Just two weeks into the season Ravens fans have experience a full ranged of emotions in following their team. In the eyes of Baltimore fans the Ravens have gone for Super Bowl favorites to a team that could miss the playoffs with their week one pounding of the Steelers and by the Titans.
On Monday the Ravens returned to work determined the get a win against the Rams in St. Louis on week three. Their linebacker and week one defensive player of the week, Terrell Suggs, acknowledged the Ravens fans agitation in a tweet posted before Monday’s practice.
“That bandwagon has gotten a lot lighter,” Suggs tweeted. Now “we get to see who’s really wit[h] us!!!!”
Personally, I think it’s a little too early to jump off the bandwagon. We’re still in September. The Ravens will likely have higher highs and lower lows, but will hit their stride later in the season. I talked about that earlier when I wrote that I still expect this Ravens team to be a threat.
As a side note, Sizzle is a guest on Peter King’s podcast this week. We’ll post the link to the interview when it gets published.
And rightly so , this is an average team once again because Ozzie has not fixed the corner spots , the better q-backs will pick this secondary apart…….I guess he thought when he signed Foxworth , he fixed the corners……………he was wrong once again , but let’s give him a free pass……………
“spy” this .. http://www.google.com/imgres?q=thumbs+down&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=718&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=kxDXgIEGGTLdpM:&imgrefurl=http://fonziesays.blogspot.com/&docid=ryuLej4YIDs7cM&w=320&h=240&ei=Mq94TqnkNKXm0QGi6pDlCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&dur=26&page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=201&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0&tx=111&ty=146&vpx=984&vpy=196&hovh=192&hovw=256
Whats with the hieroglyphics ?
……….
You know the bandwagon issue is something I have thought about since I read this comment. It probably does not apply to the Ravens’ fans who are part of this blog’s ongoing dialogue but trust me, the hallmark of a great organization?..the legions of fans who stick with a team year after year, who sell out stadiums in other teams’cities, who sell more merchandise than other franchises, who don’t panic after one loss…Steelers, anyone?
Plus the fact the Steelers have a stand up coach,,,,,,,,,,,,will you trade him for Harbaugh , please,,,,,,,,,,,,I will clean your house for a month if you take Harbaugh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Ha, ha…got a guy who already does that (he made an impossible bet about some Atlanta team making it to the Super Bowl last year). However, depending on what happens this year..
The Ravens have been short changed at the Head Coach position since Harbaugh, aka “The Second Choice” was hired. The team has talent and has gotten by pretty well with him, but if you look at a game like Sunday, the Ravens were unprepared and outcoached. Normally Tomlin does it to Harbaugh too, but even a blind squirel finds a nut once in a while.
If Rex Ryan was coaching this team the last 3 years this team would have won a Super Bowl.
You don’t give a veteran team on the cusp of the Super Bowl to an “On-the-Job-Training” Head Coach like Harbaugh.
At least in these past 3 1/2 years Harbaugh is now raising his hands on the sideline as he engages the fans. At least for the Baltimore Sun that qualifies him as finally connecting with the fans.
Can’t wait as in 3 more years Harbaugh might spin a towel over his head… Actually no, I can wait, as hopefully Harbaugh is not in Baltimore in 3 years…
Oh and before anyone says that Rex Ryan would be doing “On-the-Job-Training” if he got the Ravens Head Coaching job I will have to disagree with you. Rex Ryan was learning on the job with Billick as he was the Defensive Coordinator and Billicks right hand man, not an obscure Special Teams Coach like Harbaugh.
And wasn’t it Bart Scott and agreed upon by other Raven players, that said that Rex Ryan was basically the Head Coach when he was the Defensive Coach under Harbaugh, as Harbaugh was clueless?
So much vitriol for a team that has made three consecutive playoff runs. Not “appearances,” but actual advancement when it matters most.
There is a very vocal segment of our fan base (if you can call them fans) that second guesses every single decision made by the ownership, GM, coaching staff and players, even down to individual play calls. This criticism is coming from people who usually, at best, have played high school football at some point in their lives. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but the weight of the opinion is what matters. Some of this is likely due to the 24/7 media era and the extensive reach of talk radio and blogs. Some of this is due to ignorance. Some of it can be blamed on the fact that some people consider anything less than a super bowl win a complete failure Fortunately, I firmly believe this is a minority, albeit a loud-mouthed minority, of fans here but I don’t have any studies to confirm this, obviously. Unfortunately, it can come across as “panic” to biased onlookers like island girl, who take such minor factors as reasons why Baltimore isn’t a great organization. These Baltimore “fans” referenced above have much more in common with Pittsburgh fans like island girl, who are carefully perusing opponent fan weblogs for reasons to confirm their dislike for our team.
I disagree that selling more merchandise somehow is proof of being a great organization, though I agree Pittsburgh is one. Winning over the long haul has gained a lot of bandwagon fans with no connection to Pittsburgh at all, much like Dallas, another top selling team. And selling out other teams stadiums? I’m assuming that was a incidental misstatement. Ill concede that Pitt fans travel well (as does a baltimore fanbase that is, in effect, just 14 years young) but that does not equal selling out opponents stadiums. I’d be happy to admit I’m wrong if there’s any evidence Pittsburgh ever sold out another team’s stadium.
I’m not going to bother addressing the Harbaugh comments other than to refer back to my initial statement. Haters will always “blame” his success on how good the team was when he took over. Somehow Rex Ryan avoids this standard altogether. His team stunk when he took over, right?
Uh, I believe the Jets combined record the two years before Rex took over was 13-19 and they hadn’t been to the playoffs in two years.
Carl, you are correct. Since Ryan has been the Jets Head Coach, their record (counting playoffs), is 24-14, and 2 AFC Championship appearances. He has done a great job with the Jets, and that Sunday Night Showdown on October 2nd, should be a classic.
And the ravens, in that same timespan, were 18-14, two years removed from a one and done playoff experience and just one year removed from a 5-11 season where they finished behind even the Browns and Bengals in the cellar of the AFC North. To say that that team was “on the cusp of a super bowl” is a stretch. It took the additions of Flacco and Rice- and just maybe Harbaugh and his staff- to get the team back into the playoffs and eventually to the AFC championship.
Look, I’m not saying Rex isn’t a good coach and couldnt have done good things here, just that to say Harbaugh isn’t doing an excellent job does not seem to be a reasonable conclusion based on the facts. And to be honest, if the Jets don’t go to the playoffs and Harbaugh takes the Ravens to the Super Bowl this season, that doesn’t take anything away form what Ryan has done. It just will vindicate a coach who has faced plenty of criticism, most of it unwarranted.
JMatthews – The Ravens won two Division Titles, a few other playoff apperance, an AFC Championship, and a Super Bowl in the 10 or so years leading up to the Harbaugh hiring. The team was in a state of flux that 5-11 season as the players had given up on Billick and his tired message. If anything, that 5-11 season was the aberation given all the pro bowl talent on the team. It wasn’t like when Billick took over the team and they had never had a winning season. Harbaugh took over a pretty damned good team.
I was using the same two year period preceding because that’s what you used in your example with Rex Ryan. The afc championship and super bowl were both the same year obviously, eight years before harbaughs hiring. I’m not contending the ravens stunk when Harbaugh took over, or even that hes the reason theyve had success the past three years but to say that he shouldn’t be given any credit is foolhardy. Likewise, saying Rex Ryan would have won a super bowl with this team by now is just so easy to say since it cant be proven or disproven. Hiring Ryan could have also had a polarizing effect of dividing the locker room between offense and defense since Rex was such a pro d guy. Who knows? I guess the “bottom line” line is, I don’t think Ryan would have been a bad hire, but Harbaugh wasnt a bad one either. The results demonstrate that.
In the past, I’ve said I thought the Harbaugh hire was a mistake as well. Making a statement like this in Baltimore is akin to blashapmy as Harbaugh has enjoyed some real success. I’ve always countered and said was Joe Altobelli a good manager or was he in the right place at the right time? Just like Joe Altobelli, I believe Harbaugh is a pretty stand up guy and has developed into a pretty fair coach in the NFL. Having said that, I think turning over a fairly veteran laden team with the amount of talent they have (had) to an inexperienced coach wasn’t the best move. The Ravens won 2 playoff games his first year- much like the Orioles winning a world series the year Weaver left and Altobelli showed up. Since then, they have gone to the playoffs two more years and won a game each year- one to a severely handicapped Tom Brady and one to a team that really had no business in the playoffs, as further evidenced this year. Again, an accomplishment for sure- never done in this town- but with a more experienced head coach, I still wonder how much better they might have been. But when you raise those kind of questions, a majority of fans dismiss it as hate and are unwilling to consider that possibility. Question- does a Bill Bellicheck lead team lose that game to the Titans last week?
The decision ownership made in 08 was between Harbaugh, Garrett and Ryan, apparently, none of whom could be considered veteran head coaches. So I’m assuming you’re not advocating for a Ryan hire, MGW. I’m not sure which, if any, veteran head coaches were interviewed.
As for people considering criticism of Harbaugh as blasphemy, I disagree. Based on what I hear and read everyday, the vocal majority second guess every decision he makes and wished Ryan were steering the ship. But as I’ve said before, I have no proof or numbers to verify this; it’s just anecdotal.
Regarding your query… you’re comparing Harbaugh to Belichick, which isn’t fair. Belichick’s been in the league Since 1975 in one capacity or another and is widely regarded as one of the, if not the, best coaches in NFL history. Next, Belichick wasn’t an available hire. If you’ve got an available hire you would like to compare Harbaugh to, that’s another debate. Further, even Belichick didn’t find instant success as a head coach, struggling with the Browns for four years before eventually landing with the Pats. And there are some who believe that without one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time leading his teams, maybe history wouldn’t look so kindly on Belichick as a coach.
Would Belichick have lost to Tennessee? I’ve seen him lose games he should have won before, and not just against equals. See the 09 loss to his protege in part one of the recent documentary on Belichick, where his Pats lost in OT to Denver, a team with a rookie head coach (the youngest in history) that wound up 8-8. It happens, thigh admittedly not often to a hall of fame coach like Belichick with a hall of fame QB like Brady.