Did the Ravens offense really want to win this season?

In looking back at the Ravens 2010 season, as well as their most recent fall to the Steelers on Saturday, the natural reaction is to ask the question, how did the offense fail so badly? For a team with a highly ranked defensive line, the offense has been mediocre at best all year ranking 16th in the NFL for points and 22nd in yards.

I have to admit that a lot of the problem on Saturday in Pittsburgh was the play-calling, but deep down I know that the bigger problem was our offensive line. While I was home from college over Christmas break, I spoke to Jonathan Ogden and Qadry Ismail about what their Super Bowl winning offense had that ours simply didn't. Their answer essentially was grit. They both commented that in 2000, the offensive line had an attitude of domination and ferocity that was missing from the Ravens offense this season. 

We saw highlight worthy plays from Ray Rice and incredible catches by Todd Heap periodically this season, but there was never a consistent determination on behalf of the offense to obliterate the opponent. In comparison to Ray Lewis' "You won't touch our end-zone attitude", Joe Flacco seems to have failed at igniting that same spark in his offensive players. I think that Flacco needs to really strengthen his leadership ability as well as his technical skills in the off-season if he wants to continue to grow into a widely respected NFL quarterback.

Of course there are people who will argue that Cam Cameron was the problem or that we underused players like Boldin, McClain, or Housh, but if we are being honest with ourselves as Ravens fans I think we need to look at whether we really had a "take no prisoners" mentality or whether we were just going through the motions and happened to win the majority of our games. If we want to dominate next season, we need to play each and every opponent as though they are the Pittsburgh Steelers and then maybe we will be able to match the success that we found in 2000. 

I am so proud of my Ravens and everything that they accomplished this season. I would have loved to have seen them accomplish a deeper run in the playoffs but unfortunately Super Bowl dreams were stopped short on Saturday. I will continue to blog for everyone in the off season and hope to develop my own writing abilities to mix in with all of the linking that I do. Thank you to all the players and fans who made this an awesome season and I look forward to all the exciting news that lies ahead regarding the free agents, NFL lockout, 2011 draft picks and more!