Ravens Beat Chiefs, Run Up Score In Low-Class, Scumbag Move

The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-13 tonight.

It was a pretty good game but ended in an embarrassing fashion as the Baltimore Ravens ran up the score in the final minutes, calling timeouts and throwing long passes.

After QB Ricky Stanzi threw an interception with just over a minute left, the Ravens took the field for what everyone assumed would be a couple of kneel downs to wrap things up. Instead the Ravens ran a play action pass and launched a deep ball to set themselves up in the red zone. The Ravens them proceeded to call time outs to ensure they had time to punch in one last touchdown with five seconds left.

Todd Haley was clearly not happy, nor were the folks in the AA live game chat. Some fans on Twitter said they didn’t mind the move by the Ravens. They said that if the Chiefs wanted to stop the Ravens from scoring that they should have stopped them.

Sorry, but that is a bull shit argument. There is very little, if anything, to be gained by taking advantage of your opponent in the closing minutes of a preseason game. The Chiefs were clearly expecting the Ravens to kneel the ball and end the game. Instead they launched it deep off of play action. This was the cheapest of all cheap shots. They then furthered the embarrassment by calling timeouts and punching it in.

The only thing the young Ravens learned from those few extra plays was how not to win with dignity. It was a classless move by the Ravens and their head coach Jim Harbaugh. To hide behind a “we were trying to help our young players” excuse is ridiculous. Harbough should have known better. He should have known that it would be embarrassing to the Chiefs and he should have knelt the ball when the game was won.

I am all for getting young players reps and practice…but not at the expense of sportsmanship.