OWINGS MILLS — A day after the Ravens suffered a disheartening loss that pushed his team to the brink of playoff elimination, head coach John Harbaugh faced questions about his job security and said, “The future is today. The future is the Green Bay Packers, and that’s what we’re looking at.”
The Ravens (7-8) were a trendy Super Bowl pick in August, but the team has stumbled throughout the season and must win at Green Bay (9-5-1) on Saturday night to stay alive for postseason contention. Even if the Ravens win, the Pittsburgh Steelers (9-6) will eliminate the Ravens if they win at Cleveland (3-12) on Sunday.
If the Ravens win at Green Bay and Pittsburgh loses at Cleveland, then the Ravens’ game at Pittsburgh in Week 18 will be for the AFC North title.
The Ravens’ latest stumble came in a 28-24 loss at home to New England on Dec. 21 in which the Ravens blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson left that game with a back injury just before halftime, but the Ravens opened up a 24-13 fourth-quarter lead behind backup quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Derrick Henry, who ran for 128 yards and two scores.
Henry, though, didn’t touch the ball over the Ravens’ final two possessions, which led to widespread criticism, and the fourth-quarter collapse, coming near the end of a massively disappointing season, has turned up the heat on Harbaugh.
The Ravens’ coach since 2008, Harbaugh, 63, is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL behind Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin. Harbaugh signed a three-year extension this past March that has him under contract with the Ravens through the 2028 season.
Harbaugh is the winningest coach in franchise history with an overall record of 192-123, and he has led the team to the postseason 12 times in 17 previous seasons, including each of the past three.
Asked about his job security, Harbaugh said, “This is sports, that’s how it works. … Your job is to do the best job you can today, and to do everything you can to help your players and your coaches — if you’re a head coach — be the best they can be every single day.
“There’s no such thing as ‘your’ job or ‘my’ job,” he continued. “We have responsibilities, and we’re given opportunities to steward those responsibilities, and you’re given a job to do that until you’re not. … Anything after today, I’m not thinking about because it’s not given for us to think about. If we do a good enough job today, then the opportunity to do that job or a different job will be there tomorrow.”
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti has long supported Harbaugh. While he rarely meets with the media, and has not done so this season, Bisciotti has made clear that he highly values organizational continuity.
Asked about his interactions with Bisciotti this season, Harbaugh said he has been “fantastic.”
“He’s a great leader,” Harbaugh said. “He’s supportive. He’s also challenging. Steve wants to win. He wants to be successful. I’ve been around a lot of competitors in this job or even in my family, and there’s no bigger competitor than Steve Bisciotti. And that’s one of the many things I admire about him and appreciate [about] him. So he’s been great. He’s been challenging in every great kind of way, and I appreciate that. He helps me to be better, and that’s what I’m grateful for.”
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