Top takeaways and tidbits from the sixth episode of the iconic HBO sports docuseries.
The latest edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks docuseries follows the AFC North during the 2024 regular season. Each week, Baltimore Beatdown will be breaking down the biggest moments and best quotes of every episode.
John Harbaugh fires up his team
The Ravens are 46-27 (.630 winning percentage) in the month of December under John Harbaugh, and Hard Knocks showed why this week. The longtime head coach was on a heater all episode, he episode opened with a powerful speech from an impassioned Harbaugh to his team ahead of their regular season finale.
“All year we’ve been saying it and all year we’ve been chasing it and 11 different times we got it done,” Harbaugh said while pointing to the ‘1-0’ t-shirt he was wearing. “We get it done one more time in the regular season, stack all those other 11 times behind us, we are the AFC North champions.”
“Vengeance is yours.”
This John Harbaugh speech will get you fired up this morning @Ravens
New #HardKnocks In Season with the AFC North tonight 9pm ET on @StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/PpfA1IeDAE
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) January 7, 2025
Harbaugh also reminded his team of their previous loss to the Browns this season: I do believe in football you play a team in a division twice for a reason, would you agree? So if we play them twice for a reason and they beat us the first time, vengeance is yours, man.”
It would be easy for a cruising Ravens team to sleepwalk into a matchup against Cleveland’s fourth-string quarterback, but Harbaugh made sure his team knew what was at stake.
“Could you imagine how terrible, how awful, how disastrous it would be if they came into our stadium and beat us and took our championship away? You can’t even fathom it!” said Harbaugh later in the week. “You can’t even fathom it!”
“It can’t happen because we won’t let it happen,” Harbaugh continued. “We’re going to throw them back on that bus and kick them back up that tunnel and then the real season starts.”
Harbaugh’s approach to coaching involves more than his motivational pregame speeches. His ability to connect with his players on an individual level gets the most out of his players every year. Marlon Humphrey revealed that some offseason encouragement from his head coach catalyzed his 2024 Pro Bowl season.
“It was pretty early in the offseason, you texted me. You said you believed in me,” said Humphrey. “A lot of people didn’t.”
“Did I text you that? Now all of a sudden you’re in the Pro Bowl and everybody believes in you,” responded Harbaugh. “Remember who’s been with you since the beginning.”
The Ravens responded to Harbaugh’s message with a 35-10 rout of the Browns to secure their fourth AFC North title in the Lamar Jackson era.
Tomlin’s tidbits and other great quotes
Mike Tomlin on the Steelers’ final regular season game: “We have to sharpen our swords continually for these intensified battles on these narrow-ass roads because the road is getting narrow and we’re constructed in such a way that our business model says it’s that time of damn year for us.”
Harbaugh’s reaction to Zay Flowers’ injury was the same as most fans: “Ah s—!, he’s hurt. You gotta be kidding me.”
Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on his “beef” with wide receivers: “They’re divas, they’re pretty boys, they like the limelight, all that stuff. I’m like the total opposite.”