OF COURSE, JIM HARBAUGH IS OVERCOMING BROTHER JOHN IN HIS NFL COMEBACK
He is 2-0 with the Los Angeles Chargers, leaving behind a dubious mess at Michigan, while his sibling starts 0-2 with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore, where the Ravens suddenly might be in marked decline
The Super Bowl trophy belongs to John Harbaugh. But it arrived 11 years ago, and since then, his brother has ruled the sibling tug-of-war. He won the national championship at Michigan, with help from Connor Stalions. He won an $80 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers, complete with a new facility, including a pizza oven from Wolfgang Puck and a local train that might take him to a 2027 title game at SoFi Stadium.
Today, Jim Harbaugh is 2-0 while John Harbaugh is 0-2. Could it be John will be fired as Jim ascends to glory again? John is making $12 million a year on a deal that expires after next season. No one doubts he’s a worthy coach with the Baltimore Ravens, but he’s also connected to Lamar Jackson, who won’t come close to meeting Harbaugh’s recent proclamation: “The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League. That’s the vision.”
In the playoffs, Jackson is 2-4 in the Patrick Mahomes era. At present, the Ravens aren’t positioned to play Kansas City in mid-January while Lamar hasn’t reached the current level of Sam Darnold. The more significant matchup comes Nov. 25, a Monday night, when John brings his team to Inglewood. He beat Jim in their epic clash in 2013. What now? A reverse profile for both? Imagine: Jim trying to win a Super Bowl to place with the national banner.
As the Wolverines tumble without him, with new coach Sherrone Moore eyed by the NCAA afrer deleting 52 text messages with Stalions last year, Jim is the rage of the NFL. Of course, he bolted the burning forest of college football at the precise time. Thanks to owner Dean Spanos, whose franchise never has won a Super Bowl, he took over the Chargers and their heralded quarterback, Justin Herbert, but hasn’t needed him so far. He threw for 130 yards Sunday and only 274 on the season, while running back J.K. Dobbins has returned from serious injuries — ACL, meniscus, LCL, Achilles and hamstring — to devour at least 40 yards on four carries with consecutive 100-yard performances. Dobbins last played for John in Baltimore, ha ha, and crosses the goal line with a somersault.
“That's something I've never been able to do. I've always admired people that could do that,” Jim said. “It’s completely thrilling. To watch him come back even stronger, quicker, faster than before the injury is a testament to his will. A lesser man would not have been able to do what J.K. has been able to do.”
The players love Harbaugh, as they did in Ann Arbor. “Everybody is pouring into the belief of Coach Harbaugh,” veteran edge rusher Khalil Mack said.
“We’re trying to change the narrative around here,” safety Derwin James Jr. said.
“It makes the game easier, because believe it or not, running the football is easier than throwing the ball — at least from our perspective,” left tackle Rashawn Slater said. “It’s harder to protect than attack. … I mean, look at (Dobbins). The way he’s always smiling, you don’t want to let him down. So you’re motivated to just hammer, and he’s going to make something.”
We shall see if the Chargers continue to romp Sunday in Pittsburgh. And then at home — where they’ve become a bigger story in southern California than the 0-2 Rams — against the Chiefs. “Having a balance — run, pass, play-action — having everything in our arsenal, defenses have to play us straight up,” said Herbert, who left the Charlotte stadium with a limp after a 26-3 win over the Carolina Panthers “We've done a great job of running the first couple of games. (But) there’s a lot of room for improvement for us as an offense.”
Meaning, with the Ravens down, the Chargers sense an early-look opportunity to become the AFC’s No. 2 team along with Houston and Buffalo. It explains why the pre-Thanksgiving game is dramatic. Might a postseason advantage be at stake? The Ravens are committing too many penalties and had another field-goal miss from Justin Tucker. In a wicked 26-23 home loss to Las Vegas, they dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 2015 after losing in Kansas City when the right toe of Isaiah Likely landed a centimeter out of bounds.
Said Jackson, who threw a killer interception and doesn’t look like a two-time MVP winner: “We've got to find our mojo. We've got to find (it), and do what we do, because that's not us at all. I’m not used to being 0-2. (We’ve) got to catch our momentum and get it started right away.”
Can they? Since 2022, the Ravens have lost four times after leading by double digits in the fourth quarter. They play next in Dallas, where the Cowboys have something to prove after they were shellacked by New Orleans, and then host Buffalo and Josh Allen. They might be 0-4. They miss defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, the head coach in Seattle, and other top assistants. John?
“We're not going to be defined by everyone that's saying we're not any good, that we're good or that the season is over after two games,” Harbaugh said. "That's what's going to be said, and we understand that, but they're not here. They're not inside. No one inside will say that. We know that we're a good football team, and we're going to go keep getting better and better and better and define the season by the way we play.”
Why doesn’t he hand the football to Derrick Henry, the newcomer, and downplay Jackson? Oh, Jim beat him to it.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.