Bet on this: Gambles get second looks

John Harbaugh has the best kicker in the NFL, currently and possibly ever. Yet, trailing by one point, he left Justin Tucker on the sideline Sunday and went for a 2-point conversion in the dying seconds against the Steelers.

Lamar Jackson didn’t quite have enough touch on his pass to an open Mark Andrews, and the Ravens (8-4) fell 20-19 to the Steelers. The road loss dropped the Ravens from the overall lead in the AFC.

It seemed one of the stranger decisions of a strange NFL season. But Harbaugh, one of the league’s best coaches, quickly explained his reasoning.

“We tried to win the game right there. We were pretty much out of corners at that point in time,” Harbaugh said without noting that the Ravens secondary has been leaky all season no matter who’s playing. “It was an opportunity for us to win the game right there.”

Considering the versatility of Jackson, it probably was a strong opportunity. But the one item not a major part of Jackson’s bag of tricks is the finesse pass, which is what this play called for.

“You saw the play. It’s that close,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a game of inches . ... That’s football. It’s just that close.”

As is the entire AFC race.

The Ravens’ decision surprised its archrivals. And didn’t.

“I was a little surprised because I ran off the field,” said defensive end Cam Heyward, who isn’t on special teams. “But we called the timeout, bought me an extra couple of seconds. At first, I thought (Andrews) scored, because he had it in his hand and then dropped it. But I mean, it’s just one or two plays that go your way.”

Harbaugh’s gamble was in character, according to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has gone up against the Ravens coach for nearly 14 seasons.

And who’s to say the Ravens would have won a coin toss to start overtime, marched downfield and scored a touchdown to end it without putting their secondary on the field?

But the decision brings into focus just how difficult crunch time can be for coaches. There’s no accepted manual on how to manage such situations. Many times, the gut feeling is the best approach.

Unfortunately, very few head coaches have the, well, guts to go with their gut. Far too many of them coach not to lose rather to win. Is there anything more frustrating than watching your team go into the prevent defense? Cliche warning: All the prevent defense does is prevent you from winning.

See what happened in Detroit. In pretty much handing the Lions (1-101) their initial victory of the season, the Vikings (5-7) went into such a defensive shell late, and the offense-challenged Lions went 75 yards in 1:50 to win 29-27. Without a timeout.

Jared Goff threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown just beyond the goal line as time expired — with the Vikings defensive backs far too deep in the end zone.

The Vikings’ three-man rush backfired big time.

“In hindsight, we would have loved to have gotten more pressure on him,” coach Mike Zimmer said of Goff, “but ... Ithought we needed more people in coverage than we did up front. Obviously, that didn’t work.”

It very often doesn’t.

The lesson? It hurts more to be passive and lose than to be super aggressive and lose.

“Honestly if we would’ve converted the 2-point conversion we would’ve been having a different conversation right now,” said Ravens linebacker Josh Bynes. “Let’s be real. We’d be talking about how we found a way to win.”