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  1. #1
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    Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    OK, I'm ready to get flamed.


    But honestly, this Fassel move was stupid. Again, we're letting the inmates run the assylum.


    In my honest opinion, players were pissed with fassel because he wasn't taking their silly inputs into account.


    IMHO, Mason probably wanted the playbook opened up WAY before Boller came in for McNair this week. And then felt betrayed that, once Steve went down, we opened it up.


    Why wouldn't Fassel listen to Mason? or Jamal?


    Because he knows what the deal is. Jamal isn't the Jamal of 2003. Get over it. And McNair's arm is dead. he's not the McNair of 2003 that beat us in the playoffs.


    If we open it up with McNair, watch the INT show begin. Meltdown city.


    McNair doesn't know the playbook well enough to start audibling or even just to make the throws. He throws to ghost recievers or behind or over his man a this point.


    Fassel wasn't going to listen to the inmates about opening the offense up with a dead arm leading it, or about giving Jamal 30 carries a game when he's gaining 2 yards a carry.



    Jamal had big gains last week because, gasp, fassel called lots of play action to set up the run. Seems like a good adjustment to me. But, because our defense couldnt' stop smith, we had to start explosively trying to score points.



    This move of firing fassel wreaks.



    Billick is letting the players decide who coaches, and who doesn't.


    Actually I take that back, because really this just serves Billick's interests anyway. Fassel had become a threat to his power or lackthereof.


    At this point, I see this team losing to a better New Orleans team and McNair throwing a few INTs and the offense continuing to be abysmal.


    Billick has 2 choices in his playcalling: turtle up and run the ball 30 times to satisfy inmate #1 (Jamal Lewis)


    OR Open it up and let McNair's dead arm probably stink it up to satisfy inmate #2 (D Mason)




    Unfortunately, I think the meltdown is comign for this team. Unless somehow we blow out New Orleans and show ourselves to be as good as we hyped ourselves to be.



    McNair hasn't shown anything besides 3 quarters of football (1st quarter, Bucs, 4th quarter, Chargers and Browns) Thats not what you spend 11 million on a veteran QB for.



    I honestly think Fassel was at a moment of zen where he knew McNair's arm is done, and was calling the best game he could to mask the weaknesses. And now he gets the axe and gets scapegoated.



    I'm interested in seeing how it goes from here, but I'm pretty pessimistic about it, unless Jamal and Steve suddenly get the cream and the clear.





  2. #2
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    I agree almost totally, the only thing I desagree with is I don't think this was Billick's decision I think it was Bisciotti. He is the one who listens to everything the players are whining about. As I said in another thread this is just SB tightening the noose around Billick's neck. Initially I didn't think BIllick would be fired during the season but now I do. Unless this team stops whining and starts playing Billick will be gone long before the season officially ends. My only hope is he's not replaced by Rex Ryan.





  3. #3
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    Unfortunately, I think the meltdown is comign for this team. Unless somehow we blow out New Orleans and show ourselves to be as good as we hyped ourselves to be.
    We don't have to blow out NO. We just need the offense to be efficient and unpredictable, and we need to win.

    And the fact that you refer to the offense as "hyped" means that it was overrated to begin with. And I can't disagree, because McNair simply hasn't played that well.


    WORLD CHAMPIONS 2000 * 2012





  4. #4
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    "Jim did not ever embrace the role of being an offensive coordinator in this league,'' the Ravens source said. "He still kind of thought of himself as a head-coach-in-waiting. Brian made it clear before he offered the job to him that it would entail taking a step back in his career for the time being, because there can only be one head coach on a team.

    "It's a lot of work being an offensive coordinator. It's not just dialing up the plays on game day. You've got to really get involved and be up to your neck in the details. And Jim struggled to really embrace that part of the job.''
    That is from Don Banks. It's all speculation of course, but if I was a player busting my ass all week long and I didn't think the coach was "investing" the proper amount of time and preparation to "put me in the best position to succeed", I would be pissed, too.

    That is not "the inmates running the asylum"...that is "be accountable and do your damn job like everybody else".

    I trust Billick in that he felt a drastic change was needed. Whether that results in a good outcome or your scenario remains to be seen.





  5. #5
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    Billick is letting the players decide who coaches, and who doesn't.
    I have resisted wanting to believe this, but it simply seems to be true. I think Fassel is the fall guy for Jamal and Mason airing out the laundry in public.

    The players seem to always get what they want on this team, no matter what it is.





  6. #6

    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    If McNair's arm is shot, how did he throw for 3,100 yards, 16 TDs and 11 INTs last season? Not HOF numbers, to be sure, but not too shabby considering what he had to work with in TEN, and rather implausible if his arm is "shot." He has better weapons here - he should be able to exceed that. Did his arm suddenly decide on its own it was shot sometime earlier this year?

    That doesn't make sense to me, so it leaves two possibilities: McNair really does need time to get into a rhythm with this offense, or the playcalling wasn't designed to play to his strengths. If part of this Fassell issue was the latter, then we'll soon have clarity on the real source of the problem, whichever it is.

    And while I agree that maybe Jamal is done, as is often the case after a rusher gets 2,000 yds in a season, Fassell was still wrong not to run the ball enough. Jamal's done? Fine - run Mike or Musa. We had a nearly 2-1 pass/run ratio in the first half on Sunday, when we were only down by 6. That's not a formula for success with this offense, no matter who the QB or RB is.

    As for Mason, don't you think his top priority is getting a ring? He's played with McNair, he's played with Boller. Mason is a straight shooter. If McNair had nothing left to offer anymore, Mason would realize that.

    You call Mason, Ogden, etc. - the "inmates" - I call them football veterans who know this team and know how to win from past experience. They're upset with the coaching and the playcalling - I tend to agree with them.





  7. #7
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    We don't even have to win in New Orleans. We just need to put up a good showing. Clearly Fassel was causing tensions in the locker room and lets be honest, it's not like he was doing a great job.

    "It's a lot of work being an offensive coordinator. It's not just dialing up the plays on game day. You've got to really get involved and be up to your neck in the details. And Jim struggled to really embrace that part of the job.''
    Interesting quote in that it reminded me of something I read years ago right when Jim got the job. It was a footnote or a small blurb from a chat, but it said that the defensive players were not happy that Fassel was promoted to OC. That the defense did not believe that he put in the same amount of preperation that they did. I guess it was true.





  8. #8
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    I don't know what Mason's suggestions were but Jamal has a beef. We abandoned the run immediately Sunday. The first 9-10 plays, 7 were passes except one draw on 3rd and 1000. We ran twice for 4, then 5 yards. Then didn't go back to it.

    Jamal Lewis shouldn't be talking in the press but he is right in that we haven't been running enough.





  9. #9
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    Clearly Fassel was causing tensions in the locker room and lets be honest, it's not like he was doing a great job
    I can understand that, but coaches coach and players play. At some point the players can start dictating who their coaches should be and if they need to be fired. Derrick Mason has every right to be upset, but no right to go on WBAL and throw Fassel under the bus in public. Same with Jamal. Every right to be upset, little right to air it in public. If anything, I think it is these kind of things that led to this.

    So when CBD said letting the inmates run things, that's not far off.





  10. #10
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    We have been predictably run for years maybe we were just trying to shake things up a bit for a change. I don't profess to know the answer but it's obvious we cannot please everybody.. Jamal wants to run all the time, Mason wants to pass all the time, Ray wants to just run everything all the time.. Bisciotti has really created a problem here.





  11. #11
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    Mason's comments didn't indicate he wants to open it up and throw all of the time. He said he made suggestions that weren't listened to, maybe he made suggestions regarding specific routes or how to set up DBs, etc. There is a lot of assumption making going on.





  12. #12
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    Aug 2006
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    Re: Team is headed for a meltdown after a loss to New Orleans

    Im ging to say it now,

    If we dont make the PO's or get KO'ed in the first round, Billick is gone.

    Wether it is right or wrong I think that will be the outcome.

    Steve B wants this team to change.
    "This year, our attitude when we’re on the field is we’re attacking, we want to put points on the board and then let our defense pin their ears back and have at it."
    -Mark Clayton





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