ExtremeRavens Posted Monday at 09:53 PM Posted Monday at 09:53 PM For all of the Ravens’ mishaps and self-inflicted trauma Sunday in Pittsburgh, they still had a chance to tie the game against the Steelers with just over a minute remaining in regulation. Until, of course, quarterback Lamar Jackson was stuffed on a jumbled and poorly executed quarterback run that haphazardly turned into an incomplete pass. Noticeably absent on the play was running back Derrick Henry, who leads the NFL in rushing yards and touchdowns but was on the sideline and not part of the personnel package with the ball sitting on the 2-yard line. Why wasn’t he on the field? “Derrick Henry is a great football player,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “You want him out there in situations, but he’s not out there for every play. That’s the play that was called.” It was also a play in which the Steelers did not have to worry about perhaps the best running back of this generation. And by design it tipped Pittsburgh, which had called time out when the ravens initially lined up, that the play would likely involve Jackson running or throwing. “Thankfully we even saw some of the semblance of the schematics of what they intended to run,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Sunday. “I think that made them change and go the other direction. Obviously Mr. Jackson is a little bit less dangerous when he is going to his left and his right. So we’re thankful for that.” A day later, Harbaugh wasn’t so much as regretful as he was discontented. “Any time you get a play that didn’t work you look at it very critically,” he said. “We’re disappointed in that play. You want to have a better play, a better play call, a better executed play; everything along those lines. “That’s one we’d like to have back.” For Henry’s part, at least, he had no issue with the play call. “No frustration at all,” he said. “They have in there who they think can execute the play, and I’m always going to support that. Whatever they feel like is the best formation or whatever personnel needs to be in there for us to win, then let’s go do it. There’s no frustration on my end.” Henry was bothered more by what he did when he was on the field. Ravens running back Derrick Henry didn’t complain about being on the bench for the team’s 2-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter. (Matt Freed/AP) The 30-year-old four-time Pro Bowl selection was held to under 70 yards rushing for the second straight game after rushing for at least 100 yards in five of the previous seven. He had a costly fumble on the game’s second play Sunday, leading to an early Steelers field goal. “My fumble was unacceptable – it cannot happen,” he said. Henry handled just 13 carries against Pittsburgh, despite averaging 5 yards per carry and scoring a touchdown. That tied for his second-fewest of the season, which came in a Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and were only two more than the season-low 11 he had against the Browns in Cleveland, also a loss. Part of the problem was that the Ravens often put themselves in unenviable positions because of penalties or other mistakes. Of their 12 possessions, they faced second- or third-and-long (at least 10 yards) on a half-dozen of them. That made it difficult for Baltimore to feed Henry, Harbaugh said. “You want to get him more,” Harbaugh said, noting Baltimore only had 54 offensive plays, which was 20 fewer than Pittsburgh. “You probably need more plays and to get more plays you need more successful plays, more first downs, more yards. we were off the field a couple times real quick. “It cuts down the opportunities for everybody.” Yet, that wasn’t the case on Baltimore’s failed 2-point conversion. “That’s the personnel group that it was set up in through a lot of game planning,” Harbaugh said. “We all try to put the best plan we can together and come up with the best plays, and when it doesn’t work out, it hurts, it’s bad. And you feel disappointed about it, because it’s your job, and it’s what you want to get done well. “I would like to have had a better play there, and I would have liked to have a successful play. So, you look back on it, and that’s how you feel about it. You feel bad about it.” Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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