NEW ORLEANS -- Jim Caldwell has received plenty of attention for taking over a Baltimore Ravens offense that's gone from scattershot to high-octane on the path to Super Bowl XLVII.
Caldwell, oozing humility, told me during Tuesday's Media Day festivities that the transformation has been more about minor fixes and less about some wild reimagination of the scheme.
"We were very inconsistent in a lot of different areas," Caldwell said of the offense he inherited from Cam Cameron in December. "The big thing was to try to get some consistency. We were getting penalized a little bit too much ... and we weren't consistent enough in our running game, so we gave it a little bit of an opportunity to be successful. Ran the ball a little more -- put an emphasis on it -- and moved from there."
Caldwell won't boast, but Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome praised his coordinator's ability to take control of the situation and present clear solutions to problems.
"There's no better person than Jim Caldwell -- how he handles things," Newsome said. "That first time I heard him read a report -- an evaluation of the quarterback -- I knew exactly what he was saying. He did it so clear, so you could understand how he could relate to people."
Running back Ray Rice gushed Tuesday over Caldwell's ability to communicate with his players.
"One thing about him, he kept it simple," Rice said. "But he has that way of saying something, and he gets it across to everybody."
Said Caldwell: "I have to be myself. I've been in this business a long time. It's my 37th year and it's too late for me to change who I am."
There's a natural desire to unpack and decode what changed in Baltimore's offense. What levers were pulled -- it has to be complex, right? The people closest to this operation seem to say otherwise, instead preaching clarity and execution.
"It's not the first time I've called plays," Caldwell reminded a handful of reporters.
That probably doesn't hurt, either.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
