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It will be brother vs. brother on Monday night when John Harbaugh brings his Ravens team to Los Angeles to face Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers.
In his Thursday press conference, John Harbaugh was peppered with questions about his brother and the matchup, particularly given the numerous connections between the two teams. John noted he couldn’t recall another situation where an opponent’s offensive and defensive coordinator had worked for him in the past — and that’s on top of coaching against his brother.
Given all that, Jim recently said watching the Ravens on tape is a little like looking in a mirror. John agreed with the sentiment.
“Yes, all of it. The culture, the way things are done, how [the Chargers] play, certainly, [and] the schemes [are] very similar,” John Harbaugh said on Thursday. “The schemes are, in a lot of ways not exactly the same, but in a lot of ways mirror images — the people coaching [and] a lot of the guys playing.
“But with that, it’s two different football teams. It’s two teams squaring off in a really important game, and that’s what it’s really going to be about. It’s going to be about the guys out there playing the game.”
Still, John conceded Monday night will be different than other games.
“[W]e know the schemes pretty much, but there will be wrinkles, there will be ideas,” John Harbaugh said. “It’s kind of the old [saying], ‘They know what we know that we know that they know that we know that they know what we know.’ With that, there will be wrinkles, I’m sure.
“It’s going to come down in the end to the players — just to emphasize that. All the scheme stuff is important, but most important is how the game is played and who plays the best football game out there in terms of making the plays and playing disciplined football and playing physical football and blocking and tackling and all of those things. It’s a players’ game. The players will be determining the outcome of it.”
As always, though, John was extremely complimentary of his brother, saying Jim “is one of the best coaches of this generation, no question.”
“Even if he weren’t my brother, I would say the same thing,” John Harbaugh said. “We have our work cut out for us; we have to travel across the country and play on Monday Night Football.”