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The answer from the Ravens players was audible from outside a raucous locker room, providing a fitting capper to how an over-the-top excited coach let his emotion bubble over on Cincinnati’s home field. John Harbaugh wasn’t holding it in then, nor would he hold it in as he asked his players, “Who’s got it better than us?” at the top of his lungs.
It was a tribute to his dad in his dad’s home state, a few hours down Interstate 75 from where Jack Harbaugh now lives, and his brother, Jim, coaches and where the boys grew up with that family rallying call. It was also, just as much, a nod to the Ravens of the past.
And, now, the present.
Beating the Bengals in that building, to be sure, gave the Ravens plenty to celebrate on their own—Joe Burrow was 3–0 against Harbaugh’s crew at Paycor Stadium coming in.
But more than just that, it was the Ravens did it, as Harbaugh called it in the postgame, “Jack Harbaugh Football.” Baltimore got the ball, leading 27–24 with 3:28 left and, as the old Bo Schembechler assistant might’ve drawn it up, went Ten Year War on the two-time defending AFC North champions.
Gus Edwards off left guard for two yards. Devin Duvernay around right end for seven. Lamar Jackson scramble for 12 more. First down. Jackson keeper for a yard. Duvernay off right end again for eight.Edwards with five yards on third-and-1.
Ball game.
"That felt great, finally pulling off a game with the offense being on the field,” Jackson told me, as he made his way to the buses for the airport postgame. “The defense did a great job. All three phases did great today.”
Jackson’s point—as significant to the Ravens that they did it was just they did it.
Remember, the quarterback has a new contract, a new coordinator, and a bunch of new weapons around him in 2023. That, of course, leads to other questions on just how different the Baltimore offense, and operation, is going to be than it was over Jackson’s first six seasons in the NFL. And it’s what makes this season in Baltimore so interesting.
Yet, after two weeks, the Ravens have put everyone else on notice that, well, the old bully on the block is still roaming the streets.
Even with the new play-caller, bells, whistles and receiver talent, that vintage Baltimore ethos has gone nowhere. What the coach’s kid who became a Super Bowl champion called Jack Harbaugh Football, with pride, on Sunday is, of course, Ravens football, too. And Jackson’s excitement over how the Ravens closed the Bengals out is proof positive.
Jackson, for his part, can’t wait to see where the changes can take the Ravens.
But neither he, nor Harbaugh, nor anyone else in that locker has forgotten who they are.
