John Harbaugh responds to Vic Fangio’s criticism of final play
Leading by 16 points with just three seconds remaining in last week’s game against the Denver Broncos, the Baltimore Ravens opted to run the ball instead of taking a knee to run out the clock.
The Ravens were hoping to tie an NFL record of 43-straight games with at least 100 rushing yards. Lamar Jackson’s five-yard run with three seconds remaining secured the record-tying total of 102 rushing yards in Week 4.
Broncos coach Vic Fangio was clearly not happy with Baltimore’s decision, and he had some choice words for the organization.
“That’s just their mode of operation there,” Fangio said on Monday. “Player safety is secondary.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh responded to that criticism on Monday.
“I promise you, I’m not gonna give that insult one second thought,” Harbaugh said. “What’s meaningful to us might not be meaningful to them. Their concerns are definitely not our concerns. And, you know, we didn’t expect to get the ball back, you know? But I had already decided — we decided — that if we got the ball back, we were gonna try to get the yards. And we got it back with three seconds left.
“So you’re throwing the ball in the end zone with 10 seconds left, I don’t know that there’s a 16-point touchdown that’s gonna be possible right there. So, you know, that didn’t have anything to do with winning the game. So like I said what’s meaningful to us might not be meaningful to them, and we’re not gonna concern ourselves with that.”
Harbaugh comparing his decision to Denver’s decision to chase a garbage-time touchdown isn’t a like-for-like comparison. Offenses chase garbage-time touchdowns nearly every week in an effort to build some good momentum going into the next week. Baltimore was merely chasing a record that’s essentially meaningless (similar to chasing a preseason record in a game that J.K. Dobbins suffered a season-ending injury).
And Harbaugh’s remarks about a 16-point touchdown weren’t completely fair, either. While it would have been extremely unlikely, the Broncos could have scored a touchdown, converted a two-point conversion, attempted an onside kick and recovered with one second left, scored another touchdown and attempted a second two-point conversion.
Again, there was nearly no chance of that actually happening, but it was possible. So comparing Denver chasing points to the Ravens chasing a rushing record is not a completely fair comparison.
Fangio coached under Harbuagh in Baltimore from 2008-2009. If these two teams meet again in the playoffs later this season, it will be very interesting to see how the two coaches interact with each other before and after the game.
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