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It's easy to be a good head coach sometimes when everything goes well. In Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh's situation, things have gone well A LOT in the past eight years.
In eight years, Harbaugh has :
- Six playoff appearances
- 10 playoff wins
- Three AFC championship appearances
- Super Bowl appearance
- Super Bowl win
All of that is great and those are the reasons why Harbaugh has been considered by many as a top five head coach. But 2015 has been a horrible year as the team is 2-6 for the first time since 2005. There are injuries all over the roster. The defense is inconsistent. The offense starts games off slow. This is a recipe for chaos especially for a team that had Super Bowl aspirations before the season started. By now, you would expect players to be divided in the locker room.
There's no chaos with a team head coached by John Harbaugh. There's no divide by a team head coached by John Harbaugh.
The Ravens continue to fight. All of the eight games the Ravens have been involved in this season have been decided by eight points or less. Win or lose, the effort is there. The execution may be lacking most of the time, but the willingness to try is still there. All of that is a credit to Harbaugh.
Look at the Buffalo Bills head coached by Rex Ryan. The Bills were a team that had the expectation of being dominant on defense and there are players like Mario Williams blaming his coaches for the defensive struggles this year.
You can also look at a Miami Dolphins team this season that had to get their head coach Joe Philbin fired in the middle of the season for them to finally wake up and earn their paychecks.
None of that is going on in Baltimore. Players are not calling each other out in Baltimore publicly. Players are not calling out their coaches publicly.
Even when Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees was critical of cornerback Jimmy Smith last week via BaltimoreRavens.com, Smith didn't voice his frustration publicly, he just went out and played. Harbaugh hasn't called any of his players out during this difficult time.
It is very easy to look like a good head coach when everything goes well.
It is also very easy to tell how good a head coach is when everything goes bad. Harbaugh still has command of his locker room and no player is going to take that away from him.
The Ravens may have underestimated the level of depth they had on the roster, but they didn't underestimate the will and the effort for this team as a whole to try and win every football game they have in front of them. That is why Harbaugh is a top five head coach. That is why Harbaugh will have success going forward. The Ravens will identify what they need to do for the future.
This season hasn't turned out the way the Ravens have liked, but it will be part of the reason why Harbaugh will continue to be part of this organization going forward.