Ravens HC Blasts Offensive Play-Calling vs. Chiefs

Much like most fans and pundits who outspoken about their concerns and criticism about the Baltimore Ravens offense in their Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, head coach John Harbaugh didn't hold his tongue and was blunt in sharing his disappointment with offensive coordinator Todd Monken's play selections when it came to a multitude of situations, but especially short yardage.

After converting on their first third-and-short with a run on their touchdown drive to open the game, the Ravens only faced three more such situations for the rest of the game, and each ended in disaster. They passed on fourth-and-one for a turnover on downs, passed on a third-and-one where quarterback Lamar Jackson was sacked and fumbled the ball and passed on a third-and-three where Jackson got sacked again and might've suffered his hamstring injury on.

"I mean that's play calling," Harbaugh said after the game. "I am not going to sit here and say I'm happy about it, at all. I am sure that Todd is not happy about it either. None of us are. You have to look at that and decide what you want to run there, in some of those circumstances and situations. If they work, they look good."

Not having five-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry on the field when only a few yards are needed to maintain a dangerous threat of the run is never a good look and pretty much telegraphed their intentions to most likely pass the ball to the defense, a notion Harbaugh somewhat refuted.

"Derrick was in there for numerous passes, and he had two screens thrown to him," Harbaugh said. "Justice [Hill] was in there for the one big run, and I like him with the ball in his hands [and] running the ball. You never want to be a hundred percent. On defense, we kind of consider 80 percent to be a true tendency on something. If it gets under that too much, then you really can't count on it, because it can be something different more often. We want to make sure that we keep people guessing and keep it moving on people, so that's one of the things that we do take into account."

Just as the Detroit Lions did the week before, the Chiefs were not only aggressive but were perfect on all of their fourth-down conversion attempts, going 4-of-4 as the Ravens couldn't get a stop defensively and didn't force a punt until the fourth quarter.

"[The Chiefs] threw the ball on fourth-and-short and third-and-short a few times and completed them, so maybe we just need better plays, plays that are going to pop open," Harbaugh said. "Maybe we have to do a better job of game-planning in those plays. That's what I would say. I think that we need to put our guys in better positions and give them opportunities to make plays in those situations, because in a game like this, you have to be aggressive, you have to go for stuff. We didn't get it done."

Despite another atrocious performance by the defense in their latest loss, Harbaugh still went out of his way to show support and express confidence in second-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr in his press conference.

"I have confidence in all of our guys, including Zach, our players, our coaches, and I watch our guys every day," Harbaugh said. "I watch how they work. I watch how well they coach. I'm in meetings, I watch the meetings, I know the schemes that we're running. I know the soundness of what we're doing."

However, when it came to Monken, he doubled down on expressing his displeasure about the offense's first game in which they didn't score 30-plus points this season. He cited specific examples when it came to how the Ravens failed to execute their plans to counter the pressures and blitzes they were expecting to see from the Chiefs.