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On Sunday evening, the Baltimore Ravens suffered one of their more improbable losses (among many to choose from) with a 41-40 road defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Bills to begin the season 0-1. The Ravens led this game 40-25 more than halfway through the final frame, but ended up relinquishing three straight scoring drives to league MVP Josh Allen and company to lose on a game-winning field goal.
While the Derrick Henry fumble has drawn the majority of the headlines for what led to the Ravens’ demise, another key factor was the three-and-out that Baltimore had with just under two minutes left that would have put the game on ice had they been able to get a first down.
Lamar Jackson completed a pass on third down to get the Ravens within two yards of the first down, causing some to wonder if John Harbaugh would elect to go for it. Instead, the Ravens punted, and Buffalo drove all the way down the field to win.
Now, Harbaugh is doubling down on that decision to punt amid fan backlash.
“John Harbaugh said he punted on 4th-and-3 in the fourth quarter because he trusts his defense and he made the point that he’s going to trust the defense going forward,” reported Jamison Hensley of ESPN on X, formerly Twitter.
“I’m not shying away from putting my defense out there,” said Harbaugh, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. “I trust our defense and I’m going to trust our defense this year in a lot of big situations because our defense is going to be really, really good. I know there’s a lot of doubt about that right now.”
There is indeed immense doubt about that after the defense was carved up to the tune of 22 points in the fourth quarter.
The Ravens have garnered a reputation during the Lamar Jackson era of being a team that is immensely talented but struggles to win big games, often failing to do so in spectacular fashion, and all of those hallmarks were fulfilled during Sunday’s loss to the Bills.
There’s no doubt that the Ravens will be a force this year with Jackson and Henry leading the charge, but until they can play their best in the biggest moments, there will be considerable doubt as to whether they can win the whole thing.
The Ravens will next take the field on Sunday vs the Cleveland Browns at home.
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