy to this day and i’ll never get it. i could have taken that team to 9-7 calling O plays from my coach. thats 4 wins vs. cleveland/cinn… and then we just had to go 5 and 7 the rest of the way. with our D? no sweat!

by raven on Jan 6, 2009 2:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Owner

Billick is buying radio stations these days, He will be getting a job somewhere in the NFL soon so let the past go and lets look forward to our next playoff game but anyway I miss him because raven has less to complain about when it comes to the Ravens.

by section117 on Jan 6, 2009 3:34 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs