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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