Harbaugh: Ravens Need to Be Faster With Playcalling

Baltimore Ravens struggle snapping the ball efficiently.
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens' inability to get the plays called faster has been an area of frustration for quarterback Lamar Jackson.

He has become visibly frustrated by the delay of game penalties. 

In one instance against the Carolina Panthers, Jackson kicked the ball in frustration.

The Ravens are currently tied with the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, and Seattle Seahawks for the most delay-of-game penalties with six on the season, according to NFLpenalties.com

Baltimore had a costly delay-of-game penalty last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars that disrupted the entire offense. 

Coach John Harbaugh said the team made the adjustments against Jacksonville, but they need to be better and quicker calling the plays. 

"We ran more no-huddle plays in the second half, things like that," Harbaugh said. "I’m not sure exactly what was going on with the clock. It felt different; the 40-second clock was fine, the 25-second clock was, ‘Man, that was quick,’ but still, it’s on us. We did a lot of substituting in the first half. We were in a little bit more complicated plays and formations a little bit in terms of shifting. I don’t think we got on the field as quick as we can. 

"Maybe even [offensive coordinator] Greg [Roman] told me, ‘I have to call the play faster.’ I think we can call it faster, communicate it better in the huddle, or whatever. The whole thing needed to be faster, and we did adjust kind of what we were in in the second half to try to make that happen to make sure we could do it. The rhythm and the tempo were not like what we needed them to be at all.”


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Todd Karpovich
TODD KARPOVICH

Twitter: @toddkarpovich Email: todd.karpovich@gmail.com Skype: todd.karpovich Todd Karpovich has been a contributor for ESPN, Forbes, the Associated Press, Lindy's, and The Baltimore Sun, among other media outlets nationwide. He is the co-author of “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Baltimore Ravens Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box,” “Skipper Supreme: Buck Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles,” and the author of “Manchester United (Europe's Best Soccer Clubs).” Karpovich, a Baltimore native, is a graduate of Calvert Hall College high school, Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, and has a Masters of Science from Towson University.