Quote Originally Posted by Beau Petard View Post
T-82--
Not trying to defend Cameron here, but I had a flashback as I read your comment, "Playing scared does not bring championships". I think a case could be made that the Ravens did something along that line with Dilfer at QB a dozen years ago, and a Super Bowl was won. Obviously the Defense that season was an anomaly, and special teams didn't seem to miss abeat, so I "pre-agree" ;) that it's not a simple situation to explain, but OTOH, one could say that the Ravens 2000-2001 offense played "scared", AND won a championship.
Completely agree. And this could be why we are still trying to replicate that magical year.

It seemed Billick did that to a fault, almost as if he thought that an improvement on our offense would decrease our chances of winning a SB because it would make us look less like the team that won it. Especially when you consider the way the Grbac attempted-upgrade was jinxed by injury and/or karma and failed. From that point on it was almost as if we preferred to game-manage our way along trying to get Dilferesque performances from Boller, et al.

I think, in general, the "play it safe" thing is an NFL tradition, and it shows up with all sorts of strategic decisions from going for it on 4th down to playing prevent defense, etc. The better-coached teams are quicker to abandon the "old" ways of doing things when they are proven to inferior or obsolete. Such is the case with passing offenses or offenses in general. Limiting interceptions is important, but gone are the days when a no-interception-but-limited-production type of passing game can win almost every game.