ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --The Broncos' Week 15 opponent made a coaching change Monday, as the Ravens relieved Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron of his position and promoted Jim Caldwell in his place.
Baltimore dropped its second consecutive game on Sunday, falling 31-28 in overtime at Washington.
Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh called the decision the "hardest thing I've ever had to do as a coach."
"It's not about fair or unfair, right or wrong," Harbaugh said. "My responsibility is to the whole team and what's best for them right now. We need a change. Our plan and our goals are to win games, win our division and get to the playoffs."
Cameron took over as the Ravens' offensive coordinator in 2008, when Harbaugh was hired as the team's Head Coach.
This season, while the Ravens were a top-10 scoring team at 25.5 points per game and lead the AFC North with a 9-4 record, the team is averaging just 353.9 yards per game, which ranks 18th in the league through Week 14.
Caldwell, who had been the team's quarterbacks coach, takes over the play-calling duties for the first time in his 35 years of coaching experience.
That means there isn't a lot of tape that can speak to his tendancies as a play-caller for the Broncos to study as they prepare for a Week 15 game with major playoff seeding implications.
"It's hard to say because we haven't seen what Jimmy's going to do," Head Coach John Fox said. "I wouldn't suspect them to change a whole lot. Again, in one week, they're not going to make wholesale changes. Again, that's something we'll look at."
The Broncos do have some familiarity with Caldwell on their roster in quarterback Peyton Manning, who spent 10 seasons playing under Caldwell on the Indianapolis Colts.
Caldwell was the quarterbacks coach for the Colts for six seasons (2002-07), during which Manning won three of his NFL-record four MVP awards.
During that span, Manning registered NFL highs in completions, completion percentage, passing yards, passing touchdowns and passer rating. During the 2006 season, he earned the Super Bowl XLI MVP with Caldwell serving as the quarterbacks/assistant head coach.
He was promoted to Head Coach in 2009, and served in that position through the 2011 season when both Caldwell and Manning left the Colts for the Ravens and Broncos respectively.
The Broncos defense could benefit from some of that familiarity with the absence of Caldwell's play-calling history.
"He'll give us some insight on what goes on there, but Peyton, he's going to stay on the offense," linebacker Wesley Woodyard said. "He's got a big job already getting the offense taken care of but he's definitely the guy that always spreads wisdom on everything that he sees and knows."
