Brian Billick, simply put, is not an offensive genius. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a hindrance towards being a head coach in the NFL. Bill Belichick doesn't qualify as an offensive genius. Neither does Bill Parcells. Both of them are quite successful head coaches.
The thing is, Billick was only hired as a head coach because he was labeled an offensive genius. After all, it was his prolific Minnesota Vikings offense that broke all those records in 1998 before losing at home to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game.
It was also Brian Billick's offense that went 21 straight quarters (or a little more than five games for all you math majors) without a touchdown in 2000. It didn't matter, because the defense was so dominant that it won the Super Bowl anyway, without any help from the offense. Ray Lewis was fond of telling his scoring-challenged teammates to just hold 'em till the defense gets out there.
That "offense" was initially helmed by Tony Banks for eight games. It was at that point that Brian Billick came to realize what everyone else in the league had discovered, that Tony Banks has no business being a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Billick then begrudgingly turned to his backup, Trent Dilfer. It was Dilfer that started the rest of the season, including the Super Bowl where he was the signal-caller in the Ravens' blowout of the Giants.
Billick was so enamored with the job Dilfer did all season that he didn't tender him a contract after the Super Bowl. Instead, the offensive genius went out and signed Elvis Grbac. Billick was eager to show off his new prize, preening for the HBO cameras (who were there filming Hard Knocks: Training with the Baltimore Ravens) every chance he got, insisting how great it was watching Elvis make this offense his.
In "his" offense, Grbac would go on to throw more interceptions than touchdowns. The Ravens defense was still ridiculously good, and they made it all the way to the second round of the playoffs. The strength of Ray Lewis and company though could no longer make up for the anemic Ravens offense, and they were summarily dumped by the Steelers.
Rather than be subjected to another season of ridicule and scorn, Grbac retired. In stepped the dynamic duo of Chris Redman and Jeff Blake. The team continued to sputter offensively in 2002, and finished the season under .500.
In 2003, Brian Billick tried his luck at drafting. He selected Kyle Boller with the 19th overall pick and intended to start him at quarterback from day one. Boller looked the part, too. A strong-armed, 6-4 rookie from California, he could throw 50+ yards from his knees!
The problem, though, is that Boller hardly knelt when throwing, and could never throw less than 50 yards, no matter how open the guy might be 10 yards in front of him. In a little more than two years, Kyle Boller has accumulated a career passer rating of 68.0. To give the reader some perspective, Patrick Ramsey, who is an absolute train wreck of a quarterback, has a career rating of 74.1.
The offensive genius thought the Ravens needed a change after last year's dismal offensive campaign, so he did the responsible thing, and blamed his offensive coordinator for failing to live up to the super-awesome offense Billick envisioned when he drafted Kyle Boller. He fired Matt Cavanaugh (although they say it was a resignation) and hired ex-Giants head coach Jim Fassel.
Jim Fassel, who turned down college head coaching opportunities because he believed he would get another chance to be a head coach in the NFL, accepted the position of offensive coordinator of the second worst statistical offense in football last season, of which he, incidentally, was a consultant of.
Jim Fassel, who took a once-promising Giants offense and turned it into a disaster one year later, has now teamed up with offensive genius Brian Billick. And so far the results are exactly what you would think they would be with these two self-anointed enormous talents at the controls — awful.
Fassel is quoted as saying about Boller, "There is nothing I see that should prevent him from being an outstanding quarterback." Maybe then Fassel is blind. Maybe it's whatever Billick is putting in the water that is blinding everyone, because surely the Ravens front would have seen the ruse Brian Billick has been pulling over their eyes for the last seven years.
Kyle Boller never had the tools around him said his supporters. This was going to be his year they said. Look at the talent now — Derrick Mason, who led the league in receptions last season, was brought in. Todd Heap is healthy. Mark Clayton was drafted. Jamal Lewis is out of jail. Everything is in place. Joe Theisman liked what he saw out of Boller after just one pass this season. This guy is for real!
Then the rest of the game was played and it was the same old Raven O. The opposing team clogged the line, daring Boller to throw, and the third-year man out of Cal could not get the job done. If it weren't for Minnesota, the Ravens would be guilty as the continually most disappointing hyped team in the NFL.
The problem remains constant. Kyle Boller is not a professional quarterback. He has a strong arm, but so do javelin-tossers. The Ravens' offense continues to be embarrassing, and Brian Billick is ultimately responsible. Billick continues to shine his Super Bowl ring as if he was somehow responsible for putting together a defense that was neither drafted nor coached by him.
Billick's show is the offense. His legacy is Banks, Grbac, Redman, Blake, and now Boller. He let Dilfer go, and has never found a suitable replacement. And for that, the Ravens should replace him.
September 23, 2005
Alex Thomas:
While i know this will never be read by such a pompous and ignorant writer, I still felt the need to write to him and point out what he fails to see during Brian Billicks tenure. First of all, you cannot even begin to use passer ratings as a source in claiming Boller is inferior to other quarterbacks, because that is one of the most inaccurate and unsubstantial arguments you can use. You discuss Elvis Grbec, and his ineptitude in leading an offense, but if we use your criteria of how to judge a quarterback, than he is far better than such greats as Johnny Unitas, as he excceeded his passer rating. Another point you made was how Billick took credit for a defense that led him to a Super Bowl. Tell me one other defense that hasn’t been taught, and learned from their Head Coach. Billick is receiving the blame in Baltimore for their failure to produce turnovers on defense, so you better believe he is going to take credit for achieving, and setting such a high standard for defense in the NFL. Your facts are not backed up with credible information, and your biast attitude towards Billick glares right off of the screen. Your persistence in looking at the negative side of things shows in this article, and i’m sure is portrayed in all of your other descriptions. While you may be a good writer, you have no right to critique someone who has done so much more in achieving his goals then you will ever be able to imagine.
September 23, 2005
stephen:
While Mr. Van Leer makes some valid points, the overall scope of his article is nothing more than an overexageratted rant no better than a drunk ravens fan might come up with on a talk show after a loss. The ravens have never had a good offense but only the shallow observer would leave the blame at the quarterback and head coach because, well, thats just plain easy. The fact of the matter is that this deficiency goes far deeper than the two most talked about positions on the team. Anybody who watched the Ravens home opener against the Colts would be able to see that Kyle Boller did in fact show a monumental growth and maturation from last season. With a completion percentage of over 60% including numerous drops, Boller showed improved presence in the pocket and, when he had time, the ability to hit his open targets. Even Boller critics admitted that Kyle showed progress before he was taken out of the game with an injury. When Anthony Wright came in for week 2, the offense still sputtered, showing that the lack of scoring was as much a function of the offensive line as the quarterback. Mr. Van Leer talks about passer rating as the be all and end all judgement of a quarterback, yet the lowly Elvis Grbac has a quarterback rating higher than Johnny Unitas. The point being, qb ratings dont always tell the whole truth. Is the Ravens offense a problem? Yes. But in much the same way that Trent Dilfer showed us in 2000, you dont need a great offense to win a super bowl. In fact, you dont even need a good offense. As long as your defense is better than your offense is bad, you will win more games than you lose. One could make the argument then, that it is the ravens defense, who were held to 1 turnover and 1 sack in their first two games this year, who are not holding up there end of the bargain. The bottom line is this team has some problems that need to be fixed, and making baseless accusations at the head coach and quarterback, while easy, is not the answer.