Time for John Harbaugh to Look in the Mirror

The Baltimore Ravens’ problem is not that John Harbaugh is a bad coach.

The Ravens are going for their third straight division title, he’s racked up winning seasons, and he has that all important Super Bowl ring. The Ravens win a lot of games with Harbaugh, which only emboldens the excuse of favoring continuity as a franchise. If you frame the conversation with the angle of Harbaugh being good or bad, coach speak will always protect the awfully comfortable coach.

Make no mistake though, the Ravens’ problem revolves directly around Harbaugh.

Is Everyone Too Comfortable?

Harbaugh is the NFL’s most comfortable coach. He’s known to be friendly with Steve Bisciotti and Eric DeCosta, and is even neighbors with the GM. He rests easy knowing that “he’d get a job right away if he was fired.” It’s a lazy argument built on the cliche of the grass not always being greener on the other side.

It’s the automatic, knee-jerk, reflexive response from an organization that has a lot of pride and just enough success to justify it. Life after Harbaugh is unknown. Life with Harbaugh is very known, a song stuck in your head that you can sing along with on the radio.

There’s comfort with that, and comfort is at the very root of the problem.

Before Lamar Jackson, there was the idea that Harbaugh had not accomplished anything without Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and the old guard of the “Play Like A Raven” credo.

In 2018, before Jackson took over the starting job – likely saving Harbs’ position in the process – his word was as stale as petrified bread sitting in the open air. Jackson bought Harbaugh some time. A couple of magic carpet rides to the number one seed bought him a full bill of health as far as the Ravens were concerned.

Harbaugh had survived his sniffs of the hot seat. It was a passing whiff and, thanks to Lamar Jackson, he hasn’t been scared since.

The Maestro of Coach-Speak

There was a time when Harbaugh was one of the most honest and forthright coaches in the NFL. He’s a Harbaugh, so he’s always had coach-speak in the back pocket slid right next to his wallet, yet he was bold and talkative. Coach-speak has become his best friend, and he wears it like Harry Potter wears his cloak of invisibility. He thinks he can hide behind it and we the uninformed fans, the disconnected screamers of the stands, the folks “at the end of the bar,” and the people asking questions in front of cameras don’t know it’s a bunch of nonsense. His answer to being asked about a pattern of double-digit leads being blown is enough to make even the most docile fan throw a laptop across the room.

Fans want him to be angry today. Fans want him to fight through this, to do whatever he can to change this pattern for good.

That pattern, the one of double-digit leads being blown, it’s basically a yearly problem. Harbaugh is known as a choker; he has the most double digit leads blown as a head coach since 1991. It’s not too much to ask for Harbaugh to acknowledge the problem. In fact, it would be humanizing if he showed genuine emotion about it or hinted that he has the same frustration we experience at home.

Harbaugh humbling himself could be his silver bullet, the thing that buys back the investment of players and fans alike. Unveiling from the comfort of coach speak and outwardly addressing the problem would show a level of accountability that could set a strong new standard for his team.

Harbaugh’s voice has gone stale before; finding the timbre of his younger self could go a long way in changing the identity of this team in a meaningful way.

Postseason Flameouts

Let’s review the facts. In addition to Harbaugh’s copious number of leads surrendered, the Ravens keep falling short in the postseason. In 2019, the Ravens had the number one seed and lost in shocking fashion to the Titans, at home, in the divisional round. In 2023, the AFC ran through Baltimore and the Kansas City Chiefs found a way through to continue their dynasty. The Ravens spent all of the past offseason talking the talk about getting revenge on the Bills. Instead of getting revenge they reopened the wound, worsening the concerns of the Ravens’ championship legitimacy.

Who Holds John Harbaugh Accountable?

The facts are that coaches have been fired for less. The facts are that no coach in the current landscape of the NFL has had higher expectations than Harbaugh and these expectations have not been met with championship results.

Harbaugh has this season to break through and win the Lombardi Trophy. That has to be the expectation, especially because on paper the Ravens are the most loaded team in the NFL. At a certain point the expectations need to turn into a manifested reality. The Bills game shouldn’t cost Harbaugh his job, but it should cost him his comfort.

Has Harbs Lost his Fastball?

Steve Bisciotti would be wise to put his foot down and give his coach a Super Bowl mandate. The Ravens have won over 70 percent of their games with Lamar Jackson as the quarterback. Jackson has the best receiving group he’s ever had and a future Hall of Fame running back. Jackson is a two-time MVP, who arguably should have won a third MVP title last season. Jackson is at risk of being the modern day Dan Marino, the historically great quarterback without a Super Bowl victory. The Ravens’ responsibility as an organization is to maximize their chance of winning a Super Bowl while they have an elite quarterback. Coach-speak aside, Harbaugh has been given more than enough tools to win a Super Bowl. Coach-speak aside, this season has to be seen as a Super Bowl or bust kind of season.

There was once a different energy to this team, and Harbaugh was the conductor of that spirit. The slogan of the year wasn’t a marketing thing at one point but a theme for the team. Remember when the Ravens had the slogan “What’s Our Name?” That was inspired by the story of Muhammad Ali and his opponent stubbornly calling him Cassius Clay instead. Ali defeated him and yelled “What’s my name” as he did it. Harbaugh took an inspiring story about deciding your identity and fighting for the world to know it, and applied it to the team. It served as a rallying cry, not just something to put on a keychain for fans at training camp. Appropriately for its source the mantra had a punch to it. Harbaugh’s gusto has evaporated into a bunch of sighs and head shakes as he avoids questions about those facts we have reviewed. That’s what people on the outside think and these people on the outside seem to notice Harbaugh’s pattern better than he does.

When Harbaugh was at his best the Ravens were a scrappy underdog that vowed to break through to the Super Bowl. It took young Harbaugh five straight pushes in the playoffs to win it all. It was the Ravens against the world; as Terrell Suggs used to say, “We’re the bad guys.” Baltimore had to get past Peyton Manning’s dream team Denver Broncos in double overtime and beat Tom Brady in New England to reach the Super Bowl. Harbaugh literally did more with less. The 2025 Ravens roster on paper is objectively better than any team the Ravens had in the beginning of the Harbaugh era. If the 2012 Ravens played this current team though, they’d be victorious.

The old school Ravens had something this team doesn’t, an edge that Harbaugh lost somewhere in his office or in the pocket of an old jacket he gave to Goodwill.

What Happened to Harbs? Once Aggressive Coach is Suddenly Conservative

The old Harbaugh would have gone for it on 4th & 3 the other night, and you know it. The old Harbaugh would have sent his offense out to finish the game and not get shockingly conservative out of nowhere. You know it, I know it.

When Harbaugh has something to prove and a chip on his shoulder, good things happen. Not only is he a true Harbaugh, but the Ravens coach is the most polished of the family. He’ll always have an energy about him and he can sell his message quite convincingly when he has to.

It’s important to remember the facts when he’s up there at the podium. The Ravens have a pile of playoff disappointments since their Super Bowl win in the 2012-2013 season. The Ravens have a laundry list of double-digit leads being squandered. The Ravens struggle to finish games, and they seemingly find ways to lose in the postseason. The Ravens beating themselves is the most common and repetitive kind of loss that they experience.

It’s a team game but the antidote is simple. The franchise has to put pressure on Harbaugh, and demand he win a Super Bowl. Harbaugh needs to have a real chip on his shoulder, not just aggravation with everyone who asks him questions. He needs to step away from the coach-speak and set a standard of accountability and productive reflection.

More than anything, Harbaugh needs to find the spirit of his younger self. Harbaugh is a legend turning into a myth. He needs to take back the mindset of being a young head coach with something to prove to show us how he built such an impressive resume in the first place.

Jackson isn’t the problem. Talent around him isn’t the problem. The Ravens are 0-1 in the most frustrating way possible and the team will go as far as Harbaugh can take them.

He is the leader of the Baltimore Ravens and he needs to do the work on himself to get the team to a championship.

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/09/10/street-talk/harbaugh-mirror/