OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Several days after acknowledging the Ravens were reconsidering a second extended stay on the West Coast, head coach John Harbaugh said Friday that those plans have been scrapped.
Citing a longer week between their Oct. 18 contest in San Francisco and the Oct. 26 Monday night game against Arizona as the primary reason, Harbaugh said the Ravens will use a more conventional travel schedule for both games. The Ravens would have left for San Francisco two days early and would have spent a total of 11 days away from home had they elected to stay out west.
“That was a big part of it,” Harbaugh said. “That was the main part of it. It’s just a long week.”
Of course, the results of their first extended stay on the West Coast likely made the decision easier as the Ravens lost games to Denver and Oakland to begin a season 0-2 for the first time since 2005. The team stayed in San Jose last week ahead of the surprising 37-33 loss to the Raiders.
With Harbaugh acknowledging Monday that the Ravens were reconsidering their travel plans and coordinator Dean Pees expressing displeasure with how his defense practiced before the Oakland game, it appeared all but guaranteed that a second extended trip would not happen. Earlier in the week, Harbaugh thanked owner Steve Bisciotti and the entire organization for putting in the work to make the first long-term trip possible.
“I would have loved to reap the benefits of that and been able to stand up here and talk about what a plus that was in winning two football games,” Harbaugh said. “But we’re not able to do that because we didn’t get the job done. But from the effort — the work effort — we can stand on that foundation going forward.”
