The Ravens won a hard-fought game in Detroit last Monday night and then returned home for a date with the Patriots that wound up being an ugly one for the home team.
New England won 41-7 in a game that saw the Ravens struggle in all phases with even Justin Tucker missing a field goal on a day when nothing went right. Among the reasons that coach John Harbaugh cited when asked about his team’s listless performance was the impact of coming off a short week following a road game on Monday night.
“It did, we felt it,” Harbaugh said, via the Baltimore Sun. “We fought through it all week as best we could. Our guys were excited to play, and I thought the effort was there. They fought like crazy, but we just didn’t have enough juice to pull it off. It’s a legitimate factor. Everybody has scheduling issues that they’ve got to deal with in the NFL, and that was one of ours.”
While there’s no denying the lost day of preparation that comes from playing on Monday night, the records show that it hasn’t been too great of an issue across the board this season. Teams that play on Monday night are now 16-15 in the next week while teams that played on the road are 7-9. Harbaugh’s own career record stands at 3-3 after playing Monday night on the road, which shows that the team can overcome the schedule on occasion.
It may have been a factor in the loss, but it’s hard to feel that a little missing juice was the difference maker in a game the Patriots won by 34 points.