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Oher’s False Starts Are ‘Illogical’

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Michael Oher is one of the most athletic tackles in the NFL. He’s extremely quick off the snap.

So why does he continue to false start?

“It’s illogical. It makes no sense,” Head Coach John Harbaugh said.

“There’s no quicker offensive tackle in football than Michael, so he doesn’t have to beat the snap count. And that’s got to stop.”

Oher led the Ravens in penalties last season with 13, including eight false starts.

There was hope that the problem would go away with Oher sliding back to right tackle this season. But that logic doesn’t hold up as Oher also led the team in false starts with six during his rookie season, which was spent mostly on the right side.

It seems the problem has followed him back to right tackle in 2011 early on.

After committing no penalties against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1, Oher drew the yellow flag twice for false starts in Tennessee.

The first proved to not be a problem, as the Ravens dialed up a screen pass on the next play that running back Ray Rice took for a 31-yard touchdown.

But his second, coming on the Ravens’ first drive of the second half, was part of a costly three-and-out. The Titans had scored a touchdown to open the third quarter, and Baltimore started to respond with a quick 11-yard pass to Rice, then a solid 4-yard run by Rice.

Oher’s false start made it second-and-11 and put the Ravens in a passing situation. Two incompletions later, they punted. Tennessee notched a field goal and a 10-point lead on the resulting drive.

“I’ve just got to get it taken care of. That’s all it takes,” Oher said. “I’m trying to do the best thing that’s going to help my team. I’ve just got to get it fixed.”

Oher said last year that he only had a handful of false starts during his Ole Miss career. He vowed to correct it, and even agreed with Harbaugh when the head coach joked about making him run laps as punishment.

Harbaugh said the media is not making too big a deal out of the penalties.

“We’ve said it before, and my advice to Michael is basically just, ‘Slow down,’” Harbaugh said.

“‘Just slow down with your first set. When the ball is snapped, you’ll set, nobody is running around you. They’re not going to run around you, you’re too quick.’ So, that’s something that we have to get done.”


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