Vic Fangio didn’t care about the Ravens’ milestone they were chasing. That late rush was still bush league to him.
The Ravens were leading Sunday’s game against the Broncos 23-7 and had the ball back with three seconds left in the game. Instead of taking the knee to end the game, Lamar Jackson rushed ahead for five yards to give the Ravens 102 rushing yards on the day, extending Baltimore’s streak to tie the NFL record with 43 straight games of 100-plus rushing yards in a game.
Fangio made his thoughts known about the rush on Monday, according to Denver7’s Troy Renck.
“I thought it was kinda bulls—t, but I expected it from them,” Fangio said. “Thirty-seven years in pro ball, I’ve never seen anything like that, but it was to be expected. We expected it.”
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Fangio explained he saw it coming because he knows how they operate.
“That’s just their mode of operation there,” Fangio said. “Player safety is secondary.”
And Fangio didn’t wait until after the game to show his frustration with the call. He was seen on the sidelines getting visibly frustrated and yelling out expletives as soon as Jackson rushed ahead as the clock was winding down.
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Coach John Harbaugh had his own response, saying that he thought he and Fangio were on good terms, but that he wasn’t “going to give that insult one second thought.”
He said the Ravens didn’t expect to get the ball back, but if they did, they were going to try to get the yards.
“Throwing the ball in the end zone with 10 seconds left, I don’t know if there’s a 16-point touchdown that’s going to be possible right there so that didn’t have anything to do with winning the game,” Harbaugh said. “Like I said, what’s meaningful to us might not be meaningful to them and we’re not going to concern ourselves with that.”
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The decision to run the ball was a bit surprising. After the Ravens intercepted Broncos quarterback Drew Lock in the end zone with three seconds left, all they had to do was take a knee once and the game would be over. Especially with Jackson already having come into the game questionable to start with back soreness, opting to rush the franchise quarterback to pick up three yards at the very end of a game seemed like taking an unnecessary risk.
But Harbaugh defended the decision after the game, saying it was his decision to go for the yardage.
“100 percent my call,” Harbaugh said. “That’s one of those things that’s meaningful. As a head coach, you have to be mindful of your players and your coaches and what it means to them.”
John Harbaugh on running for the record instead of kneeling:
“100 percent my call. That’s one of those things that’s meaningful. As a head coach, you have to be mindful of your players and your coaches and what it means to them.”
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) October 3, 2021
Even Jackson was caught off guard by the decision to run for it after the game.
“My coach, James Urban, told me that coach wants to run a play to get three yards really quick to keep the record going and that’s what we did,” Jackson said, according to Sports Illustrated. “I don’t know what he was thinking. I thought we would take a knee and he said, no, we’re going for it. The game was put away. ‘Double-A’ (CB Anthony Averett) caught that pick in the back of the endzone, congratulations to him, but I don’t know what coach was thinking.”
The Ravens will now take their share of the record of at least 100 rushing yards per game into Sunday’s clash with the Colts. The Colts have allowed 456 rushing yards in four games, including 180 yards to the Titans in Week 3.