Let me start by saying that I will do my best not to go on some long-winded, personnel-bashing, finger pointing rant. I will try as hard as I can not to name too many names or whine and cry. But most of all, I will not make excuses. And neither should the Baltimore Ravens.

After a week following a thrilling win over the hated Pittsburgh Steelers, there was a lot of talk that revolved around the last time Baltimore was in the drivers seat. Unsurprisingly, it seemed as if the loss to Tennessee in the beginning of the year, and then to Jacksonville just two weeks ago, had sunk in. There was to be no hangover this time around; The Ravens had to win in order to prove wrong those who were second guessing their inconsistency. The fans knew it. The players acknowledged that they were of aware it. The coaches claimed they understood as well.

And then came game time.

For the third time this season, the Ravens squandered an opportunity to build on the momentum of a big win against a successful team. They lost yet another chance to prove to the football community that they are the team to beat in the AFC. They missed out on gaining a serious lead in a division that is as unforgiving as any across the NFL. After all of the warnings from the fans and the media, after the Ravens were given the benefit of the doubt from all the analysts, from the bar chatter and from Las Vegas, and after all the assurance we were given back from the players and coaches, Baltimore fell behind early, made careless mistakes and threw away a very winnable game.

The game plan didn’t make sense from the beginning. Ray Rice had four touches in the first half as Baltimore abandoned the run game earlier than necessary, eliminating arguably the best running back in the game before he even got started. And it isn’t like they fell into an unrecoverable hole early; The game was never out of reach, as they proved when Baltimore had a chance to earn a win, even with less than 4 minutes left in the game. But, as if the Jacksonville game began to replay itself, Baltimore lost sight of the game plan, forgot about the balance that a running game brings to an offense and elected to do their worst impression of a Bill Belichick-run team.

Special teams mistakes shone brighter than the hordes of penalties committed by Seattle, penalties that would cause most teams to lose a game by a considerable margin. Turnovers and a lack of adaptation to the Seahawk 4-3 defense, an Achilles heel for the Ravens all season,  was the final nail in the coffin.  It became obvious from the beginning of the second half that Baltimore wasn’t going to be able to recover from this deficit like they had done in previous weeks.

So who does the shovel of the game go to? Whose shoulders does the weight of another letdown fall on? I said I wouldn’t name names but screw it. Cam Cameron is the main man to blame. They always say, the performance on the field is the responsibility of the coaching staff; In this case, the problems lie mainly under the command of Cameron. His play calling has been questionable at best, his game plans have been horrendous, and he isn’t winning over many fans by his lack of ability to adapt throughout the game or put more faith in his “franchise” quarterback.

Maybe it’s stubbornness, an ego problem that is the roadblock keeping the Ravens’ offense from becoming consistent. Maybe Cam Cameron can’t let go of the playbook because he wants to save face; His safety net is his ability to bury his face in the pages when things turn sour. When Flacco does get the opportunity to make the play calling, it is usually because the Ravens have already fallen behind and it has to be done. Is hard-headedness the cause of the Ravens’ failures?

But, in fairness, to blame the coaching staff means that John Harbaugh has to be held to some sort of accountability as well. Harbaugh was quoted after the game as saying, “We’re not licking our wounds. We’re not licking our wounds. We’re moving on. We are going to correct our mistakes…”.

After the week two loss to Tennessee, those types of comments were acceptable. They were believable. Under Harbaugh’s regime, the Ravens had never been a team to consistently lose to teams that are worse than they are. After the game against Jacksonville, those comments lost a lot of their muster. All of a sudden, Baltimore seemed to have a weakness. But we decided to keep the faith and were rewarded with a comeback victory against Arizona and a second win against the Steelers.

Nobody expected the Ravens to underestimate a team again. Everybody involved said the right things. They had confidence. They had swagger. And then we discovered they had no game plan.

The players can be blamed as much as you want to lay on them. You can say that Flacco made mistakes. The defense gave up the big drive at the end of the game after having Seattle backed up on their 1 yard line and a 1st and 20. David Reed single-handedly (get it? because he didn’t hold the ball with two hands) lost the entire game. But the fact is, the glaring coaching issues seemed to be the most obvious; Cam Cameron has become consistent in a way that he should not be proud of.

The front office should take a long, hard look at the offensive coordinator duties at the end of this season. With the potential that this offense has, as we have seen displayed in games this season, there is no reason why it should not be a week-in and week-out thing. Forget worrying about hurt feelings or having to teach Flacco all over again; This team is a group of hard-nosed football players that go out of their way to prove their toughness. It’s about time the fans got to see that displayed every time they go out on the field.