Baltimore Ravens ‘Destroyed’ by Harbaugh’s Ego, According to Former Raven

Former Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard tweeted out on Monday that coach John Harbaugh’s ego “destroyed” the team.

Former Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard tweeted out on Monday that coach John Harbaugh’s ego “destroyed” the team.

On Monday, Baltimore Ravens blog Baltimore Beatdown retweeted an old tweet of Pollard’s from December of 2016:

After Baltimore Beatdown retweeted the tweet, Pollard responded, doubling-down on his position and saying that Harbaugh’s ego has “destroyed” the team and that Harbaugh is and has never been a good coach.

To suggest that Harbaugh is the entire reason that the Baltimore Ravens haven’t had much success since their Super Bowl-winning year of 2012 is a bit reductive. There has been a multitude of issues that have faced this team and led to them being 35-38 since 2012.

The fact that the Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2012 required a lot of good fortune. That’s not to downplay the incredible effort exerted by the team to win that championship, but it does mean that it’s not easily repeatable.

That roster was aging, it’s continued to age, and Ozzie Newsome seems to have lost his touch in the NFL Draft (to an extent).

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After that Super Bowl year, Ray Lewis retired, Ed Reed was in the twilight of his career, and Joe Flacco signed a massive, $120 million contract that has since made it difficult for the team to hang onto key players like Anquan Boldin, Pernell McPhee, and Paul Kruger.

And to talk about this year specifically, the team has been riddled with injuries, especially on the offensive line which has three players, including All-Pro Marshal Yanda, on the IR.

Not only that, but the team’s offense has been awful. The rushing attack has had some life breathed back into thanks to Alex Collins, but the passing offense has been one of the worst in the league, averaging 166 yards per game, second-worst in the NFL, ahead of only the Chicago Bears.

In fact, pick a passing metric, it’s all bad. Passer rating? The team is 29th in the NFL at 79.6. Interceptions? Fourth-most in the league with 10. Yards per attempt? Dead last at 5.3. Total passing yards? Second-to-last with 1,491.

And despite the injuries on the offensive line, the Baltimore Ravens are tied for 17th in total sacks given up, which is not bad and suggests that the struggling passing offense is more on Flacco’s shoulders (and probably a fair bit on offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg’s) than the offensive line’s.

Flacco knows this too, as he told ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, “You can’t play too much worse than we’ve been playing.”

It’s highly unlikely that the Baltimore Ravens have succeeded in spite of John Harbaugh, and far more likely that he has, at the very least, contributed to their success.

To Pollard’s credit though, he acknowledged this, not placing all of the blame on Harbaugh’s shoulders:

If the Ravens miss the playoffs this season, there is no doubt that Harbaugh will be in the hot seat (deservedly so) and that he may even potentially be looking for a new job. And there is also no doubt in my mind that Harbaugh bears some of the blame for the Ravens poor play.

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But there are plenty of reasons to point to for the Ravens poor season this year and certainly for their poor play since their Super Bowl-winning year. It’s not all on John Harbaugh, there’s plenty of blame to go around.