Ravens Harbaugh Calls Third-Down Execution "Off The Charts"

On Monday afternoon at the Baltimore Ravens Practice Facility, head coach John Harbaugh answered questions from the media as part of his regular weekly press conference. At the end of the session, I was able to ask him about the Ravens 16-play, seven and a half minute drive for the go-ahead touchdown. He not only made the titled quote about the team's four first downs on third down plays, but acknowledges it as one of the best drives of the 2011 season.

Coach, the 16-play drive in the San Francisco game… Talk about how efficient that was? (Bruce Raffel) "Right, that was probably one of the best drives of the season, against a defense of that caliber. Arguably the best, or one of the top two or three defenses we've played this year. The third-down execution was off the charts. To protect it the way we did, the chemistry between the receivers and Joe [Flacco], Joe's accuracy, Joe's recognition of coverages… That's what won us the football game, is in order to convert on that drive and separate us in the game a little bit, I think offensively, we did a really good job of being patient, pushing the ball forward [and] playing field position football. Always trying to get that drive, and then getting that drive at the end of the third quarter was the difference."

See the full transcript of the entire press conference at BaltimoreRavens.com.