FadeToBlack
10-16-2006, 03:33 PM
It wasn't Rolle's coverage or Reed's coverage, or how "lucky" our offense was or anything like that. Those might be important details to note, but there is something more important than that.
There is only one thing from yesterday's game that should dominate your mind right now. There is only one thing that was completely and utterly inexcusable. I can respect Rolle getting burned or being outplayed, he's an athlete and that will happen. I can respect the way Ed Reed plays his position and I realize the risks and the rewards that come with that style of play. And I understand Boller had some good bounces here and there that, without them, we wouldn't have had the luxury to make a comeback in the first place. And I also realize we were outplayed and probably deserved to lose, and we got what we deserved. But those things didn't land the knockout blow to our Ravens yesterday.
Right now, the mismanagement of the clock is the biggest, the most important, the end-all, be-all Issue of All Issues in the Universe of Ravendom. This drove the proverbial nail in our coffin, in a game that I feel very, very, very confidently we had a legitimate chance to win. If you saw the Seattle game in '03, you know what I mean.
This wasn't a blown assignment or being outplayed, this was quite simply an embarrassing and pathetic *lapse in awareness and concentration* that was just as devastating as any player, coach or scheme that the entire Carolina Panthers organization had to offer yesterday. We basically handed away a perfectly legitimate shot at victory...for absolutely nothing in return. Not only is that insulting, but given how hard it is for teams to win in the NFL when the other team is trying to throw roadblocks at you, can you imagine how hard it must be when you're doing the same to yourself on top of that? It's practically impossible.
I don't care who is technically "responsible" for calling one of our THREE timeouts inside of 2 minutes to play, or who was delegated that responsibility, but I do know that if I were the head coach of this team, I would recognize that if the team doesn't use its timeouts, it is going to put me in serious jeopardy and under some serious scrutiny. If I'm the head coach, I would recognize that there is no way as an employee of the team that I can afford to have this type of mistake made. It's way too risky.
In other words, Brian Billick was asleep at the wheel while the train was crossing the tracks, and he KNEW the train was going to come. That is absurd and goes far beyond anything I can fault Rolle or Reed for, IMO.
There is only one thing from yesterday's game that should dominate your mind right now. There is only one thing that was completely and utterly inexcusable. I can respect Rolle getting burned or being outplayed, he's an athlete and that will happen. I can respect the way Ed Reed plays his position and I realize the risks and the rewards that come with that style of play. And I understand Boller had some good bounces here and there that, without them, we wouldn't have had the luxury to make a comeback in the first place. And I also realize we were outplayed and probably deserved to lose, and we got what we deserved. But those things didn't land the knockout blow to our Ravens yesterday.
Right now, the mismanagement of the clock is the biggest, the most important, the end-all, be-all Issue of All Issues in the Universe of Ravendom. This drove the proverbial nail in our coffin, in a game that I feel very, very, very confidently we had a legitimate chance to win. If you saw the Seattle game in '03, you know what I mean.
This wasn't a blown assignment or being outplayed, this was quite simply an embarrassing and pathetic *lapse in awareness and concentration* that was just as devastating as any player, coach or scheme that the entire Carolina Panthers organization had to offer yesterday. We basically handed away a perfectly legitimate shot at victory...for absolutely nothing in return. Not only is that insulting, but given how hard it is for teams to win in the NFL when the other team is trying to throw roadblocks at you, can you imagine how hard it must be when you're doing the same to yourself on top of that? It's practically impossible.
I don't care who is technically "responsible" for calling one of our THREE timeouts inside of 2 minutes to play, or who was delegated that responsibility, but I do know that if I were the head coach of this team, I would recognize that if the team doesn't use its timeouts, it is going to put me in serious jeopardy and under some serious scrutiny. If I'm the head coach, I would recognize that there is no way as an employee of the team that I can afford to have this type of mistake made. It's way too risky.
In other words, Brian Billick was asleep at the wheel while the train was crossing the tracks, and he KNEW the train was going to come. That is absurd and goes far beyond anything I can fault Rolle or Reed for, IMO.