OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Even with one of football's best offenses, you can't get into much of a rhythm with penalties, turnovers, and missed field goals weighing you down. The Ravens had many of them against the Steelers in an 18-16 road loss.
Ahead of a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles, head coach John Harbaugh began a Monday press conference by recognizing there's a lot of work to do between now and next Monday.
"That's one that we'd like to have back, just across the board," Harbaugh said, discussing the failed late-game two-point attempt.
Harbaugh pointed to "way too many penalties" as the primary reason their highly-ranked offense did not score as much as they should have.
“It’s putting us to 1st and 20, it’s putting us to 2nd and 19," Harbaugh explained. "And we’re probably the best get-back-on-track offense in the league right now of overcoming those things."
"But we shouldn’t have to overcome them," he continued. "When we play defense like we played or you’re playing in a game like we were playing in, sometimes it becomes too high an amount to scale. And that’s why we didn’t score as many points; that’s really the number one reason. Because we were behind the sticks too much.”
The team suffered a disappointing twelve penalties and turned the ball over three times in a Sunday loss to the team's most bitter AFC North rival.
At his Monday media availability, Harbaugh signaled confidence in his kicker, Justin Tucker, who missed two difference-making field goals.
"Certainly haven't lost any confidence in Justin Tucker," Harbaugh said. "We saw that on the 54-yarder we sent him out for, and he drilled it... so that's the Justin Tucker he wants to see; we all want to see on every kick. He's definitely our best option, and he's going to make a lot of kicks. I really believe that going forward."
Tucker, who has kicked for the team since 2012, is having a noted down year, hitting on fewer than 73 percent of attempts this season.
Many fans wondered why star running back Derrick Henry, who fumbled on the team's first offensive drive, was not on the field for the team's final offensive play, its two-point drive.
"Depends on the type of play, whether Mark's out there, Isaiah's out there, Zay's out there, Bate's out there," Harbaugh said. "Derrick Henry's a great football player, and you want him out there situationally, but he's not out there for every play. Like I said after the game, that's the play that was called. That's the personnel group that it was set up in, through a lot of game planning."
The Baltimore defense was perhaps the most encouraging part of Sunday's loss, limiting veteran Russell Wilson to 205 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.
“You can’t get too high; you can’t get too low. It’s not as good as you think when things are going well, and it’s not as bad as you think when things aren’t going well. It’s a long season, and we’ve got a big game next week,” Harbaugh said in part.
The Ravens face the Chargers in Los Angeles on Monday Night Football; John will coach against younger brother Jim for the first time since the 'Harbaugh Bowl,' Super Bowl XLVII, in February 2013.
WMAR will broadcast the game next Monday night.
