MVN - Most Valuable Network

How strong of a bond do the Ravens have?

I’ve heard a few comments lately by players on the Baltimore Ravens that have made me wonder just how close a group this team is. To be honest it hasn’t just started lately, it’s been going on for a while. Maybe Brian Billick has lost control of this team, or maybe some players have lost control of themselves.

We all heard some weeks back when Ray Lewis called out Billick’s play calling decisions. While his frustrations may have been warranted, his choice of venues wasn’t. Instead of airing his concerns with the play calling on his weekly radio show he should have taken them straight to Billick in person. That’s the way a team operates.

I would say that he should have handled any problems he had with the statements made by Adalius Thomas the same way. It certainly didn’t make him look like a stalwart of the team. What do these guys pay their agents for anyway? It seems advice isn’t one of them, or it is ignored if given.

Last week I heard rookie linebacker Antwan Barnes on a radio program on 1300 WJFK telling the host about a college team he faced his senior year. He described them as; ” not having a quarterback, much like us, at least until Troy Smith has developed.” Now to me that sounds like throwing your quarterback under the bus. You might think those things, or talk to team mates about them, but you don’t go on the airwaves and make those kind of statements about a man who is a member of the same team that you are. That doesn’t go a long way toward team harmony son.

You might excuse Barnes rookie excitement of being on a radio show, but he should know that what he says in public effects the team in private . He needs to learn what the word “team” means. It means you look out for one another above all. That you take the arrow that was meant for the other guy. That you don’t see yourself as any more important then any other player on the team. That’s what it is.

I know that it has to be hard for this team not to start looking at the guy next to you, and thinking he didn’t do his job. But there’s been enough blame this season to cover every player on the team 10 times over. Great teams stick together, and the poor ones don’t. That’s true in any endeavor you undertake. United we stand, divided we fall means what it says.

So I’m guessing that Jason Brown meant no hard feelings when he stated after the game against the Dolphins that; “When he (Troy Smith) came in it was like a breath of fresh air.” Well, with the way Brown has played this season I see no reason for him to make that statement.

I key in on the play of the O-line and D-line while watching a game, and I’ve seen Jason Brown knocked on his backside far too many times this season. I’ve seen him unable to even chip at a blitzing linebacker every game. Maybe a breath of fresh air would be if he finally started doing the job he’s paid handsomely to do and kept his feelings to himself. If Troy Smith is allowed to start and play an entire game this season he’d better hope that he can take the kind of shots that Boller has endured from the inadequate play of linemen like Brown.

Brian Billick has a mess on his hands trying to hold this team together. He has some sway on the younger players, but the veterans are another story. They influence the young players way of thinking, and that can be good or bad. Some how Billick has to counter that with a team first attitude. And while we’re here let me say that if Billick is removed from the offensive strategy of this team and concerns himself with the overall function of the team the future might not be as bleak as we suspect it will be. That’s what he’s good at, and that should be all he has to worry about.

I really hope I don’t hear more comments from players on this team degrading one another. There’s just too much blame to go around for the way this season has played out for anyone to cast a stone. Every player is going to make mistakes, last time I checked it seems to be a problem for us human beings. But more times than not one players mistake causes other mistakes to happen. Just focus on that guys, ok?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Baltimore Ravens Mid Week Report, Mike Brown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.