Harbaugh praises Tucker, wants more from offense

With five games to go, the Ravens are still in the driver’s seat in the push for the playoffs.

Baltimore owns a first-place tiebreaker over the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North after beating the Bengals Sunday 19-14. 

It was a win thanks in large part to the leg of Justin Tucker. The Ravens kicker converted on all four of his field goal attempts Sunday. He nailed three from beyond 50-yards (52, 57, 54).  Head coach John Harbaugh heaped more praise upon Tucker Monday.

“Grass doesn’t grow as well once it gets so cold. It doesn’t grow at all,” said Harbaugh. “It was a little sandy out there. I thought Justin did a tremendous job with his footing. It was a soft field and to be able to hit those long kicks was really just phenomenal.”

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Even with the best kicker in the NFL, the Ravens offense needs to get better as the schedule gets tougher down the stretch.

“I’d love to see the numbers be through the roof. But numbers don’t win games. You gotta score more points,” said Harbaugh.

Much of the talk around the Ravens facility remained on the way the game ended against Cincy. With Baltimore up seven with 11 seconds to go, punter Sam Koch took an intentional safety after the guys in front of him committed several holding penalties as time expired. It exposed a loophole in the rule book and ended the contest.

“It’s pretty much a play that every special teams coach has in his playbook,” said Harbaugh. “I don’t think it’s anything revolutionary by any stretch. I was really happy with the way the guys executed it, really proud of that. Thought they did a great job of finishing the game. That’s a big play.”

That execution improved the Ravens record to 6-5.  They get the 7-4 Miami Dolphins at home on Dec. 4 in another game that could hold major playoff implications come January.

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