Baltimore’s Harbaugh still miffed by reversals: ‘About as clear as mud right now’

BALTIMORE — A day later, John Harbaugh still wasn’t satisfied with the way the NFL determines if a catch has been made.

“It’s about as clear as mud right now,” the Baltimore coach said.

The Ravens lost their biggest game of the season Monday, 27-22 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Two replay reviews went against Baltimore in the fourth quarter. One of them turned an interception into a Pittsburgh catch, and the other changed a touchdown by the Ravens into an incompletion.

Harbaugh said Monday he and general manager Eric DeCosta had spoken to the league.

“It didn’t clear anything up. It didn’t make it any easier to understand in either one of the two calls,” Harbaugh said. “They’re very hard to understand how they get overturned, but they did, and that’s where it stands.”

Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was ruled to have caught his own pass and been down by contact before losing control of the ball and having it intercepted by a Raven. Then Isaiah Likely lost a TD when the ball was knocked away from him after both his feet landed in the end zone, but before he completed an additional step.

Harbaugh said the league did acknowledge a mistake on a second-quarter penalty on Baltimore that occurred when the Steelers were attempting a field goal. Travis Jones was called for unnecessary roughness, giving Pittsburgh a first down. The Steelers scored a touchdown on the next play to go up 17-3.

“The Travis Jones call, they told me, and they told me I had permission to state this, that it was a wrong call,” Harbaugh said. “It should not have been called.”

Now Baltimore (6-7) is playing catch-up again. The Ravens staggered to a 1-5 start thanks in part to an injury to Lamar Jackson. Then they won five in a row, but the star quarterback didn’t look totally healthy and the offense was out of sorts. Now they’ve lost two straight divisional games at home, and next week’s prime-time visit to Cincinnati feels like a must-win.

Baltimore is just a game behind Pittsburgh (7-6) atop the AFC North, and the teams meet again in Week 18. But if the Ravens fall to the Bengals, they would need the Steelers to lose to Cleveland to have any shot at winning a tiebreaker with Pittsburgh.

What’s working

Baltimore’s offense still settled for too many field goals, but Jackson and Derrick Henry looked a little more like themselves in the second half. The Ravens finished with 420 yards of offense, their highest total since Week 1.

What needs help

The Baltimore offensive line still has plenty of issues, but the defensive front was a concern in this game. The pass rush against the 42-year-old Rodgers wasn’t nearly good enough. He wasn’t sacked a single time and had enough time to revive a downfield passing game that had been dormant for Pittsburgh.

Kyle Van Noy has just two sacks this season for the Ravens after posting 12 1/2 last season.

Stock up

Likely hasn’t had a particularly good season, but he was a factor in this game, scoring a third-quarter touchdown and nearly adding a game winner late in the fourth.

Stock down

Tyler Loop missed an extra point and wasn’t great on kickoffs. Mark Andrews had only one catch in his first game after agreeing to a three-year extension.

Injury

Keaton Mitchell’s 55-yard run in the third quarter gave Baltimore a much-needed jolt, but he left with a knee injury. With Justice Hill also out, the Ravens are running out of rushing options besides Henry, who had 94 yards on a season-high 25 carries.

Harbaugh did say Mitchell was day to day.

“We got good news,” he said.

Key number

The Ravens lost at home for the fifth time this season, tying a franchise record set in 2015. Baltimore has one home game left, against New England in two weeks.

Up next

The Ravens take on the Bengals on Sunday, just 2 1/2 weeks after losing 32-14 to them at home.