Ravens’ McNair Era Ends With a Thud

 Hopefully, Ravens fans will eventually be able to remember
 the good that Steve McNair did in a Baltimore uniform.

 How he provided an instant spark during a 2006 season that saw the Ravens
 finish a franchise-best 13-3. How he was so efficient, and such a leader, and
 how he brought Baltimore back from the brink of disaster on more than one
 occasion.

 Because right now, all Ravens fans see is a finished, damaged quarterback who
 gives their team zero chance to win.

 Any lingering apologists who argued that Monday night's debacle against the
 Steelers had more to do with Pittsburgh's strength than McNair's ineptitude
 are now gone, having slunk out of M&T Bank Stadium some time in the second
 half of a 21-7 clunker to the last-place Bengals.

 The thinking entering Week 10 stated that if McNair couldn't get it done
 against the woeful Cincinnati secondary, that he simply couldn't get it done.

 Now, there's no disputing that the classy veteran just can't.

 In a little over three quarters of play, McNair failed to lead a single
 scoring drive against a 2-6 team that had surrendered 30.5 points per game in
 its first eight outings.

 Every time the Baltimore defense gave McNair a chance to turn things around,
 which it did by holding a powerful Bengals offense to seven field goals, the
 quarterback and his offense refused to take advantage.

 He lost two fumbles, threw an interception in the end zone, and generally did
 little else of note before being mercifully replaced by Kyle Boller late in
 the proceedings. McNair finished with 128 yards on 17-of-28 passing, his
 longest pass play going for 17 yards, a sad way to end his meaningful tenure
 as the starting quarterback of the Ravens.

 Baltimore head coach Brian Billick must go with Boller now if there is any
 glimmer of hope that this season will be turned around. Boller is just
 adequate on his best day, but a search for adequacy is what it has come to
 after three straight defeats.

 Clearly, making a change at the quarterback position isn't the only major move
 that Billick must make going forward. Perhaps relinquishing play-calling
 duties to offensive coordinator Rick Neuheisel would have an inspirational
 effect similar to what was derived when Billick fired Jim Fassel in the middle
 of 2006.

 Perhaps a shuffling of the depth chart at other positions is also in order.

 Maybe change for the sake of change is in order for a coach that admits he has
 no answers.

 "I don't know," said Billick when asked about the root of the Ravens'
 offensive problems on Sunday. "We had a little bit of a rhythm going.  We ran
 the ball decently.  We just couldn't get enough of it.  I really don't have an
 answer for you right now.  We have to go back and analyze it and see if we can
 come up with a better answer than what we've come up with previously."

 HEY, THERE HE IS

 The only good offensive news for the Ravens on Sunday was the work of wide
 receiver Mark Clayton, who somehow managed to squeeze his first 100-yard game
 of the year out of his team's offensive horror show.

 Clayton finished with eight catches for 107 yards and narrowly missed his
 first touchdown of the season when he was ruled down at the 1-yard line on a
 47-yard play from Kyle Boller late in the fourth quarter (television replays
 seemed to indicate that Clayton had crossed the goal line before his knee
 touched down).

 The former first-round pick out of Oklahoma will need several more
 performances like that one to resuscitate a disappointing 2007 season. Clayton
 led the Ravens with 939 receiving yards in 2006 and looked poised for his
 first 1,000-yard year this season, but a high ankle sprain suffered in the
 preseason prompted a slow start that lingered for the campaign's entire first
 half.

 In his first eight games, Clayton recorded just 21 receptions for 165 yards
 without a score.

 The 100-yard game was the first for a Ravens receiver this season, and the
 first for a Baltimore player since Clayton went for 108 against the Steelers
 last Christmas Eve.

 Clayton now has six 100-yard games as a member of the Ravens, which ties him
 with Derrick Alexander (1996-97) for the top of the Baltimore list in that
 category.

 KNOWING THE SCORE

 The Ravens have just 138 points through their first nine games, an average of
 15.3 per contest, and are on pace to put up only 245 on the year.

 Baltimore's season-low for points in a campaign is the 265 scored by the 2005
 Ravens, a team that finished with a 6-10 mark.

 Last year's Ravens scored 353 points (22.1 point per game), the third-most in
 team history behind the 2003 edition (391 points) and the inaugural Vinny
 Testaverde-led club of 1996 (371).

 NEXT UP: CLEVELAND

 The Ravens will wrap up their two-game homestand against the 5-4 Browns, who
 handed them a 27-13 setback by the banks of Lake Erie back in Week 4.

 Baltimore holds a 11-6 lead in its all-time series with Cleveland, and the
 Ravens swept their AFC North rival in a home-and-home last season, including a
 27-17 affair at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 15. Cleveland is 0-4 in Baltimore
 since last winning there in 2002, and has only swept the Ravens in a home-and-
 home once, in 2001.

 Billick is 11-6 against Cleveland in his career, while the Browns' Romeo
 Crennel is 2-3 against both Billick and the Ravens as a head coach.

Popularity: 41% [?]