Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s team was up 40-25 in the fourth quarter in Buffalo on Sunday night, but gave up 16 points in the final four minutes to lose the game.
In a press conference in the wake of the stunning 41-40 loss to the Bills, Harbaugh was asked about the team’s habit of giving up sizable leads late in games over the last couple of seasons. His answer mentioned the need to force turnovers or come up with a big sack, but it also touched on the need to “stay on the field.”
Harbaugh opted not to do that on a fourth-and-3 from the Ravens’ 38-yard-line with a two-point lead and about 90 seconds left to play. The Ravens had all three timeouts, but punted the ball to the Bills to set up Buffalo’s game-winning drive and Harbaugh was asked if he considered leaving the offense on the field to try for a first down.
“I did think about going for it,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “If it’s fourth-and-3, if you don’t get it, they’re in field goal range. So, I think punting it is probably what most people would do there.”
The Bills had already scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the game, so the Ravens defense was a shaky bet to come up with the stops they needed to put the game away and having the timeouts might have allowed Baltimore one more crack at winning the game even if they gave up the field goal that was on Harbaugh’s mind. That wasn’t the choice they made, though, and the result was another painful loss in Buffalo.
