Penalties plaguing Ravens' opponents

October 9, 2010 3:07 PM by Dan Kolko View Comments

The Ravens were flagged for the most penalty yardage in the league last year.

This year, it's their opponents who are seeing all the yellow laundry thrown in their direction.

Through four games this season, the Ravens have been whistled for 25 penalties and 195 penalty yards. Both of those statistics but Baltimore in the middle of the pack in terms of the NFL team rankings.

But the Ravens' opponents have been flagged a whopping 42 times for 329 yards. Those numbers are far and away the highest in the league.

So how are the Ravens doing it? How are they able to force the teams they play into so many penalties while keeping their own penalty numbers at an average level?

"In all honestly, I think our guys really understand how to play better than ever before," head coach John Harbaugh said this week. "I think we're playing with composure, we're playing with technique, attention to detail. And the big ones - holding, defensive pass interference, illegal contact - I think we've done a really good job with that, and maybe other teams haven't.

"But the other thing is, I think we've put pressure on people. It was mentioned before, the speed of the game [and] things like that. It's probably part of it. But, you put pressure on people a little bit and they have to grab you to cover you. They have to hold you to block you."

While they have made big-time progress from last year, the Ravens still have some work to do when it comes to cutting down on their own penalties.

They've been flagged 15 times in their last two games combined, including four offsides penalties in the second half of Sunday's game against the Steelers (only three of which were enforced).

"I was disappointed with the flinches on defense," Harbaugh said. "They were running the hard counts in a real tough stadium, but it got them at the end. They ended up jumping offside twice on that last drive. So you know, that hard count thing goes both ways."