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When Will Someone Please Fire Brian Billick?

It’s one thing to be out-coached by the opposing side, but Brian Billick proved once again the master of out-coaching himself. From The Sun Chronicle report of the Monday night showdown between the Ravens and the undefeated Pats:

Trailing 24-20 and taking over at their own 27 with 3:30 left, the Patriots had driven down to the Baltimore 30 and were facing a fourth-and-1 situation when Tom Brady appeared to be stuffed by Baltimore’s Bart Scott for a loss on a keeper. But a split-second before the play went off, Billick had called timeout from the sideline, negating the loss.

Yes, overmatched Baltimore, all but left for dead by the national sports pundits, had a chance to win the biggest upset of the year only to be thwarted by their own head coach. After gaining the first down following the ill-advised timeout, the Pats of course marched down the field — helped by a questionable interference call in the end zone (with the troll-like Bob Kraft gazing down from his box) — and scored a touchdown for the lead and the win.

And afterwards, did Billick accept some blame for the call that basically killed Baltimore’s chances for victory?

“We called the timeout. If he had gotten the first (down), it would have been (reporters) screaming, ‘Why didn’t you call the timeout?’ Let’s make sure we don’t have a revisionist history,” said Ravens’ coach Brian Billick in a drastically curtailed post-game interview.

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