Up 32 points with just four minutes remaining in the game, Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Robert Griffin III trotted onto the field. Lamar Jackson’s day was finally done after leading Baltimore to a massive victory and playing a nearly perfect game. But Ravens fans were left scratching their heads about what took the coaches so long to make the decision to pull Jackson in the first place.
The Ravens’ previous drive started when they took over on downs after the Browns failed to convert a fourth-down attempt. With 10 minutes still remaining in the game and up 32 points, Jackson shocked nearly everyone by putting on his helmet and getting into the huddle. Unfortunately, Jackson and Baltimore’s offense was going to have another go of it without starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley and starting center Matt Skura. Sure enough, on 3rd-and-27, Jackson took a needless sack before punter Sam Koch came out.
In a season in which the Ravens look every bit the Super Bowl contenders they’ve been hyped up as, tossing the reigning MVP back on the field in a game that was already over in order to pad the stats is a dumb decision by just about every metric possible. Granted, I’m not an NFL coach, so maybe I’m missing some rationale here that coach John Harbaugh can offer insight into.
“10 minutes left, nah I don’t think so, it’s the National Football League,” Harbaugh said. “If you look around the league, you’ll see not too many people are taking their quarterback out with 10 minutes left in the game in the National Football League. That’s historically true.”
. . . Um, yeah I guess that probably is historically true, John. But it’s also probably historically true that not many teams are up by 32 points in the fourth quarter of a game their opponent has pretty clearly given up in either.
It’s even more perplexing why Harbaugh seemed practically offended by the notion someone would question the decision to keep Jackson in, in that situation.
Cleveland had clearly folded as evidenced by starting their next drive with back-to-back runs and having a total of four runs in a six-play drive. Down more than four touchdowns with just 10 minutes remaining when Jackson took the field for the last time, the Browns didn’t have a realistic chance of mounting a comeback even if Baltimore punted the ball on first down. Yet, Jackson dropped back three times. Not only did they put their quarterback in harm’s way by having him on the field at all, they didn’t even try to grind down the clock.
A win is a win and luckily Jackson didn’t get hurt. But Harbaugh and the coaching staff is going to need to exercise a little more thought in the future if they want to live up to their Super Bowl aspirations.
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