Gary Lambrecht, The Examiner
2007-12-21 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

If Ravens coach Brian Billick worked in sales for team owner Steve Bisciotti, would Billick ultimately have to answer for his disappointing numbers? Bisciotti’s recent decision to bring Billick back for 2008 was so much about the numbers.

Forget this is the worst season in the franchise’s 12-year history, and the Ravens have finished with losing records in two of the past three years, and have missed the playoffs in three of the past four years and have never developed a quarterback or a consistently good offense in nine years under Billick.

The mistaken Bisciotti decision comes down to these factors, starting with another big mistake.

By giving Billick a four-year extension at more than $5 million per season after last year’s 13-3 run — quickly extinguished with a 15-6 embarrassment by the visiting, eventual-Super Bowl champion Colts — Bisciotti set himself up. A self-made billionaire knows the value of a buck, and that’s an awful lot of green to give an employee after firing him.

Bisciotti is a loyal man who desires a sense of continuity with his business, and it’s not as if Billick is a member of the dregs of coaching. There are a lot of smart guys out there who will never win a Super Bowl, much less in their second year.

But sooner or later, Bisciotti, who took control of the Ravens in 2004, is going to have to learn what it’s like to find a new coach. It’s too bad he didn’t see fit to write a check and pull the trigger this time.

As the injuries piled up on the Ravens this year, you could see the free pass coming from Bisciotti, who also should have publicly addressed this season of poor quarterback play, uninspired play calling and a lack of team discipline that has produced tons of penalty flags.

At some point, Billick needs to be held accountable for his numbers. His 79-63, regular-season record looks pretty shiny on the surface. But, take away last year and the 12-4 run that preceded the Ravens’ Super Bowl title in 2000, and Billick’s record is 54-56.

That’s mediocrity.

Let’s move on to the money games, and the case against Billick grows.

First of all, Billick doesn’t get enough credit in many circles for his coaching in 2000, when he wisely turned things over to one of the best defenses ever and had the Ravens prepared and motivated beautifully down the stretch.

After the Ravens won the Lombardi Trophy, Billick said in a press conference that the team had raised the bar of expectations.

True enough.

And what has transpired since then?

The Ravens have missed the playoffs four times. The last time they tasted a postseason victory was at Miami on Jan. 13, 2002. They followed that with home-field flops against Tennessee in 2003 and Indianapolis.

Sounds like the bar has been lowered quite a bit, in the eyes of Bisciotti. Under his watch, the Ravens have missed the postseason three times in four years. Is this the kind of continuity he wants?

Of course, not all of this is Billick’s fault. General manager Ozzie Newsome and his personnel staff, the backbone of the franchise, don’t get enough blame for their occasionally spectacular misses — see quarterbacks Kyle Boller and Elvis Grbac and Derek Anderson, who was claimed off waivers from Baltimore before becoming a star in Cleveland this year.

But Billick has been the author of too many pop-gun offenses and too many game plans that didn’t play to the team’s strengths in the running game. And it will take an order from Bisciotti to get him to turn over control of the offense to anyone.

Billick has failed to be a positive, difference-maker in too many close games over the years. He has presided over too much offensive mediocrity, while one of the league’s elite defenses has gotten old, its talents wasted.

I would love see defensive coordinator Rex Ryan promoted to head coach after this season, before the Ravens possibly lose the last great plum off their coaching tree to another team. Instead, we’ll have to watch the Ravens win nine or 10 games against a bottom-feeder schedule in 2008, slip into and out of the playoffs, then hope Bisciotti doesn’t give Billick another contract extension.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com