OWINGS MILLS, Maryland. Crows Coach John Harbaugh disputed the claim made Vikings running back Aaron Jones that Baltimore played some role in Minnesota's eight false starts on Sunday.
“We didn’t have a game plan for this,” Harbaugh said Monday. “If we did that, I'd be happy, but we're not going to do anything illegal.”
Minnesota committed the most false starts by an NFL home team in 16 years V loss with a score of 27-19 to the Ravens. After the game, Jones said Baltimore's defense made calls that simulated a quarterback. JJ McCarthycadence.
NFL rules prohibit the use of “actions or words by the defensive team that are intended to confuse the offensive team at the snap.”
Harbaugh said the Ravens never said “set” or “hut” to throw off the rhythm, but he admitted Jones' comments caught his attention, causing him to rewatch every Vikings false start.
“We didn’t stop any of them. [time] we were moving,” Harbaugh said. – They made a lot of rhythms. They did a lot [snaps] for two they tried to draw us offsides. And then they spent several shifts where they could find a person. [or] zone and try to see where we're at and they jumped up and down a few times when they did that to try to get to their warnings and change of plays.”
Before Sunday, Ravens opponents had been flagged six times for false starts in eight games, the third-highest total in the NFL this season. In Harbaugh's 18 seasons with the Ravens, no opponent had previously committed more than four false starts in a game.
Harbaugh emphasized that only Jones accused the Ravens of wrongdoing.
“So, like [Vikings] Trainer [Kevin] O'Connell said, “We didn't do anything,” Harbaugh said.
O'Connell took responsibility for Monday's false start.
“I need to coach this team better,” O'Connell said. “Obviously, when you have problems like this before the snap of a game, you don't just rely on the position coaches and [offensive coordinator Wes Phillips] to correct the situation and switch to the defensive side. I get to be directly involved in some of these things.
“…We have the advantage of looking at each of them as a separate item, and we don't know if there's necessarily a smoking gun that maybe I thought [Sunday]. They're different things, but we have to make sure we fix it, and we will.”
ESPN's Kevin Seifert contributed to this report.
