It's official, Cam Cameron will remain offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens through the 2012 season. Many fans will undoubtedly punch their television, hit their steering wheel, or attempt to strangle an innocent bystander when they hear the news, but Harbaugh made it clear that Cameron is not going anywhere. This decision confuses me, however, as the Ravens got rid of Greg Mattison (thank GOD!) immediately after 1 season where the Ravens exhibitted a pattern of giving up 4th quarter leads and recorded only 27 sacks. Why then would the Ravens elect to keep Cam Cameron when the Raven's periodic offensive ineptitude led to road losses in 5 out of 9 away games this season?
I heard on the radio in the last 48 hours that the Ravens elected to keep Cam Cameron because they most likely would be too hesitant to head into the 2012 season with both a new offensive coordinator AND a new defensive coordinator as Chuck Pagano recently departed to Indianapolis to become the Colts' new head coach. Cameron will keep his job, but he will no longer serve as the quarterbacks coach as well. Flacco's noticable statistical decline during the 2011 season demonstrated that Cam Cameron simply wasn't up to that task. What task IS Cam Cameron up to though? He had a long list of offensive playmakers (Ray Rice, Vonta Leach, Anquan Boldin, Torrey Smith, Ricky Williams, Dennis Pitta, and Joe Flacco) and a top ranked defense that gave the offense plenty of opportunities to make something happen, and yet somehow Cameron still called plays that left the Ravens with the 19th ranked passing offense and the 10th ranked rushing offense. Hindsight is 20/20, but this isn't just hindsight. These are issues that fans complained about before the beginning of this season. The Ravens did go 13-5 for the second year in a row, but it was not because of the offensive play calling... it was in spite of it.
As unhappy as I was to hear about Cam Cameron staying aboard the Ravens organization, I was equally happy to hear that Dean Pees is the new Ravens defense coordinator. Dean Pees has clearly overcome a childhood undoubtedly filled with ridicule regarding his name to become a fantastic defensive coordinator. During his 4 year stint in New England, the Patriots ranked in the top 10 in points allowed each season. Pees' defense recorded the fewest yards allowed per game in almost 30 years in 2007. Soon after Pees' departure, however, the Patriots' defense dropped to the second worst in the NFL, thus displaying his value as a coordinator.
In the end, players such as Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Haloti Ngata, Terrell Suggs, and more recently Lardarius Webb, Cary Williams, Jimmy Smith, Bernard Pollard, and Pernell McPhee make coordinating the Ravens defense a relatively easy task compared to coordinating the defense of just about any other NFL team. Pees may even prove an upgrade over Pagano, though I don't intend to discount the job Chuck did in his short time as the Ravens' DC.
What have we learned today? Well that's easy. The Ravens will have a great defense in 2012 again, and Ravens fans will once again have to watch uneasily and hope Cam Cameron decides to change things up a bit. Let's hope the Ravens will be able to address their needs at linebacker and the offensive line as well as re-sign their most important players that just became free agents. Tune in on Monday as I'll be going over the value each one of the Ravens' free agents. As always, GO RAVENS...in the Probowl.
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