Top 10 Regular Season wins of the Harbaugh era

[Gabrosin]

When I saw the thread my first thought was the 2011 comeback road win against the Steelers. A lot of these other games were more satisfying (thrashing the Steelers or Bengals), or more meaningful (beating up on the Giants this year), but I don't think anything else could be listed ahead of that game. I still have the final sequence perma-saved on my DVR. Every time there was a question on whether Joe could win us a championship, I'd point to that game and say, "Yeah, anyone who can do that can win us a championship someday."

[BMann]

When I saw the thread my first thought was the 2011 comeback road win against the Steelers. A lot of these other games were more satisfying (thrashing the Steelers or Bengals), or more meaningful (beating up on the Giants this year), but I don't think anything else could be listed ahead of that game. I still have the final sequence perma-saved on my DVR. Every time there was a question on whether Joe could win us a championship, I'd point to that game and say, "Yeah, anyone who can do that can win us a championship someday."

Well put.

I'd rank both comeback wins @ Pitt as 1 and 2, as I don't recall ever being that excited during a regular season game as when Housh and Torrey caught those TDs. The 35-7 drilling of said Squeelers would be #3 - I think you might sense a theme here.

[Real Fan Dan]

Scally, thanks for coming up with lists like this. Makes the long offseason go by a little quicker. ;)
Here's my top 5 since Coach H has been around. The last one was not on your original list.

2011 vs Steelers, 35-7 The campaign to win this game started the year before. I will never forget the expressions of pure joy on the faces of every single Fan in the stadium that day.

2011 @Steelers, 23-20 Joe proved he could take control of a game and win it. When Torrey caught the TD i literally fell on the barroom floor. :D

2008 @Dallas, 33-24, EVERYONE wanted us to lose and we up and whupped dey ass!

2012 vs NE, 31-30, We were just so proud of Torrey playing in this game after his brother died. Also, I had to listen to a family of Pats fans shamelessly gloat over Lady Brady the entire game. When we won they had nothing to say.

2011 vs Bengals 31-24, Ravens started poorly and the home crowd was pissed. I got back to my section and Q caught a TD pass. After i led a R-A-V-E-N-S cheer, a Fan handed me a red bag and told me to open it "Right 'Effing now!" The Fans in the section had pitched in and bought me a customized Ravens jersey with my name on it for leading cheers every score since '98. It brought tears to my eyes I can't lie. My sister & bro-in-law were with me at the game. My bro had recently been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The poor fellow passed away yesterday. God rest his soul.

[Ravenalytics]

To be honest, I never really understood why the 23-20 win over Pittsburgh in 2011 always gets the nod over the 35-7 win. We've had our share of comeback wins against the Steelers - heck, we did the exact same thing on the road the year. But after all we had to hear during the 2011 offseason about how they "owned" us, and for us to completely destroy them in the manner we did and basically play a perfect game...I don't see how that can't be #1. That was the statement game to end all statement games.

There's a significance to beating Pittsburgh in their house.

[JohnBKistler]

It is hard to pinpoint one game, but I definitely think the big games in Harbaugh's first year (home opener against Cincinnati, the OT game versus Pittsburgh in week 4, the Redskins game, the Cowboys game)...was some of his best coaching.

It is hard to recall now, but at the beginning of 2008, the Ravens were expected to be bad...actually very bad. It was a veteran team (Samari Rolle, anyone?), with a lot of injuries (McGahee coming off knee surgery), a rookie QB from Delaware, and rah-rah rookie coach with 1 year of coordinating under his belt. This preview predicting a 4-12 record sort of summed up many predictions:

http://deadspin.com/5045835/nfl-seas...ltimore-ravens

All Harbaugh did was to coach this team to within 5 minutes of the Super Bowl.

[RavenScallywag]

Sweet Baby Jesus, that article is awesome. A few highlights...

Ray Lewis, still the heart and soul of this defense, has missed games with injuries the last couple years, and seems to be showing his age (though I wouldn't ask him about that personally for safety's sake).

Five years later, he retired with another Lombardi trophy

The backups, outside of Nick Greisen, have a combined one year of NFL experience and include a guy from Syracuse, which is never a good sign.

That guy from Syracuse? Would be Jameel McClain

His backup, Ray Rice, comes out of that noted football factory, Rutgers, and is probably too small to be an every down back if called upon.

Ain't that the truth. It's not like the guy consistently tops 1600 yards from scrimmage per year or anything.

Flacco wound up at traditional powerhouse Delaware after failing to beat out Tyler Palko (TYLER PALKO!) for playing time at Pitt. After an average season in 2006 Flacco exploded for 3600 yards and 18 TDs in 2007, though a quarter of that came against the swinging door defense of Navy.

Joe Flacco drives around his SB MVP car and holds the Lombardi Trophy. Last I heard, Tyler Palko was on his 3rd or 4th team as a scrub.

[HotInHere]

It is hard to recall now, but at the beginning of 2008, the Ravens were expected to be bad...actually very bad. It was a veteran team (Samari Rolle, anyone?), with a lot of injuries (McGahee coming off knee surgery), a rookie QB from Delaware, and rah-rah rookie coach with 1 year of coordinating under his belt.

I realize this list is wins. But I think one of the top five regular season games under Harbaugh was a loss -- the 2008 OT Monday Night loss in Pittsburgh. To me that game showed that Joe and Harbs were the right choices. What a gutty performance that was, and even though we didn't win, it was the beginning of the end of being an also-ran in the AFCN. I am not sure there have been many more times when I have been more proud of our team.