Ravens upset with officiating after Monday night loss to Cardinals
Baltimore feels it got screwed by the zebras.
“You expect [the referees] to be consistent and fair. That’s what you ask for,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said, via the Baltimore Sun. “Our guys are just going to have to overcome it. It’s not the first time this year, but that’s OK. We’ve got to be good enough to overcome those things. That’s how we look at it.”
Harbaugh wasn't the only one calling out the officials. Steve Smith said he would give the referees a "two-star Yelp review."
The Ravens were angry about many calls, but there were a few in particular that had them especially perturbed.
One was a blown call in the first quarter following a 6-yard reception by offensive lineman John Urschel. Urschel was flagged for being an ineligible receiver, despite replay showing that he checked in before the play, multiple times, with the officials to declare himself eligible.
“[Head official Ronald Torbert] said that he didn’t see it,” Harbaugh said, via the Sun. “Yeah, it’s self-explanatory. John did everything that he was supposed to do in that situation, just as he was coached. Joe [Flacco] looked at it, he saw it, I saw it. ... He did exactly what he was coached to do and what he was instructed to do in that situation. It was a legal formation.”
Flacco, who finished the game 26 of 40 for 252 yards with one touchdown and one interception, said he also pointed out numerous times to the referees that Urschel was checking in as an eligible receiver and didn’t understand how they had missed it.
The Ravens were also annoyed about the referee's decision to uphold a second-quarter fumble by Baltimore return man Jeremy Ross.
“I felt like my knee was down,” Ross said afterward. “I thought for sure the call was going to get overturned.”
And then there was Chris Johnson’s 62-yard run late in the third quarter, which occurred after Johnson had fallen, only to land on the lap of nose tackle Brandon Williams. Johnson never actually touched the ground and so the play wasn’t ruled dead. Baltimore, however, felt that Johnson’s forward progress had stopped and that the whistle should have been blown.
“I got no explanation on that whatsoever that was of any value,” Harbaugh said. “The play, it was three seconds it was stopped for. He had declared himself down.”
Many of these quotes were published by the Ravens on their official website, an action which could be be classified as publicly complaining about the officials.
"It's an analysis of three calls in the game," NFL spokesman Michael Signora said to Pro Football Talk when asked if the league had a problem with the Ravens running that story. "There is no issue here."
The loss was the Ravens' third in a row and dropped them to 1-6. They'll try to end their losing streak Sunday in Baltimore against the 2-5 Chargers.
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