The End Was Sloppy, but Harbaugh’s Run Was Special

I remember the 2007 Ravens.

That swashbuckling group of marauding renegades that led the 2006 team to a 13-3 mark and, in my eyes, fielded one of the greatest defenses ever assembled in the history of the National Football League, was returning, along with star quarterback Steve McNair.

The vibes were high. The team added some heft for the line in that year’s draft in the likes of Ben Grubbs, Marshal Yanda and Jared Gaither. The Ravens looked serious and primed to give it another run, and Charm City was ready to embrace another terrific chapter of the story of Brian Billick’s wild dogs — even if the rest of the NFL world didn’t quite share our enthusiasm with the team.

They started out 4-2, but didn’t look as imposing as the year before. Injuries to key players popped up, discipline went out the window in a flurry of yellow flags and missed assignments and the team dropped their next nine games in a row, including a somewhat-inspiring performance in a heart-breaking 27-24 loss to the Patriots team that eventually finished that regular season 16-0.

It was tough to watch, and, quite frankly, embarrassing at times. How embarrassing? Well, nestled in that nine-game losing streak was an overtime loss to a Miami Dolphins team being quarterbacked by Cleo Lemon. That Miami team, by the way, finished that season 1-15, which incidentally was Cam Cameron’s only career win as an NFL head coach.

Billick was out at the end of the season — a shocking scenario to even consider just a year earlier, but one that almost felt inevitable by the end. Billick had lost the locker room by many accounts, the players were often undisciplined on the field and this franchise needed a change in the worst way.

Enter John Harbaugh.

The hiring of the somewhat-unknown defensive backs coach with the Eagles who had “made his bones” as a special teams coach caught many by surprise. Jason Garrett was the hot name back then, but Jerry Jones dropped the GDP of a small nation in his lap and he stayed in Dallas. Harbaugh’s hiring was mostly met with yawns — except by the Philadelphia media, who thought the hire was inspired.

“No Eagles coach during the Andy Reid era has exuded more personality, more fire, more upbeat confidence that John Harbaugh,” wrote Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News after the hire, per the Ravens’ site.

“Former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese said Thursday that he thought Harbaugh would make an outstanding head coach, and he credited him with making him a quality special-teams player,” wrote Philadelphia Inquirer scribe Bob Brookover.

The 2008 Ravens were disciplined. The defense got its teeth back. Injuries to Kyle Boller and Troy Smith forced rookie quarterback Joe Flacco into the line-up for the season-opener, and he just stuck there for the rest of the year. The Ravens found themselves in the AFC Championship game, lost a heart-breaker to the Steelers and set a course going forward with their young quarterback-coach tandem.

It was, by any measure, a success. The Ravens won at least one playoff game each of those first four years together and capped it off the fifth year with a Super Bowl win over Harbaugh’s brother’s 49ers. The Flacco-Harbaugh tandem won 10 playoff games together, and Harbaugh eventually became the NFL’s all-time winningest coach in terms of road playoff wins.

In 2018 the Ravens drafted a talented young Heisman-winning quarterback out of Louisville by the name of Lamar Jackson. Injuries, and pretty mediocre play, thrusted Jackson into the starting lineup midway through the season and the Ravens caught fire, winning the division and starting the next phase of the John Harbaugh era.

The Ravens have been a perennial contender every season since Jackson dropped into the starting lineup, and the quarterback amassed two MVPs (and arguably should have won a third) under Harbaugh. But postseason success has been minimal. Too many leads have been blown over recent years. The natives, as they say, have become restless. And Harbaugh lost his job after 18 seasons, a 180-113 regular-season record and 13-11 in the playoffs.

And, you know what? It was time for the change. Things have gone flat, and it seems like the team just can’t take that next step. Some of the assistant-coach hires weren’t as strong as before, and the last few years saw less growth in the young players than we’ve seen in years past, particularly along the offensive line and secondary.

All good things must come to an end, and this was the time to end this very-good chapter in Ravens history.

But we shouldn’t remember John Harbaugh as some “Joe Schmoe coach” who inherited a talented roster and got lucky in winning a Super Bowl before “being saved” by Jackson’s arrival later. Harbaugh came in and saved this franchise from a slippery slope it seemed to be descending upon, gave the team an identity of professionalism and hard work and built the franchise into something that has become the envy of most franchises in the National Football League.

Sure, it was time. I was ready for this coaching change as much as anybody else. But it’s narrow-minded and short-visioned to cast Harbaugh as anything less than a Hall-of-Famer who was a credit to this organization and the city it proudly represents.

Good luck in the future, Harbs — except when you play the Ravens.

Thank you Harbs pic.twitter.com/0LWAA4uVhT

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 7, 2026

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