Ravens running back Kenyan Drake, center, watches as Broncos safety Justin Simmons, right, intercepts a pass from wide receiver James Proche II in the fourth quarter on Sunday. (Karl Merton Ferron, The Baltimore Sun)
Ravens coach John Harbaugh had nothing nice to say about the double-reverse pass by wide receiver James Proche II that led to an interception in the Ravens’ 10-9 victory over the Denver Broncos.
“Everything broke down,” Harbaugh said at his regular Monday news conference. “It was just a bad play. It’s one we probably want back. It wasn’t a good time for it. It seemed like a good idea, I guess, at the time, in some ways. There’s reasons for that. But in hindsight, it was just not a good call in the sense that it was a bad play. We were trying too hard maybe to make something happen with a trick play. At that time of the game, it was probably time just to grind.”
The play came early in the fourth quarter, with the Ravens trailing 9-3 and finally threatening to score from the Denver 29-yard line.
Though Harbaugh did not mention the team’s play caller, Greg Roman, by name, his criticism came at a time when Roman is under fire for the Ravens’ recent offensive struggles and also a candidate to become Stanford’s next coach.
Harbaugh said he could not put much of the blame on Proche, a wide receiver who had never attempted a pass in the NFL.
“You’d like for him just to run right there,” Harbaugh said. “You ask James, I’m sure he said that last night. You don’t throw into four guys. But he’s a wide receiver, so I’m not going to hold him too accountable for it. We’ll take that as a coaching … we could do better with the play calling. We tried to do something, and it was a bad idea in the sense that it really had no chance.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service