Time for John Harbaugh, Ravens to fire Juan Castillo

Earlier this week, the Ravens released two veteran offseason acquisitions in safety Michael Huff and defensive end Marcus Spears - sacrificial lambs after an embarrassing 3-4 start to the 2013 season.

With another all-too-familiar offensive performance in a 24-18 defeat Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, another head must head to the chopping block.

Juan Castillo should be fired. Now.

The struggles through the first eight games have put Ravens head coach John Harbaugh in between a rock and a hard place, because the man he called "perhaps the finest teach of football" keeps turning everything he touches into stone.

Hiring Castillo wasn't a mistake, but giving him as much influence on the offensive line was. Castillo was handed a proven product consisting of one of the NFL's best backfields and an offensive line that proved it was good enough to win - and he destroyed it.

Those whom pay close attention to Harbaugh know how much of a history buff he is. For someone who likes to use mottos to motivate his team, Harbaugh seems to have forgotten one of the oldest in the book when it comes to his offensive line:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

For weeks, coaches and players have led fans to believe that the changes to the offensive line have been minor under Castillo, but unless everyone forgot how to play football, Castillo's contributions have been greater than maybe they imagine.

Plain and simple, there is no reason for a team with their own coordinator for the run game to average 2.8 yards per carry, which is LAST in the NFL. This starts with the offensive line and trickles its way down to the run game. If your running backs have to break tackles behind the line of scrimmage and rush four yards to simply gain one, there are far greater problems than ability.

Now, Harbaugh finds himself back into the familiar position he was in after a Week 12 loss to the Washington Redskins. Will Harbaugh fire another friend for the sake of the struggles of the team and to deflect the struggles onto someone else?

Harbaugh can't possibly have any more excuses, and something has to happen.

Simply based off of principle, Castillo should be fired. Harbaugh shouldn't wait until the end of the season either. This is something that can serve as an inspiration message to the team and the fan base who are suddenly stuck with tickets to five more home games with their team facing a major uphill battle to even crack a wild card berth in the playoffs.

As a tweet sent to me tonight suggested, Harbaugh should print shirts that say "Fix Offense" rather than "Fix Bayonets." For a man who relies to heavily on inspirational messages, he should understand what firing Castillo would say about the start this team has had in 2013.

I'm not one to typically demand people be fired, but when it always seems like the team turns a blind eye to the situation, these are the situations that are created.

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