John Harbaugh says Ravens’ phones went out during last drive

The Baltimore Ravens had a chance.

Trailing by eight points with 1:53 to go, the Ravens took over at their own 24-yard line. A touchdown and a two-point conversion would tie the game and send it to overtime.

Baltimore (1-6) marched all the way down to the Arizona 9-yard line, but their hopes for a victory were dashed when Tony Jefferson intercepted a Joe Flacco pass in the end zone with six seconds remaining, preserving a 26-18 Cardinals’ win.

Flacco admitted after the game that the failed drive by Baltimore was chaotic.

“It was way too hectic out there,” he said. “We were running guys in and out. It was just too much communication going on for the amount of time we had left and guys were just confused.

“Well because, rightfully so, it is loud out there and it was just a little bit too hectic.”

Flacco’s coach John Harbaugh took the communications issues to another level.

“The phones were going out. We lost our phones,” he said. “There’s always going to be some confusion. The good thing is we got everything done fast. We didn’t lose any time as far as time management. We’ll go back and study it. According to the clock things got done pretty darn quickly.

“But the phones were going out, so we couldn’t hear. I don’t know why they were going out on that drive. (Offensive coordinator) Marc (Trestman) had yelled and we couldn’t get the personnel groups. Guys had to run the personnel groups on and off. All of those things were kind of challenging with the phones out.”

Harbaugh said the Ravens’ phone issues were intermittent throughout the game, but “it got bad on the final drive.”

Cardinals general manager Steve Keim wasn’t aware of any issues with Baltimore’s communication devices until Tuesday.

“I don’t know a lot about it, but I know it happens from time to time in different stadiums,” Keim told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “That’s above my pay grade, I don’t know a lot about it.”

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