Billick Should Be Fired

[EdReed4Prez]

I have never seen such poor play calling in all my life. 9 downs inside the 5 yard line and he cant run the ball. Everyone knows that Boller cant throw, never-the-less under pressure, so why would you not let McGahee keep running it right into the end zone. Granted the Offense pass interference that was called on Heap was complete BS, that pass should have never happened. I have stood by Billick for 11 years now, but I have no confidence in him now after that terrible performance he just displayed today and i would be completely satisfied if the Ravens Terminated him after the game. I might actually celebrate it.

[tweety]

No the play calling wasn't horrible it definitely caught them off guard. It was the players fault for not being able to perform with the element of surprise. I thought the worse of the calls was the pass to Heap on 4 and inches but it should have been a TD. Karma, Bengals were cheated last win and we lost benefit of the doubt this game.

[Coachneedsfiring]

yes play calling was horrible, ravens have always been a powerfull running team, how many times do u need to NOT get a 1st down on 3rd and 2 to realize you need to run it? or how about pounding it in when its 2 and goal from the 5 (FIVE) yard line??????????????????????????????

[EdReed4Prez]

You dont need to catch anyone off gaurd when you have the field position and the RB to pound it into the promise land. Boller cant throw a ball off his front foot. if you look, every pass he throws is off his back foot, or completely off balance. You can catch them as off guard as you want, it still doesn't make it a good play call given the players on the board.

[BmoreHappy]

yes play calling was horrible, ravens have always been a powerfull running team, how many times do u need to NOT get a 1st down on 3rd and 2 to realize you need to run it? or how about pounding it in when its 2 and goal from the 5 (FIVE) yard line??????????????????????????????

The sad part about all of this is that our # 1 Quarterback ( who looked awful), may be down for quite a while with a serious groin injury. Which means we will have to suffer with Kyle for a good portion of the season. Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the whole purpose of bringing Steve over was to keep him healthy. The play calling would have been great if it was the old Air McNair.

[tweety]

Billick tried too hard to outsmart to Bengals defense. I agree he should have stuck with the basics but we'll never know how that would have turned out. It was a crucial couple of plays but majority of the previous plays could have prevented such stress. Move on and prevail.

[doctorhook18]

I have never seen such poor play calling in all my life. 9 downs inside the 5 yard line and he cant run the ball. Everyone knows that Boller cant throw, never-the-less under pressure, so why would you not let McGahee keep running it right into the end zone. Granted the Offense pass interference that was called on Heap was complete BS, that pass should have never happened. I have stood by Billick for 11 years now, but I have no confidence in him now after that terrible performance he just displayed today and i would be completely satisfied if the Ravens Terminated him after the game. I might actually celebrate it.

I always thought Raven's fans were a little harsh on Billick in the past....I mean if you did fire him, would his replacement be any better? I thought no way! Until tonight.......have you ever seen a QB want to throw more 15-20 yard passes on 3rd and short? Any coach that has half a brain runs that ball against that team.....4th qtr, they are tired....POUND IT!

[rockonravens]

I have never seen such poor play calling in all my life. 9 downs inside the 5 yard line and he cant run the ball. Everyone knows that Boller cant throw, never-the-less under pressure, so why would you not let McGahee keep running it right into the end zone. Granted the Offense pass interference that was called on Heap was complete BS, that pass should have never happened. I have stood by Billick for 11 years now, but I have no confidence in him now after that terrible performance he just displayed today and i would be completely satisfied if the Ravens Terminated him after the game. I might actually celebrate it.

You're so right!!

What the F was he thinking???

4 yards or so, I guess that's where we should miss J. Lewis???

NOT!!

It really shouldn't have come down to this, if we got our head out of our a**'s from the first quarter.

Really, I'm not that impressed with our "outstanding New Offense". I've seen college ball more aggresive!

Typical Monday Night Game, all eyes are YOU. Thank god it didn't rain..........could have been an even worse loss!

I don't like being negative, but just a little bit more than PISSED OFF over here!!!!! GO RAVENS!!!

[Grantster]

The play-calling was horrendous in this game, I do agree with that. Well, at least in the fourth quarter. It would've been alright to try and catch them off guard with the pass had McNair been in, but he was not. They had plenty of opportunities to just run the ball into the endzone to tie the game near the end against one of the weakest defenses in the league. Why would Billick allow Kyle "should of been a" Boller attempt a short touchdown pass while being that close to the endzone? I know for a fact that McGahee could've easily ran the ball into the endzone, given the number of chances they had. We can also thank the official for calling offensive pass interference on Todd Heap, which should have been interference on the Bengels for grabbing a handful of jersey on Heap. What surprises me the most is that the Ravens were as close to winning as they were with five turnovers, inducing 24 points for the Bengels. Their outstanding defense most certainly kept them in the game, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire game. With five turnovers it is pretty rare to win, or even be close to winning for that matter. As far as Billick is concerned; he shouldn't be fired, just slapped for believing that Kyle Boller would be able to seal the deal for us with an unexpected pass at the end of the game. If it wasn't for the turnovers, this game would've been a blowout. Very tough loss to digest...

[ragnorok99]

Not sure what Billick was trying to prove tonight...

[athena raven]

I hate to be so negative, but, when the Ravens lose their season opener under Billick they are 40-40 for the regular season, and when they win it, they're 35-13.

I have a feeling this might be a long year for Baltimore and then it gets worse, time to rebuild, again!

That's three straight subpar games for McNair (Buffalo, Indy, Cincy).

So many opportunities to win, and the offense just continued to give up the ball; no way does a playoff team do that!

Pathetic Showing! But typical for the Ravens for primetime.

[ravensfan1996]

AND if the refs got the call right on the Heap TD and we tied the game up and won it OT then he should still be fired? come on people there are sooooooo many other reasons why we lost tonight besides the last 2 mins of the game. lets see 6 TURNOVERS! you cant win a game when you fumble 3 possesions in a row.

Yes i would have loved to see a run in all those plays at the goalline, but the Heap play was a TD and the score would have been tied, who know what would have then happened...might have still lost on a cincy fg at the end. but billick didnt cause the 6 turnovers.

[EdReed4Prez]

Maybe fired is an overstatement, but at least higher a Offensive Coordinator who can call plays based on our players strengths and Weaknesses . We have always been a Defense and Run oriented team. Why, when the game is on the line, would we change our strategy? Play your strengths and exploit their weaknesses.

[GARaven]

Well i'm sorry again people say the turnovers were the big deal but if you think about it all that aside we had a chance to win that game.But brian with all those try's for a td then a bad call.Which i don't care it was a TD period thanks bised ref!!!! but 2 YARDS!!! to get a TD and extra point then the game would go to OT but you throw the ball I mean their is no way I can say anything postive after a bonehead call to throw when you were on the 2 yard line with like atleast 2 time's to try to run it in come on...STUPID NUFF SAID

[Grantster]

In my opinion, Troy Smith could've done a better job than Kyle Boller in tonights game...

[pacman]

The lead in this game should have been preserved at all cost.... Throwing on 3rd and short deep in the bengals ter. was crazy. Even more insane was 1st and goal on the 5 and not running the ball 4 times in a row if needed (you only needed less than 2 yards for carry to tie the game)... in spite of the turnovers the defense played tough as they always do....players on the field make mistakes...but there is no excuse for the absolutely pathetic play calling... Billick should seriously have his head examined.

[ravensfan1996]

I think you all are missing the point, Billick did call a throw, boller threw the ball. heap caught it, TD. We scored a TD people even without running the ball, the play worked. The refs blew the call. Yes a run would have been nice, but if we ran the ball 4 times and didnt score, everyone would be screaming why didnt we throw it to heap???? you cant win.

[Drkraven]

I think you all are missing the point, Billick did call a throw, boller threw the ball. heap caught it, TD. We scored a TD people even without running the ball, the play worked. The refs blew the call. Yes a run would have been nice, but if we ran the ball 4 times and didnt score, everyone would be screaming why didnt we throw it to heap???? you cant win.

Exactly!!

[FellsPointRaven]

In my opinion, Troy Smith could've done a better job than Kyle Boller in tonights game...

And on what do you base that opinion, exactly? Would Troy NOT have had pass interference called on Heap?

[BDRaven17]

You dont need to catch anyone off gaurd when you have the field position and the RB to pound it into the promise land. Boller cant throw a ball off his front foot. if you look, every pass he throws is off his back foot, or completely off balance. You can catch them as off guard as you want, it still doesn't make it a good play call given the players on the board.

Ok, well, everyone was happy when jamal left, who can "pound it" with the best of him. Everyone was so happy when our passing game would open up with mcgahee. Now, 1 game in, the sky is falling.....look at the plays everyone is criticizing.....Mason was wide open and heap had the ball in his chest!

Look, it's game one, we've been a "pound it" team for years, and we've changed that with personnell this year. Let's give it a couple games. I'm pretty impressed that we turned the ball over so many times and had a chance to win. If i'm allowed to try to remain somewhat positive, i'd like to.

[wightnoise]

Billick's thought of passing on running downs and running on passing downs to "catch the other team off guard"??? What a bunch of BS. The Ravens passed 50% of the time on 1st down last night.

First off, it doesn't catch them off guard when you do it ALL THE TIME. You need to be somewhat predictable in order to catch the other team off guard.

Second... the whole concept of catching the other team off guard is overrated. I'd rather have a team that imposes their will on the other team. Nothing is prettier than telling the other team what you're going to do, then go ahead and do it anyway, because there's nothing they can do to stop it.

[itlstl7]

I dont know if anyone else feels the same but in addition to throwing on third and short EVERY time, why did we run the ball up the middle EVERY time??? All I heard in the offseason was how versatille McGahee would be for us and how it would open up new aspects of our offense.... well where the hell was it?? It looked like we had Jamal in the backfield and we just wanted to pound it down the middle but is that why we got McGahee???? Billick should have used McGahee more effectively, we have Mussa Smith to pound it up the middle.

[Guest Birdfan]

I know some of you think Billick should be fired for the play calling (which, by the way, was really not THAT bad), but you need to keep in mind that the players come out to play for him.

Despite all the fumbling, bumbling, stumbling by our offense, the team still fought HARD play after play after play. They scratched and clawed their way to stay in the game. That's the mark of a good HC. Remember talking about a team quitting on Coslet? Well, Billick's teams don't quit.

[Raven07]

agreed, we shouldnt FIRE Billick after just 1 GAME, thats just dont right senseless!!!!! our offense just needs to work on Timing, holding onto the Ball and getting down field to score points, our defense was phenominalio must say, even though we didnt intercept passes, were were ball deflecting machines and total Run Stoppers against Cinci's Run attack, we just shut that down almost completely, the Bengals Offense was virtually 1 Demensional, and even with that, they only EARNED 3 points.....i (yet again) can guarentee that That kind of Offensive performance will not be seen again....i guarenteee it

[Mista T]

I was initially disappointed with the playcalling as well, but firing Billick is an over-reaction. Way overboard. Upon reflection, I don't think the playcalling was too bad (except perhaps for not running McGahee outside), considering the situation.

Here are some mitigating factors on the playcalling:

- Billick took what they gave him. Bengals were stuffing the middle, so pounding it may have been futile.

- Mike Anderson was out. He would have been the guy to pound, not Musa or McGahee.

[Slick]

Firing Billick is definately not the answer. The playcalling wasnt as bad as everyone wants to believe. The only reason it seems so is because of the botched plays and miscommunication. The fumbles and such will go away through the season, and I'm confident that Billick's plans for this team will not go unnoticed in the weeks to come. McNair was spreading the ball around farily well despite playing with an injured groin. He made a bunch of key passes (and our recievers made some CLUTCH catches) so I really don't see how half of this teams fans are turning on them so quickly. WE HAVE POTENTIAL PEOPLE< LET IT ALL SETTLE IN AND LET THE SEASON GET ON BEFORE YOU MAKE SUCH DIRE STATEMENTS AS FIRING THE ONLY HEAD COACH TO BRING US A SUPERBOWL!

[Jesse Conroy]

Firing is a bit harsh, but I think that he did do a terrible job.

[BmoreHappy]

I think you all are missing the point, Billick did call a throw, boller threw the ball. heap caught it, TD. We scored a TD people even without running the ball, the play worked. The refs blew the call. Yes a run would have been nice, but if we ran the ball 4 times and didnt score, everyone would be screaming why didnt we throw it to heap???? you cant win.

Rfan, I think you are missing the point. We never should have been put in the situation of having to win the game with Kyle Boller in the first place. We were up by 1 in the 4th Quarter with 3rd and short yardage. If we run the ball, worst case scenario the Ravens get stopped but the clock still runs. We punt the ball away and give our defense a better situation. Or best case scenario, we get the first down, save the wasted timeout on the challenge, continue to run clock, possibly score again and end the game. We had 100+ yds rushing ( If it ain't broke don't fix it). Bottom line the entire offensive strategy for the game was dumb. The only drive we looked solid on was the Musa Smith run filled drive.

[BrownsFan]

Saying Billick should be fired after all he's done for one game and one series of bad play-calling is ridiculous. Had Boller thrown a TD pass then Billick would be hailed as an offensive genius. He chose the call and it didn't work, plain and simple. The only benefit of the doubt I'll give is the offensive interference call on Heap which was BS.. but it happens. Quite honestly, the Ravens were lucky to even be in that position after having 6 turnovers in the game.

You're 0-1 it's not the end of the world, you move on and prepare for next week.

[tweety]

We don't take loss' great especially loss like those. With a bogus game changing call and self-distructing plays.

Kind of like the colts game where they called Ed Reed out before he lateralled to C Mac. Who know what would have happened, A new SuperBowl ring possibly?

5H17 Happens, right? We have to take the game into our own hands. Expect refs to give the other team the benefit of the doubt as usual (except the obvious pass interference against the Bengals during last years win). Remember the Lions game with over 20 calls against us back in 05' season, yep expect that from the refs.