John Harbaugh told reporters on Monday that Cooper Rush is still his backup quarterback, and he’s leaning “really hard” on Lamar Jackson’s return for his faith in a turnaround season. The Baltimore Ravens‘ defense played better on Sunday in Week 6. That’s certainly a start.
After giving up an average of 40 points in their previous four losses, Zach Orr’s unit held the high-powered Los Angeles Rams to 17 points.
One has to believe that if Jackson plays, the Ravens find enough offense to put another check mark in the win column, but as we all know, he didn’t play. He certainly can’t get back on the field fast enough.
Coach said both on Sunday during his postgame press conference and on Monday that he expects a Week 8 return. Regardless of when he returns, Baltimore will continue to struggle unless it improves in several key measurables.
One of those areas is limiting turnovers. Another area of concern is red zone efficiency, where the Ravens rank as one of pro football’s worst teams. During his Monday sit-down, Coach Harbaugh also expressed that he believes the offense was more efficient versus Los Angeles.
They had averaged 50 plays per contest before Week 6. They ran 80 plays, but ultimately, turnovers cost them. So did the stalled offense in the red zone. Here’s what he said on the subject on Sunday.
“All right. Obviously, I am getting a little tired of getting up here and having this conversation, but we had our opportunities. We created our opportunities, and we put ourselves in a position where we could have won that football game. Probably, you could say, in some ways, we should have won it, but we didn’t do the things that you have to do to win the game. We made some critical mistakes that cost us an opportunity to win the game, and that’s really what it boils down to.”
On the failure of two consecutive Tush Pushes, he offered the following:
“We didn’t get any push. You’ve got to get ‘pad under pad,’ and you have to get push, and we didn’t do it. We’re a big, physical, offensive line with big physical guys. Mark [Andrews] is a big physical guy, and he’s pushing, so that should happen. We didn’t do it well, I can tell you that. We didn’t do as well as the Eagles do it. That’s obvious. We don’t expect to be as good as they do it, necessarily. That’s kind of what they do, but we can do it well enough to score from inside the 1-yard line; there’s no question about that. I give the Rams credit, but that’s on us. That should get done. Everybody, every person in that [locker] room will tell you the same thing.”
Derrick Henry offered similar theories. Here’s his take, also from Sunday:
“[The Rams] were just better. They were just better at the line of scrimmage, better overall on defense, better than us to stop us and we have to be better. I have to be better. I pride myself on being physical, and on the one-yard line, you have to get it in. We had two instances where we have not gotten it in, so that kind of pisses me off, but I can’t change anything about it now. All you can do is, when you get another opportunity to try to get it in there, but we have to be better. I mean, that’s just unacceptable. That’s not good enough, as far as us as a whole, and on myself as well. I need to get it in there. So, [we’ll] watch the film and try to get better. But like I said, it just seems like a repetitive thing, which is kind of frustrating, but it is over now. [We’ll] just watch the film and get better.”
On Monday, Coach Harbaugh expressed that O-line changes are on the table. Our opinion doesn’t count, of course, but we’d recommend handing the ball to King Hebry in goal-to-goal situations. It isn’t the most creative approach, but history has shown us that it’s effective. Besides, in the rare case that it doesn’t, it’s a much easier decision to explain to the public.
This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Derrick Henry and John Harbaugh dissect the Ravens’ red zone issues
