The Baltimore Ravens have seen their special teams unit put together some not-so-good performances over the last few seasons. For a team that prides itself on its special teams play, there have been far too many mistakes from that side of the ball for Baltimore, which has been a cause for concern over recent years.
When discussing punt returner Tylan Wallace’s performance in Week 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles, head coach John Harbaugh said that Wallace’s opportunities ended up being “tough balls.” He admitted that Wallace cost the team some yards with the plays he made and didn’t make but explained why the wideout decided to make the decisions he did.
“Yes, I mean those are tough balls. Yes, you’d love for [Tylan Wallace] to run up there and fair catch them and keep them from rolling. That’s definitely what you want, but he didn’t feel like he could, and he didn’t want to risk muffing them, I’m sure. The one he did muff, and the other one he probably should have fair caught – that one with a guy bearing down on him. You can second guess those decisions all you want, but when the ball’s near, and you’re standing under them – guys have done that before and know how hard that is to do, but it did cost us some yards, there’s no doubt about that.”
Baltimore hasn’t had a consistent punt returner ever since the late Jacoby Jones had massive memorable moments for the team a decade ago. Wallace had an all-time franchise moment last year against the Los Angeles Rams as a punt returner but hasn’t done much since.