Jamal wants the ball...

[RavenScallywag]

Wow, that didn't take long. 5 games into the season, and once again, Jamal is complaining about the team not giving him enough carries.

http://blogs.baltimoresun.com/sports_football_ravens/2006/10/jamal_lewis.html

[braven98]

Tell him to break off a 3 yard run then we will give him the ball. 3 yards is huge for him anymore

[RavenScallywag]

i will defend him in the guise that teams still stack 8 in the box against him (MNF showed this on several run stuffs), while teams don't stack the box against MA and Musa.

But the problem is that he has NO power anymore! 8 Defenders are there, but only one needs to touch him and he's down. It used to be that he needed 4-5 defenders to stop him.

Also, he's doing too much stutter-stepping to get to the holes. It seems to me whenever he sees a hole, he takes his time to get into position, which allows defenders to get there and close it up. Meanwhile, MA and Musa just burst through it and worry about moves later.

[ExiledRaven]

i will defend him in the guise that teams still stack 8 in the box against him (MNF showed this on several run stuffs), while teams don't stack the box against MA and Musa.

I beg to differ. Team stack the box all the time against us because they don't respect the deep ball. Musa and Anderson are able to make more out of plays.

It's not just that the box is stacked, they flat out don't respect the ability of Lewis to catch a pass OR pass-protect. He's in the game, rock's going to him something like 80-90% of the time. So people key all over him. If you could flea-flicker with Lewis, hell, that would be unfucking real because someone has GOT to be wide the fuck open downfield. ~ We do that really well and score a TD once and that will help. Maybe.

I'm done defending Jamal though. He got trucked by people smaller than him and isn't running through, over, around, whatever...ANYONE. Anderson got smacked around on that play, but he had left the ground so you're going to get smacked.

We give Jamal the ball more often, we lose. I'd attempt to trade him to a team with a good line or let him rot on the bench personally. He's shown nothing outside flashes on the 1st drive of week 1.

[highwater]

I could be wrong, but I think there are eight in the box no matter who is in the backfield.

And Jamal needs to shut up -- if he were productive, then he could he have a reason to bitch, but not when he's averaging about three yards a carry.

[OwingsMillsAlex]

As Bruce Cunningham put it best yesterday on Rob Long's show; "Jamal just aint seeing the hole". I noticed that the two carries Mike Anderson had on Monday he got through the hole and made some yardage, the same with Mussa Smith. I think everyone sees this but as we've seen time and time again the Ravens like to be loyal to their "key" guys and don't know when to let go and move to the next man up.

[AZRAVEN]

Sorry, but we just can't wait until the fourth quarter for him to become productive, assuming he can pull it off even then. Besides we already have a fourth quarter hero what we need is someone to be a hero in the first half so we aren't constantly playing from behind.

[Purpleguy]

It was a terrible move to re-sign jamal. Fortunately it is basically a one year deal. If we bench him he'll bitch and moan and become a cancer. The right move would be to just release him. We're going to do it at the end of the season regardless.

[Ravens'N'Hoos]

Jamal's argument makes no sense. He says we're not giving him the chance to reap the rewards of wearing the defense down. But with more ypc, Mike and Musa would arguably wear the defense down more than Jamal.

[Purpleguy]

Jamal is desperate. He may have seen his last NFL contract, and I'm sure the guy still has a hefty legal bill to pay off. His livelyhood depends on him getting as many touches as possible and praying that something happens. He saw what kind of interest he drew after last seasons debacle. How bad do you think it will be after two back to back laughable seasons?

[AZRAVEN]

As easy as he has become to bring down I question if he even wears down a defense that much. It's pretty much one guy wraps him up and goes back to the huddle for a breather. I would think having to chase guys down would wear them out better which translates, so far, to Musa and Mike.

[PARavensJeff]

I heard someone say the other day, I think it was WNST, that Jamal was re signed before the Ravens signed Anderson. I seem to remember the Ravens signing Anderson than bringing back Jamal. Why the Ravens gave him $6MM this year in what is essentially a 1 year contract is beyond me. There was no bidding war for Jamal & the Ravens were bidding against themselves.

Anyway, Jamal just appears to be done. He doesn't have the speed or the burst when he gets the ball. He doesn't have the nastiness of old, when he hit someone, he punished them & it took several guys to bring him down. Teams were taunted by the idea of Jamal running them over. 8-9 guys in the box meant nothing. Now, the 1st guy to Jamal knocks him down, including a DB giving up 40 or 50 pounds. The offensive line blocks no different for Jamal, Anderson or Smith. Other teams still have 8 in the box no matter who our RB is, we can't or won't throw downfield anyway. Anderson & Smith hit the holes & run, Jamal is too busy dancing that the hole is gone before he hits it.

[VaRaven]

"But the problem is that he has NO power anymore! 8 Defenders are there, but only one needs to touch him and he's down."

And you'd think that this might loosen-up the secondary for the receivers! :grbac:

[RavenScallywag]

Jamal re-signed the day AFTER MA. The coaches had the idea they'd use them in some sort of tandem. But we all knew better, and thus, we did one of these :grbac: when he got re-signed

[Bez513]

Didn't he signed for just 1 year? If this is the case we should let him go, use MA and Musa as our RBs and use one of the rookie FAs as the 3rd RB.

I'm tired of his bitching.

[FadeToBlack]

Here's what I wrote:

"Jamal, if not getting enough carries is the issue, why are you averaging 3.5 yards a carry while Mike Anderson is getting 6.4 and Musa Smith is getting 3.9? Are they getting their 25 carries a game, or are they just more effective in the limited carries they do get?

You were one of the greatest backs I've ever seen in your prime. You won the Super Bowl your first year in the league, you gained the 2nd most yards of any back in a single season in '03 and you shattered Dillon's single-game rushing record with your 295 yards against the Browns.

But like Earl Campbell, you seemed to have hit a wall. Instead of focusing on how the coaching staff is using you, instead you need to step back and compare your own production to the other backs that are running behind the exact same offensive line and within the same exact offensive framework you are. Why are they outperforming you Jamal? Only you can answer that. "

[RAVENOUS52]

I still beleive Jamal has something left in the tank but the fact is our O-line's ability to effectively run-block declined greatly after we let Zeus go...(something that had to happen)

Jamal has always shuffled his feet before hitting the hole, it's just that now he can't afford to at all because the run blocking isn't as dominant as it once was...

I say give him the rock 25-30 times against Carolina and settle the debate once and for all.

[PARavensJeff]

Jamal's contract is a 3 year/$26MM deal, but it is really a 1 year/$6MM deal & if the Ravens cut him loose after the season, there will be no cap ramifications for the last 2 years of the contract.

[sandiegosean]

Just to let everyone know that JO was on MASN Thursday and talked about the Jamal situation. He said that he thought Jamal was the best back for the team and that he needed more carries, not less. A caller chimed in about the runs that Anderson broke off and JO said it wasn't a fair comparsion. He said that when Mike broke ten yards on the draw that the safetys were sitting back. He said when they ran the same draw to Jamal, that Lynch cheated up and met him in the hole. He said that defenses still respected Jamal more and they key on stopping him when he's in the game.
Naturally the question was asked , why not put the other two in then, and he said they would obviously key the run more if they were full time players. Dont shot the messenger, just reporting what JO said. He also said Mason was not singleing out one player or one coach, just frustrated at why there not doing better.

[ExiledRaven]

What JO is actually saying:

"I think Jamal is the best runner we have...BUT other teams know that when Jamal is in the game we are going to run, so then they cheat up in the box."

So then that makes Jamal NOT the best runner. If they see MA and or MS they don't cheat up...why? we pass as much as run with either of them and both can catch screen passes as opposed to Jamal.

The pure runner is dead in the NFL.

"Key the run more if they were full time players." ~ PLEASE. That is all sorts of lame. People have seen us run with musa smith and mike anderson often as not when they're in the game. It's just not "jamal inside left tackle for 1 yard".

I think it boils down to Jamal might be able to do well somewhere else, but I think in the offense we have with the players on the table right now, he's not fitting into the system at all, while the other two backs are very productive.

[sandiegosean]

Jamal has caught 176 balls in his career including 43 in one season. If Mike or Musa were the starters they would see the same defense Jamal is now seeing because of our quarterbacks and receivers limited downfield capabilities. I have no problem with starting the other two, I just don't think it's as much of Jamal's fault as some think.

[ExiledRaven]

I'm not saying he never catches passes, I'm saying he's darn bad at it.

Watch the game.

43 balls isn't bad, but I won't how many of them were forward pitches or swing passes...better than I remembered though.

Point is, with Jamal in the game, the offense can't keep the defense honest. Perhaps that's no one's fault, but it's the truth.