OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he wishes he could have a do-over on a critical goal-to-go series that ended in a field goal in the Ravens’ divisional round loss at Buffalo and revealed that the sequence included a trick play designed as a pass to left tackle Ronnie Stanley.
“The play-calling is not good if it doesn’t work,” Harbaugh said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The Ravens’ season ended with a 27-25 loss to the Bills, and one of the game’s key sequences came when the Ravens were held to three points midway through the second quarter.
With the Ravens trailing the Bills 14-7, quarterback Lamar Jackson connected with receiver Rashod Bateman on a 42-yard pass play that gave the Ravens first-and-goal at the Bills’ 2-yard line.
It seemed like prime territory for power running back Derrick Henry, who had set the Ravens franchise record with 16 rushing touchdowns and piled up 1,921 rushing yards during the regular season. Yet he had just one touch in the three plays before the field goal.
Henry carried on first-and-goal from the 2, but he was stuffed by a blitzing Bills defense for a 1-yard loss.
On second down, offensive coordinator Todd Monken dialed up a trick play in which Stanley — lined up as an eligible receiver — would peel out into the end zone for a catch. It’s a play the Ravens had shown during training camp — Stanley went so far as to post a shot of him catching a touchdown pass on his Instagram feed — but they had not unveiled it during the season.
The Bills covered Stanley, though, and Jackson was sacked. Facing third-and-goal from the 8, Jackson under duress threw incomplete toward Henry short of the end zone. The Ravens then had to settle for the short field goal that cut the Bills’ lead to 14-10.
The Bills countered with a touchdown in the closing seconds of the first half for a 21-10 halftime lead, and the Ravens spent the remainder of the game trying to close that gap. They came within two points, but tight end Mark Andrews dropped a potential game-tying two-point conversion attempt with 1:33 left.
Speaking at the Ravens end-of-season news conference on Jan. 22, Harbaugh said he would redo the key goal-line series if he could.
“When you’re not successful, the play-calling is going to be in question,” Harbaugh said. “We question it, too. We look at it very hard.”
On Henry’s first-down carry from the 2, Harbaugh noted, “they ran pretty much an all-out blitz and stopped it. You can definitely run three times into an all-out blitz if you want, but that’s probably not very smart.”
Harbaugh revealed that the second-down play call was to “sneak” Stanley out to the left flat and hope we went uncovered.
“You can say, ‘Wow, that’s a bad call,’ but if it works, and he’s wide-open, it’s a great call,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a little bit of a trick play, probably, so we tried that. Sure, I’d like them both back. I would have liked to have thrown it on first down and not run the trick play on second down.”
The sack left the Ravens in an obvious passing situation on third-and-goal from the 8, and Jackson under pressure threw incomplete.
“That’s football. That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Harbaugh said. “It’s disappointing. The play-calling is not good if it doesn’t work. That’s the bottom line.”
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