Baltimore Beatdown
Takeaways from the Ravens’ press conference
Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh spoke at his weekly Monday press conference and here are my takeaways from the presser.
The Ravens are defeating the Ravens. They are holding themselves back. And Head Coach John Harbaugh made it known how frustrated he is about it.
“First of all, too many penalties. Way too many penalties. The penalties on offense are the one thing holding us back,” Harbaugh said. That’s the biggest issue. It shows up in different ways... It’s putting us in 1st & 20. It’s putting us to 2nd & 19. And we’re probably the best get-back-on-track offense in the league right now. We’re overcoming those things, but we shouldn’t have to overcome them.”
Harbaugh also harped on the special teams penalties.
“The special teams penalties are unacceptable. They back you up and put you behind,” Harbaugh said. “Those are both unnecessary penalties. They’re both technique penalties. One of them was a leverage penalty on the kickoff return. In terms of not setting up the right way in the right spot, get beat across your face and grab the guy. Not okay. We work hard on that. The other one was the punt return downfield, you don’t try to block somebody on the tip of their shoulder pad because inevitably becomes the back. We coach that all the time. Not okay.”
The penalties are killing the team. So, what will change? Where does the fault lie? Harbaugh paraphrased President Truman.
“The buck stops here,” Harbaugh said. It stops with me. So, it’s my job to make sure we’re doing the things that we have to do. From a coaching standpoint, from a drill standpoint, from an emphasis standpoint, technique standpoint, and making sure guys understand that it’s not okay. It’s not acceptable. We’ve all got to be intentional about getting it stopped and my job to make sure everybody’s focused on it.”
The Ravens once more benched safety Marcus Williams, along with publicly announcing safety Eddie Jackson would not make the trip to Pittsburgh. In their stead was safety Kyle Hamilton and Ar’Darius Washington, with the latter being the only defender to play all 78 defensive snaps against the Steelers. Harbaugh shared his thoughts on Washington and Hamilton’s deep safety play.
“We’re trying to attack some issues we had in the back end, as everybody knows. I thought they played well back there. Those guys did a good job. Ar’Darius had earned that opportunity and had earned that chance by the way he practiced and also by the way he played when he was in there during the course of the season. We put Kyle back there as well. I thought he played very well back there. He did a great job communicating. They both did.”
Harbaugh all but confirmed that will be the unit moving forward, but didn’t give a guarantee.
“That would...
