Right Off Russell

I have not heard a lot of chatter about this, but I think that Demetrius Williams should be getting more time than Mark Clayton. The coaching staff is making a mistake by giving Clayton back his starting role when it is clear he cannot get open consistently right now. When healthy, Clayton may be the better all around receiver and tougher player than Williams. The problem is that Clayton is slowed by injury and his abilities are too similar to Derrick Mason’s to give the Ravens a diverse passing attack.

Williams, for all his ability, has been in the dog house for most of the year. Whether it is lack of toughness, work ethic, or that he has burned bridges with the coaching staff he has been relegated to the bench when Clayton has been healthy enough to play. The Ravens need Williams’ ability to get down field and his size to go up and get balls. Williams can open up the field in ways that Clayton cannot and Joe Flacco had a greater comfort level giving him opportunities to make plays. And Williams did make plays, albeit against lesser competition.

I hope the coaching staff is flexible enough to use Williams against the Pats, especially since they are going to try and take away Derrick Mason and stuff the run. The Ravens will need other play makers in the passing game. Right now Williams is more capable than Clayton.

BaltimoreRavens.com
Nov 30, 2009

Head Coach John Harbaugh
(opening statement) “I can tell you right now, about injuries – I don’t know a thing. You know, I just haven’t had a chance to look into it. But [Senior Vice President of Public/Community Relations] Kevin [Byrne] kind of got that covered. First of all, what a game. We’ve had a few of these this year. We’ve had a few where we’ve walked in here, been in this kind of football game, and they’re not perfect, and they don’t lay out exactly the way you might plan them, and we come up on the short end. We didn’t come up on the short end tonight. Our guys came up on the long end of this one. I was proud of them in those other situations when we didn’t win, and I’m proud of them in this situation when we did win. Maybe just a little bit more, I’m proud, to be honest with you. But that’s a really good football team. We were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’m really not interested in hearing questions about who didn’t play for them and who didn’t play for us. That quarterback over there, Dennis Dixon, is a player. We liked him coming out of the draft. He can throw. He made some tremendous throws, especially in the first half. They caught us a little bit…we had an all out blitz, and they just had a great call, and they executed it well. It was a perfect call, really, against that defense, and the young guy made a great play. So, I have a ton of respect for that football team, and we’re very proud of this victory.”
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