As Lamar Jackson walked onto the field for the Ravens’ final drive in the 28-25 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Fox cameras caught him saying, “Stop cheating us, bro.”
The comment came after inside linebacker Chris Board was called for holding on the Ravens’ kickoff return, moving back Deonte Harty’s 35-yard return 10 yards to the Baltimore 21-yard line. And that was preceded by illegal contact and roughing the passer penalties that helped Dallas move down the field for a touchdown to get the game within three points.
The holding call was the final penalty in a game where the Ravens were flagged 13 times for 105 yards, making them the most penalized team in the NFL.
The quarterback continued his criticism of the officiating Monday, posting on X that the referees would have called the Ravens for a safety had he thrown a pass to one of his lineman from the team’s end zone — something Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott did in the second quarter, only for the referees to call an “illegal touching” penalty that allowed the Cowboys to punt.
Jackson’s reply not only called out that penalty or lack thereof but also the perception that the Ravens are being treated differently.
“It would’ve been a safety if I did that,” Jackson posted.
He was responding to Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who posted after the game: “Today I found out that if a QB is goin down for a safety you can just pass it to an O-lineman and you good?!?! What?!?!”
The Ravens have blasted some of the penalties against them since Week 1, starting with all the illegal formation calls on left tackle Ronnie Stanley. The veteran not only questioned the calls against him but also whether the refs were officiating him and the Chiefs’ offensive tackles equally.
After the Week 2 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, where the Ravens continuously saw Raiders drives extended by defensive penalties. Safety Eddie Jackson said there were some “BS” calls.
The Ravens haven’t just been called for the most penalties in the NFL, they’ve also been penalized far worse than their opponents. They had seven more penalties and 61 more penalty yards than the Cowboys, eight more penalties and 94 more penalty yards than the Raiders and one more penalty for 19 more yards than the Chiefs.
Some have been fair. Others have been questionable.
As the coach, John Harbaugh has walked the fine line of examining penalties without slamming the referees. He skirts around fines by saying whether or not the play had something the coaches could teach the player about or not.
For example, after the Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Harbaugh said they could coach cornerback Brandon Stephens to put himself in a position where he wouldn’t be called for pass interference — but that the play cornerback Marlon Humphrey was flagged for had nothing they could coach.
On Monday, he explained what the refs saw on the questionable roughing the passer penalty against outside linebacker Odafe Oweh that erased a third down stop on Dallas’ last scoring drive.
“They said that [Odafe Oweh] lifted [Dak Prescott] up and dumped him into the ground,” Harbaugh said. “That’s what they said that they saw.”
He also commented on rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins’ penalties, saying there was “one pass interference penalty where he didn’t even touch the guy, but he got another one where he grabbed the guy.” The obvious one actually ended up working in the Ravens favor: Despite Wiggins’ penalty being more egregious, it was offset by a holding penalty on the Cowboys.
Harbaugh explained the safety call as well. Defensive linemen Nnamdi Madubuike and Travis Jones rushed Prescott in the end zone, and he threw the ball to guard Tyler Smith without there being an eligible receiver in the area. Instead of being flagged for intentional grounding, which would have resulted in a safety because Prescott was in the end zone, Dallas was called for illegal touching. The officials spent a few minutes with Harbaugh explaining the call on the sidelines.
“I’ve never heard of this before, and I don’t know if it kind of came up there, or if they have seen this before, I’m not sure, but they said it’s not intentional grounding because somebody caught it, even though it’s an illegal receiver that caught it, which is a penalty,” Harbaugh said. “So, basically, they get rewarded for having a penalty there. That’s probably not what they want, by the rules, so we’ll see. Maybe it’s a loophole in the rule, I’m not sure. It’s something they’ll probably look at.”
But for all the dubious calls, there have been plenty of legitimate ones. So the Ravens will submit the ones they have questions on to the league and then control what they can control: their own technique and discipline.
“There are some head-scratchers, but there’s also some ones that are legit, and when you have the number that we have right now, it’s too many,” Harbaugh said. “That’s just something that has to get cleaned up. That ones that maybe shouldn’t be called, we can’t do anything about those. But the ones that should be called, we have to clean those up. That’s on us, it’s our responsibility to do it. It’s hurting us. It’s costing us points in the end.”
