The John Harbaugh lie detector test

The Baltimore Ravens have seen their offense perform extremely poorly during the 2017 season. They are currently 24th in points (19.0 per game), 29th in total yards (289.2 per game) and 31st in passing yards (159.7 yards per game).

Yes they’ve had injuries, Joe Flacco has played poorly, the line isn’t very good at pass blocking as a unit and receivers have dropped what seems like a billion passes. They aren’t the only problem.

It’s the coaching.

John Harbaugh consistently calls poorly timed timeouts. He hires “certain coaches” and doesn’t hold them accountable. So will he tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about his assistant coaches? Let’s go to the lie detector test:

Quote #1

“I think Marty is a great coach; there’s no question in my mind about it,” Harbaugh said via the team’s website on Monday. “We’ve seen him over the years, we know what he can do. I know what he’s trying to do, I know what all the coaches are trying to do.”

The lie detector test determined that was a lie.

Since Marty Mornhinweg took over for Marc Trestman as the offensive coordinator after the fourth game of the 2016 season, the Ravens have gone 8-9. They have also seen even less deep balls to their receivers. Flacco has had his worst yards per attempt stat in his career this season (5.4).

Quote #2

“You’re in it together. The players are in it together, the coaches are in together, we’re fighting together to try to do it,” Harbaugh said. “I think anytime you try to pin the blame on one person in a team sport like this, that’s always been a big mistake. That’s nonsensical. It just doesn’t work that way. But I understand that’s how it works [on the outside]. We all understand that.”

The lie detector test determined that Harbaugh was telling the truth.

The blame can’t just go on the players and the coaches. Baltimore’s front office didn’t provide the offensive weapons that Baltimore needed to succeed this season.

Quote #3

“We have to put it together. We have to keep working,” Harbaugh said. “There’s a lot of season left. Every week is a different week. We have good players, we have good coaches. We’re capable of putting together a good passing attack.”

The lie detector test is inconclusive.

Many of the players and coaches have had Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like seasons. Sometimes, they make good plays and call a good game. Other times, they look terrible. To determine whether the players and coaches are “good” or “bad” as a whole would be unfair, but they certainly have looked iffy.