[News] John Harbaugh Explains Decision To Accept Fourth-Down Penalty

[BR News]

The Ravens accepted an unsportsmanlike conduct call after a defensive stop in the fourth quarter, which ultimately extended the drive and the Raiders turned it into a touchdown.

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[AlwaysA_Raven]

what about the decision for the 2-point conversion when you did not need to..

[Red723]

and this is why Bill Belichek is who he is. He doesn't makes these types of mistakes.

[djdave1984]

I agree with 2 point try..taking that penalty on 4th down was a stupid mistake..Still only if our QB played like he is paid we would have won the game.

[djdave1984]

Or even better if our QB ever played even 80% of what he is paid, we won't have to sweat it out to win games against cleveland or jags or buffalo. The reason our games are never more than 1 score win or less is because every other part of Ravens' team except QB is better then what they are paid. If their roster and coaching staff was given to any other decent average paid QB, we would have just as many if not more wins in last 9 years since Flacco is playing

[BiggMack91]

please fire OC

[20306cab]

what about the decision for the 2-point conversion when you did not need to..

Awful. It's amazing the Ravens can win ANYTHING with this coach and QB.

[20306cab]

please fire OC

Ridiculous!!!! Flacco's had five different OC's in nine years, and he stunk under every one of them. Fire the crappy QB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nextgen_RavensFan]

djdave, lets see how well any other QB would have done with no time in the pocket (because he never had a pocket} If you want someone to blame give that to the offensive line and Harbs or does that make to much sense ? Never take points off of the board, never underestimate a team and adjust when things are not working. 

Flacco does fine and does exceptional when he has the time to wait for plays to develop. 

[balfan23]

36 minutes ago, djdave1984 said:

I agree with 2 point try..taking that penalty on 4th down was a stupid mistake..Still only if our QB played like he is paid we would have won the game.

Yeah - I'm not sure I get the freaking out over that. 

[ravenmaniac112351]

Harbaugh screwed that one up royally. If Billy Cundiff was their kicker I sat take the penalty but with Janakowski he can make it just as easy from 53 as he could from 33. But be that as it may if Flacco could have gotten another 10 yards we would have had a good shot at JT kicking a 57 yarder. Paying him $20 million a year and he can't pick up 10 yards on 4 downs. Unfreakingbelievable.

[balfan23]

23 minutes ago, BiggMack91 said:

please fire OC

I think that we did a pretty good job of making adjustments in the 2nd half to try to compensate for our dreadful offensive line performance. His playcalling really worked hard to try to mask that weakness and had some success. Scoring 27 after that horrid 1st half as Flacco was getting killed was an accomplishment.

[ravenmaniac112351]

djdave, lets see how well any other QB would have done with no time in the pocket (because he never had a pocket} If you want someone to blame give that to the offensive line and Harbs or does that make to much sense ? Never take points off of the board, never underestimate a team and adjust when things are not working. 

Flacco does fine and does exceptional when he has the time to wait for plays to develop. 

I agree with you about the offensive line. Hurst is a dumpster fire and Jensen isn't much better. They know Yanda is their best lineman. Why not shift him to left tackle and put Urschel in to play Yanda's spot.

[Baller MD]

52 minutes ago, 20306cab said:

Ridiculous!!!! Flacco's had five different OC's in nine years, and he stunk under every one of them. Fire the crappy QB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flacco actually improved under Kubiak's offense.   Flacco does deserve some blame though but it's partly that Trestman, Caldwell and Cam were not effective OCs.  

Edited October 2, 2016 by Baller MD

[JamesA119]

djdave, lets see how well any other QB would have done with no time in the pocket (because he never had a pocket} If you want someone to blame give that to the offensive line and Harbs or does that make to much sense ? Never take points off of the board, never underestimate a team and adjust when things are not working. 

Flacco does fine and does exceptional when he has the time to wait for plays to develop. 

I disagree. This is the NFL. He is a 9 yr veteren QB. Please stop with the excuses. The pass to Moore was thrown behind the WR. The one to Pitta was thrown into the grass and there was not perceptible pressure. What Flacco is as QB is far below what many players on the roster are at their respective positions. If he can raise his play we will be a formidable team. Do you realize that he played badly against both Cleveland and Jacksonville

[jjengel]

  45 minutes ago, nextgen_RavensFan said:

djdave, lets see how well any other QB would have done with no time in the pocket (because he never had a pocket} If you want someone to blame give that to the offensive line and Harbs or does that make to much sense ? Never take points off of the board, never underestimate a team and adjust when things are not working. 

Flacco does fine and does exceptional when he has the time to wait for plays to develop. 

I disagree. This is the NFL. He is a 9 yr veteren QB. Please stop with the excuses. The pass to Moore was thrown behind the WR. The one to Pitta was thrown into the grass and there was not perceptible pressure. What Flacco is as QB is far below what many players on the roster are at their respective positions. If he can raise his play we will be a formidable team. Do you realize that he played badly against both Cleveland and Jacksonville

the throw to moore was right there. he has to catch that. the one to pitta was bad. all game flacco was getting hit. he has no time to throw.
the loss goes on the lack of creativity of our offensive coordinator. where are the slants and crossing routes? why would harbs accept that penalty? it makes 0 sense? and then penalties? what is being done about this? if you hand the ball to the ref you will not get penalized. it is that simple! wallace, great 2 point conversion but we gave them 15 yards and they drove right down and got a td!

time to bench shareece and can trestman

[JamesA119]

  37 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

  1 hour ago, nextgen_RavensFan said:

djdave, lets see how well any other QB would have done with no time in the pocket (because he never had a pocket} If you want someone to blame give that to the offensive line and Harbs or does that make to much sense ? Never take points off of the board, never underestimate a team and adjust when things are not working. 

Flacco does fine and does exceptional when he has the time to wait for plays to develop. 

I disagree. This is the NFL. He is a 9 yr veteren QB. Please stop with the excuses. The pass to Moore was thrown behind the WR. The one to Pitta was thrown into the grass and there was not perceptible pressure. What Flacco is as QB is far below what many players on the roster are at their respective positions. If he can raise his play we will be a formidable team. Do you realize that he played badly against both Cleveland and Jacksonville

the throw to moore was right there. he has to catch that. the one to pitta was bad. all game flacco was getting hit. he has no time to throw.
the loss goes on the lack of creativity of our offensive coordinator. where are the slants and crossing routes? why would harbs accept that penalty? it makes 0 sense? and then penalties? what is being done about this? if you hand the ball to the ref you will not get penalized. it is that simple! wallace, great 2 point conversion but we gave them 15 yards and they drove right down and got a td!

time to bench shareece and can trestman

Definitely time to bench Shareece Wright. To imagine that they just gave him a multiple year contract.

[cobrajet]

I was not happy about the decision to accept the penalty instead of declining it before I knew the outcome and voiced it on the Game Day forum. I thought it was a stupid decision and it ended up costing us the game. I am a little upset that he talked about the players keeping the pressure on themselves but he did it with that stupid decision. What HC accepts a penalty when it was third and long? No one that is who. The stupid decision lost us the game and ruined my day and I am still upset about it hours later. We should be 4-0.

[Godfather A]

Given Del Rio's aggressiveness, it is likely that he would have gone for it on fourth and a long 1.

[JamesA119]

I was not happy about the decision to accept the penalty instead of declining it before I knew the outcome and voiced it on the Game Day forum. I thought it was a stupid decision and it ended up costing us the game. I am a little upset that he talked about the players keeping the pressure on themselves but he did it with that stupid decision. What HC accepts a penalty when it was third and long? No one that is who. The stupid decision lost us the game and ruined my day and I am still upset about it hours later. We should be 4-0.

That was not the play that decided the game. After that play we still marched and scored a TD, they then scored another TD, and we got the ball with about 2 mins left and 2 time outs. All we needed was a field goal. At least know the facts.

The game was lost by the inability of the offense to execute all day

[cobrajet]

3 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

That was not the play that decided the game. After that play we still marched and scored a TD, they then scored another TD, and we got the ball with about 2 mins left and 2 time outs. All we needed was a field goal. At least know the facts.

The game was lost by the inability of the offense to execute all day

I am not following you. I am upset about Harbaugh's decision to accept the penalty. I am assuming that you may have been referring to that. I know we lost the game by 1 point and if we would have declined that penalty it most likely takes 4 points off the board. I know I suck at math but I don't have to be John Urschel to subtract 4 from 28 and figure out that we did not need 3 points on our last drive. Maybe they would have recovered an onside kick after they scored that last touchdown and ended up winning the game and it would not have been the decision that decided the game, so I guess I could be wrong.

[Ravensfolyfe]

Get ready for the dead skins and go out there and see what happens. Hey! We can bounce back at home. Can we? Will we?

[PersianRaven]

I would've never thought we would miss Stanley that bad! Khalil Mack was all over the place and we could not do JACK to stop him. Damn, now I feel blessed we selected him with our 1st pick. Shoot, even our 4th rounder Mr. Lewis was dearly missed! and we all can agree that KO's void has not been filled. That's why our running game is sorry!

[megalomarc]

what about the decision for the 2-point conversion when you did not need to..

True. And what about the stupid penaltie(S) of Wallace in the end-zone after the last 2 point conversion.

[Jim from Ellicott City]

John Harbaugh does not seem to be much of an x's and o's guy. Feel free to beat me up but I was not impressed with the Jacksonville game when he ran Tucker onto the field to attempt a 57 yard field goal as time ran down and no time to switch out the offense ball for the kicker ball. There is a huge difference between a fully inflated "K" ball and an offense ball (just ask Tom Brady). Anyway, a Special teams coach should know this. The 57 yard attempt was right down the middle but short. The Ravens got lucky with a penalty and Harbaugh got away with his mistake. His decisions during today's games were worse. The decision to go for 2 was bad (it was too early) but the decision to give Oakland another chance to keep a drive alive when the defense stopped them after Flacco and the O-line coughed the ball up on their own 30 was mind numbing. I put it right there with Tom Caughlin decision to throw on 3 down with 47 seconds left against Dallas who, as we know, had no timeouts. Both decisions cost their teams a win. BTW, when did holding a team to a FG become a bad thing especially when you turned the ball over already in FG range? What a moron.

[whobilly]

Get ready for the dead skins and go out there and see what happens. Hey! We can bounce back at home. Can we? Will we?

Yes. Yes.

[whobilly]

The games change from week to week. Big Ben looked like Kyle Boller last week in Philly. Last night it was Alex Smith's turn to look awful. Could Joe have played better yesterday? He'd be the first to tell you he could have. The Raider fans leaving the stadium yesterday were acting like getting to 3-1 was like winning the Super Bowl. We are 3-1 and our season is over according to the comments I see this morning.

[20306cab]

The games change from week to week. Big Ben looked like Kyle Boller last week in Philly. Last night it was Alex Smith's turn to look awful. Could Joe have played better yesterday? He'd be the first to tell you he could have. The Raider fans leaving the stadium yesterday were acting like getting to 3-1 was like winning the Super Bowl. We are 3-1 and our season is over according to the comments I see this morning.

The problem is "Below Average Joe" looks awful EVERY week.

[sizzlingdoom]

Harbaugh and Aiken lost this game. Period

[AsianRice]

9 minutes ago, sizzlingdoom said:

Harbaugh and Aiken lost this game. Period

Adding Chris Moore to the list....