Many things are moving in the right direction for the Ravens including wins by the Colts and Patriots. The team is a Patriots win over the Chargers and a win over the Colts away from hosting Baltimore’s first AFC Championship Game since January 3, 1971 when the Baltimore Colts beat the Oakland Raiders 27-17 in Memorial Stadium.
The team is also relatively healthy and there is reason to support the optimism that abounds on both sides of the football. The Ravens have the NFL’s best defense, they field the tenth best offense since Week 7 when Brian Billick took over as offensive coordinator and they lead the league in turnover differential and sack differential. The team’s sole glaring weakness is its punt return game.
In four games since he’s assumed the punt returning duties from the injured B.J. Sams, Ross has averaged 2.8 yards per return on 13 attempts with a long return of 9 yards. Not only are the return results substandard, so too are his questionable hands.
Against the Bills Ross fumbled a punt only to be bailed out by a Gary Stills recovery. He doesn’t appear confident fielding punts in traffic and he is hesitant to run up in traffic to make a fair catch.
In that game against the Bills late in the third quarter, Bills punter Brian Moorman hit a punt from his own 42 while attempting to land the ball inside the Ravens’ 20. Ross failed to come up and make the fair catch between the 15 and 20, opting instead to let it bounce. The end result — Ravens ball at their own 2. The lack of confidence and decisiveness was apparent. The loss of field position can be costly.
And it’s not as though Ross has demonstrated a knack for punt returns, even at the collegiate level. During his four seasons as a Nebraska Cornhusker, Ross returned only 10 punts for 116 yards, the longest of which was 25 yards. There’s just not sufficient experience or explosiveness to simply hand this job over to Ross. And now that he’s shown that he does fumble, is he a post season accident waiting to happen or what?
There has to be another answer?
Some have suggested Mark Clayton to handle the punt return duties. He’s sure handed and fearless and while he doesn’t have top end speed, he does have elusiveness and suddeness, both desirable qualities for a punt return specialist. But almost always, when Clayton and punt return duties are mentioned in the same breath, the topic of injury surfaces.
Let‘s face reality here — injuries can happen any time. They are part of the game and you can’t manage your roster not to get hurt. Winners play to win particularly in the post season.
Take a quick look around the league and you will find players who are very active on offense or defense among the league leaders in punt returns. The names include Pacman Jones (12.9 avg.), Roscoe Parrish (11.4 avg.), Santonio Holmes (10.2 avg.) and Antwaan Randle El (8.8 avg.) All of these players have prominent roles outside of the return game. Collectively they’ve produced 6 touchdowns and of the 64 possible games played among them, they’ve suited up for 63 games, none experiencing any significant injuries.
It’s playoff time and there’s an immediacy to the playoffs that isn’t part of the regular season. It’s time for Brian Billick and the Ravens to feel that immediacy in the punt return game before it’s too late.
