Penalties are the number one issue for the NFL’s leading offense, according to coach John Harbaugh.
The Ravens lead the league in total yards and yards per game and are second in points per game. But the team is also leading the league in penalties and penalty yardage. They have 92 penalties, 10 more than the Tennessee Titans (although the Ravens have played one more game), and have been penalized 763 yards (133 more than the Titans).
“First of all, too many penalties,” Harbaugh said Monday after the 18-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. “Waaay too many penalties. The penalties on offense are the one thing that are holding us back. That’s the biggest issue. It shows up in different ways.”
The offensive line committed five of the team’s 12 penalties Sunday, although one was an offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalty..
Harbaugh said a lot of the holding penalties are on run plays and that the offensive line has been solid in pass protection. But it obviously hurts to have the line of scrimmage pushed back, and the Ravens can’t afford to start every set of downs behind the sticks.
He pinpointed it as one of the main reasons they weren’t able to score as many points as usual against Pittsburgh.
“We’re probably the best get-back-on-track offense in the league right now at overcoming those things,” Harbaugh said. “But we shouldn’t have to overcome them.”
The offense is not the only group at fault. The defense has had numerous penalties this season at inopportune times, including a number of defensive pass interference and defensive holding penalties that wiped out third down stops. The defense had five penalties against Pittsburgh, although one was offsetting.
Even the special teams had two penalties.
“The special teams penalties aren’t acceptable,” Harbaugh said. “They back you up and put you behind. Those were both unnecessary penalties, and they’re both technique penalties.”
Harbaugh said coaches instruct players on technique to avoid drawing a flag, but he took responsibility moving forward.
“The buck stops here — Harry Truman — it stops with me,” Harbaugh said. “It’s my job to make sure that we’re doing the things that we got to do, from a coaching standpoint, from a drill standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, from an emphasis standpoint.”
Shaking up the secondary
The Ravens started the season with safeties Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson back deep with Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage.
The Ravens were without Jackson, who did not travel with the team, and Williams did not factor into the game. Instead, Hamilton dropped back and Ar’Darius Washington, an undrafted free agent who has dealt with injuries through his young career, played deep behind him.
Harbaugh declined to say why Jackson stayed behind in Baltimore. He said personnel decisions are made in-house, and “it stops there.”
“Other things are just week-to-week decisions that you make,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, you make decisions week to week. It’s a week-to-week league, and that’s pretty clear.”
However, Harbaugh committed to Hamilton and Washington being the starting duo in the weeks ahead.
“We were trying to attack some issues that we had in the back end, as everyone knows,” Harbaugh said. “I thought they played well back there. Those guys did a good job. ... So that would definitely be a formula going forward. And still the guys that are here with us are still going to be working to do whatever they can to help us win.”
Hamilton is at his best closer to the line where he can blitz and contribute to stopping the run game. But with a pass defense that’s the league’s worst this year, something had to change. With the new personnel, the Ravens gave up 181 passing yards. It was just the third time this season they gave less than 200 passing yards, and it came on the heels of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow throwing for 428 yards.
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