The Ravens and their fans find themselves in the awkward, yet fortunate, position of trying to celebrate the achievements of last year’s team for all that they accomplished, while also turning one eye toward the future and figuring out what types of adjustments will be necessary to remain competitive and to possibly make another Super Bowl run. So far, all of that talk has seemingly begun and ended with the speculation about Joe Flacco’s contract. Until that matter is resolved, the Ravens will have a tough time making any other decisions about their future, as the salary cap is wholly undetermined until that time.

Reflection on the convergence of circumstances that led to the Ravens improbable playoff run and Super Bowl victory would be difficult to believe if we hadn’t witnessed it with our own eyes. For all of the tremendous and heart wrenching storylines that unfolded around the team, it was a difficult decision made at a difficult time that seemed to have the biggest impact on the team’s ultimate success. Parting company with long time Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron, and replacing him with Quarterbacks Coach Jim Caldwell was likely the biggest of the numerous catalysts to the Ravens success.

Since that time, Cameron has probably shouldered an unfair amount of the blame. It’s tough to indict Cameron’s offense as the cause of all of the Ravens problems without at least giving him some credit for the foundation he built under those guys. And Caldwell has probably gotten an overstated amount of credit too. It’s unlikely that whatever it was that the Ravens were lacking under Cameron, was taught to them by Caldwell in just about 2 ½ weeks before crunch time was upon them. Make no mistake though, without the change being made, the season probably plays out much differently and the Ravens probably aren’t the Super Bowl champions.

What we have seen from the Caldwell led offense has been enough to have fans giddy with anticipation over what next year might be for this offense. It also has to have the Ravens concerned about the potential of their OC being a lame duck.

John Harbaugh’s ride as Ravens Head Coach has been an interesting one to say the least. As a former Special Teams Coordinator, Harbaugh is typically (and unfairly) seen as a master of neither offense nor defense. Therefore, when fans have praise or criticism to dole out on one side of the ball or the other, it usually bypasses the Head Coach and falls directly to his coordinators. This has been (mostly) a convenient position for Harbaugh.

One thing that can’t be denied is that Harbaugh’s confidence has outpaced his experience since his arrival in Baltimore and has been an essential part of his success as well. While most guys given head coaching opportunities, for the first time ever, at the NFL level have seemed to go out of their way to clear out any coaches from their supporting staff with NFL head coaching experience, Harbaugh has embraced these types.

In his first season as Head Coach, Harbaugh’s staff featured Cameron, vanquished from Miami, Jim Zorn, fresh off a head coaching stint with the Redskins, and Rex Ryan, with whom he competed for the Ravens top job. In business, top managers and CEOs have been called wise for embracing a willingness to surround themselves with people smarter than themselves in the areas that those people are hired to preside over. Harbaugh has done this at the NFL level and done it successfully. Welcoming Jim Caldwell as QB Coach last season was further evidence of that philosophy.

Another aspect of the Ravens success, one that precedes Harbaugh, on the defensive side of the ball has been the practice of promoting from within. The downside of dominant defense has been the tendency of other teams to scalp defensive coaches from the Ravens. The lineage of Ravens Defensive Coordinators, going back to Marvin Lewis, has always entailed replacing the departing coach with someone already on staff and already familiar with the language, tendencies and philosophies that made the last coach successful. The Ravens would do well to make that happen on the offense too. The question becomes whether or not that candidate is already on staff.

Make no mistake about it; with his influence over the Ravens post-season run, Jim Caldwell has made himself a hot commodity once again. It’d be fair to suggest that Caldwell is already at the top of most head coaching wish lists for 2014. Couple that with “Rooney Rule” requirements and the vocal disappointment of the league over no opportunities given to minority head coaches this year, and Caldwell is all but gone barring an offensive catastrophe for the Ravens in 2013.

So while the Ravens haven’t always felt compelled to have a QB coach on staff, it would seem imperative not only to find one for 2013, but moreover to find one that they’d feel comfortable grooming to succeed Caldwell when he likely rides off into the sunset for a head coaching gig after next season.

At some point this morning all hell broke loose in Owings Mills. It’s not often – or I’m not sure it’s ever been done before successfully – that an offensive coordinator of a 9-4 football team that produced 21 points of road offense in the first 21 minutes of a game is fired less than 21 hours later.

But it happened this morning. Tony Dungy got a leak from Jim Caldwell and gave it to Dan Patrick, who then gave it to Mike Florio. And then we learned that Cam Cameron was fired and told his friend Jamie Costello at ABC2.

Word is that there were some rather harsh words exchanged, feelings hurt and that Cameron was shocked by everything about the decision, which wasn’t made solely by John Harbaugh. WNST has also learned that Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti was directly involved in the decision as well.

The Baltimore Ravens were 53-24 & 5-4 in playoffs during his tenure as offensive coordinator. He also inherited a rookie QB, RB & first offense without Jon Ogden at left tackle in 2008.

WNST.net monitored it minute to minute on Twitter and we’re all still sorting through everything but what’s obvious – the Baltimore Ravens are struggling in lots of ways right now to win a game and Cam Cameron obviously worked his way through the doghouse of John Harbaugh and was shown the door this morning.

It might never be reported what happened last night in the mind of Harbaugh and/or Bisciotti or how long this change has been brewing – and don’t expect him to be forthcoming in his press conference when questioned about the change – but it’s now done, and veteran offensive mind and QB guru Jim Caldwell will take over a sputtering offense that he’s had almost a calendar year to dissect and learn with Joe Flacco at the helm.

What will really change this Sunday vs. the Denver Broncos?

Who knows?

But Cam Cameron didn’t have false starts. Cam Cameron didn’t put the offense in 1st & 23s, 2nd & 17s and 3rd & 11s. Cam Cameron didn’t miss blocks and assignments. Cam Cameron didn’t throw high and long or short and low to Torrey Smith. Cam Cameron didn’t have separation issues or troubles finding holes in the running attack. Cam Cameron didn’t let Ben Grubbs walk away last offseason.

Cam Cameron calls plays. Now Jim Caldwell will probably call a lot of the same plays.

This Broncos game can now be deemed a “must-win” game given the Ravens’ stated desire to have a first-round bye that was looking so likely eight mornings ago when they were 9-2 and coming off a heady, miraculous win in San Diego.

Perhaps Caldwell was headed to the open market in a few weeks to become an offensive coordinator or even a head coach in the coming weeks? Maybe Cameron and Harbaugh had a falling out? How involved did Steve Bisciotti get last night after an embarrassing loss in D.C.?

Feel free to speculate away because you will anyway…

But however you slice it, it’s a very radical move this morning by John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens organization.

Sometimes these things take root and championships are won.

And sometimes, it’s the first chair off the Titanic..

Harbaugh will be asked a lot of questions. He will wish Cam Cameron well. And in six days the Denver Broncos are coming to town to play a team that clearly hit the panic button this morning.

Harbaugh won’t call it the panic button and would berate me if I asked him that question but I’m not sure that under any circumstance that this is the desired pathway for a Super Bowl team.

His brother Jim Harbaugh endured heavy media and fan heat three weeks ago for changing starting quarterbacks while in first place. Now, in the midst of December with a 9-4 team flailing in many phases of the game and after the defense and special teams floundered in D.C. with the game (and a lead) in the balance, John Harbaugh has guillotined his offensive coordinator with three games left on the 2012 calendar.

I always laugh when the fans scream to fire the coach or bench the QB in the middle of any season.

It looks like John Harbaugh has finally succumbed after hearing the chants of the radicals and fired his O.C. on a Monday morning.

Some of you finally got what you wanted – heads to roll when the team is 9-4.

In the wake of the Ravens loss on Sunday, the “Fire Cam Cameron” mob is once again fashioning their torches and sharpening their pitchforks. To anyone who’s been watching this team over the 4+ years that are the John Harbaugh / Cam Cameron era it shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, it was Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti who himself helped to fuel and to further this conversation by declaring “Cam under fire” following the 2010 season. Although Cameron seemed to survive his “under fire” season of a year ago and despite the fact that the Ravens found themselves within an eyelash of a Super Bowl appearance last year, the “fire Cameron” crowd is growing in size and urgency by the day.

At this point it might be fair to ask, if fans and even the owner perceive Cameron as a liability, then why hasn’t John Harbaugh seen it too? Is Harbaugh simply loyal to a fault and to the detriment of the team or might there be more to the situation than meets the eye?

When the Ravens brought Cameron in to run their offense I was opposed to the move. I was opposed on the grounds that in just one year he had overseen a near mutiny (to use a familiar term) taking place on his Dolphins team but that wasn’t even my biggest beef. The bigger issue that I had with Cameron related to his time in San Diego. It was easy to see first that both Drew Brees and Philip Rivers seemed to flourish when removed from Cameron’s system. In Brees’ case, Cameron and the San Diego staff failed not only to utilize his talents to their fullest potential, but they failed to even give him much of a shot. After one year at the helm of the Chargers offense, Brees was benched in favor of Doug Flutie and then saw the team draft his replacement in Rivers shortly thereafter. And while all of the aforementioned was troubling, that still wasn’t my biggest concern with Cam Cameron running the offense.

My issue, or expectation of the Cameron offense was based on something much simpler. During his time at the helm of the Chargers, it seemed that Cameron’s offense did everything over the middle of the field. Despite San Diego’s tendency to stock their receiving corps with big and physical pass catchers, there was absolutely no effort made to utilize them outside of the hash marks. With “up the middle” talent like Antonio Gates and LaDanian Tomlinson, it’s easy to understand why this was the philosophy but still worth mentioning that essentially ignoring the outsides of the field made things easier for opposing defenses.

Now fast-forward to and through Cameron’s first 4+ seasons in Baltimore and the exact opposite is true. It seems that here, Cameron’s offense only operates outside of the numbers and does nothing over the middle. When assessing the personnel at hand, again it’s easy to understand why. The Ravens lack the middle of the field “power forwards” that so many teams have begun to put to use in creating mismatches over the middle. The Ravens seem to lack confidence in their pass catchers and therefore look at balls off the fingertips outside as likely to go out of bounds while balls off the fingertips over the middle are more likely to find their way into the arms of waiting safeties.

Having the benefit of a strong armed quarterback in Joe Flacco who’s easily able to flick balls outside of the numbers and more than willing to check down to Ray Rice when those options aren’t there, it seems that Cameron’s offense is once again allowing opposing defenses the luxury of not having to account for the whole field. He’s gone from a guy who ran nothing outside of the hash marks to a guy who now runs everything outside the hash marks.

On one hand he could be applauded for adapting his game plans to suit his personnel, but on the other hand he’s a guy who has consistently allowed defenses the luxury of not exactly knowing what’s coming, but at least of being able to rule out a number of things that aren’t coming. For these reasons, it’s my opinion that Cameron should be under fire. But…