John Harbaugh Knows How To Prepare For The Big Games
It was a chilly December Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers came into Baltimore as one of the hottest teams in football. The Baltimore Ravens were just weeks two weeks away from limping into the offseason. On paper, the Ravens had no chance to win. But an inspired game plan by John Harbaugh and his staff, made the victory possible.
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The Steelers had one of the most impressive passing attacks. Ben Roethlisberger was playing great football. Antonio Brown led a talented group of receivers. The Ravens secondary was on it’s last legs. If this was going to be a shootout, the Ravens had no chance.
So the Ravens played off and soft. They prevented the deep passes and tempted the Steelers to run the football. Pittsburgh moved the ball up and down the field, but the Ravens kept it a low scoring affair. The Ravens tricked the Steelers into playing the game that Harbaugh designed. The Ravens won 20-17.
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This is just one example of Harbaugh being a brilliant planner. But the proof is in the numbers. The Ravens have gone to the playoffs six of the last eight seasons. In the playoffs, its all about match ups and great game plans win games. Harbaugh has won at least one game in every trip to the postseason.
That kind of success does not happen by accident. Another example of Harbaugh’s Ravens being prepared was the 2009 beat down of the New England Patriots. At that point the Patriots were all but invincible in playoff games at home. The Ravens knocked the Patriots around from the very first snap.
The Ravens must have found a weakness that they could exploit in the Patriots run defense. On the first play, Ray Rice rushed for an 80 yard touchdown. Rice finished the day with 159 yards, while Willis McGahee had 62 rushing yards of his own.
The Ravens also figured out how to frustrate Tom Brady. The Ravens sacked Brady three times, and got three interceptions. The Ravens won by the convincing score of 33-14. While the Ravens had many great performances, they dominated because Harbaugh had them ready to do so.
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Super Bowl XLVII was another example. John Harbuagh was tasked with out coaching his brother Jim Harbaugh. The head games that go into an NFL game are incredible, but these two coaches took that to a whole new level. They knew everything about their counterpart. The Ravens’ Harbaugh was victorious.
The Ravens had the perfect game plan. This was evidenced by their complete domination in the first half. Joe Flacco carved up the 49ers defense for a quick score. The Ravens defense was throttling the 49ers offense. Everything and anything was going the Ravens way.
The Ravens were up 28-6 before the lights went down. The power outage gave the 49ers new life. The 49ers essentially got an extra half time to make adjustments. The Ravens ended up winning 34-3; but it’s hard to imagine that the game would be close without the blackout.
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Time and time again we have seen that John Harbaugh is one of the best game-planning coaches in the NFL. He always has the Ravens ready to play in the big games. While he does not call the plays on either side of the football, he is on top of everything.