The Ravens had plenty to worry about on their final drive of Monday’s game.
They had to drive 76 yards for a touchdown and two-point conversion in the final 1 minute, 53 seconds – without any timeouts – to force the Cardinals into overtime.
And with that tall task in front of them, the Ravens’ headsets went out, forcing the coaching staff to run plays in from the sideline or resort to hand signals to get in the calls.
“We lost our phones,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said. “[Offensive Coordinator] Marc [Trestman] had to yell. We couldn’t get the personnel groups, so guys had to run the personnel group on and off. All of those kinds of things are really challenging.”
Despite those issues, the Ravens still drove down to Arizona’s 9-yard line before quarterback 
Flacco described the challenge with the communication.
“It was hectic out there,” Flacco said. “There was just too much communication going on for the amount of time we had left. Guys were confused and rightfully so. It’s loud out there and it was just a little bit too hectic.”
Harbaugh said the Ravens also dealt with the issue earlier in the night.
“It was happening on and off throughout the game, but it got bad on the final drive,” Harbaugh said.
The difficulty in communication was most evident once the Ravens got to Arizona’s 4-yard line. The Ravens were flagged for an illegal shift because two players were in motion when the ball was snapped.
The penalty wiped off a completion to
“When your communication is through a walkie talkie and headset in your ear, and that goes out, and you can’t hear, you have to deal the sign language that nobody is really up to speed on,” Smith said. “Yeah, it was a little hectic because of the lack of technology. And so of course that’s going to have some impact.”
The difficulty in communication clearly frustrated Flacco, who came up just short again of leading the Ravens on a comeback on their final drive of the game.
“When you’re not as crisp as you need to be, stuff like that happens,” he said. “Sometimes in those situations, the more simple you can be, the better guys react. If you try to do a little too much, and guys think, things can happen.”
