Ravens coach John Harbaugh spends almost all of his time figuring out how to win football games.
However, he is not tone deaf to the concerns among the team’s fans.
Harbaugh is confident that M&T Bank Stadium will be full once again when the Ravens have more success on the field.
“I get a chance to be around town whether it’s with lacrosse or whatever, and I run into Ravens fans because Baltimore is a small city. It’s a tight-knit place and people are not afraid to come up and say hi,” Harbaugh said at the recent 2018 NFL owners meeting. “People have said so many awesome and wonderful things about our team and where we’re going, how they see us or how much they care and how big of fans they are and how much they want to see us be successful.
“For me, that’s what it’s all about. The fans want to see us be successful. They wants to see us be relevant. They want to see us in big games in the playoffs. If we put a good product on the field and we win games,. They’ll be there.”
The Ravens have missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons and have gone 40-40 since winning Super Bowl XLVII. The team also has not won 11 or more games since 2011 — often the number of wins necessary to reach the postseason.
The performance has frustrated the front office, coaches, players and fans.
“I don’t like not playing in January,” general manager Ozzie Newsome said. “That’s something we talk about all the time. We have to find a way to get to 11 wins because we’ve proven that once we get into the playoffs, then we can do some damage while we’re there. I feel like we should all feel that burden on us.”
Harbaugh has looked into the stands during games and noticed the number of empty seats. A lackluster performance by the offense has tempered excitement. There was also some fallout from the players’ protests in London when they took a knee during the National Anthem.
Harbaugh understands the frustration and the goal this season is to fill the empty seats by getting back on the winning track and making a strong push for the postseason.
“I want the stadium to be full,” Harbaugh said. “That’s something any coach wants. We want to put a team out there that the fans want to come out and see. My thought is we have great fans. I really love our fans.”
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the 2017 season was the general apathy among the fans even when the Ravens were in the thick of the playoff race. There appeared to be swaths of empty seats for the December 23 game against the Colts and even more no-shows for the New Year’s Eve game against the Bengals when the Ravens were officially knocked out of the playoffs.
Harbaugh is optimistic those seats will be full in 2018 if his team puts a better product on the field
“Even when you look at those last two games at home, there was so much on the line and we played those in a driving rainstorm,” Harbaugh said. “We played the Bengals and ran right into the dinner hour on New Year’s and it was the coldest game in the history of the stadium. And yet, the fans at that game were into the game and they were loud. They were excited to be there. I had so many fans come up to me and say, ‘I was at the Colts game and we stayed right to the end. We were soaked right down to our skins and it was just the greatest time.’
“Even with the Bengals game, people stayed right to the end. Yeah, sure we had our hearts broken as fans and as coaches and players. It was something we experienced together. Still, [fans] say a lot of great things.”
