Bye weeks are great times to hit reset, to have the kind of organizational breather that can get a team back on track.
So for two hours and 20 minutes Monday, coach John Harbaugh sat with his 3-4 Ravens and talked, dissecting film pointing out mistakes, and trying to get their feet back underneath then for the rest of the season.
“We have great relationships, and I do like and love our guys. I told one of the guys in the meeting today, ‘I love you, but I despise you right now on that play.’ And guys get it,” Harbaugh said, via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. “They’re OK. It’s all about just pushing them and coaching them and trying to just teach better football — really is where we’re at. . . . I’ve been impatient for quite a long time, and they know it.”
Going over an ugly loss to the Jets is one thing, and fixing the mistakes from that one could take plenty of time. But the fact it was a fourth straight loss is the bigger concern, and Monday’s meeting featured players talking about the direction of the season as well.
“Just an opportunity to be very honest with one another, which we always are, and work on the things that need to do to get better,” Harbaugh said. “That’s what we have here, a bunch of accountable guys. We just need to find a way to become the type of football team we’re capable of becoming. That’s always a process and always a journey. I’m excited about that.”
That journey needs to start pretty quickly after the bye if they want to get to their destination, but Harbaugh also said he expected most of their injured players to be back when they return in a week. Since they have had more injured players that will fit on a gameday inactive list the last two weeks, that’s as good a news as anything said in a meeting.