The Ravens have learned the NFL should stand for “Not For Long.”
In an era where teams must deal with the salary cap and free agency, it’s growing quite common for struggling franchises to reach the league’s pinnacle with out having to endure a long rebuilding process.
Consider: The year before the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV, they didn’t even have a winning record. The St. Louis Rams hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl XXXIV, a season after they won just four games. And the New England Patriots won Super Bowls in 2002 and 2004 after they weren’t even good enough to make the playoffs the previous season.
In 2006, first-year coach Sean Payton guided New Orleans to the NFC Championship game a year after the team went 3-13. In 2004, the Chargers went 12-4 and won the AFC West after going a league-worst 4-12 the previous year.
In each of the past 12 seasons, at least five of the 12 teams to make the playoffs missed the postseason the previous year. It proves that in a parity-filled league, often times a few key personnel moves and staying healthy is all a team needs to join the league’s elite.
Just ask the Ravens. Three times — in 2000, 2003 and 2006 — the Ravens made the playoffs after failing to qualify a year earlier.
Last season, the team failed to repeat as AFC North Division champion largely because its starters were sidelined a whopping 77 games with injuries, including 56 by players who had made the Pro Bowl. When the team went 13-3 in 2006, players missed just 24 games, including just four by Pro Bowl players.
“It was a combination of a lot of things,” tight end Todd Heap, who missed 10 games last season after not missing one in 2006, said. “You can’t pin it on one thing. When we went from 13-3 to 5-11 in one year there were a lot of factors that went into that, with injuries being one of them. The bottom line is you can’t make excuses about any of them. You have to take what happens as it comes. We know what it takes and we have the guys in this room to get it done.”
But will they? The Ravens claim they’ll be able to make last season’s debacle a distant memory. But with a schedule loaded with playoff contenders Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Dallas and the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, it will take a lot more than positive thinking to win games. If the Ravens are to rebuild quickly, this is the way it can be done.
Establish an identity
Maybe Trent Dilfer knows best.
He quarterbacked the Ravens to their only Super Bowl title by managing the offense and letting a talent-laden defense take care of the rest — the same formula the team must use this year.
“In certain cities, football teams take on a certain identity,” he said. “For the Ravens and Baltimore, that identity is a fast, aggressive defense. The Ravens don’t have to try to be something they’re not. If they just develop an offense that can manage a game, and continue to come up with big plays on defense and special teams, they will contend.”
The Ravens’ defense completely overshadowed an offense that struggled immensely at times last year. The Ravens had the sixth-ranked defense (301.6 yards per game) last season — even without the services of cornerbacks Chris McAlister (knee) and Samari Rolle (epilepsy) for a combined 18 games.
The Ravens still have an intimidating defensive core, including Pro Bowl linebackers Ray Lewis, Bart Scott and Terrell Suggs. The team also added cornerbacks Fabian Washington (Oakland Raiders) and Frank Walker (Green Bay Packers) to provide depth in the secondary, which may be without Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed, who could miss considerable time with a nerve impingement in his neck and shoulder.
“With a defense like that, the Ravens are not a team that I would consider to be rebuilding,” Dilfer said. “But they are still an awfully unbalanced team.”
‘Game of inches’
Maybe receiver Derrick Mason knows best.
The Ravens’ leading receiver had 103 passes — fourth-most in the league — for 1,087 yards and five touchdowns in an offense that at times was downright offensive — again.
In each of the past 10 seasons, the Ravens’ offense has failed to rank higher than 14th in total offense, as the team finished 22nd out of 32 teams in total offense with 302 yards per game. The team had trouble scoring, too. The Ravens averaged 17.2 points per game — 24th in the league — which was a major reason why Coach John Harbaugh hired Cam Cameron, who developed the San Diego Chargers into one of the league’s highest-scoring teams from 2002-2006.
“[Harbaugh] is getting this offense going the way it should be with the type of skill players we have, while also helping the defense remain dominant,” Mason said.
Cameron already has overhauled the playbook: Good-bye to predictable runs up the middle and pitch plays; hello to screen passes and roll-out plays to give quarterbacks the option of running instead of forcing a ball into double-coverage.
“It’s a game of inches,” receiver Mark Clayton said. “One play can change entire complexion of a game. We know that and understand that. We have to try to be as detailed as we can so when we get on the field we can execute.”
‘Ready for a change’
Maybe Ravens’ owner Steve Bisciotti knows best.
It’s been seven years since the Ravens last won a playoff game, a dubious distinction shared by just nine other teams.
“I think that these guys are ready for a change,” he said. “I think that they’re going to be dedicated to John’s vision. I think John’s a good communicator of his vision.”
And Harbaugh’s vision is staring at rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, who the team took with the 18th pick in April’s draft with the hopes of stabilizing the most important position on the field. Since the Ravens arrived in Baltimore in 1996, the team has started 15 quarterbacks.
Throughout training camp, veterans Kyle Boller and Troy Smith outplayed Flacco, but Flacco was the last man standing because Boller suffered a season-ending shoulder injury and Smith spent part of last week hospitalized at Union Memorial with a tonsil-related virus.
In the NFL, it’s generally not a good idea to start a rookie quarterback. Boller started as a rookie in 2003, and in the past 10 years, fewer than 20 percent of rookie starters have posted winning records.
“We’re not in an ideal situation, but we’re not an ideal team right now,” Mason said. “We’re a very young team, a team coming off a 5-11 season. Our tackle (Jonathan Ogden) retired and our starting quarterback (Steve McNair) retired, all in one year. And we have a new coaching staff. So we’re not a typical team right now.”
Ravens Turnaround?
Can the Ravens go from cellar to penthouse? Well, they would not be the first team in the previous five seasons to win a division a year after coming in last place. Here are nine teams who the Ravens will try to emulate this fall:
TEAM YEAR RECORD PREVIOUS YEAR RECORD
Tampa Bay 2007 9-7 4-12
Philadelphia 2006 10-6 6-10
New Orleans 2006 10-6 3-13
Chicago 2005 11-5 5-11
Tampa Bay 2005 11-5 5-11
San Diego 2004 12-4 4-12
Atlanta 2004 11-5 5-11
Kansas City 2003 13-3 8-8
Carolina 2003 11-5 7-9
