OWINGS MILLS — Ravens coach John Harbaugh has not been pleased with the number of penalties the team has incurred over the first three weeks of the season.
Baltimore is the most penalized team in the league with 31 infractions for 278 yards, according to the Football Database. Offensive holding has been the biggest issue with six flags thrown, followed by delay of game, false start, and defensive holding.
The Ravens were penalized 13 times for 105 yards in the 28-25 victory over the Cowboys. Some of those penalties, such as the roughing the passer flag on linebacker Odafe Oweh and the illegal contact on safety Marcus Williams, were questionable. Oweh appeared to legally tackle Prescott to the ground just as he released the ball and Williams appeared to just graze the jersey of an opponent.
Nonetheless, Harbaugh is focused on playing a cleaner game, starting this Sunday night against the undefeated Buffalo Bills.
“There are some headscratchers, but there’s also some … that are legit, and when you have the number [of penalties] that we have right now, it’s too many,” Harbaugh said. “That’s just something that has to get cleaned up. The ones that maybe shouldn’t be called, we can’t do anything about those.
“But the ones that should be called, we have to clean those up. That’s on us, it’s our responsibility to do it. It’s hurting us. It’s costing us points in the end.”
The Ravens spend hours reviewing film and making sure the players understand why a penalty was called.
For example, rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins was flagged for one pass interference penalty where he didn’t even touch the opposing player. However, he was flagged another time because he grabbed the wide receiver.
The Ravens don’t want to be in a position to lose games because of penalties.
“That’s a matter of playing football the right way in all of those situations, and I guarantee you, we’re going to be on our guys to do it right; they want to do it the right way,” Harbaugh said. “It’s our responsibility to make sure they do it the right way all the time as much as possible, and we have to get better at that.”