Billick vs Harbaugh, Billick edition: Taking a look at Billick’s tenure as Ravens Head Coach

In my post following the Ravens win over the Steelers, I was critical of the Ravens coaching staff for a variety of issues, including poor schemes, personnel decisions, and clock management.

Throughout the year, there have been some questionable coaching and personnel decisions, and I have no problem calling out the coaches when appropriate, and I felt that following the Steelers game was an appropriate time to highlight shortcomings that were emphasized in the Steelers game, but that have been evident all year.

Having said this, all in all, I feel that the Ravens have a solid coaching staff, and I feel that Harbaugh is a solid head coach at this point in time.

This coaching talk has driven me to take a look at the past and present head coaches of the Ravens: Brian Billick and John Harbaugh. In this blog, I will focus my attention on Billick and his entire tenure in Baltimore, and my next will focus on Harbaugh.

 I was and still am a very big Brian Billick supporter, and I was against his firing.

Here is a look at Billick’s record by year with the Ravens.

1999: 8-8
2000: 12-4, Super Bowl
2001: 10-6, Divisional round of payoffs
2002: 7-9
2003: 10-6,Wild Card round
2004: 9-7
2005: 6-10
2006: 13-3, Divisonal round
2007: 5-11

Record: 80-64

Arguments against Billick debunked

I feel that Billick was fairly labeled an offensive genius, but unfairly judged based on his offensive performance because of that label. During Billick’s years, the Ravens had numerous pro-bowlers on defense, and the majority of the salary cap was taken up by the defense. Billick also had a Hall of Fame kicker in Matt Stover. Brian had numerous shortcomings on offense simply because he had a shortcoming of talent on offense. While he had Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Peter Boulware, Terrell Suggs, Adalius Thomas, and numerous other defensive standouts, he was forced to go to battle with the likes of Jeff Blake, Kyle Boller, an aging Steve McNair, Anthony Wright, Trent Dilfer, and Tony Banks.

If Billick would have been caught up in his past offensive success, he would have tried to score 30 a game with his offenses. But Billick adapted, and many people do not realize this. Billick recognized that his best chance to win was by playing a defensive-minded, field position game, all while being very conservative on offense. This strategy won Billick a Super Bowl, how can it really be argued with?

Many people disagree with his decision to jettison a Super Bowl winning QB for Elvis Grbac. To those people, I ask you to consider this hypothetical. Say Joe Flacco was not here, and we went out and signed a younger Jeff Garcia. Say the Ravens rode Jeff Garcia and the defense to a 12-4 year and a Super Bowl, while Garcia managed the game similar to the way that Trent Dilfer managed the games during that Super Bowl run. In the offseason, Carson Palmer was a free agent, coming off a 4000 yard season. Would it be a poor move to sign Palmer?

I find it hard to believe that anyone would be against replacing Garcia with Palmer. People tend to forget that Grbac was coming off a Pro Bowl, 41oo+ yard season in Kansas City. It is not Billick’s fault that Jamal Lewis got hurt, and that Grbac was paired up with Terry Allen and Jason Brookins that season. It is not his fault that Grbac lost his passion and emotion for the game of football that season. Brian Billick and Ozzie Newsome made a personnel decision that many would make now, but of course, hindsight is 20/20.

The same fans that would be in favor of Palmer over Garcia, would likely be mocking the choice if Palmer fell off a cliff and retired a year later. Billick gets a bad rap for that move, and looking back, it was not only not a poor decision, but a good decision in my opinion.

Many people blame Billick for the drafting of Boller, for throwing him into the fire too early, and for Boller’s lack of development. First of all, Ozzie Newsome is the General Manager of this team, and while Billick certainly had a say in the drafting of Boller, it was a joint decision made by all of the decision makers of the team. Secondly, what choice did Billick have in starting Boller? He was in the middle of a decade run of dominance by his defense, and he needed a franchise quarterback to turn the Ravens into a dynasty. The sooner that Boller developed, the sooner that the Ravens would be better. Also, his other option at the time was Chris Redman. With apologizes to Chris, Boller may have actually been the best QB on the roster at that time.

Looking back, obviously, Boller was not the answer. But Boller had no talent around him other than Jamal Lewis and an oft-injured Todd Heap. They tried to get Owens, but it just didn’t work out. You can’t ask a guy to run a totally different system than he did in college, with mediocre to below average receivers and offensive line, and expect him to be successful. Can you fault Billick for these circumstances? I certainly can’t.

Later in this piece, I will talk about 2005 and 2007 and file those years under weaknesses of Billick. While in the end, a coach is judged on his record and nothing else, you cannot ignore the circumstances surrounding a season. Both of these years were years during which the Ravens performance fell well below expectations, and both represented low valleys which owner Steve Bisciotti is not a fan of.

However, there is no denying that the expectations at the beginning of those respective years should have been amended as the seasons unfolded. Kyle Boller was starting his 3rd year in 2005 and there was optimism surrounding his potential improvement. On Opening Night against the Colts, Boller was hurt, and Anthony Wright was inserted and played for several more weeks. Todd Heap, Jon Ogden, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Jamal Lewis all missed significant time in 2005. Many look at this injury argument as an excuse. I look at it as a realistic fact.

In 2007, there was optimism that virtually the same team that went 13-3 in 2006 was coming back, with a more versatile Willis McGahee replacing a quickly aging Jamal Lewis. However, it was evident from the first game that QB Steve McNair was out of shape and falling off a very, very steep cliff. By the middle of the season, Kyle Boller was starting, and Billick was missing both of his starting cornerbacks in Chris Mcalister and Samari Rolle. Ogden was hurt again, and the Ravens went from 4-2 to 4-11. Again, are injuries a convenient excuse, or a reality that no coach could have overcome?

Here are some positives that I feel Brian Billick brought to the table.

1) Great coaching tree – Jack Del Rio, Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan, Rex Ryan, Mike Singletary, and Mike Smith are all past or present head coaches in the NFL that all developed under Brian Billick. The ability to recognize top coaching talent, and to be able to attract that coaching talent, is a huge positive for an NFL head coach.

2) Overall record – Billick’s overall record was 80-64. Billick had five winning seasons, one 8-8 season, and three losing seasons. It is worth noting that one of the losing seasons was in 2002 when Billick had one of the youngest rosters in NFL history, and that season is widely regarded as one of Billick’s best coaching jobs, so it is hard to count that season against Billick.

3) Holding onto leads and close games – Brian Billick was great at closing out games when he had a lead, as well as winning the close ones. This is largely due to his conservative, defensive-minded strategy with the Ravens, that he interestingly enough was so often criticized for.

4) Bringing in talent regardless of the players’ off the field reputations: Billick is a fun, competitive coach with a swagger. He had no problem bringing in a Deion Sanders, tolerating a Chris Mcalister, or trying to trade for a Terrell Owens. Brian wanted talent on the team, and he was confident that he was a strong enough coach and later to be able to manage the egos and steer everyone towards one common goal. For the most part during Billick’s tenure, he did just that.

Weaknesses of Billick

1) Winning playoff games after the Super Bowl: After winning the Super Bowl, Billick got back to the playoffs in 2001, 2003, and 2006. In 2001, the Ravens beat the Dolphins in the Wild Card round before losing to Pittsburgh in the second round. In 2003, the Ravens lost at home to the Tennessee Titans in the first round, and in 2006, the Ravens lost their first game after their first round BYE against the archrival Indianapolis Colts. In that game, the Ravens defense held Peyton Manning and his vaunted offense to 15 points, yet still could not get the win as they lost 10-6. In 7 years after winning the Super Bowl, Billick only managed one playoff years, during a run of high-expectation years.

2) Keeping the bottom from falling out. In 2005 and 2007, the Ravens faced many injury questions. Ultimately, both of those seasons spiraled out of control, and I feel that this contributed to his firing. Steve Bisciotti talked about resembling organizations like the Steelers and Patriots. Bisciotti alluded to the fact that those teams may not go deep into the playoffs every year, but that their valleys are not very low valleys. A poor year for the Patriots may be 9-7, yet for the Ravens under Billick, a poor year was 5-11 and 6-10. Bisciotti talked about wanting to stay consistent and not have such low valleys, and I feel that this was a main reason for the firing of Billick.

3) Having let-downs over the course of the season, playing down to competition at times. This is what I feel is the most positive change going from Billick to Harbaugh. At times, especially on the road, the Ravens would play down to their competition and would lose games that they shouldn’t. At no point in Harbaugh’s two seasons have the Ravens lost a game to a team that was clearly inferior to them.

Here are quotes from owner Steve Bisciotti after firing Billick.

I believed that it was time for a change, I believed that we have the nucleus of a team that can get back to the Super Bowl, and we felt that in the next five years we had a better chance with a new coach than leaving Brian in that position.

We believe that we will be better with fresh blood or we wouldn’t have made this decision

Jon Ogden also made reference to the need for a change.

Sometimes the message can get repetitive after a while

It is obvious that Bisciotti felt that the Ravens could get to the Super Bowl with Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Trevor Pryce, Derrick Mason, and a few other aging players. He thought that Billick had lost the respect of many players, and that he could not unite them once again with a common goal in mind after having 2 terrible seasons in the past 3. Bisciotti polled many employees in the organization, and many felt that Billick had “lost the locker-room.”

I feel that this contributed to Billick’s firing, along with Bisciotti wanting to be more consistent and avoid the low peaks, as well as Bisciotti’s desire to find an up and comer that he was linked to as being his own hire. Bisciotti likes the underdog, and Harbaugh certainly was one as a candidate for the Ravens job.

I respect Bisciotti’s decision, but I can’t help but think that it was a decision made on a whim. Bisciotti admitted as much, saying that he changed his mind about retaining Billick before kickoff of the final game of 2007. Bisciotti informed Billick of his decision the next day.

Jon Ogden who was so tired of Billick’s message was so happy about the coaching change that he retired before ever playing a game for Harbuagh. Ray Lewis was undoubtedly one of the players in favor of a change, and he almost left for the Jets or Dallas following 2008.

Was it necessary? Was it the right move? I’m not sure these questions can be answered. These players focused under Harbaugh in 2008, but they also focused for Billick in 2006 after a horrible 2005. With a legitimate QB in Joe Flacco, what could Billick have done? What would Billick have done with 3 top offensive draft picks in Joe Flacco, Ray Rice, and Michael Oher? We will never know the answer to these questions.

Billick is a proven winner, and I feel that Bisciotti is more likely to be wrong than right with this choice, simply because the very great majority of coaches are not as successful as Billick was during his tenure. This is more of a credit to Billick, than a knock on John Harbaugh, Billick’s replacement, who I will take an in-depth look at in my next Ravens piece.

This has been a collection of thoughts about Billick; thoughts that relate to so many criticisms and issues that still make their way across the airwaves even as Baltimore is 2 seasons past Brian Billick.

In conclusion, I will say that prior to Billick coming to Baltimore,  the city of Baltimore was simply happy to have a team. Baltimore sports fans were on a high from getting a team back and for getting their football team back after it was so suddenly taken from them, and success was not really emphasized yet. From the beginning of Billick’s tenure, the city went from being happy to having a team, to expecting and demanding success, and these expectations have not wavered. Brian Billick brought winning football back to this city, and brought a Super Bowl to Baltimore. Billick brought swagger and pride back to the city, and that should never, ever be forgotten.

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