A Canadian Point Of View

[73mayhem]

As a canadian fan of this wonderful franchise for the last 16 years I want to share my perspective on a few things. Our team has shown fairness and respect to players over the years with contracts and that is why we have been able to stay competitive in a very difficult division. Although the loss to [i]<deleted>[/i]Tom Brady hurts us all, many positives need to be stated to sort through all the negativity and anger that have been creeping up the past 2 weeks.

#1-Ozzie made terrific moves in the off-season in regards to signing new talent and deciding who had to be shown the door. The young tight ends will only get better, Leach was an upgrade (Rice's production proved that), and Torrey Smith would not have had the game time if Mason was retained.

#2-Joe Flacco will win a Super Bowl. Of this I am sure, he outplayed the best QB of our generation on his home turf and deserved to win that game.

#3-Keeping Cam Cameron was the right move. I hate alot of the play calling, but the offense does get better every year, and starting over now would be taking a step back. We know where Flacco excells (Shotgun, 3 wides) so surely Cam can see this too and will play to Joe's strong points.

#4-Ray Lewis is not done. This man is the franchise! He's done when he says he's done and nobody has the right to question that. I don't care if people think he has lost a step, can't cover etc. Our defense has been dominant since day 1 and that is because of one constant.........Ray Anthony Lewis! Everyone plays better because Ray wills them to and we should hire him as a lifetime coach when he does pack it in.

#5-Lee Evans and Billy Cundiff deserve our respect. I was a season ticket holder in Buffalo for 2 long painful years (they are the closest team to me) and know Lee is a class act and a heck of a ball player. He had his worst career moment at a terrible time, same goes for Billy. We all loved the touchbacks last year but this year Billy struggled to get it right. Other franchises would have cut Cundiff this year and it's easy to say we should have and we would be in the Super Bowl, but we didn't.........because we are a loyal, awesome franchise and fate will smile on us again.

[IMissMattStover]

This is a very uplifting and good post. I agree with just about everything you said, and am glad somebody here still respects Billy.

[GrimCoconut]

Nice post! I agree on all points.

[JohnJohnson]

I agree with most but not so sure about Cundiff. It's not because of one miss, it's because he missed like half of his FGs on the road this season and he was 1/6 on 50+ yard attempts. Also, we paid him extra for his touchback ability and for some reason this season he wasn't able to do it anymore, despite the kickoff being moved up 5 yards. For a guy who had leg strength that we paid extra for, it sure was disappointing for him to have been so mediocre/bad in those situations. And then he capped it off by missing a chip shot.

[RivenHale]

Yeah, I'll have to wait on Billy. Missing that kind of kick can really derail a kicker's career - not just Billy's, but their game is played between the ears so much. That can really play havoc with his confidence, and you NEED confidence as a kicker. Maybe more than any other position.

Apart from that, though, spot on. Love to see Raven love all the way in Canada, too.

[tsizzle95]

i dont think being loyal franchise is always the best thing. i feel like billy struggled a lot this season as you can clearly see by his stats. i think we really should have kept graham a little longer.
on the side note, great post. cant wait to see who ozzie brings to us next year that will hopefully bring us even closer to a championship

[Gordo52]

You know what. After hearing what Biscotti said and then reading this. I finally agree.
Im not thrilled that Cam will be back, but him leaving we would most likely would take a step back.
We are so close every year that we try carefully not to change many things. If we get a new OC thats a huge change which comes with a huge risk/reward.
I dont know how I'll feel once the season starts next year and we all get to witness Cams playcalling once again. But right now.... Im glad we didnt get rid of him. I always said anyone would be better then him but right now I honeslty cant think of someone being better for us then Cam. Maybe we all criticized him so much in the heat of the moment. But when looking back and reflecting what we did, I think we're a superbowl team and I'm happy with that.
Hopefully next year our numbers continue to get better so we can finally be pumped up out of our minds at this time of the year.

[ravensdfan]

I agree with all of these points. With the exception of #3.

Our offense has improved, but minimally. I don't know why the FO nor some of the fan base believe that somehow after 4 years Cam is suddenly going to have this light bulb go off and be like "oh I see now. Shotgun, success. More slants. Boldin belongs in the slot." etc etc. Basic stuff we fans have seen for at least the last 2 years (and we are not OCs) but he just can't seem to get a handle on. Mediocrity might be all right with the FO but we have talent that is being wasted on the offensive side of the ball.

[Bltravens]

CANADA! CANADA!


You must have missed 96-98ish when the defense couldn't stop a JV offense .

[cursona pirate]

[quote name='IMissMattStover' timestamp='1328228012' post='983482']
This is a very uplifting and good post. I agree with just about everything you said, and am glad somebody here still respects Billy.
[/quote]
Yeah me too! Billy will be back next year as strong as ever(Cundiff haters go ahead reply to this, i won't listen lol).


Toronto isint far from me! Bills are a very intersting team to watch up year.

[reediddy]

[quote name='73mayhem' timestamp='1328227517' post='983478']
As a canadian fan of this wonderful franchise for the last 16 years I want to share my perspective on a few things. Our team has shown fairness and respect to players over the years with contracts and that is why we have been able to stay competitive in a very difficult division. Although the loss to [i]<deleted>[/i]Tom Brady hurts us all, many positives need to be stated to sort through all the negativity and anger that have been creeping up the past 2 weeks.

#1-Ozzie made terrific moves in the off-season in regards to signing new talent and deciding who had to be shown the door. The young tight ends will only get better, Leach was an upgrade (Rice's production proved that), and Torrey Smith would not have had the game time if Mason was retained.

#2-Joe Flacco will win a Super Bowl. Of this I am sure, he outplayed the best QB of our generation on his home turf and deserved to win that game.

#3-Keeping Cam Cameron was the right move. I hate alot of the play calling, but the offense does get better every year, and starting over now would be taking a step back. We know where Flacco excells (Shotgun, 3 wides) so surely Cam can see this too and will play to Joe's strong points.

#4-Ray Lewis is not done. This man is the franchise! He's done when he says he's done and nobody has the right to question that. I don't care if people think he has lost a step, can't cover etc. Our defense has been dominant since day 1 and that is because of one constant.........Ray Anthony Lewis! Everyone plays better because Ray wills them to and we should hire him as a lifetime coach when he does pack it in.

#5-Lee Evans and Billy Cundiff deserve our respect. I was a season ticket holder in Buffalo for 2 long painful years (they are the closest team to me) and know Lee is a class act and a heck of a ball player. He had his worst career moment at a terrible time, same goes for Billy. We all loved the touchbacks last year but this year Billy struggled to get it right. Other franchises would have cut Cundiff this year and it's easy to say we should have and we would be in the Super Bowl, but we didn't.........because we are a loyal, awesome franchise and fate will smile on us again.
[/quote]

#3 and #5 are spot on, I absolutely agree with you there. In terms of Cam Cam leaving, I'm not a huge supporter of the guy, but yes it would put us significantly behind in terms of our ability to turn the corner into becoming an elite offense. Just look at all the QB's who've failed in the past because of organizational instability...

In terms of Lee and Billy, these guys are class acts. It hurts to have them have two terrible plays back to back, but with the leadership in the locker room, I'm confident they will have a hell of an offseason and come back strong next year.

Continuity breeds success, so it's wise for us to keep as many pieces as we can. I'm already curious as to how the Pees promotion turns out

[bdravens]

The more I've thought about it, keeping Cam is the better option. The only thing that concerns me is yeah, Flacco is best in the Shotgun or on PA plays. But how do you consistently run shotgun when you have a 1300+ yard rusher in your backfield that will command huge money? It's hard to have the best of both worlds.

[latenighthero]

[quote name='JohnJohnson' timestamp='1328229336' post='983499']
I agree with most but not so sure about Cundiff. It's not because of one miss, it's because he missed like half of his FGs on the road this season and he was 1/6 on 50+ yard attempts. Also, we paid him extra for his touchback ability and for some reason this season he wasn't able to do it anymore, despite the kickoff being moved up 5 yards. For a guy who had leg strength that we paid extra for, it sure was disappointing for him to have been so mediocre/bad in those situations. And then he capped it off by missing a chip shot.
[/quote]
Ya that's what makes me think that maybe he had some injury issues that didn't come out. We saw that he missed a game during the season with what I believe was a pulled muscle. The thing with pulled muscles is they don't really heel in 2 weeks, which makes me think that maybe he was suffering from it for a good part of the season.

Accuracy can come and go with confidence, but the ability to just boot the ball as hard and far as you can doesn't. Or at least not nearly as much as it did for Billy this year compared to last year. I believe that Ozzie may have known about this and maybe that is why he didn't hesitate when asked whether Cundiff would be retained at his high salary for next year.

Also a lot of people slag him for missing "the kick" but it's not like he had time to line it up take his time with it. If you recall we had an additional timeout which harbaugh elected not to use (I thought it was a stupid decision at the time) and so everyone had to run onto the field and hurry the entire process. Also the snap and/or hold wasn't perfect either. There was just a lot of moving parts and although there aren't many excuses for missing a 32 yard field goal, it wasn't exactly the most ideal 32 yard kick that Billy had ever lined up for in his career.

I say that we give him another shot next season, with a full offseason, and if he really stuggles than we need to cut ties with him and look to go in another direction.

[latenighthero]

Also go Canada! I live very close to Toronto and I have dealt with your pain of watching the Bills struggle for many years now.