Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast is Thursday, October fifth,
Speaker 1: the Ravens preparing for this week's matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1: And today we had a chance to hear from offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Todd Munkett.
Speaker 2: In last week, you know, halfway through last week, I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know where the chunk plays are? Where are they?
Speaker 2: And I assume they said Andrews breaks thirty five yard
Speaker 2: then there were a few more throughout it. But does
Speaker 2: it feel like I mean, obviously want chunk plays to
Speaker 2: be Everyone wants a chunk plays to be a part
Speaker 2: of your offense, but it's designed a bit more. Weren't
Speaker 2: your contented? Just like we're gonna take exactly what they
Speaker 2: give us a march down the field. We feel the
Speaker 2: execution wise, that'll that'll be successful for us.
Speaker 3: Not really, I mean, I don't think that's sustainable.
Speaker 4: I mean the number in order turnovers, explosive plays, touchdowns
Speaker 4: on the red zone, lost charge plays, third down conversions.
Speaker 4: That's how you win both sides of the ball. So
Speaker 4: don't turn it over. Be explosive. If you're not explosive,
Speaker 4: you better be damn good on third downs. You got
Speaker 4: to keep drives or fourth downs, conversion downs, and we've
Speaker 4: been explosive in the run game, where we've got to
Speaker 4: get more explosives in the past game, we've got to
Speaker 4: find ways to create. Some of that's been a by
Speaker 4: product of the defense, some of it's been a byproduct
Speaker 4: of play calling. Some of it's been a byproduct that
Speaker 4: we've been ahead in the fourth quarter. We really haven't.
Speaker 4: You know, we've tried to take it a little bit,
Speaker 4: you know, take the air out of the game, sometimes successfully,
Speaker 4: sometimes not.
Speaker 3: But we know.
Speaker 4: You get thirty two teams across the league, everyone's going
Speaker 4: to say, we got to find a way to be
Speaker 4: more explosive.
Speaker 5: I think the air yards per attempt they're down.
Speaker 6: Knowing why, it's just teams that are having trouble throwing
Speaker 6: the ball deep.
Speaker 7: On defensive, have you seen defenses kind of evolve to
Speaker 7: take away the big play more or why do you think.
Speaker 4: That might be?
Speaker 3: I think there's more of that.
Speaker 4: I think schematically you're seeing more and more teams play
Speaker 4: in a certain style than there was a few years ago. Probably,
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, it's still within
Speaker 4: a given game, maybe not statistically over a year, but
Speaker 4: within a given game against the opponent you're playing.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 4: So, whether your goal is to get x amount of
Speaker 4: explosives within that given game, you're trying to not turn
Speaker 4: over and be more explosive than your opponent.
Speaker 5: I think in years past, you know, the offense would
Speaker 5: talk about how sometimes defensive coordinators with throw the game
Speaker 5: clients that they sprightly didn't expect based on Tennessee and stuff.
Speaker 5: Have you seen any of that this year? And I
Speaker 5: guess what do you think the kind of long term
Speaker 5: managers that are basic events where maybe they do things.
Speaker 4: With their crew both at this event, you know, some
Speaker 4: of that might be true, but not really yet.
Speaker 3: Have not seen that.
Speaker 4: Some of the teams that we've played, I mean we've
Speaker 4: played three of the four teams have been structured similarly
Speaker 4: and they're married to really what they do. Some other
Speaker 4: teams are a little bit different in terms of how
Speaker 4: they schematically go up against Lamar And some of that
Speaker 4: has to do with formationalin who's on the field that
Speaker 4: does have something structurally, I think a lot of that
Speaker 4: comes from not covered structure. But how big do you
Speaker 4: get in terms of your personnel, like how many tight ends,
Speaker 4: how many big people that's where a team has to
Speaker 4: get a little bit creative in terms of fitting gaps, Tod.
Speaker 5: We ask players this all the time, but is there
Speaker 5: some extra excitement being involved in a Ravens Steelers game
Speaker 5: knowing for sure this rival country?
Speaker 3: Oh, I think a divisional game.
Speaker 4: I mean it felt like that the week before, you know,
Speaker 4: it felt like that going to Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: I would think any anyone. I won't to speak for coach.
Speaker 4: But I mean when your number one goes to win
Speaker 4: your division, I mean that's what you set out to do,
Speaker 4: is win your division, then obviously it's huge. It's an
Speaker 4: AFC game, it's a divisional game, it's a rivalry game. Obviously,
Speaker 4: the two head coaches have been in place for you know,
Speaker 4: a long long time in terms of number of games.
Speaker 4: So we're excited. We're excited to continue to grow as
Speaker 4: an offense, continue to execute each week at a higher level.
Speaker 3: And that's that's our goal.
Speaker 8: Coach.
Speaker 1: I want to spend specifically working for you guys in
Speaker 1: the red zone. We've seen you go way more to
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson there.
Speaker 3: Than to rely on Justin Tuber like we've seen in
Speaker 3: past years.
Speaker 4: Well, it's players, I mean, it's I shouldn't say. I mean,
Speaker 4: obviously it's it's all collectively. It's I think we've done
Speaker 4: a good job as a staff scheming it. We've had
Speaker 4: players make plays, you know, you think of all the
Speaker 4: different you know, we had a couple of third down
Speaker 4: conversion touchdowns against Cincinnati that were huge in terms of
Speaker 4: a three point win. You know, obviously Lamar adds a
Speaker 4: different element. Other teams at times down there, to give
Speaker 4: themselves a chance to run the ball will go wildcat.
Speaker 4: Well we don't have to go wildcat. That doesn't mean
Speaker 4: we want to do that all the time. But he
Speaker 4: adds a different element that allows for a defense to
Speaker 4: have to play for and you're seeing that in terms
Speaker 4: of coverage structure.
Speaker 3: But coaches have done a good job.
Speaker 4: Scheming it, the staff has, the players have done a
Speaker 4: great job executing it.
Speaker 2: And can always assume both teams getting up for this game.
Speaker 2: But the fact that the last six times the Steelers
Speaker 2: have been blown out, they've come back and one the
Speaker 2: next week you've got it again with Mike tom on
Speaker 2: one of his skillsho's having his team ready and not
Speaker 2: you know, going through his long term droughts. So I
Speaker 2: just kind of like, crap, did that really happen last
Speaker 2: week against Houston for them? And now we got to
Speaker 2: deal with a little extra from them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's it's a credit to them, but
Speaker 4: I mean that's gotten nothing to do with this year.
Speaker 4: I mean, we'll see, we'll be ready to go, and
Speaker 4: I'm sure they'll be ready to go.
Speaker 5: About four weeks, do feel like you start to have
Speaker 5: enough information on your opponents, just their tendencies and stuff.
Speaker 7: And with that, the do you feel that they.
Speaker 5: Have a nine next mission you to start to scout
Speaker 5: to deal with and how do you incorporate like tendency
Speaker 5: breakers or things that you've condn't been doure so you
Speaker 5: aren't solved necessarily.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a good balance. I think every team has tendencies.
Speaker 4: I think it's knowing what those tendencies are. How do
Speaker 4: you play off that because you're gonna have strengths and
Speaker 4: you've got to play to those strengths, be it personnel
Speaker 4: wise or schematically, because you can't be recreating the wheel
Speaker 4: each week. The key is is what do we do well?
Speaker 4: What do they do well? How can we attack them?
Speaker 4: And they're thinking the same things and we've got to
Speaker 4: do a good job of masking that but still staying
Speaker 4: within the confines of what we want to be and
Speaker 4: we will want to continue to be moving forward.
Speaker 7: I'm having this week. Does it help that you had
Speaker 7: two really good pass rushers last week?
Speaker 6: Are they structured similarly and you feel like that helps
Speaker 6: your offensive line this gear?
Speaker 4: Well, first off, I'd prefer nobody has great pass rushers.
Speaker 4: It's a lot more fun that way. When you talk
Speaker 4: about scheming stuff up. That's that's a lot more fun
Speaker 4: than when you're trying to figure out chip help and
Speaker 4: you know those kind of things.
Speaker 3: I mean, so, I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Miles Garrett's a handful and the other
Speaker 4: guys they've got and these guys are really good players.
Speaker 4: I mean, so we'll ever work cut out for us.
Speaker 4: We got to do a great job of staying ahut
Speaker 4: in the chains and you know, getting the ball out.
Speaker 5: Do you kind of have a game overall philosophy on
Speaker 5: how this offense benefits or maybe in some ways doesn't
Speaker 5: benefit from motion. I know you've you guys, you've done
Speaker 5: a lot of different kinds of things, so it's not
Speaker 5: just one particular brand of it. But I thinks, how
Speaker 5: do you kind of fallow and when it helps and when.
Speaker 3: It hurts change.
Speaker 4: Some of it's kind of the price of doing business,
Speaker 4: you know. I think when you face defenses too that
Speaker 4: are like really get off the ball on a snap count,
Speaker 4: they would say false starts or illegal procedures is kind
Speaker 4: of the price of doing business. I think there's part
Speaker 4: of that. When you motion and shift, there's always give
Speaker 4: and take. The defense is moving run game protections where
Speaker 4: your IDs are. So there's a cost benefit analysis right
Speaker 4: in terms of getting them to move, rotate those kind
Speaker 4: of things where it benefits you without too often times
Speaker 4: and at times it has hurt us. You know, early
Speaker 4: on in the first game that was we hadn't really
Speaker 4: all played together, and you know, and some of the
Speaker 4: motions and sifts are different than when you're in practice
Speaker 4: and what you see and when bullets are flying. And
Speaker 4: so it's still a work in progress to eliminate, right
Speaker 4: the drag at times in terms of IDs where they're at.
Speaker 4: But it certainly is, you know, in terms of a benefit,
Speaker 4: it can be, it can be.
Speaker 3: I'll just say.
Speaker 9: That you guys have had explosive plays runner. Can you
Speaker 9: tell about you know, what you see that's working well
Speaker 9: and how much do you think it's benefited that this
Speaker 9: team is a team that is used to run a football.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I think that's a great point.
Speaker 4: I think that you know, I still don't believe you
Speaker 4: can control a game if you can't effectively run the football.
Speaker 4: It's hard to control the game. I mean, it's it
Speaker 4: is what it is. I mean, it's hard to stay
Speaker 4: ahead of the chains. And we wanted to when we
Speaker 4: came in trying to blend in terms of the physicality, Uh,
Speaker 4: some assemblances of the same run game that you could
Speaker 4: carry over and still be able to kind of do
Speaker 4: some things schematically to help that. And I think our
Speaker 4: staff has done a great job of that, and I
Speaker 4: think there's a comfort level with the players in terms
Speaker 4: of some of the things that we're doing.
Speaker 1: That was Todd Munkin. We also talked with the defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Mike McDonald. His unit had a great performance last
Speaker 1: week against the Cleveland Brown's really dominant game, and he
Speaker 1: discussed building off of that game this week in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 7: Again, it seems like every week you're they're a quarterback
Speaker 7: situation when the other team there, you know, someone's injured,
Speaker 7: and how much does that affect the game plan when
Speaker 7: there is some uncertainty.
Speaker 9: At the quarterback ptation.
Speaker 6: Uh, probably not as much as you'd expect. Uh, it's
Speaker 6: hard with path dependence, you know, offensive systems probably taking
Speaker 6: a you know, a ninety degree writer left turn. I'd
Speaker 6: say the timing of how news comes out does affect
Speaker 6: how you game planned. Like last week was a little
Speaker 6: bit of a unique situation, this one's a little same,
Speaker 6: you know, same idea kind of but a little bit different.
Speaker 6: So we're definitely expecting Kenny, and you know, we'll be
Speaker 6: ready for for for Mitchell if if he happens to
Speaker 6: be out there as well.
Speaker 3: So through the.
Speaker 8: Season, with all the injuries in the secondary, you've seen
Speaker 8: a lot of guys come in and out pretty seamlessly,
Speaker 8: in your own words, and a lot of them have
Speaker 8: attributed to actual coaching. What have you seen from your
Speaker 8: defensive acts of coaches and the way they tag team,
Speaker 8: the way that they present information, whether if be in
Speaker 8: game or in practice to their players.
Speaker 6: I'm r I'm really glad you asked that. I think
Speaker 6: both Chris Hewitt, Dennar Wilson, Brendan Clark, all those guys
Speaker 6: in that room just they done an amazing job, you know,
Speaker 6: the little bit different styles of how they go about it.
Speaker 6: Both you know, definite big personality, strong personalities, both great
Speaker 6: football coaches in their own right. And and I think
Speaker 6: they just have a great connection with our guys. And
Speaker 6: and then the players a lot deserve a lot of
Speaker 6: credit too. I mean guys, I'm thinking of guys like
Speaker 6: Kevon Seymour coming in and playing Nickel and Graydon really
Speaker 6: highly over the course of the game and didn't didn't
Speaker 6: be Deny, you know when when he went in there.
Speaker 6: So a lot of credit goes goes should be going
Speaker 6: all around all those people. But yeah, definitely shout out
Speaker 6: to them.
Speaker 2: Throughout the off season. I imagine you spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time things how do I best use these two
Speaker 2: incredibly skilled inside linebackers that you know, because they can
Speaker 2: do things most inside linebackers can't do in terms of
Speaker 2: their speed and physicality. We're seeing that and lots of
Speaker 2: different pressures and also encourages it is it like, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is what I thought we might be able to
Speaker 2: do with those two.
Speaker 6: It's didn't think if we were being to do this much. Honestly,
Speaker 6: we're putting a lot on their plate. On a on
Speaker 6: a per game basis. But I was Zach and I
Speaker 6: were joking, you know, this week, and he goes, you know,
Speaker 6: they love it, you know they want they're asking for it,
Speaker 6: and and I think it shows our trust in them
Speaker 6: and what we what we can trust them to do
Speaker 6: on a per week basis. So uh, definitely a lot
Speaker 6: of credit to Zach and the and row and PQ
Speaker 6: to you know, take on you know, the weekly game
Speaker 6: plan what we want him asking to do and execute
Speaker 6: at a high level like you guys are seeing, you know,
Speaker 6: on Sundays, and and the way they way that happens
Speaker 6: is just an everyday approach that they knock out out
Speaker 6: on the practice field. And sad it makes you feel
Speaker 6: good about calling things when those situations come up in a.
Speaker 2: Game, especially given the number of injuries you've had to
Speaker 2: kind of overcome elsewhere. Right, is that more like all right,
Speaker 2: we're gonna need more maybe out of YouTube because because
Speaker 2: that situation.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you might be able to say that. I don't
Speaker 6: think I've thought that specifically, but I think that's a
Speaker 6: fair assessment.
Speaker 5: His rod quads proved his pass coverage.
Speaker 6: I mean he's covering really well, as has that opened
Speaker 6: up more possibilities for you. I think he's always been
Speaker 6: a really good cover guy, you know, he see I
Speaker 6: think I think what how he wants to play the
Speaker 6: routes and how he's done it versus how he's done
Speaker 6: in the past has been a little bit of an
Speaker 6: evolution and that's definitely probably crystallized over time now. But
Speaker 6: I don't I don't I wouldn't say it's improved. I'd
Speaker 6: say its steadily been really really good.
Speaker 5: What hoping to the kind of instance guys.
Speaker 3: Like Tadevian and Pyle or when particularly.
Speaker 5: When we lose, you know, without a couple of guys
Speaker 5: on the outside and being able to sort of lean
Speaker 5: on that in their.
Speaker 6: Experience and so sort of well, obviously it's a big
Speaker 6: impact on us because you know, we kind of run
Speaker 6: out of guys, so they're able to come in there
Speaker 6: and and you know, obviously do a great job. But
Speaker 6: you know, I just think it's a credit to UH
Speaker 6: Eric and the personnel folks to get them in the
Speaker 6: building and then our coaches getting them ready to go.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's not easy to come in and and
Speaker 6: UH play twenty some odd plays we did with Josh
Speaker 6: Bines in twenty nineteen, and trust me, that was a
Speaker 6: a j Ford. It was the same week again, it
Speaker 6: was against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. You know, so I
Speaker 6: can I understand what that feels like. And it's not
Speaker 6: an easy test. So you know, just credit to everybody
Speaker 6: around getting ready to go and uh obviously you know
Speaker 6: being productive on game day.
Speaker 2: What most strikes you about this rivalry when you think
Speaker 2: of Pittsburgh? What are you especially going there?
Speaker 3: What do you think of? Man?
Speaker 4: A lot of thoughts.
Speaker 6: This this this organization, This game is defined by how
Speaker 6: you are as a raven is defined in this game.
Speaker 6: You know, leave it at that.
Speaker 1: That was Mike McDonald. We also talked with special teams
Speaker 1: coordinator Chris Horton.
Speaker 10: It's Pittsburgh week and that's the thing we're trying to
Speaker 10: just convey to our players, just like, hey man, this one,
Speaker 10: this one here speaks for itself. So we're just out here,
Speaker 10: we're working hard, getting ready to go. Really just try
Speaker 10: to play again, try to play, put another sound game
Speaker 10: together and try to play our best football up in Pittsburgh. Questions,
Speaker 10: it looked like he can gimber at the point he
Speaker 10: put the duke paint where he caught.
Speaker 7: The ball might have been some room there. It was
Speaker 7: at something that you guys just went it words. It's
Speaker 7: something that you talked on baby.
Speaker 6: Where.
Speaker 10: You know there was a there was I know those
Speaker 10: two incidents that you're talking about the first one. Let's
Speaker 10: go back to the first one where that that ball
Speaker 10: was punted and it came down and should have been
Speaker 10: going to our right, but it kind of faded back
Speaker 10: to the cut back to the middle of the field.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 10: I think in his mind he was thinking, you know what,
Speaker 10: this is one I could return. But at the last
Speaker 10: second he saw the gunner, so he call he called
Speaker 10: a fair catch. On the next one he got similar,
Speaker 10: He got the similar ball and it happened right away.
Speaker 10: So he he just assumed, Hey, that gunner's right there again,
Speaker 10: I better fair catch this ball. So he's in that instance,
Speaker 10: he's got to make the decision right cause we're not
Speaker 10: out there. And I think, uh we saw the frustration
Speaker 10: from him, like literally on the field. He was like,
Speaker 10: that was my opportunity. I could have had that one,
Speaker 10: but you know what, our number one priorities get the
Speaker 10: ball back and give it back to our offense, and
Speaker 10: then everything after that is a positive force.
Speaker 2: Do you think that was Jordan's best game start to finish?
Speaker 10: I thought that was Jordan's best game by far. Uh obviously, Uh, consistency, right,
Speaker 10: one of those things that we talk about.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 10: Those first he had seven punts in the game. Those
Speaker 10: first two you know, obviously he he would have wanted
Speaker 10: to have back.
Speaker 3: But after that, those next five, I mean they were
Speaker 3: they were spot on.
Speaker 10: And with Jordan, that's where we're trying to That's where
Speaker 10: we're trying to get him to consistently, uh with with
Speaker 10: Randy's out there and Sam out there working on every day. Man,
Speaker 10: let's just find that consistency uh in those punts and
Speaker 10: and we see when he does that, and this guy
Speaker 10: can he can flip the field, and that's why he's here.
Speaker 8: We talked you loved a couple of weeks split some
Speaker 8: of the challenge due during right now, was there too
Speaker 8: many manic games of tough after first altogether?
Speaker 5: Did you a couple of guys go down and not
Speaker 5: everybody knew exactly they were supposed to be on the field.
Speaker 3: Uh, Jeff not.
Speaker 10: You know, not to make any excuses, man, because that's
Speaker 10: our that's our job as uh as coaches. Right to
Speaker 10: make sure we handle the substitutions. But that but that
Speaker 10: was that was kind of part of part of it, right, Uh,
Speaker 10: we thought we thought we made a sub with a guy,
Speaker 10: one guy stayed on the field, and then we're trying
Speaker 10: to get guys off off and on the field. But
Speaker 10: you know those are those are easy fixes if we
Speaker 10: just communicate throughout the course of the game. So I
Speaker 10: don't think we should be we should be having that
Speaker 10: happening again.
Speaker 1: That was a special teams coordinator Chris Horton. You're listening
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