Baltimore Ravens Mobile Museum Virtual Tour - The Harbaugh Effect: The Team, The Team, The Team

The Harbaugh Effect: The Team, The Team, The Team highlights the first 10 seasons (2008-17) under head coach John Harbaugh, who led the Ravens to their second World Championship following the 2012 season. This exhibition is the third in a series that celebrates the Ravens’ 30th season in Baltimore.

Harbaugh became the third head coach in franchise history when he was hired on Jan. 19, 2008. A model of consistency, the Ravens have only had three head coaches and two general managers in their 30-year history.

A longtime special teams coordinator, Harbaugh’s hiring in 2008 was an “outside the box” hire by owner Steve Bisciotti at the time. Despite that, Bisciotti was confident in his decision to hire Harbaugh, and the impact of that change at the helm was immediately felt.

The Team, The Team, The Team was a Harbaugh mantra that resonated with the players. The rookie head coach found a way to connect with key veterans who helped him enforce the message, and together, they were able to find early success.

The 2008 Ravens also featured a rookie quarterback in first-round draft pick Joe Flacco. The Harbaugh/Flacco-led team burst onto the scene, finishing with an 11-5 record and a trip to the AFC Championship game, becoming the first rookie HC-QB duo in NFL history to make it to a conference title game. Their 13 total victories in the 2008 season are the most ever for such a rookie pair. Another rookie, second-round draft pick RB Ray Rice, also played heavily in the team’s immediate success under Harbaugh.

Baltimore’s winning culture carried over into the 2009 season on both sides of the ball. For the first time in team history, the Ravens had a 3,000-yard passer (Flacco – 3,613), a 1,000-yard rusher (Rice – 1,339) and a 1,000-yard receiver (WR Derrick Mason – 1,028) in the same season. The defense, led by LB Ray Lewis and S Ed Reed, finished the season ranking third in the NFL in both total yards allowed (300.5) and points per game (16.3). After upending QB Tom Brady and the Patriots, 33-14, in the Wild Card round, the 2009 Ravens became the first road team to win a playoff game at New England since 1978.

The 2010 campaign marked the first time the Ravens had ever earned the postseason three years in a row. After a Wild Card victory at Kansas City (30-7), Baltimore became the only NFL team to win at least one playoff game in each of the previous three seasons. However, the campaign came to a dramatic halt when the Ravens lost, 31-24, at AFC North rival Pittsburgh in the Divisional Round.

In Harbaugh’s fourth season (2011), Baltimore, the AFC North Division champs, became the only NFL team to make the playoffs in each of the last four seasons (2008-11), earning at least one postseason victory each year. Harbaugh also became the first head coach in NFL history to win a playoff game in each of his first four seasons. The Ravens made it back to the AFC Championship, but suffered a stunning 23-20 defeat in New England. Following the emotional loss, Lewis addressed the team in the locker room: “We have to come back and go to work to make sure we finish it next time. … This right here makes us stronger.”

Ray’s words resonated throughout the entire Ravens organization, because one year later, Baltimore found itself in the exact same environment against the same pesky Patriots. But this time, the Ravens would finish the job.

On November 25, 2012, the Ravens defeated the Chargers in overtime, 16-13, at San Diego. Ray Rice’s 4th-and-29 conversion helped send the game to overtime, and Rice coined the unbelievable play, “Hey Diddle, Diddle, Ray Rice Up the Middle” during his post-game media session.

On September 6, 2012, Ravens’ founding owner Art Modell passed away; in honor of his memory, the Baltimore Ravens staff wore an “Art” pin on gamedays throughout the entire 2012 championship season.

On September 6, 2012, Ravens’ founding owner Art Modell passed away; in honor of his memory, the Baltimore Ravens wore an “Art” patch on their jerseys throughout the entire 2012 championship season.

The end of the 2011 season left an “unfinished business” vibe throughout the organization, and when the 2012 season arrived, the Ravens were primed to soar again.

But, just days before the season opener, Art Modell, the franchise’s longtime owner who brought football back to Baltimore in 1996, passed away. Despite turning over the majority of the team to Steve Bisciotti in 2004, Modell maintained 1% ownership and continued to attend practice weekly. The Ravens honored him with a jersey patch, helmet decal and pin that simply stated “ART” throughout the 2012 campaign.

On the field, the Ravens’ offense was led by QB Joe Flacco, RB Ray Rice WRs Anquan Boldin and Torrey Smith and TE Dennis Pitta, while LB Ray Lewis, S Ed Reed, DT Haloti Ngata and OLB Terrell Suggs paced the defense.

Baltimore started the season without Suggs, the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who was recovering from an offseason torn Achilles. Amazingly, he made a triumphant return to the field in October after just five-plus months of rehabilitation. Just before Suggs returned, Lewis suffered a torn triceps and missed the remainder of the regular season.

The Ravens won five of the first six games and four of the next five, including a late-November overtime victory at San Diego that required an improbable fourth-and-29 conversion by Rice, which he cleverly dubbed, “Hey Diddle, Diddle, Ray Rice Up the Middle” in a post-game press conference.

Baltimore took a 9-2 record into December, but adversity struck when the team lost four of its final five games. It started with a crushing 23-20 defeat to rival Pittsburgh, then two more losses, including a 34-17 drubbing by QB Peyton Manning and the Broncos at home. Baltimore rebounded with new offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell, clinching its second-straight AFC North title with a 33-14 win over the defending Super Bowl Champion Giants.

Entering the postseason, Lewis – who had just announced that he’d return for a postseason run that would be “My Last Ride” – was saluted in his final home game, a 24-9 Wild Card victory over the Colts. Next up was the Divisional Playoff at No. 1 seed Denver, where the game time temperature was a frigid 13 degrees with a wind chill in the negative. In a battle that would be coined the “Mile High Miracle,” the Ravens pulled off a stunning 38-35 double OT victory over the Broncos, sending Baltimore back to New England for a second-straight AFC Championship Game.

Flacco, who had been perfect through the Ravens’ first two playoff games, threw three TDs, one to Pitta and two to Boldin, while the defense clamped down on QB Tom Brady and the Pats, forcing three takeaways that included two interceptions on New England’s final two possessions. With the 28-13 victory, the Ravens were headed to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

The Ravens and 49ers faced off in Super Bowl XLVII, which featured the first-ever NFL title game with brothers coaching against each other, with John and Jim at the helm of their respective teams. Exceptional play from Flacco (3 TDs) helped Baltimore take a 21-6 lead into halftime. With a 108-yard second-half opening KOR-TD by WR Jacoby Jones, the Ravens were up, 28-6. Then, the lights went out. After a 34-minute power outage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, momentum shifted, and San Francisco made a furious comeback. However, the Ravens would make an incredible goal-line stand to help seal a 34-31 victory and clinch their second World Championship title.

The Ravens returned to Baltimore as two-time Super Bowl champs, and the Ravens Flock turned out in droves to show its appreciation. An estimated 200,000 fans lined Baltimore’s downtown for the championship parade that stretched from City Hall to M&T Bank Stadium.

The celebration lasted throughout the offseason and into August, when the Ravens witnessed their first-ever draft pick – Jonathan Ogden in 1996 – become their first-ever Pro Football Hall of Famer during his induction ceremony in Canton, Ohio.

A new-look Baltimore Ravens team, one without defensive leaders Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, became the first Super Bowl champion in the modern era to open its season on the road, falling to the Denver Broncos behind QB Peyton Manning’s seven touchdowns. The dramatic 49-27 loss set the tone for a season that saw the 8-8 Ravens miss the playoffs for the first time in six seasons under Harbaugh.

In 2014, the Ravens bounced back, earning another trip to the postseason – the sixth time in seven seasons. Veteran free agent WR Steve Smith Sr. was signed to bolster the offense, which set then-single-season franchise records with 409 points scored and 5,838 yards gained. The always stout defense allowed the NFL’s sixth-fewest points per game and racked up the NFL’s second-most sacks. Baltimore captured a 30-17 victory at Pittsburgh in the Wild Card round, notching its league-high 10th playoff win since 2008, but the Ravens’ bid to reach their fourth AFC Championship game under Coach Harbaugh was cut short in New England, the eventual Super Bowl champion.

Entering the 2015 season, Baltimore’s high hopes of continuing to climb towards another Super Bowl title were derailed by injuries to key players, including Flacco (missed final six games), Smith Sr. (missed nine games) and Suggs (missed 15 games). The Ravens, who posted a disappointing 5-11 record, missed the playoffs for just the second time in eight seasons under Harbaugh.

In the 2016 NFL Draft, the Ravens selected Notre Dame T Ronnie Stanley with the No. 6 overall pick. Stanley made an immediate impact, starting the season opener and protecting Flacco’s blind side. Baltimore, which finished second in the AFC North with an 8-8 record, suffered a heartbreaking 31-27 loss at first-place Pittsburgh in Game 15, eliminating the Ravens from the playoffs. In Harbaugh’s first nine seasons, Baltimore posted only one sub-.500 season, earning six playoff berths and the NFL’s fourth-most total victories since his arrival in 2008.

Baltimore finished the 2017 campaign, 9-7, after another heartbreakingly close to making the playoffs end to the season. In Week 17, the Bengals stunned the M&T Bank Stadium crowd, producing a 49-yard TD pass on fourth-and-12 with just 44 seconds remaining to lift Cincinnati to a 31-27 triumph. Baltimore entered the offseason having missed the postseason three straight years. General Manager Ozzie Newsome, the architect of two Super Bowl championship teams, and his staff went to work on improving the roster. His final year as GM of the Ravens would provide a transcendent NFL Draft in 2018…