Inqui

I get where you're coming from here, and you can add his bias against the Shanahans (which he'll be the first to tell you about). I mean, I saw an LSU blog post that got excited about Cam Cameron showing up, which is a perspective we as Ravens fans would find almost incomprehensible. I've never been to a game (I'd love to. Too much debt atm but I would sell the naming rights of my first child or even start lopping off appendages for whoever got me over there), but I'd imagine you at least get to see the whole play as it unfolds. But I do think his point was more that the winning run in 2012 felt like RG3 was making things happen after the play had broken down. I dunno if that ever owed to a bad call or players being useless and the QB making up for it. That one game I mentioned wasn't an isolated event: it was apparently the worst of a bad bunch. He said it was pretty common for Morris to run for 80 yards in a half en route to a lead or one-score deficit, only to abandon the run altogether in the second half for whatever reason. I think that was just a more detailed account of what you said about him being too pass-happy at times. Like others here, I just wanted to see what the Redskins fans thought of Shanahan. I do get this guy's limitations (which is why I didn't advocate the same view: just relaying what I read), but at the same time he's also watched every snap for the last who knows how long and he's probably had a better sense for Shanahan's playcalling than we do at the moment. Just food for thought, and what I thought after that food was that he should be a better fit for Flacco. But then, I'm limited by wanting something more interesting than what I'm used to. Again, whether those plays owe to Shanahan being a bad OC, the system not being the flashiest fit (although what The Raven said about him adding the read option for RG3 is encouraging), his dad dabbling too much, or just being in a losing situation (Jim Caldwell says hi) is something no set of fans will likely ever know.

Don't even joke about that. Still too soon.

I just asked about Shanny on another forum and a Redskins fan wasn't too impressed with his playcalling. He was at four of the games during their seven-game winning run in 2012 and felt it was more RG3's ability to extend the play that kept drives alive and won them games - although he was a fan of the zone run getting installed (so there's that). For this season, he felt Kyle wasn't able to call plays with their QB in mind and it got predictable to the point where defences would stack the box and either stuff the run or bowl through the o-line and sack RG3. And apparently he was too quick to abandon the run outright (Morris went for 114 yards in the first half of one game, and got three touches for the whole second half despite their being up by 10). So I guess there's a bit more elaboration on your downside. How much that was Mike's fault is something we as fans will never know. Although if the complaint is partly about RG3 being made into a pocket passer then the square peg may have found a square hole.

That's my take. I didn't articulate it very well in my previous post, but doing the exact opposite's killed us just as much as would Kyle trying something flashy with the game on the line. Who knows, he might be the best answer to Pittsburgh's complex defensive schemes we get access to in a mighty long time.

Tbh, I could live with getting cute or too pass-happy every now and again - especially with how going the other way's been known to blow up in our faces just as badly at times. As long as the new guy 1) injects some creativity to the offence; 2) builds around Flacco, and to a lesser extent his receivers. Provided he meets those two criteria, we could bring in the Norwegian Minister of the Economy for all I care.

I think our system had two main problems: 1) Some missing components during its time with us. Ranging from a missing deep threat pre-Torrey to a power running game to a consistent possession guy or two who could keep the chains moving and bring the defence closer to the LoS (thus freeing up room for the deep guy to blow the top off said defence). 2) Lack of a good play caller. Cam was awful and Caldwell could have done better, though we'll never know his potential. The idea is that the draft and FA will get us some guys to fix the first problem, while a better OC would theoretically solve the second. Basically this offseason has the FO at a crossroads. They can stick with the Coryell system and try to upgrade it (and almost certainly go with Norv or Chudzinski) or blow the whole thing up and rebuild a new system around Flacco (Shanahan, Kubiak). Upgrading our Coryell would be the easier route, and have less growing pains, but bringing in a new guy has all kinds of risk and long-term potential. I also think that we need to decide on our longer-term identity quickly. Not so much for hiring someone before they get snapped up (although that too), but so we can get more out of our unseasonably long offseason this year. We'll need to decide on who to target during the offseason and that'll have all kinds of chain reactions.

I wonder how it went. Good to see the FO's 1) shopping around for OCs; 2) not sitting on its hands to do so. Hopefully we snap someone up within a week.

Haven't seen Brad Childress's name thrown about before today. What does everyone think of him?

This. And I don't think we'd ask to interview Ben McAdoo AFTER he agreed terms with the Giants if we were going to discard him for an internal guy anyway. That's way too much effort to simply not be interested.

Not the most balanced OC is he. Then again, at least those numbers are "skewed because one's in the top 5 and the other's only the top half" and not "serviceable passing game because there's no running game to speak of" like a certain other team.

That's really good. If we're going to that kind of effort to look at a guy outside the franchise, I can't see us going internally for an OC. That just wouldn't make sense imo. I think the FO knows something needs to happen - whether our current system gets upgraded or we go for a new one - and this is the best year we're likely to have for making those changes happen. It's also encouraging in terms of their intent to upgrade Joe's weapons. If they want to change, it'll be easier to bring a rookie straight in and train them up while everyone adjusts to whatever we end up doing. We can be a top 10 offence without doing anything drastic to the defence and it looks like the FO knows it.

Haha, you can only call so many plays when you only have one guy to throw to.

If he can make Schaub a Pro Bowler then you'd hope Flacco can become a universal top 10 guy (as well as showing just how important Pro Bowl stats are in someone's career). Apparently the Dolphins are looking at Kubiak and Shanahan for their OC. Again, I think any right-minded OC would choose us but we have to move quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W4DgU52KTE Translation: "Jordy, go long!"

Hey, that's a football powerhouse alright.

Absolutely. I'm all for being deliberate and hiring the right guy, but we can't afford to dither around too much either. We have the longest offseason we've had in a while and we don't want to spend all the extra time looking for a new OC.

Apparently the Dolphins have already spoken with him too, so you'd think we get a shot. This is where the Ravens' willingness to promote guys internally gives us a leg up imo. If you're an up-and-coming coach, would you want to head to a stable franchise with a good chance at climbing further, or to the Dolphins with everything they went through this past season?

I can live with that. It's encouraging to see they're looking at out of house guys. I think Flacco with a West Coast-style playbook with some Coryell principles thrown in and another receiving option or two would have some huge potential.

I have to say you're beginning to sell me on Kubiak. I remember watching Texans games (even this year) and wondering how a defence would be able to stop them on those goalline plays. Between Foster, Tate, Graham, Daniels, Johnson and Hopkins they had so many ways to bang it in. Imagine what we'd be capable of with a good offensive draft AND a 6-6 QB for those sneaks. What do you make of what I've seen to be his main criticism though? That he doesn't adjust very well and sticks with the same plan too often? I think we've had too many of those guys around.

Just ignore him. His incessant Flacco hate was kinda cute in the Flacco thread where I could ignore it, but now it's getting tedious in a thread where I (and others no doubt) want to read about possible OCs.

Not to mention how much the game will have evolved during his time at CBS.

I agree. It kinda grates me to see him mocked to us in the first round all around the interwebs - even after he got abused by OU's rushers. Ah well, it's not like mocks mean all that much in January I suppose, and Ozzie pretty much dispelled the idea of RT being a priority during the State of the Ravens press conference.

I think he means LT Cyrus Kouandjio. Not that I want him (or anyone who'll play RT for us) in the first, but I think that's what he was saying is all.

Tbf, I think that's because the "who" and "what" are closely connected.