The Baltimore Ravens finished the 2021 season at 8-9 and in last place in the AFC North after starting it at 8-3 and in first place in the entire AFC. Their six-game losing streak at the end of the season was a combination of many things, but close losses were one of them.
During his end of season press conference, Harbaugh was asked about if his two-point conversions that the team ultimately failed to execute cost the team a chance at the postseason. Harbaugh went into great detail, talking about how his players felt about it and also what his mindset was when making the decision, as well as how he felt after.
“Yes, you know what the players felt about it, so I’m probably the guy that feels the worst about it. I think the players … Like I said, I was talking to Mark [Andrews], and I was talking to Lamar [Jackson], and it came up, and they’re basically saying … They’re basically telling me that I should have done what I did. But would we have won those games in overtime? Nobody knows. So, we had, probably, a 50-50 shot there, and would we have had a 50-50 shot in overtime against some of those quarterbacks we were playing? I don’t know. But that’s the choice that you made. Having made them now, not knowing what happened, I think I would have done them again – after thinking about it. After knowing what happened, heck no, I’m going to overtime. You know? (bangs podium – laughter) That’s easy. I thought about it right away. As soon as we didn’t convert, I’m like, ‘Damn, I should’ve kicked it.’ That’s the first thing I thought, because that’s really what it boils down to. You can’t say it was the right decision when it didn’t work. Just like you can’t say it was the wrong decision if it did work. I mean, the bottom line is you want it to work – that’s why you do it. So, we’ll continue to be aggressive, but we’re never going to be irresponsibly aggressive. You’re going to try to be aggressive in ways … I tell our analytics guys this all the time: Whether you go for it on fourth down, or whether you go for two, or whatever it is you do, it’s not a matter of being a plus-4% chance of winning the game. It’s not a matter of a 65% chance as opposed to a 35% chance. All those numbers they give you, it’s 100% you get it or 100% you don’t get it. It’s a win or it’s a loss, and that’s why it’s never going to be about analytics; it’s going to be about making a decision in the heat of battle, and I believed, in those two situations, that we were going to convert those plays.”
There were multiple situations in 2021 where Baltimore could have tied the game with an extra point with under one minute to go, but Harbaugh elected to go for two points and the win. The Ravens were aggressive throughout the entire season, and their two-point conversion decisions showed that. However, they couldn’t get the ball in the end zone in those scenarios, and it contributed to the disappointing end to their year.