Ravens safety Earl Thomas made a bit of a business decision. And John Harbaugh’s willing to accept it.
Via Jonas Shaffer of the Baltimore Sun, Thomas’ explanation for not chasing Browns running back Nick Chubb during an 88-yard touchdown run was about some tightness in his hamstrings — along with the reality that he probably wasn’t catching Chubb anyway.
“If that’s what he said about his hamstrings — he was a good bit behind Chubb in that situation, as I watched the tape — he wasn’t going to catch him,” the Ravens coach said. “Yeah, we want everybody to finish, but if he felt some tightness in his hamstrings right there, I’m glad he’s out of the game healthy, in all honesty.
“I want everybody running to the ball as much as they can, but . . . I certainly don’t want a hamstring pull from my starting safety right there, so I take him at his word. You know why I say that: Because I watched the game and saw how hard he played. The guy was all over the field. He made a bunch of hits. I respect that.”
Thomas has built up a career’s worth of goodwill on that account, even if he’s new to Baltimore.
But it was still glaring to see him pull up.