Football Fan Lesson #815: You should never be outraged by anything Jason Whitlock writes. He intends to outrage fans. It’s all done on purpose.
With that said, here’s what Whitlock wrote about the Harbaugh brothers coaching philosophy with their quarterback/running back duos of Joe Flacco/Ray Rice and Alex Smith/Frank Gore in his latest column.
John Harbaugh wants to prove he’s an offense-friendly head coach. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for his insistence on preferring Joe Flacco over Ray Rice. We keep repeating the same story in Baltimore. Ray Rice doesn’t run the ball enough and Joe Flacco throws it too much.
Do John and Jim Harbaugh talk to each other? Jim has a mediocre quarterback he protects with Frank Gore and a running game. John has a mediocre quarterback he exposes by abandoning his running game.
John, call Jim for advice.
There’s a flaw in Whitlock’s philosophy here though, — shocking I know — he implies that John Harbaugh has control over the Baltimore Ravens offense. The beauty of the position that Baltimore’s Harbs brother has put himself in, is that his coordinators are his scapegoats.
Fans never blame the Ravens suddenly old and slow defense on head coach John Harbaugh. That’s Dean Pees’ fault. And why would the play calling be blamed on Harbaugh? Cam Cameron should take the fall for that, right?
At what point is the head coach blamed for the issues of the team? If the answer is “never”, then I ask you this: What would you say, you do here?
Flacco is above average but not elite,,,,,,,,,,the Ravens could win a super bowl with him but the surrounding players must change along with the coaching staff,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,as MGW suggested , the window for this group has closed , the solid veterans are slowly leaving this once great defense with no replacements in sight,,,,,,,,,,,,,,it will be some time before the window opens again , this coaching staff will never see a new window,,,,,,,,,,,,time to blow it up…………..
This strictly a coaching problem. Playcalling has been erratic all season. Ive watched games where Ray rice would run on first down and gain 6yds run on 2nd and gain 2yds and with 3rd and two they would attempt to throw the ball, now who is calling these hair brain plays…..give us a break
Clearly in a number of games this season ray rice was gaining nice yardage and out of no where they would stop running and flacco would throw two or three consecutive failed pass attempts. My question is how do you abandon that which is working to proceed with that which clearly is not working. One thing is certain that immediately you can tell if flacco is off but they CONTINUE to let him force it when clearly you see it in his eyes and feet that he’s off.
spy, 2488, and I have said this all along and got “poo-pooed”…Harbs is out of his league. He’s a “community organizer” who fell into a fabulous position. A national writer just said that this past pre-season.
Given the talent that Harbaugh inherited – and they were a 13-3 team just a season removed from when he was hired – he has underachieved by not getting this team to a Super Bowl. Their 5-11 season, the year before he was hired, was checkered with injuries – look it up.
His deficiencies were hidden by a star-studded defense that got his teams into the playoffs due in little part to their coaching staff. They’ve won one division title under him and been a 5th or 6th seed the other years. It’s now plain for all to see.
Combine all of this with the big money contracts that have gone to Ngata, Suggs, Rice, and Webb and you have a “star system” where things like the offensive and defensive lines – a team’s bread and butter – now are suffering.
There IS a salary cap in football and you can’t throw big money at a few guys and leave the guys in the trenches the crumbs. Well, you can do that, but it leads to mediocre football.
The gig is up Johnny Boy…now you have to “coach ’em up” as spy might say.
Aint gonna happen, he’s overmatched.
Amen……………….
Here’s a chance for Harbaugh to show what he’s made of….sugar and spice and everything nice…