Ravens booed despite standing
Just before the national anthem and not long after the traditional salute to the military at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, Baltimore Ravens players and coaches banded together on the sideline during the pregame festivities and collectively took a knee.
There should have been no confusion about the purpose. Before they knelt, the P.A. announcer declared to the crowd that the Ravens’ gesture was a prayer for America — specifically to embrace “kindness, unity, equality and justice.” Seems noble enough.
Yet as the Ravens knelt, they were booed. How cruel.
They respected the American flag, exercising their First Amendment gesture before the anthem. They all got off their knees and, like the Pittsburgh Steelers across the field, stood at attention for the anthem.
But the boo-birds — and they can’t say this was about the flag or the military — showered this group of largely African-American men kneeling in their peaceful demonstration with fresh negativity.
“That just goes to show,” Ravens linebacker C.J. Mosley said, “it has nothing to do with the anthem.”
Who gets booed during a moment of silence? Apparently disdain from the boo-birds is aimed more for the messengers or the message that too much of America isn’t too comfortable with — protesting social inequalities, including the killings of unarmed black men by police that sparked the initial protests last year — than for an infringement on the sacred flag or disrespect for the military.
“Weird,” lamented Ravens receiver Mike Wallace. “A bad situation for everyone. You just can’t win.”
Wallace knows. Whatever gesture the Ravens came up with would not please everyone.
“You try and go the right way about things,” Wallace said. “But sometimes, it’s going to fall on deaf ears. You just have to know why you’re doing it — know the good that you’re doing it for.”
The purpose of the gesture might have been lost in the translation, but there’s no denying that the Ravens provided the home crowd with plenty to boo about while getting drubbed 26-9 by their archrivals.
Joe Flacco was sacked four times and threw two ugly, fourthquarter interceptions when his team still had a shot of making a game of it.
“I sucked,” Flacco said. “It wasn’t good.”
Alex Collins demonstrated some spark, with his 82-yard rushing game punctuated by a 50-yard run. But he embodied deflation, too, with his fumble jump-starting the second-quarter drive that extended Pittsburgh’s lead to 13-0.
Meanwhile, the defense was rather soft, too, allowing Le’Veon Bell to rush for 144 yards and two TDs.
All this a week after the Ravens were crushed 44-7 by the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. In two games, the Ravens (2-2) have been outscored 70-16.
And this team was playing for first place?
“I just think we need to exe- cute,” tackle Ronnie Stanley explained.
It seems as though that’s the phrase that pays on a day that the quarterback had a pedestrian passer rating of 64.6. Said Flacco: “We’ve got to execute. That’s where it starts.”
Maybe Jeremy Maclin can add some insight.
“I think we’re not executing,” Maclin said. “Not being very efficient.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh, after the team missed the playoffs the last two years, must realize how this season can quickly spin out of control.
“You can get frustrated all you want,” Harbaugh said. “You can kick trash cans if you want, but it’s not going to make you better.
“We’ve been worse than 2-2 here before and come back and gone to the AFC Championship. So that’s what you do. This is a long season in the NFL, so we go to work.”
The Ravens have also seen fit to make major moves during the course of the season — Harbaugh twice replaced offensive coordinators in midstream — which might make you wonder whether another big shake-up is looming.
Flacco, for one, isn’t ready to throw in the towel.
But he’s also a guy who has thrown at least one pick in 10 consecutive games.
“We definitely have the ability to be productive,” Flacco said, “and no matter what anybody thinks, we’re all we have right now.”
Lately, that’s been a large part of the problem.