Harbaugh defends Reed, Lewis

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Baltimore Ravens coach Harbaugh acknowledged that free safety Ed Reed shouldn’t have lateraled the football during a punt return in the final seconds of a 17-15 loss Sunday to the Indianapolis Colts.

Reed wound up fumbling away possession back to the Colts, allowing them to run out the clock and close out the game.

“I talked to Ed about it this morning and about a lot of different things,” Harbaugh said. “It was a great conversation. It was an excellent game, and he had no intention of flipping that ball before that ball was punted and when it was in the air. He just made a mistake. I kind of related it to my mistake.

“I think we both made an overaggressive mistake in an ancient moment, trying to do something a little too fast to try to find a way to make something happen and we both overreached. He overreached on that play. That’s one play in the game. It’s not the reason we lost the game, but I think it’s indicative of things we can all do better.”

Harbaugh defended the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year who had one interception against Peyton Manning.

“Ed Reed probably had his best game of the season,” Harbaugh said. “He tackled extremely well. Weren’t we talking about tackling a couple of weeks ago with Ed Reed? Ed Reed came out and fronted up and tackled people as well as you could do it. And he covered very well, had the pick on Peyton where he set Peyton up a little bit and got him to throw where he wanted to throw it.”

Contrary to rumors, Harbaugh indicated that Reed didn’t just wave Carr off the field and put himself in for the final punt return. Per Harbaugh, Reed communicated beforehand with special-teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg.

“Jerry and Ed have a communication system where if Ed feels like he can take it and if Jerry wants him out there, they’ll give him the thumbs up,” Harbaugh said. “We put him out there. Pretty obvious why we did it. He’s got a chance to make a play, and he made a real nice play on the bouncing ball.”

Reed repeatedly declined interview requests after the game and has yet to comment on the play.

Meanwhile, All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis was embarrassingly juked by Colts running back Joseph Addai on his touchdown run.

He was also exposed in pass coverage against the Colts’ tight ends.

Harbaugh defended the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year who led the Ravens with eight tackles Sunday. He also forced a fumble.

“I think Ray played really well,” Harbaugh said. “Every player is not going to make every play. It’s give and take and backs can make people miss. He came back and caused the fumble on the two-yard line that stopped that drive cold.

“Ray is an accomplished player, he’s a future Hall of Famer and he’s still playing at that level, at a really high level. No problem with the way Ray’s playing.”

Lewis declined an interview request after the game. He hasn’t conducted interviews after losses several times this year with the exception of defeats against the New England Patriots and the Minnesota Vikings as he didn’t talk after both games against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Harbaugh was also accountable about his timeout/challenge miscue late in the game.

The second-year coach said that he’s fully aware of the instant replay rules and timeouts.

Harbaugh has drawn criticism for calling a timeout and then throwing a red flag to call for an instant replay with officials charging the Ravens the timeout and not letting him withdraw his challenge.

Ultimately, the Ravens squandered both of their final two timeouts during the sequence.

“It’s not generally aware of the procedures, I know the procedures inside and out,” he said. “I basically got it backwards. If I had to do it all over again, throw the flag. You throw the flag to get the timeout and take a chance at maybe you get a different spot than what you got.

“Once I had called the timeout, I tried to get too much done. I tried to flip it and get the challenge before the timeout and that was the mistake. That was my mistake. It was a bad job on my part. I should have taken a minute and thought it through a little better in the heat of battle and done a better job with that."

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(nationalfootballpost.com)