John Harbaugh defends decision to challenge short completion in first quarter vs. Bengals

On the first drive last night by the Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow threw a short out route to tight end Mike Gesicki as the Bengals were threatening to score. John Harbaugh decided to throw the red challenge flag prompting the referees to take another look at the process of the catch. Harbaugh would lose the challenge (a trend that has been all too familiar recently), and lose a timeout. But was the potential benefit worth the cost?

Many Ravens fans didn't think so.

After Baltimore's 35-34 win Harbaugh had this to say: “In the low red zone, the difference between defending the 2-yard line and the 4-yard line is massive. There’s a big difference between the 2 and the 4, and we’re trying to force a field goal there, so it felt like it was worth the cost if you win it. If you don’t win it, it becomes a loss. So I’m disappointed we didn’t win it, but I think the cost-benefit in that situation, defending the 4 is different because they’re not going to run it in there. They’ve got a run-pass option, you’ve got to play man, you’ve got to pack the box at the 2-yard line, you get picked and all those things, it’s a little bit tougher down there.”

John Harbaugh loses another challenge

Well, the Bengals did score after a penalty allowed Chase Brown to punch in a one-yard touchdown. You would think there would be someone in analytics or someone in the coach's box who would be in Harbaugh's ear telling him if he should throw the red flag, especially with his horrendous challenge-win streak.

That loss of that timeout plus the use of the other two timeouts early in the first half came back to bite the Ravens in the butt when they failed to score points at the end of the half because they could not stop the clock.

Harbaugh says the goal of the challenge was to make the Bengals pass as opposed to run, which would make sense if the Ravens didn't have one of the league's worst pass defenses. Despite this poor use of a challenge and timeouts, the Ravens were able to squeak out a win last night.