Quote Originally Posted by somedumbguy View Post
Opinion #1: Harbaugh inherited a team that expected to make the playoffs and contend for the division because that is where Billick had set the bar. Billick took a franchise that was a joke and stuck in irrelevance and gave it an identity and a winning attitude. Billick handled the Ray Lewis Atlanta situation perfectly and turned a potential disaster into a championship season. When Billick left it was time for him to go, but I will always be grateful for what he brought to the Ravens and to Baltimore.
I'm with you in appreciating Billick. I thought it was time for him to go, but I don't harbour any ill will (except for the home playoff loss to the Irsays). He brought us a Lombardi Trophy and turned a basement-dweller into a team fans can reasonably expect to see the playoffs more years than not.

Harbaugh, however, didn't take over a team with playoff expectations. They were coming off a 5-11 season. The core of the team was older. There were reasonable questions as to whether or not Ozzie needed to blow the team up and rebuild. In one year Harbaugh was able to get the team back under control and listening to the coaching staff, and we made a remarkable run with a rookie QB to the AFC Championship Game.

He's a good head coach. He's a good head coach in large part, in my opinion, because he wasn't an offensive or defensive coordinator and doesn't try to take control of either side of the ball. Mattison gets criticized too much, imo, because the critics rarely consider the skills and playing level of the personnel he had, but we remained one of the top defenses in the league during his tenure as DC. Cameron, while I agree with a lot of the criticisms, has overall done a lot with what was available to him. We didn't make the playoffs the last three years in spite of Cameron. He spent the first two seasons adapting his offense to protect Flacco and help him manage the games. Last year they tried to run a ball control offense while giving Flacco more weapons. This year they're making the switch to a more dynamic, aggressive offense. They're doing that with only two members of the receiving corps who had more than a handful of catches in the NFL coming into the season (Boldin and Rice). If Sunday indicates a change of heart (or at least an epiphany) from Cameron, we should see a greater commitment to running the ball to compliment the deep threat. I think, though perhaps that's more hope, that we will.