OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens coach John Harbaugh on Monday pushed back against Minnesota running back Aaron Jones' suggestion that Baltimore contributed to the Vikings' eight false starts in Sunday's 27-19 game.
'We didn't have a game plan for that,' Harbaugh said. 'If we did, I would've been happy, but we're not going to do anything illegal.'
Minnesota, playing at home, committed its most false starts by a home team in 16 years. After the game, Jones said the Ravens' defense was making calls meant to mimic quarterback J.J. McCarthy's cadence — an action the NFL forbids when it is intended to disconcert the offense at the snap.
Harbaugh said the Ravens have never used words such as set or hut to try to disrupt a cadence, and Jones' comments led him to review every one of the Vikings' false starts.
'None of them did we stem. Not one [time] did we move,' Harbaugh said. He described Minnesota's offense as running varied cadences, snapping on two to try to draw the defense offsides and using shifts to determine coverage. Harbaugh said several of the false starts came when the Vikings were executing those shifts to get to their alerts or c
