As the Ravens regroup from their loss in Pittsburgh, their habit of drawing flags remains a serious flaw.
Baltimore enters Week 12 leading the NFL in penalties (92) and penalty yards (763), with 10 more penalties than the Tennessee Titans, who have committed the second most.
In their 18-16 loss to the Steelers, the Ravens committed 12 penalties for 80 yards, including several flags that negated positive plays and put their offense in difficult down-and-distance situations.
Being the league's most penalized team has become a burden for a team with designs on winning a Super Bowl. The players and coaches acknowledge the problem, but stopping the miscues is the bigger challenge.
"It's something that needs to be cleaned up and needs to be fixed," Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum said. "It's not helping us win ball games when it happens. That's the biggest thing in winning games – taking care of the football and limit the amount of penalties, because at the end of the day, it's only hurting our drives. It's not fun to be first-and-15, second-and-10 all of the time."
Penalties that hurt the Ravens in Pittsburgh included:
- (First quarter): 10-yard holding penalty on Ronnie Stanley negated a 6-yard run by Derrick Henry. Result of drive: punt.
- (First quarter): 10-yard holding penalty on Patrick Mekari negated a 6-yard run by Henry. On the same drive, a 5-yard false start penalty on Nelson Agholor turned 2nd-and-6 into 2nd-and-11. Result of drive: punt.
- (Third quarter): Holding penalty on Malik Harrison negated a 28-yard kickoff return by Keaton Mitchell and the Ravens started the drive on their own 14. On 3rd-and-6, Zay Flowers was called for a false start on the first play of the fourth quarter. Result of drive: punt.
- (Fourth quarter): An ineligible lineman downfield penalty on Mekari negated a 15-yard screen from Lamar Jackson to Henry. On the next play, Jackson's pass intended for Justice Hill was wrestled away by linebacker Payton Wilson for an interception.
- (Fourth quarter): An ineligible lineman downfield penalty on Mekari negated a 34-yard completion from Jackson to Agholor. The Ravens overcame that with a 22-yard completion from Jackson to Hill. Two plays later, Jackson found Flowers for a 16-yard touchdown pass before Baltimore's failed two-point conversion attempt.
In a game decided by two points, the penalties were a deciding factor that led to Baltimore's demise.
"The penalties on offense are the one thing that is holding us back – that's the biggest issue," Head Coach John Harbaugh said.
"The buck stops here. ... It stops with me, so it's my job to make sure we're doing the things that we have to do – from a coaching standpoint, from a drill standpoint, from an emphasis standpoint, technique standpoint – and making sure guys understand that it's not OK. It's not acceptable. We've all got to be intentional about getting it stopped, and it's my job to make sure everybody is focused on it."
Mekari leads the league with six holding penalties, per Football Database. Ronnie Stanley and Daniel Faalele have four each, which is tied for fourth-most in the league.
While Harbaugh gave credit to the offensive line for not having many holding penalties in pass protection, Baltimore is getting flagged for too many in the running game.
"We're trying to put points on the board, and we're getting costly penalties each and every drive," Jackson said. "Every time we were out there, I believe there was almost a penalty each and every drive – that's crazy.
"It's been that way ever since last year, I believe, going back to the AFC Championship game, we killed ourselves. The Chiefs game [in] the [season] opener, we killed ourselves. [The] Raiders game (Week 2), we killed ourselves. We can't be beating ourselves in these types of games. We have to find a way to fix that – it's annoying."
The Ravens still have the league's top-ranked offense, and when they don't stop themselves, they've proven they are difficult to stop. However, the performance against Pittsburgh was more evidence that the problem with penalties needs to be put to rest.
"We're probably the best get-back-on-track offense in the league right now – we're overcoming those things," Harbaugh said. "But we shouldn't have to overcome them when you play a defense like we played, or you play in a game like we were playing in. … Sometimes it becomes too high of a mountain to scale."
