Good stuff from Greg Cosell on Cam after his dismissal

Exactly. Which is why I think they timed the move when they did. Kept Cam around long enough to get a playoff spot, but dumped him as soon as possible afterward to give Joe and Jim time to adjust to each other and a new offensive approach.

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Originally Posted by PerpetuallyBored74

A gameplan which reportedly was devised by Caldwell?

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Where was that reported?

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Originally Posted by Dade

Where was that reported?

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It wasn't.

I meant to put "rumored to have been" -- it was posted on that Orioles board whose link was posted somewhere here. (went back and fixed it now)

There is this article in the Sun which seems to lend some credence to that rumor though: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/r...,5748690.story

Remember 6 months ago when a couple of us here were talking about Greg Cossell's observations about Cam's offense?



Yea, I do.


The guy knows what he is talking about.

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Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Remember 6 months ago when a couple of us here were talking about Greg Cossell's observations about Cam's offense?



Yea, I do.


The guy knows what he is talking about.

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I remember. And he was spot on.

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Originally Posted by Dade

I remember. And he was spot on.

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+1

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Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Remember 6 months ago when a couple of us here were talking about Greg Cossell's observations about Cam's offense?

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I recall Cossell talking about the predictability of Cam's offense last year, and he was right then too. He's really very insightful, don't know why we don't hear from him more often.

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Originally Posted by ActualSpamBot

This thread is as good as any to summarize my thoughts on Cam. I think Cossell would concur with them.

1. Cam is not a bad OC. Before you grab your torches and pitchforks let me explain. Cam is the OC equivalent of training wheels. When Joe was making the adjustment to the NFL, Cam provided a safe, easily digested playbook that maximized on Joe's ability to sling the ball to the sidelines and protected him with a stout run game. For Joe, this meant that while he wasn't going to put up huge numbers, he also was unlikely to fail spectacularly and flame out. When you consider Cam in that light, he is a great first coordinator. He gets your QB into the game, protects him from early mistakes, while still putting your team in a position to win. I don't think it's a coincidence that Brees, Rivers, and Joe all looked pretty good under Cam, and then two of them looked pretty great after he left.

2. Just like training wheels eventually they stop being useful and become a hindrance, Cam's inability to up the complexity of his scheme means Joe isn't allowed to grow. He's stuck with training wheels long after he grows out of them. When he should be learning to pop wheelies and jump off a ramp, he's stuck on his little four wheeled Huffy. And then when the game situation demands he makes a huge jump, he can sometimes do it spite of his training wheels, but other times he comes up short.

Cam was an integral part of our getting to our first AFC championship game. He was a stabilizing force that kept our team in position to win as long as the D could play at a top level and keep us within a score or two. But now we need to move on. The training wheels need to come off. The bike needs to get bigger. And we need to be going a lot faster.

Hopefully we can do it. But don't be surprised if we fall down a couple times while Joe gets used to his new bike.

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See, I think that Cam was just along for the ride. If we hadn't had that top-level defense, Cam would have been exposed long ago. If we could have gotten something more from him and the offense, we may have been in 2 super bowls in 4 years.

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Originally Posted by highwater

I recall Cossell talking about the predictability of Cam's offense last year, and he was right then too. He's really very insightful, don't know why we don't hear from him more often.

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Yep Cossell was talking about the Ravens offense after the Texans game in the playoffs last year I believe.

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Originally Posted by Paintballguy

Yep Cossell was talking about the Ravens offense after the Texans game in the playoffs last year I believe.

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Yes he did, but I believe I heard him even earlier on some radio show during the regular season in which he basically said that the Raven's passing game was so predicitable that every defense knew what was coming. And it wasn't just random criticism, he almost seemed astonished at how obvious our passing routes were.

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Originally Posted by highwater

Yes he did, but I believe I heard him even earlier on some radio show during the regular season in which he basically said that the Raven's passing game was so predicitable that every defense knew what was coming. And it wasn't just random criticism, he almost seemed astonished at how obvious our passing routes were.

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Originally Posted by Paintballguy

Yep Cossell was talking about the Ravens offense after the Texans game in the playoffs last year I believe.

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Originally Posted by highwater

I recall Cossell talking about the predictability of Cam's offense last year, and he was right then too. He's really very insightful, don't know why we don't hear from him more often.

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Originally Posted by Dade

I remember. And he was spot on.

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He is spot on. He's always been spot on.

He is a film analyst, just like Filmstudy, but he doesn't have any bias towards any particular team, system, or player.

He is also the one who said that Bryant McKinnie was one of the most frustrating players he had ever watched because of how much natural talent he has and how little effort he puts into the game. Yet, there are still those who think that Cossell is way off base there. Doesn't seem to be though considering McKinnie can't (or won't) even beat out Oher.

I just find it funny that there were several of us seeing all of these issues with Cam's offense, talking about it, getting railed for it because it was "the players not executing" or "Joe Flacco sucks" or "Michael Oher sucks". Several of us fired back at those comments citing Greg Cossell's analysis. Still the same blind rhetoric.

I think a lot of folks don't realize how instrumental the offensive and defensive coordinator are to the success of a football team.

It is just funny to me that Greg Cossell "was right" only now that Cam has been fired, but prior to that it was definitely the players not executing.

For those who summarized, thank you. I am grateful for that.

Hmm... While reading those summaries, I wonder about Flacco's internal clock. I thought one of the posters mentioned this, Flacco's "faulty" internal clock may be the result of the scheme. It is difficult to develop an internal clock when 1) the defense knows what you will do and 2) every receivers running vertically for 10+ yards (which was the case on a third down play in the overtime loss). On top of that, the WRs have been taught to "run off" their routes, so it is difficult to know exactly where they will be. I think this is probably why Flacco was able to connect better to Pitta, Boldin and Mason.

My concern is Flacco's internal clock. Can it be salvaged? Will those "bad habits" sink in by now? I think that is the key for Flacco to elevate his game to the next level, IMO.