I am sick and tired of watching this broken record. I'm starting to see that Billick is not the only who is incompetent. I'll have to add Newsome & Biscotti to the list, since they keep retaining him. If Billick didn't produce an offense for all these years, what evidence exists' that it will turn around. The offense has been underachieving since he's been here. It's just now that the defense isn't covering it up anymore.

There comes a time in every football player's career when it's "time". It appears as though (quite clearly to me) that it's McNair's "time". Billick needs to pull the life support plug on McNair and give the ball to Boller.
One final note : I sent an early letter to Santa, I had to, Billick won't listen to reason and logic. My letter reads, "Santa, please make Coach run the damn ball when we have the damn ball inside the ten !"
I'm out !

You aren't the only one questioning Billick's feel for the game these days Mike. But we're also questioninig his decision-making, his play-calling, his team's preparedness (or lack thereof), his motivational skills, his time management skills, and pretty much every other thing you can attribute to the coach of a professional football team. The Ravens have looked AWFUL since the first quarter of the first game.

Hey guy's... here's a quote that will never go out of style.
PLAYOFFS? DID YOU SAY PLAYOFFS? PLAYOFFS!!!

What feel Mike?The challenge flag is the latest in a long line of gaffe's.There was only four minutes to go in the half,you still have two TO's,anything inside of two minutes gets automatically reviewed anyway,you don't need anyone upstairs to tell you to throw it.As for his excuse,shouldn't HE know what down it is?

Until Brian Billick announces Kyle Boller as the starting quarterback, I am not going to guarantee a victory against the New Orleans "Aints" of old. It's not just the inaccuracy due to the groin injury, it is McNair's decision making. Delay of games and intentional grounding, fumbles and near fumbles, looking confused with the offense, getting crossed up too often, and the interceptions. Using timeouts up. The fact is that the groin is not going to get better with a young offensive line in front of McNair. I have been enjoying the look of Kyle Boller's visor more than I have McNair's gameplay as of late.

You are right Mike. Boller should have been in before half time at the earliest if not sooner. Groin injuries are nothing to fool around with. Once you pull'em a tear is not far behind. The whole team wasnt ready to play and Buillick is the blame for that. LeRon Mclain should have been pulled for Justin Green. Defensively McAlister played when he wanted to. He keeps getting beat on long pass plays because he peeks at the QB way too often. Ray Lewis has got to stop his little celebrations after the RB drags him 5 yards downfield. Ed Reed needs to start playing CF and play the QB's eyes. They really need to decide on JO as to whether or not he is going to play. He is hurting the team by not playing, his toe isn't going to help him at all this year. It's a good thing Rex Ryan never found a head coaching job because he might be the next coach for the Ravens. The best offensive coach may be a defensive coach. Now with Heap and Wilcox up in the air for Sunday what are they going to do with no other TE other than Sypniewski. When both of them went down that forced them to use Devard Darling as the 4th receiver.. This is where Mike Anderson could have come in handy, he is far better option than Darling.

Let's face it, McNair is not and never will be the answer if we expect to get into the Super Bowl again. Not saying that Boller is the answer either, but he'll get us further than McNair.

It seems this year that every slight slip up leads to something bad... Dawson shanks the FG, McAlister is lined up in the neutral zone... Reed trips going to tackle Winslow.

I think Billick needs to step in and cancel the 19 radio shows and public appearanced this week and give them a kick in the butt.

If they lose in SF this weekend, Im selling my tickets for the rest of the year and getting what I can. No way they can fall to Dilfer. That and Im going to the game.

Asking Billick to recognize or admit the obvious is like asking a fish to run. He says that he has tried everything in the red zone so now he is going to focus on throwing underneath and hope a player can break a tackle? Are you freakin' kidding me? Enough already. When is ownership going to step in and take some responsibility. Steve B where are you? We have been patient fans with a bush league coach for too long. I have had enough.

Billick doesn't know how to hand off...in more ways than one.

Billick has clearly lost all feel for the game and should be dismissed his play calling stinks and he obviously cant get the troops ready for combat!

I agree that McNair isn't up to full par and Billick's hesitation at putting Boller in is hurting the offense.

I'm not seeing the awesome defense of the past anymore and the Ravens will need 20+ points a game to be competitive.

As for the rest of my "suffering" fellow fans, do what I do. Engage in a major home rebuilding project, save the demolition debris, then go smash it into small pieces for the dump at halftime. Feels great to relieve the frustration on inanimate objects.

same old phony excuses. they aren't going to score more no matter what they do unless they get a better quarterback who can throw downfield and receivers who show they can get open down close. however getting rid of billick might be the master stroke as he has given us the same bs and dull plays for the past five years!

I've never read truer words than when Mike states that Brian Billick has "no feel for a game." It is insanely maddening to watch the Ravens' so-called offense, and has been from BB's first days in town. It's herky-jerky, unimaginative, grinding, scattershot and above all, dull as dishwater to watch. The man has had years -- seven years, is it? -- to develop a balanced, fluid, versatile attack. It's obvious by now that he either lacks the imagination to do so or chooses not to.

Billick talks of having "balance," but the way he tries to bring about balance is by imparting on events some kind of strange, abstract game theory he has in his mind. He absolutely and categorially refuses to do what what every successful coach has always done: observing what's working and going with it till the other team stops it. When you have a mulitimillion-dollar running back like Willis McGahee who is AVERAGING FIVE YARDS PER CARRY, and you use him fewer than 25 times in a game, you are either being blind or being perverse. My theory is that Billick is so colossally arrogant he simply must leave his personal stamp on a game. He'd rather see the team have a rough outing than do things the way "everybody does them."

It's also inexplicable that, after all the man's time here, he has still never drafted, acquired or developed a consistenly productive quarterback, one with imagination, versatility and the ability to distribute the football to the team's skill players. McNair in his prime would have fit that bill, but these days he's held together with duct tape and chicken wire. Boller has progressed admirably, but I still question his touch on short passes. We'll see.

Billick takes a perverse pride in basing his entire football program on having a tough defense, counting on special teams to score points, and wilfully (in my opinion) suppressing his offense. I think he does that to highlight his own self-perceived genius. Maybe he even fears that if he develops a solid offense, it would take attention away from him. It's *something* perverse or pathological. But when you rely on your defense to tie up the other team, and your kicker to win every bleeding game, it's too much pressure on too few people, and eventually your system is *obviously* going to break down.

If Billick were capable of developing an offense -- or wanted to -- he'd have done it by now. He hasn't. If he's not wise enough to hand over control of that aspect of the game, it should be taken away from him.

I agree but after further thought, at that point in the game it was obvious we lost anyway. Why add to the negative morale and make Mcnair angry by replacing him with Boller. It was obvious Mcnair was upset after Billick did it last week, and doing it two weeks in a row would surely be an indication that Billick is losing faith in his starting qb. At this point, the less controversy the better, The train is already derailing quickly we don't want to do anything to hasten it.

I agree completly Mike. The Ravens were down by more then two scores late in the game. Why not send McNair to the bench? As much as Compu Coach hates to throw in the towel on a game, there is the phrase " live to fight another day". Rest McNair, get him healthy while letting Boller get some of his confidence back.

But this is where Billick outsmarts himself. He was probably standing on the sideline thinking " Steve is hurt, the Browns will surely think I'll pull him for Kyle. So I'll outsmart them and keep Steve in."

And on another note: Sunday's game was a complete and total display of "Billick Ball". Unbalanced bad play calling and executing offense. Can we get a patent on this phrase Mike? We had "Marty Ball" and "Dungy Ball". Surely the old Compu Coach deserves one.

When questioned, whether he'd consider strarting Boller against SF, Billick's response, according to your column, was that McNair's effort was very, very good. Not just good or very good, but very, very good. What game was Billick watching?

I don't know what Billick is going to do. We are looking terrible as a whole team. billick does need to decide who is going to play quarterback. Steve is getting old, let kyle get some bump he looked pretty good the other game.
Brian don't let trent come through this sunday and get a win against us. We want to go atleast 10-6. GET IT TOGETHER

Mike --

With all due respect, Brian Billick has moved beyond not having a feel for the game of football -- he's moved into the pathological realm of not having a feel for reality. His actions (or non actions) on the field, coupled with his post game interveiws clearly demonstrate an individual who has lost touch with reality. And if he's allowed to remain the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, he's going to get players hurt when it could be avoided. And that is beyond unacceptable.

Questioning Billick's Feel for his Team! Not just a given game......

These guys need to realize they are not a good team right now. I am sick of hearing - those guys get paid too. Is that what they were saying when they thought they were Contenders? It is the Coach who needs to figure out a way to turn this around. It never fails to amaze me that this guy still thinks everything is OK. We could very well be 1-3 right now. He needs to hold people accountable and the QB has turned the ball over 8 times this year. McNair is not a very smart guy and we need a QB to play smart. How can he say, "I can't ask for much more out of Steve"? Billick has opened every game passing. I am OK with that against Pittsburgh or a run stopping defense, but Cincy, Cleveland, and Arizona? You have to be kidding me. Do we remember last year when Billick drop kicked Fassel? He said if he was going down it would be him calling the plays. He is going down big time unless something changes this week. He needs to quit playing playstation with our offense. Sunday is a must win for this team and this coach. He is on the verge of losing this team. I can't believe I am saying that in Week 5. This team has all of the personalities of a team that can and will implode and they do not have a Coach that can hold them or pull them back together. This team needs discipline and accountability and that starts with Coach/Camp/Practice Cupcake Leader Billick.

I know 2-2 does not justify turning the season around, but we have not played anyone yet and we are 0-2 in the Division and we have not played Pittsburgh.

sometimes i think brian billick lives in the twilight zone, or better yet opposite world. someone needs to bring this team back to reality. i hope the browns gave them the wake up call.

its plain to everyone else but the fo that billick is a liabilty

Mike, Why do I get the feeling that if Billick replaced McNair, you would have written that Billick has alienated his "Airness" and created a QB controversy where there shouldn't be one. You're not always negative, just when things are going bad. The bottom line on Sunday's game is that the Ravens mistakes and brain lapses allowed a middle of the road Browns team to win. By doing so, they not only need to take care of business in the next three weeks against cream puffs, but they need to win their first three after the bye week . . . . all of which are divisional opponents. To make the playoffs we need to be 4-2 in our division (we are 0-2 right now) and we have know more than 6 losses (NE, Indy and Seattle look like guaranteed L's). That's where the teams focus should be and where your's should be (Just picture Billick fresh off the plane in Tampa for Super Bowl XXV for my tone if you really want to have a chuckle). Our only salvation is that the Norville Turner H Bomb has gone off in San Diego (as I predicted) which makes that game look much more winnable now.

I agree. I am not sure why he did not pull McNair. It always amazes me and it always seems to happen. McNair looks awful for the whole game then at the very end when the game is out of reach he starts to look ok.

Is it the prevent D? I don't know. I hate saying this but it may have gotten to the point that Boller may be the answer. We have the best receivers we have had for years. We need someone to get them the ball.

P.S I am glad Clarence Moore is not one of them any more.

Brian Billick is the hands down most ineupt head coach in the NFL. He looks lost in the red zone on offense and defense. Every time he tries to challenge he is slow, I make the call at home before he does and he's on the field. McNair looks scared or numb or something. He looks like he has given up, and if he hits his check down reciever again I am going to be sick. He can't throw more than 10 yards, he has no emotion, and looks lost. Boller has a passer rating of close to 110 and low interceptions it's time to give him the reigns, and at least show some fire instead of looking like you just want to retire.(McNair) I was ready to go to the Super Bowl now I,m just hoping we win a division game.

You guys are right... its gotten way beyond ridiculous, and it needs to be said that we have to stop just blameing Billick, he's obviously way out of touch with planet earth .We have to start faceing the fact that Ozzie and Steve are just as much to blame .you cant blame a crazy person for being crazy... you can blame his boss and his employer for letting him keep his job at our expense.

Offense is not about total yards, or overall ranking, although those barometers are measures. Offense is about reading your and your opponent's strengths, and reacting accordingly during the intensity of the game.

It's about the WR's running different routes, and watching how the corners bite, and then coming in the huddle and telling the QB what play may work. The QB watches the formation, and either goes with the play called, or audibles, exploiting the opponent's weakness at the most opportune time.

Offense is about the tackles blowing the defensive line off the line, or seeing that his man does not react well laterally, or is fooled on traps, or his man has a look of fear and resignaiton in his eye - and then going back to the huddle and getting plays called to take advantage of what he the tackles has seen in the trenches.

Offense is third and two, and the QB observing that the defense has 9 men on the line, and seeing that the cover corner is 8 yards off the WR, and then audibling from that run play up the middle and to that WR for an easy 5 yard gain.

An offense has to adapt to the game situation. A rigid dogmatic, leader who is more concerned about his ego more than winning cannot give the offense the flexibility to succeed. QB's have to be allowed to audible, instead of forced to go with plays that are ddomed to failure based on the defensive call for that play. Grbac had just come off a pro-bowl year, and then he comes here and "forgets" how to play QB. Please. The poor guy came to an offense where he was not allowed to audible, did not have screens or play action, and had to telegraph every play called with a predictable offensive scheme. Billick wants all the authority, he is also going to have to accept accountability. and the day is drawing nearer...

Just remember.. You get what you wished for. If coach Billick is doing such a bad job...( I guess the players have no responsibility in this), then who should the organization get ? Ahhhhhh, maybe Norv Turner since the San Diego organization thought the coach was thier problem. Ouch!!!!!

all I'm going to say is, STEVE McMESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chuck said:

"Just remember.. You get what you wished for. If coach Billick is doing such a bad job...( I guess the players have no responsibility in this), then who should the organization get ? Ahhhhhh, maybe Norv Turner since the San Diego organization thought the coach was thier problem. Ouch!!!!! "

How many times will the apologists keep coming up with this same tired line? As if NORV TURNER were the only head coach candidate out there. Give it a rest already. You -- and the rest of the moronic apologist homers out there like you. It's a stupid, one-dimensional red herring argument, so knock it off already. Nobody but you and the choir to which you're preaching is buying it. Billick has to go. Period. He's out of his friggin mind. And as Rob Donna pointed out -- it's now in the hands of Bisciotti and Newsome. It's up to them to do their jobs and find a suitable replacement. Sooner, rather than later.

Brian Billick came to the Ravens as the Head Coach and an ofensive guru. He has failed in every asspect to produce an offense that's woth watching during his time as a guru. I love the Ravens, they represent my home town. But there is no way this guy should be the head coach next year. Some may think that my comments are from an armchair qaurterback but believe me I know the game and he doesn't have one.