Ravens Offensive woes have wasted Ray Lewis' career

Living here in Baltimore and being a Ravens fan it has been surprisingly stressful. Since 2000 the Ravens have only had three losing seasons, they have gone to the playoffs seven times, won a division title, two AFC Championship game appearances and a Super Bowl title. Not much to complain about right, well as Lee Corso would say 'not so fast my friend'. As good as this decade run has been believe it or not it could or really should have been better. During that run we in Baltimore have witnessed maybe the most consistent and dominant defense in NFL history. A defense that currently has two sure fire hall of famers and maybe a third with Haloti Ngata. As awesome as the defense has been the offense has been just as bad and at times has held this team back from achieving true greatness. Monday nights debacle was unfortunately a tough reminder of how the Ravens inability to build an offense has wasted the career of maybe the best defensive player in NFL history.

There is a new show on ESPN called Numbers Never Lie, so what better way to show you how far apart these two units are than by the numbers. The Ravens have always been known for their great defense and when you look at the two most important categories (Yards allowed and Points allowed), they are truly elite. Since 1999 the Ravens have ranked in the top 10 in those two categories every year except for 3 occasions. During that same time the Ravens offense has ranked in the top 10 only twice in those same categories. Its easy to say that the O has always been in the shadow of the defense. For the most part the talent of that side of the ball has been terrible. I don't have to remind the Ravens fans of the Kyle Boller era. Really for that stretch our offense was Jamal and Heap and that was it. Its not just Boller though that was a huge disappointment. The Ravens drafted guys like Travis Taylor and Mark Clayton and most of their offensive draft picks have been busts. Ozzie Newsome is a great GM but for some reason finding an offense that works has been a struggle during his tenure.

Despite all the failures I actually like the pieces the Ravens have on offense this season. Joe Flacco, for all the crap he gets in this town I believe is more than capable of leading this team to a championship. Which makes Monday's embarrassing performance even more head scratching and disappointing. So whats the problem with this offense, is Joe not ready to be the leader? is Cam Cameron the problem? I wish I could answer it and so does all of Baltimore. The Ravens defense has allowed 13.8 points a game so far this year. That essentially means they need the offense to score 14-17 points per game, not a lot, no reason they shouldn't be 6-0. Most offenses can do that so why cant the Ravens?

Now back to my original point and the title of this entry. I don't want people to take this in the wrong way. Regardless of how many rings Lewis wins most will say he is at least the best linebacker to ever play, and hes in the conversation for best defensive player ever. Maybe 'waste' isn't the right word but if you can think of better one throw it out there. If you took the Colts offense of the past decade and put it with this Ravens defense tell me they wouldn't have won multiple championships. Try all you can to refute it but you cant, this offense has prevented the best linebacker from being a multiple champion. The Ravens should be ashamed that they haven't been able to put together more than a mediocre offense to counter their legendary defense.

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Perfect Start brings tempered Enthusiasm

The Washington Capitals have consistently been among the best teams in the NHL over the past couple of seasons. The one problem has been the constant failures in the postseason, never getting past the second round in the past four trips. So if you're a Caps fan you should be excited but its a long season and a lot more to be decided. So for right now I'll give some things I like and some things that might need some tweaking as the season moves along.

The most important part for me is the goal tending. The Caps have had young, talented but unproven goaltenders the last couple seasons. Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth both showed glimpses of being really good but they are still too young to carry a team, and of course Varlamov is no longer in Washington. So in the off season the Caps picked up veteran net minder Tomas Vokoun. Of course in typical Caps fashion Vokoun's first start in the red sweater was an offensive shootout in which he allowed 5 goals on just 28 shots. Since then Vokoun has allowed 5 goals in 4 games including a shutout against his former squad Florida. It is extremely early in the season but in the recent run of success the Caps have yet to have a dependable goalkeeper. Its unrealistic to expect Vokoun to keep up this kind of pace, especially when facing 40 shots a night. However hes the kind of goalie when hot can shut down the best teams in hockey and when you have the offensive power of Washington, advantage Capitals.

This second point ill bring up is what at least for me tempers my enthusiasm for now. In the Caps 6-0 start 13 different Capitals have put the puck in the net. Which means that Ovechkin is getting the support he needs. However getting production from his supporting cast in the regular season has never been the problem, its the postseason. In 37 career postseason games Ovechkin has 25 goals and 50 points, pretty damn good for your star player. Lets take a look at the other two members of the big three, first Nicklas Backstrom. In the same 37 games Backstrom has just 12 goals, none is last years run and 32 points. As for Alexander Semin he also has 12 goals and 30 points, and in the 2010 playoffs he went goal-less. At the very least the Caps need production from all members of their big three to make a deep postseason run.

Last thing ill mention which again has always been a problem in the Nations Capital, the defense. In two of their games they have allowed over 40 shots, now granted it was to two of the best teams in the east (Pittsburgh & Philadelphia) but those kind of nights have to be few and far between. Just watching as a fan in some games, not all, there seem to stretches of the game where the Caps are playing a large chunk of the period in their end of the ice. Vokoun has been good but he needs more games like the Panthers when he only faces 20 shots.

I and others can nitpick about certain things but the bottom line is the Caps haven't played their best hockey yet and they are 6-0. This Saturday will be yet another test as Detroit comes into DC. Win that game and the Caps become the early favorite to win the cup. Which is nice but we all know they don't decide the cup in October, the Caps have to translate their regular season dominance into a Stanley Cup Championship, another postseason failure is not an option for this team.

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