Had Tyler Loop made a 44-yard field goal, John Harbaugh’s Ravens would have been in the playoffs. But it wouldn’t have saved his job. Not according to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, who is kind of in charge of making those decisions. With the Loop miss, Baltimore finished 8-9 and did not qualify for the postseason.
Had they made it, Harbaugh would have taken the Ravens to the playoffs in four straight seasons and seven of the last eight. But they only won three playoff games in that span, despite having a two-time NFL MVP at quarterback.
Asked yesterday if Harbaugh would be “still coaching this team” had Loop made the field goal that would have won the Ravens the Week 18 game and also the AFC North, Bisciotti said, “For a week”.
Of course, what would have happened from there we’ll never know. What if the Ravens had gone on a run and won the Super Bowl? It’s hard to imagine Bisciotti firing John Harbaugh after winning a second Super Bowl. But would they have done any better against the Texans than the Steelers did? Houston humiliated them during the regular season.
To hear Bisciotti tell it, he didn’t make a decision about Harbaugh until the 11th hour. And he called Harbaugh on the phone to let him go because he didn’t want to call him into the office just for that after Harbaugh had just gotten home. Perhaps even less comforting is how he reached his decision.
“I wasn’t 100% sure until, really, after the loss, and I fell on my instincts, and whatever I was feeling was right”, Bisciotti said. Because everybody wants to hear that their boss decided to let them go instinctually. “I got to the point that I didn’t believe that I would feel regret after I made that decision. And that’s what instinct is. When you finally get to the point that you’re pretty damn sure that you are not going to regret the decision a day or a week later, then that’s the time to make the decision. Is that fair”?
Maybe, maybe not, but the deed is done. Bisciotti said that he and Harbaugh will remain lifelong friends and that Harbaugh was the one doing the consoling during the initial phone call. He said that Harbaugh likely landing right back on his feet made the decision easier.
And, as when Mike Tomlin fired Matt Canada, he also cited prevailing public narratives. The tide shifted against John Harbaugh at the end of his Ravens tenure, and Steve Bisciotti recognized that. While he pushed against the narrative that the public outcry forced his hand, he said that he hated people attacking his friend and wanted to spare him that.
Harbaugh spent 18 seasons working for Bisciotti with the Ravens, the second-longest-tenured head coach after Tomlin, who stepped down as the Steelers’ head coach a week later. While Harbaugh appears eager to get right back in the saddle, Tomlin’s future is unclear. But both of them can pretty much write their own tickets if they so choose.
