The Baltimore Ravens have always been regarded as one of the top special teams units in the NFL. They take that aspect of the game extremely seriously, and considering the background of Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh, it’s not hard to see why.
After the Ravens’ Week 8 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Harbaugh was asked to assess his special teams unit so far during the 2023 season. He went into major detail, saying that there are always things that need to be worked on, but the unit is playing at a high level overall while continuing to chase perfection.
“Well, there’s always something that needs to be worked on. Special teams – I have a lot of experience with – the expectation is that all six phases are going to win. You talk about six different phases, and it’s pretty hard to bat 1.000 in six different phases and have every special teams phase either push or win every snap. We’ve done that a lot. We have a ton of success here. The standard is really, really high, and that’s good, we want the standard to be super high. The standard is probably higher here than anywhere else in the league if you look at it over the last number of years. So, that’s awesome, and we chase that standard for sure. We played a very good special teams game yesterday. The one kickoff got them inside the 20[-yard line]. We had 4 punts inside the 10[-yard line]. Our net punt was [a 46.2 average]. It’s pretty unbelievably good. [In] punt returns, we were 3-for-30 yards, a 10-yard average, and half of our calls were fake defense calls. We were playing safe punt return because they were in fake type of territory or fake down and distance, and we still had those return yards against a really good punt cover team. [The] kickoff return didn’t get any chances, and the one you’re talking about is the onside kick where that was the one where we need, in this game, played better. What happened was – and I talked to their kicker afterwards. I congratulated him on the kick because it’s supposed to be a high hopper, [and] it came up low and short, and we just need to be aggressive on that and go get it right now, and we hesitated. ‘He who hesitates is lost,’ on an onside kick recovery, obviously, and it bounced. In the second one, it was the exact same kick, and we went and got it. So, that’s how it went, and it’s like anything else, it’s a battle. Our special teams overall is playing at a high level, but we will keep chasing perfection and try to make every play. It’s either a push or a plus, that’s what we go for.”
