Vic Fangio remains salty about the Baltimore Ravens running the ball with three seconds left in the Denver Broncos' 23-7 home loss.
Asked Monday about the final play, in which the Ravens called a run to get over 100 yards rushing and tie the NFL record with 43 consecutive games reaching the century mark, Fangio didn't hold back.
"I thought it was bull----, but I expected that from them," the blunt coach said. "In 37 years of pro ball, I've never seen anything like that. But it was to be expected, and we expected it."
Fangio spent four seasons with Baltimore from 2006-2009, first as a defensive assistant and the final year as a linebackers coach. The last two seasons with the Ravens came under John Harbaugh. In 2010, Fangio moved to Stanford to work under Jim Harbaugh.
The 63-year-old coach cited player safety as one reason he took offense to the Ravens not kneeling out the clock.
"Because I just know how they operate," Fangio responded when asked why he expected the Ravens to run a play. "That's just their mode of operation there. Player safety is secondary."
That's quite an accusation Fangio leveled on Harbaugh.
Of course, it should be noted that the Broncos were calling timeouts with less than 30 seconds left and trying to score a garbage-time TD, including a pass that was intercepted with three seconds left, giving the Ravens a chance to run their final play.
Harbaugh seemed to know after the game his decision to not kneel on the final play would bring blowback from his counterpart, saying after the game it was "100 percent my call." On Monday, he reiterated his logic for pursuing the record when asked about Fangio's remarks.
"I thought we were on good terms, we had a nice chat before the game, (we've) known each other for a long time. But I promise you, I'm not going to give that insult one second thought," Harbaugh said. "What's meaningful to us might not be meaningful to them. Their concerns are definitely not our concerns. We didn't expect to get the ball back. I'd already decided, we already decided that if we got the ball back, we're going to try to get the yards. And we got it back with three seconds left.
"You're throwing the ball in the end zone with 10 seconds left. I don't know that there's a 16-point touchdown that's going to be possible right there, so that didn't have anything to do with winning the game. What's meaningful to us might not be meaningful to them, and we're not going to concern ourselves with that."
Not every Bronco was peeved by the Ravens' decision.
Defensive back Kareem Jackson was more annoyed with the plays the defense didn't make during the course of the game rather than focusing on the final play.
"Honestly, I don't give a s--- about that last play. More so care about the plays throughout the game," Jackson said. "It's our job to stop them. They ran it to get their 100 yards or whatever they was trying to do. But as a whole defense, I feel like we didn't play up to the standard that we've set for ourselves. We've got to execute, even on that last play. So it is what it is. … As a whole, we've got to be better."
