“Defense wins Championship,” is an old football adage, to which someone should add the small disclaimer, “Average to good Offense” still required. Don’t believe me, ask Brian Billick the recently fired former coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
Billick, who was once though of as an “offensive genius” football coach, never got the Raven’s Offense on track in Baltimore. Though he did manage to win a Super Bowl with the franchise, it came in a season in which the Raven’s Defense set an all-time NFL record for fewest points allowed (165 points in 2000). It was also the Defense that would continue to bail out Billick through out the decade as he alternated winning seasons with losing ones. It was a trademark that resurfaced this season when the Raven’s finished a dismal 5-11 after going 13-3 the previous year.
Throughout the course of his tenure, Billick tried over and over to duplicate the offensive magic he had brought with him to his coaching stints at Utah State (1986-1988), and later at Minnesota (1992-1998), where as Offensive Coordinator of the Vikings, he helped set an NFL record for most points in a season (556).
Yet that magical touch eluded him in Baltimore where he never could develop a top-flight quarterback to guide the team. Kyle Boller, the team’s first round pick in 2003 never seemed to be the answer. Through 53 games with the team Boller’s QB rating languished near the 70 point range, and he managed to throw only one more touchdown than interception. If Boller was average, so too was Steve McNair, the former Tennessee Titan who Billick brought on board in 2006 to take over the reigns at quarterback. Though McNair lead the team to a 13-3 finish in 2006, his overall performance was only slightly better than Boller’s.
Still, it would not be fair to place all of the Raven’s offensive woes on the just the quarterbacks, since the tandems of quarterbacks they used where in part inhibited by the quality of receivers they had to throw to. Derrick Mason, the team’s steadiest receiver would be a good number two on most teams, not the “go to guy” he has had to be for the Ravens. If Mason has been unimpressive, at least his progression has not gone backwards as in the case of Mark Clayton, the team’s first round pick in 2005, who followed a promising 2006 season with a disastrous 2007. Neither receiver got much helped from star tight end Todd Heap, who was injured for most of the season, and who managed to catch passes in only five games in 2007.
In the end it was the Offense’s inability to improve that did in Brian Billick. It is an Offense that will require more than a fired coach to return the Ravens to the playoffs next season, despite what the Raven’s Defense might say to the contrary. At least the next Coach will have the luxury of saying that the Offense he has to work with was the one he inherited from Brain Billick. How long that can be an excuse in Baltimore remains to be seen.
