FanPost

Rookie Coaching Mistake

Baltimore Ravens rookie Head Coach John Harbaugh made a big mistake by not throwing the red Challenge Flag on the out of bounds call on the TD catch by Derrick Mason in the first quarter of Monday night's game. He said he didn't have a good view of the play and his assistants up in the box didn't tell him to review it. Mason didn't seem to care either. He also said he didn't want to lose a timeout if it wasn't reversed and called a TD.

However, this is a first year's rookie mistake. You ALWAYS challenge a possible TD catch. The reward is well worth the risk almost every time. Unless it is so obviously a non-catch, you do it. Haven't we Ravens fans learned that from the call that New England's Jabar Gaffney got in last year's last minute comeback and victory for the Pats over us on MNF!?

John, you've got to throw the flag. Not that we know for sure, but seven points instead of three, followed by another field goal and TD would have put us up 17-3 at the half and the chain of events in those horrible 15 seconds in the third quarter might not have made that big of a difference in the final outcome, as our final drive would have won the game, not tied it.

Either way, in the future, you've got to throw the red flag. Learn to use it, early and often. After all, you can't do any worse with it than Brian Billick did, as he lost most of those reviews.

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