Ravens coach John Harbaugh: Patriots ran 'illegal' plays in win

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh believes the New England Patriots used illegal plays in their 35-31 victory in the divisional playoff game.

So he said after the game, protesting the Patriots' unusual fomations in the third quarter: specifically, the use of four offensive linemen, with an offensive player declaring himself ineligible.

The Ravens were getting a big pass rush much of the game up until that point, so the Patriots took this strange strategy of taking an offensive lineman off the field. But Harbaugh cried foul, saying the Patriots should have been penalized for their "deceptive" formations and substitutions.

"It's not something that anybody has ever done before," Harbaugh said. "They're an illegal type of a thing and I'm sure that [the NFL will] make some adjustments and things like that."

One of Harbaugh's specific claims is that Shane Vereen announced his ineligibility right before the snap, which did not allow the defense to adjust accordingly.

"We wanted an opportunity to be able to identify who the eligible players were because what they were doing was they would announce the eligible player and [Patriots quarterback] Tom [Brady] would take it to the line right away and snap the ball before [we] even figured out who was lined up where. And that was the deception part of it. It was clearly deception."

On the play, Vereen is on the line but ineligible and Michael Hoomanawanui — lined up in a left tacke spot — caught the pass. It got Harbaugh so lathered up that he ran onto the field and was given a 15-yard penalty.

"The officials told me after that they would give us the opportunity to do that, which they probably should have done during that series, but they really didn't understand what was happening," Harbaugh said. "I had to go take the penalty to get their attention so they can understand what was going on."

It was too late then, and it's too late now. Nothing will happen to the Patriots, who won the game and will host the AFC championship game on Jan. 18. And there's no question that drive, which ended in a touchdown and helped cut a 14-point deficit in half, helped them do so.

Bill Beli-cheat? Not according to Brady.

“Maybe those guys gotta study the rule book and figure it out,” Brady said. “We obviously knew what we were doing and we made some pretty important plays. It was a real good weapon for us. Maybe we’ll have something in store next week.”