Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Thursday,
Speaker 1: December twelfth. The Ravens are gearing up for a game
Speaker 1: against the New York Giants on Sunday, and today we
Speaker 1: had a chance to hear from the coordinators. Let's kick
Speaker 1: it off with offensive coordinator Todd Monkin.
Speaker 2: So during the.
Speaker 3: Bye, I was this week you're focusing on the Giants?
Speaker 3: During the bye?
Speaker 4: How did you kind of split up your time knowing
Speaker 4: that you had three games in eleven days.
Speaker 5: Spend a decent amount on us, spend some time on
Speaker 5: the future opponents, and then the back end of the
Speaker 5: week we turned our focus to the Giants.
Speaker 6: When you go back and look you and take that week,
Speaker 6: how much or how much value do you find in
Speaker 6: this self from the self scouting and self reflection you
Speaker 6: get the little extra time to do that you find
Speaker 6: that particularly beneficial this week?
Speaker 5: Do you find a few nuggets? I mean, our coaches
Speaker 5: do a great job each week trying to self scout ourselves,
Speaker 5: but there's a few things that come up that you
Speaker 5: know when you have a little bit more extended time
Speaker 5: that you're able to look at and say, okay, we
Speaker 5: can be better here. Whether it's calling it preparation concepts,
Speaker 5: whatever it might be.
Speaker 7: Do you feel that bye week was just necessary at
Speaker 7: this point? I mean this team started earlier than just
Speaker 7: about everybody. With the Chiefs, you had the latest bye week,
Speaker 7: and now you're heading into you know, three games eleven
Speaker 7: day is just time wise. Just how challenging has that
Speaker 7: been and what was the.
Speaker 2: Benefits of the vibe?
Speaker 5: The benefits were again, you know, the things we talked
Speaker 5: about in terms of looking ourselves and then future opponents.
Speaker 5: You can see it in terms of our injury report.
Speaker 5: You can see in terms of having the week for
Speaker 5: our guys. To me, it's it's more for our players
Speaker 5: and their bodies more than it is us.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's what we do.
Speaker 5: I mean we came in, we worked just like we
Speaker 5: would as if we were you know, it was a
Speaker 5: game week, so you know it.
Speaker 8: You always say that comes at the right time, but
Speaker 8: I think it did.
Speaker 9: Mark Andrews is one touchdown from the organization record, in
Speaker 9: your perspective, would make.
Speaker 2: Them so special.
Speaker 5: Competitiveness, I mean, he's, uh, he's an elite competitor. I
Speaker 5: think that's the best way to put it. Football is
Speaker 5: important to him. Everything we do is important. To him,
Speaker 5: meetings are important to him, his body is important to him,
Speaker 5: how he plays, So he's a He's a top, top
Speaker 5: level competitor, one of the top competitors I've ever I've
Speaker 5: ever been around.
Speaker 10: Do you ever have to dial him back, like in
Speaker 10: trading camp in July or you know, just because he's
Speaker 10: so intense in everything he.
Speaker 5: Does, he does a pretty good job of monitoring himself.
Speaker 5: You'd have to ask him that. I haven't ever. I
Speaker 5: think we've had to do that with you know, any
Speaker 5: of our players that go as hard as he goes.
Speaker 8: I think that's uh.
Speaker 5: He probably would run himself in the ground, But you'd
Speaker 5: have to ask him that, Like I don't. It doesn't
Speaker 5: feel like we've ever monitored that other than when he's
Speaker 5: been nicked up a little bit because he doesn't want
Speaker 5: to be out.
Speaker 8: He really wants to be in there. I mean, he
Speaker 8: loves playing the game.
Speaker 2: You have Army and Navy playing here in this area
Speaker 2: this week. I know you're not a disinterested observer to that.
Speaker 2: Do you being able to see jet.
Speaker 8: At all and dec or?
Speaker 5: I would doubt it, but go Army.
Speaker 10: Obviously that a few Giants have lost some guys up front,
Speaker 10: for their in their past rush, you guys have had
Speaker 10: the opportunity for the upsive line to every group and
Speaker 10: get healthy over the bridge.
Speaker 2: Just how do you kind of see.
Speaker 10: That that uh, that matchup shaping up in I guess
Speaker 10: what are your kind of expectations for the line over
Speaker 10: these next four weeks?
Speaker 5: Well, I thought the guys that they played last week
Speaker 5: played played pretty well. Like I did, I didn't see,
Speaker 5: you know, a significant drop off. I mean, they're pros.
Speaker 5: You know, they've been waiting for their opportunity. So we're
Speaker 5: gonna have to play well. We're gonna play a lot
Speaker 5: better than we did a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 5: our guys are up to that challenge. I think the
Speaker 5: byeway's going to help, and we've got to be ready
Speaker 5: to go. I mean, you know, not only their guys
Speaker 5: up front, but you know five of the last six
Speaker 5: games that they played have been one score games.
Speaker 8: I mean, let's let's say it like it is.
Speaker 5: They're certainly more than capable, and they do a good
Speaker 5: job on defense. Schematically, they get good players. We're gonna
Speaker 5: have to play butts off.
Speaker 11: As he gets to these December January games, how much
Speaker 11: does weather affect game planning.
Speaker 5: I guess it could if you knew in advance, you
Speaker 5: know what you're getting. We don't always know in advance
Speaker 5: what we're getting. I do think your ability to be
Speaker 5: able to run the ball, play with physicality, control the
Speaker 5: game that way certainly carries you maybe more win than
Speaker 5: it does rain. But you know, it hasn't come up
Speaker 5: yet this year to where I've thought about that part
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 11: I don't know if you've followed it at all, but
Speaker 11: I'm curious to get any reaction to Bill Belichick taking
Speaker 11: the UNC job.
Speaker 5: Huh, all right, I don't know how to react. Good
Speaker 5: for him, I mean, if that's what he wants to do,
Speaker 5: Good for anybody that has an opportunity to be a
Speaker 5: head coach again, whatever level that might be. I'm sure
Speaker 5: it's an exciting time for him those that go with
Speaker 5: him there, and for the University North Carolina. I mean,
Speaker 5: you know, so good for him.
Speaker 1: Next up is defensive coordinator Sac War.
Speaker 12: How y'all doing y'are doing? Alright? Alright? I'm doing good zat.
Speaker 4: I know the focus is kind of is going to
Speaker 4: be the Giants all week, but you do have three
Speaker 4: games and eleve days.
Speaker 7: What's the biggest challenges as far as a coaching staff
Speaker 7: when you have that many games.
Speaker 2: In that short run.
Speaker 13: I think just making sure you guys prepared, making sure
Speaker 13: they can go out there and execute what you're asking
Speaker 13: them to do and put them in the best position
Speaker 13: to succeed. I know, me personally and us personally, like
Speaker 13: I'm all on the giants. I haven't even worried about
Speaker 13: nobody else, Like I'll stay up late or get up
Speaker 13: early when those guys, you know, when those guys show up.
Speaker 12: But I'll focus on the giants.
Speaker 13: So just preparing that way and whatever challenges other teams
Speaker 13: may present.
Speaker 12: You know, we're having me days, we had to prepare
Speaker 12: for them.
Speaker 13: We'll make sure we get the work done and being
Speaker 13: a best position to see Zack.
Speaker 6: There's there's a randomness to turnovers to some degree. You know,
Speaker 6: they come in bunches and it's just how the ball
Speaker 6: bounces some But for the numbers to be down where
Speaker 6: they are as you had this buy, we did you
Speaker 6: go back and look and see, like how much are
Speaker 6: you creating the plays you want to create to try
Speaker 6: and force them? You know, maybe is that not matching
Speaker 6: the results or is it just or you're not creating
Speaker 6: enough of those.
Speaker 12: Kinds of plays. I think that it's a combination.
Speaker 13: I think that we've had opportunities that we didn't take
Speaker 13: advantage of, even whether it's drop interceptions or we get
Speaker 13: a sack, but we're not stripping at the ball. And
Speaker 13: then I think also with you know, some of the plays,
Speaker 13: you know, with some of the plays you know obviously
Speaker 13: you know blitzes and stuff that causes more you know, turnover.
Speaker 13: So we look at all that throughout the bye week.
Speaker 13: So I'm excited our guys are aware of it. We
Speaker 13: made a big emphasis say, you know, coming out of
Speaker 13: these last four games, we want to be able to
Speaker 13: you know, generate takeaways and play red zone defense.
Speaker 12: So my guys are aware of it, they practice at it.
Speaker 12: We got a good chance.
Speaker 13: We got a good job getting a ball out today,
Speaker 13: and practice good job geting the ball out Monday and
Speaker 13: yesterday as well. So I'm excited to go out there
Speaker 13: and see what these guys do Sunday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, along those.
Speaker 14: Lines, Kyle Hamilton yesterday was kind of asked what was
Speaker 14: the next step, and he said, you guys have done
Speaker 14: a good job of limiting the big plays, you know,
Speaker 14: the last few games before the vibe, but he kind
Speaker 14: of said it's time to start attacking people. Yeah, do
Speaker 14: you feel a growing sense of confidence and these guys
Speaker 14: maybe kind of you know, eliminating those big players, but
Speaker 14: getting to a point now where you can start playing downhill.
Speaker 3: A little bit more.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I definitely, I definitely think so. Man.
Speaker 13: I think that you know, the guys would eliminating explosives.
Speaker 13: You definitely build confidence just in defense and just with
Speaker 13: the guys.
Speaker 12: Out there, you know, playing along with each other.
Speaker 13: So I think that, you know, it was something that
Speaker 13: we didn't want to have happened early, and you can
Speaker 13: lose a little bit of confidence and you kind of get,
Speaker 13: you know, play a little bit on your heels when
Speaker 13: you start getting up a lot of explode is every
Speaker 13: single game like we were doing or for a good bit.
Speaker 13: And I think now that that has calmed down a
Speaker 13: little bit. You know, guys are trusting each other more,
Speaker 13: trusting the scheme more, and just feel like they can
Speaker 13: go out there and go play and know that if
Speaker 13: I do my job, the person next to me is
Speaker 13: gonna be where they're supposed to be at.
Speaker 10: To get back off that question, Chris, you when we
Speaker 10: talked to him last week, said that the defense had
Speaker 10: been simplified someway, at least on the back end. I mean,
Speaker 10: does being more aggressive and being more exotic kind of
Speaker 10: going hand in hand?
Speaker 3: Are those two separate notions?
Speaker 13: I think you can still be aggressive and exotic and
Speaker 13: still keep it simple. You know a lot of times,
Speaker 13: you know you can. You can try to do a
Speaker 13: lot of stuff and have a lot of different play
Speaker 13: calls in and I think we've done a good job
Speaker 13: of just simplifying just a verbiage and just trusting our
Speaker 13: guys that it might not be the perfect play call
Speaker 13: for the perfect situation, but just trust them that they
Speaker 13: go out there and play their fundamentals and play the
Speaker 13: technique that they'll be fine. So I think that's what
Speaker 13: we kind of got more to. I think we definitely
Speaker 13: still exotic, Definitely still we get to a lot of
Speaker 13: our stuff that we want to get to and attack protections,
Speaker 13: attack offenses. But simplifying a lot of the verbiage and
Speaker 13: a lot of the checks I think help us out
Speaker 13: a lot.
Speaker 10: Sometimes in the buying week, a team will really maybe
Speaker 10: make a substantive change to something and your team kind of.
Speaker 12: Did it on the fly before you ever got to
Speaker 12: the bye week? Specifically, what did you what did.
Speaker 10: You take care of in terms of self scouting over
Speaker 10: the what was your focus in self scouting over the
Speaker 10: bye week?
Speaker 13: Just really looking at what the issues were, what we did,
Speaker 13: what we did well, and then where we struggled at
Speaker 13: and why we why we were struggling and what they
Speaker 13: what we can build on and what we can do
Speaker 13: going on these last four weeks. So I think we
Speaker 13: looked at everything. Man, it was a real productive week.
Speaker 13: I felt like we got a lot done as a
Speaker 13: coaching staff. But I specifically looked at, you know, the
Speaker 13: players we were giving up.
Speaker 12: While we're giving up, was.
Speaker 13: It you know, certain calls or certain opponents we're going against,
Speaker 13: certain coverages, certain blitzes, certain players. We looked at all
Speaker 13: that and then looked at what our guys are doing
Speaker 13: well and then how how we can build on that
Speaker 13: and how we continue to do that, and how we
Speaker 13: can uh you know, compliment I'm met that with other
Speaker 13: things and new things that the offense may not see,
Speaker 13: and just really put our guys in the best position.
Speaker 12: So I think it was real productive.
Speaker 13: I'm excited about you know, what we got done in
Speaker 13: the bye week and excited about you know what we're
Speaker 13: gonna be able to do going forward.
Speaker 11: What stands out to you about Molik Nabors.
Speaker 13: Yeah, man, I remember watching just crossover tape, watching a
Speaker 13: lot of guys in sec DBS and him sticking out. Man,
Speaker 13: he's explosive player. He kind of you know, he's not
Speaker 13: he's not there yet, but he kind of reminded me
Speaker 13: just from his college tape, kind of like Jamar Chase
Speaker 13: from a sense of he's explosive, he can make contested catches,
Speaker 13: he gets the ball in his hands. He's a good
Speaker 13: rat guy. So you know he's he's a good player.
Speaker 13: They feature him, they trust him a lot. He's one
Speaker 13: of the leading receivers when they leading targets him and
Speaker 13: Wandelle Robinson, and.
Speaker 12: You know he's a good player.
Speaker 13: We definitely got to, you know, know where he's at
Speaker 13: and make sure we take care of him and not
Speaker 13: let him wreak the game TVs.
Speaker 7: Robinson has parked out of a bigger role without necessarily
Speaker 7: getting a lot of tension for it from me outside
Speaker 7: from your standpoint, where is he growing the most this year?
Speaker 13: I think in all aspects. I think in all aspects.
Speaker 13: I mean, t Rob always been a hard worker, a
Speaker 13: physical player. I think now that the game has kind
Speaker 13: of just slowed down for him and you were able
Speaker 13: to see him just even play even more faster, play faster,
Speaker 13: play more aggressive, and play even more physical. And I
Speaker 13: think he's even developed better as a rusher as well.
Speaker 13: So t Rob's one of those guys who I mean,
Speaker 13: he's a raven through and through. He's a guy that
Speaker 13: we love, you know, not talked about a lot, but
Speaker 13: just does his job consistently. You know, he might not
Speaker 13: get the praise on the outside, we get a lot
Speaker 13: of praise, you know, in our meeting room and in
Speaker 13: our building because he does everything in the right way.
Speaker 13: If he doesn't do it right, then he's trying to
Speaker 13: do it right and he's gonna correct it. So I'm
Speaker 13: happy with t Rob. I think he's only going to
Speaker 13: continue to grow and get better, and you know, he's
Speaker 13: gonna be very important for us down these last four games.
Speaker 15: So actually knowing how these last four are, how big
Speaker 15: they are for you, and it's an unusual schedule to it.
Speaker 16: Do you have to hit.
Speaker 15: More one out of time with the guys and then
Speaker 15: when you played was it hard not to peek ahead
Speaker 15: and kind.
Speaker 2: Of think what if now?
Speaker 13: I think you definitely know what's on the I think
Speaker 13: you definitely know what's on the horizon. But I think
Speaker 13: we do a good job here, even when I was
Speaker 13: a player expressing like, man, you got to stay singular,
Speaker 13: focus on what's going on. You know, we know that
Speaker 13: this is a day to day game, a week the
Speaker 13: week league, and you know, before you get down the line,
Speaker 13: you have to handle what's in front of you. So
Speaker 13: that's what we've that's what we focus on, and we
Speaker 13: understand that everything out there is going to be for us,
Speaker 13: but we have to make sure we handle our business
Speaker 13: first with whoever we're going again, and I just love
Speaker 13: the mindset that since I've been here, you know, at
Speaker 13: the Ravens have is it doesn't matter who we're playing,
Speaker 13: where we're playing, when we're playing at uh, we got
Speaker 13: to show up and we got to go play our
Speaker 13: best brand of football. If we want to go get accompassed, well,
Speaker 13: we want to get accompassed.
Speaker 12: You made that an emphasis? Have you made that an emphasis?
Speaker 5: Though?
Speaker 8: I mean, you're the giants at two and eleven.
Speaker 6: They're missing a bunch of guys they're down to their
Speaker 6: thirst string quarterback and with you know Pittsburgh Casey right
Speaker 6: there to follow them to make sure that they do
Speaker 6: stay here in this moment this week.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean, truthfully be told, we haven't talked nothing
Speaker 13: about the record. We haven't talked to anything about the
Speaker 13: opponents on the rise, and like our mindset, you know,
Speaker 13: we got Yeah, we're playing a little bit better, you know,
Speaker 13: but we're not where we want to be at, especially
Speaker 13: as a defense. I know we're not where we want
Speaker 13: to be at as a team, and just a mindset
Speaker 13: come out to buy was good for us to reload,
Speaker 13: refocus and we got back.
Speaker 12: We said, I don't care who.
Speaker 13: On the schedule, you know, we got, we got, we got,
Speaker 13: we got, we got business to handle. So that's what
Speaker 13: we got to go out there and go do. So
Speaker 13: we're not really looking at that. I don't care who
Speaker 13: it is, you know what I mean, it could be
Speaker 13: one of the greatest teams ever that everybody say we're
Speaker 13: going against. You know, we got to prepare the right
Speaker 13: way and make sure we have our stuff ready.
Speaker 17: To rolla with the both of the season behind you,
Speaker 17: and as you navigate this role as coordinator, what are
Speaker 17: some of the adjustments you've had to make to continue
Speaker 17: to learn and grow in your role.
Speaker 13: That's a good that's a good question. I got to
Speaker 13: think about that for a second. I gotta think about
Speaker 13: it for a second. I think that a lot of
Speaker 13: it's trust, you know, trust the instincts, Trust the instincts.
Speaker 12: Unit position for a reason.
Speaker 13: And you know, I would probably honestly say that just trust,
Speaker 13: trust instincts. You know, that's I think that. And also
Speaker 13: just you know, trust the players.
Speaker 12: Let them. Let them go out there and go do
Speaker 12: their thing. Man. And not that I not that I.
Speaker 13: Haven't, but just even more, just like the players are
Speaker 13: the ones who make the plays.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 12: It's so it's a it's a great call.
Speaker 13: When when if a player make great play, even if
Speaker 13: it's even if they didn't do the right thing that
Speaker 13: you wanted them to do, you know, and it could
Speaker 13: be a it could be a bad call. They did
Speaker 13: everything right and somebody made a great play. So just
Speaker 13: let them go out there, don't overthink it. Just trust
Speaker 13: your instincts and and let the chips follow what they may.
Speaker 12: Thank you, we appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Next, we heard from Special Teams coordinator Chris Horton, good to.
Speaker 12: See everyone today. I hope you guys are doing well.
Speaker 18: What do you got for me today, Chris, As your
Speaker 18: approach to returning kickoffs changed since you've been learning this.
Speaker 7: New kickoff and all that it requires, that you want
Speaker 7: a kind of your structure on that.
Speaker 3: As is progressed.
Speaker 18: I think looking forward to what we what we did
Speaker 18: earlier in the year, I don't think the approach has
Speaker 18: changed as much as what we would have initially thought.
Speaker 18: I think if teams give gives us a ball, we
Speaker 18: our philosophy still is a we want to return that
Speaker 18: ball depending on how deep the ball is in the
Speaker 18: end zone and things like that. I think again, I
Speaker 18: don't still don't see any benefit of a ball that's
Speaker 18: two to three yards deep in the end zone for
Speaker 18: us to bring that ball out. Right now, now, as
Speaker 18: we continue to study the play, here we are with
Speaker 18: four games left, you know, we're starting to see some things.
Speaker 18: I think we're doing things a lot better than what
Speaker 18: we did earlier in the year from learning from the play.
Speaker 18: But I don't think the approach has changed much at all.
Speaker 6: As it gets colder, you know, generally the ability to
Speaker 6: just kick the ball you know, deep into the end
Speaker 6: zone or out of it may not be there as
Speaker 6: much as it has been earlier in the season. So
Speaker 6: you what have you learned about returning and also covering
Speaker 6: in this new format. Do you think now that it's
Speaker 6: more like you have to deal with it on are
Speaker 6: more often times.
Speaker 12: In a game.
Speaker 18: It's one of the things that Uh, again we're still
Speaker 18: continuing to look at. We still don't have a lot
Speaker 18: of a lot of plays. From our standpoint, I think
Speaker 18: we we tend to do things a little bit differently
Speaker 18: than than what I've seen from across the league, from
Speaker 18: as far as you know, how we want to set
Speaker 18: up on the ball, how we want to block. So
Speaker 18: I think as we continue to go through the practices, uh,
Speaker 18: we continue.
Speaker 12: To force ourselves.
Speaker 18: You know, while we're out here, we don't we don't
Speaker 18: put the ball in the end zone and we're returning
Speaker 18: the ball. So it gives us a little bit, uh
Speaker 18: of some some tape to watch to kind of see
Speaker 18: how these things work out. But you know, as the
Speaker 18: weather changes, yes, we are gonna get we are going
Speaker 18: to get more kicks and uh, I think if our
Speaker 18: guys are doing a pretty good job of blocking now
Speaker 18: and putting ourselves in positions to to hit big returns,
Speaker 18: and I like the two guys that we have back there.
Speaker 6: I haven't seen the numbers league wide, but from your standpoint,
Speaker 6: do you feel like it's any harder to break a
Speaker 6: long return than it was on the previous system.
Speaker 12: I wouldn't. I wouldn't.
Speaker 18: I wouldn't necessarily think it's a it's a lot, it's
Speaker 18: a lot harder. I think the angles have changed a
Speaker 18: little bit, and kind of how you're setting up on
Speaker 18: the play.
Speaker 12: I think the play happens a lot faster.
Speaker 18: Guys, the coverage guys get on you a lot quicker,
Speaker 18: which closes the lanes a little bit faster. But I
Speaker 18: wouldn't I don't necessarily think that you can't hit big
Speaker 18: returns because we've seen across this league there there has
Speaker 18: been touchdowns, there has been.
Speaker 12: Forty plus yard returns. Those things are showing up weekly.
Speaker 18: But again, if the cut, I think it all goes
Speaker 18: back to how the coverage team also plays that play
Speaker 18: because there is a defense on the other side of it.
Speaker 6: How has Justin been in practice this week? You're seeing
Speaker 6: what you want to see out of him.
Speaker 18: I've seen what I want to see, I see what
Speaker 18: I what I'm saying out him every week in practice.
Speaker 18: You know he's been doing He's been doing awesome in practice.
Speaker 18: He's in a good place, and I know he's ready.
Speaker 18: He's ready to get out there and go play.
Speaker 10: Anything that you can do to kind of simulate the game,
Speaker 10: like pressures during practice, or is it just basically when
Speaker 10: the lights come on, you've got to be ready.
Speaker 18: It's just, you know, we we try to get out there.
Speaker 18: We say we want to go out there and practice
Speaker 18: how we're going to play. Obviously we can't. We can't
Speaker 18: be out there knocking each other around and things like that,
Speaker 18: but we do do a good job of sending edge
Speaker 18: pressure off the edges and things like that to get
Speaker 18: guys in his face.
Speaker 12: Again, you just got to go out there and you
Speaker 12: got to go play. It's it's game day.
Speaker 11: I think Justin was kicking in there with pretty strong
Speaker 11: rains for m yesterday. Did he want to go out
Speaker 11: there and do that in the elements just to get
Speaker 11: that work or what?
Speaker 12: I don't necessarily think Ryan it was the elements.
Speaker 18: I think once we were done with our special teams practice,
Speaker 18: you know this, this indoor isn't big enough for us
Speaker 18: to kick on both ends of the field.
Speaker 12: You got an offense in the defense.
Speaker 18: So as a part of hey we can go outside
Speaker 18: and we can get some work with a great day
Speaker 18: to go out there and do it, because the guys
Speaker 18: wasn't done yet.
Speaker 12: That's all I think it was.
Speaker 11: I just saw that the league meetings Troy Bevinzi was
Speaker 11: talking about the onside kick and it being a dead play.
Speaker 11: As he said, I'm just curious your perspective on our
Speaker 11: onside kicks and whether you feel like, hey, that's a
Speaker 11: part of the game that should continue or what.
Speaker 12: You know. I haven't really thought that much into it.
Speaker 18: Obviously, when you're in it, when you're on the on
Speaker 18: the hands team, your hands teams out there, it's a
Speaker 18: it's a important that you recover the football, right, you know.
Speaker 18: Obviously there's what been three we've been on the other
Speaker 18: end of it. Two of them you know, happened against us.
Speaker 18: But you know what, you go out there, man, it's
Speaker 18: a hard play. It's a hard play to get that ball.
Speaker 18: You can't you really can't do a lot. You got
Speaker 18: to be stationary. You can't move guys around and things
Speaker 18: like that. So you know, whatever they decide to do
Speaker 18: they do, We're just gonna roll with it.
Speaker 7: This team signed Deontay Hardy in the off season. There's
Speaker 7: a lot of excitement about adding a returner of his level.
Speaker 7: Just how disappointing has it been just for him to
Speaker 7: not be able to see, I feel due to injury
Speaker 7: and not being able to be out here after adding
Speaker 7: a guy that a.
Speaker 2: Little so dynamic.
Speaker 18: Yeah, really, I really can't speak to you know, you
Speaker 18: know how how he feels. I know it's probably got
Speaker 18: to be frustrating for him. But for us, man, it's just, hey,
Speaker 18: let's coach the guys that are out there, Let's get
Speaker 18: the most out of the guys that are out there,
Speaker 18: and let's be as productive as we can, you know.
Speaker 18: And I think for him it's you know, I don't know,
Speaker 18: I don't know how he feels and things like that.
Speaker 18: I've had conversations with him, but he's and good.
Speaker 9: Raschine Alee had a larger role of returning kicks prior
Speaker 9: to the bye.
Speaker 2: What did you like?
Speaker 9: What did you see from him?
Speaker 5: What did you like?
Speaker 8: What do you need to potato?
Speaker 12: Oh?
Speaker 18: Man, uh Rashine's just he's just a ball player, you know,
Speaker 18: He's he's good with the ball in his hands, he's
Speaker 18: got good.
Speaker 12: Burds, he's he's fast, he's physical. Uh you know.
Speaker 18: And and again uh to the question that was asked
Speaker 18: earlier about just just the ability to hit big returns. Uh,
Speaker 18: that hole opens up and it closes pretty quickly. Now
Speaker 18: it doesn't stay as open as as long. So I think,
Speaker 18: what what rashine season? What the backs give us as
Speaker 18: an opportunity? They see that all the time, and so
Speaker 18: I just think, Uh, the more touches he get, the
Speaker 18: more yards we're going to be getting on kickoff return.
Speaker 3: All right, thank you.
Speaker 1: In locker room today we also heard from a handful
Speaker 1: of players, including running back Derrick Henry.
Speaker 6: He was good bye for you or was it more
Speaker 6: he physically or mentally from you?
Speaker 12: Getting that by with this play the season?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's key for everybody.
Speaker 16: Get your money in I uh, your mind and body's right,
Speaker 16: get away for a little bit, reset and then come
Speaker 16: back ready to work.
Speaker 6: And you have that at this point just years if
Speaker 6: your final four so critical where you wanna get So
Speaker 6: you have four three games in eleven days, cause the
Speaker 6: final two and you're a big playoff teams, you get this
Speaker 6: team that's two and eleven could be a trap game?
Speaker 6: How do you make sure you guys are avoid them?
Speaker 2: But I think you just take it one game at
Speaker 2: a time.
Speaker 16: Focus on what we need to do, executing wise on
Speaker 16: on all three phases, and go out there.
Speaker 12: And practice that and let let it transition to the game.
Speaker 16: And it's focus on what we need to do, not
Speaker 16: not so much to the opponent, and not uh killing
Speaker 16: ourselves and uh there's one there playing our stolid football.
Speaker 2: Give ourselves the best chance to win.
Speaker 1: Yar got your career, You've got a great track record,
Speaker 1: you're playing well. Wait in the season December January? What
Speaker 1: do you think is the key and me.
Speaker 3: To be a.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 16: I think players I played with doing a great job
Speaker 16: and you know them making my job easier for me
Speaker 16: to do my job. You know, the guys up front,
Speaker 16: you'll have to do a great job and you know
Speaker 16: credit to you know that's you know, that's that's happened
Speaker 16: in the past.
Speaker 2: But you know, just focus on the right now.
Speaker 16: I know the just disemilar history, but uh, I'm just
Speaker 16: focused on me playing better, being better and me and
Speaker 16: the best part I can to help this team As you.
Speaker 6: Come back from the boy how would you kind of
Speaker 6: describe the teams?
Speaker 7: Might say going into these fine.
Speaker 8: Up the river seas.
Speaker 16: Yeah, everybody's in the job. Everybody's uh glad to be back.
Speaker 16: Had a great boy week. You'll be able to reset
Speaker 16: and no, I know we define I know we definitely
Speaker 16: miss uh playing football, but great to be back flying
Speaker 16: around and get ready to play this week.
Speaker 12: You're one with the team.
Speaker 6: One touchdown shot or setting the whole time franchise record
Speaker 6: for touchdowns? What what does that mean to you?
Speaker 16: What would that means to you if you got with
Speaker 16: I try to try to leave the individual stuff, you know,
Speaker 16: out of it, try to focus.
Speaker 12: On the team.
Speaker 16: And you know that is like I said, you would
Speaker 16: have credit all the guys that made it possible for
Speaker 16: me to get to the end zone. And you know,
Speaker 16: just thankful, you know for this her whole journey and
Speaker 16: it's organization and everybody's been a part of it.
Speaker 3: Arrek.
Speaker 2: Obviously a change that you doing about with hair style.
Speaker 12: I mean we went into kind of going away from
Speaker 12: the dregs.
Speaker 16: Uh just wanted to change something I've been wanting to
Speaker 16: do and you know, I finally did it feel lighter.
Speaker 19: Yeah for sure, So Derek ash and Jackson he's the
Speaker 19: running back and where he stayed.
Speaker 3: What have you kind of seen from Evan? I know
Speaker 3: he's up for the hydro and would be the first
Speaker 3: running back since you to win it. Do you do
Speaker 3: you kind of think that that that he should get that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's incredible, man. You know, a player that.
Speaker 16: Is the whole game plan and you know, defenses know
Speaker 16: what's what's gonna happen. Then you know they still can't
Speaker 16: stop it. But I haven't seen it like that for
Speaker 16: for a long time. And uh, I know he's closer
Speaker 16: to getting getting to the record.
Speaker 2: I hope he gets it.
Speaker 16: And yeah, man, running backs, man, you know, I got
Speaker 16: a special place you know for running backs.
Speaker 2: In my heart.
Speaker 16: So you know, hopefully, you know, he gets to to
Speaker 16: win it. But him and Travis, they both had a
Speaker 16: great year. I mean, he can go either way, and
Speaker 16: I feel like the c the close ones, you know,
Speaker 16: it always happens that way. He can go to eat
Speaker 16: the side. But it just been balling out and I'm
Speaker 16: bad to see him in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: See what it does.
Speaker 1: We also heard from a Linebackerkwan Smith.
Speaker 12: My week, what did you.
Speaker 1: Take from that and how did they kind of serve as.
Speaker 12: A reset for this team?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, the BI week was great. You know, it's
Speaker 4: a long season for a reason, and yeah it was.
Speaker 4: It was really good. And being able just to get
Speaker 4: away have that reset, even just mentally, like getting back
Speaker 4: here on Monday, it was just like wow, like felt
Speaker 4: like a brand new person in a sense. Like the
Speaker 4: game is definitely stressful, but you know, we're excited about
Speaker 4: this run we're about to make and uh it starts
Speaker 4: this week with New York, so excited about the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Along those lines of what is your your view going
Speaker 1: into this final four game stretch of the regular.
Speaker 4: Season treated like the playoffs, treated like the playoffs, each
Speaker 4: and every game, each and every play treated like I
Speaker 4: said last, because it very well could be regardless of
Speaker 4: like how you want to approach it, knowing that they're
Speaker 4: there are other games that are guaranteed, but you're not
Speaker 4: guaranteed another play.
Speaker 3: Anything can happen.
Speaker 4: So just having that type of mindset and have that
Speaker 4: type of mindset and play with no governor, no cyling
Speaker 4: on yourself. Uh, each and every guy, and the sky's
Speaker 4: the limit.
Speaker 6: Three games in eleven days, like first on Sunday, Just
Speaker 6: I don't think you've probably ever have ever done that.
Speaker 12: So how do you handle where is that physically? In
Speaker 12: that way? Have ideas?
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, line it up, chin up, chest out
Speaker 4: like I always live.
Speaker 12: I don't really care too.
Speaker 2: Much about that.
Speaker 4: It's cause at the end of the day, when there's
Speaker 4: an opponent out there like that, individual's tryna provide for
Speaker 4: their family. So regardless of how bad someone is HEARDing, uh,
Speaker 4: what they're thinking mentally, you gonna go put it all
Speaker 4: on the line because that's your job and you're trying
Speaker 4: to provide for your family and as well for yourself.
Speaker 6: Defensively, the production has gotten a lot better of the
Speaker 6: last three games, turn the points allowed, just bringing big
Speaker 6: plays away. How do you get back to Mino also
Speaker 6: for some turnovers, Well, I'll still allowing your big plays to.
Speaker 12: Not be there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it just goes back to doing your job.
Speaker 4: Like it's hard for offense to just continue play in
Speaker 4: and play out play mistake free football. So when those
Speaker 4: opportunities come, those takeaways come, they come in bunches, and
Speaker 4: we believe in that and we can't press at all.
Speaker 4: We just gotta keep doing our job. Each and every
Speaker 4: guy do your job, including myself, and if we do that,
Speaker 4: the stuff everything else will take care of yourself.
Speaker 8: Real cool.
Speaker 19: I'm sure you guys respect on your opponents, but obviously
Speaker 19: the Giants atty having a great season right now. When
Speaker 19: you're going on the road to play a team like this,
Speaker 19: it is it important to kind of get out to
Speaker 19: a quick start to to kind of not give putting
Speaker 19: like that confidence at all.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think the main message uh this week is setting
Speaker 4: it tone early far as a uh, defensive perspective like
Speaker 4: with or But I don't I don't think about it
Speaker 4: as like, oh, these guys won what two, three games
Speaker 4: or whatever.
Speaker 2: The case may be.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, each and every one
Speaker 4: of those guys have a job and they're trying to
Speaker 4: audition for a job for next year. Those guys have
Speaker 4: a family at home, some have wife kids, So at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, a man is gonna give
Speaker 4: everything he got to provide for that and willing to
Speaker 4: put his life on the line. I'm speaking from my perspective,
Speaker 4: and I know guys over there on that side of
Speaker 4: the ball on our team as well who willing to
Speaker 4: do the same thing. So I don't look at it
Speaker 4: as like, oh, these guys are hurt, and a hurt
Speaker 4: individual is the most dangerous. Just like you backed up
Speaker 4: in the corner, You're gonna go for what you know,
Speaker 4: and that's what those guys are gonna do. But it's
Speaker 4: up to us by doing what we're gonna do, and
Speaker 4: that's imposing our will and we got to do that
Speaker 4: from the first nap.
Speaker 2: To the last.
Speaker 1: And lastly today we heard from cornerback Brandon Stevens.
Speaker 2: Just what it like to get away and get some time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, obviously it was good. You know, obviously
Speaker 3: it was a laid by as well. Uh, but it was.
Speaker 3: It was good to get away, you know, good to
Speaker 3: you know, just be your family whatnot. But you know,
Speaker 3: we're back now. Gave us some time to rejuvenate, reset,
Speaker 3: and you know it's back to work defensively.
Speaker 15: You guys have taken so many questions this season about
Speaker 15: either whether it's communications, misplays in the back end and
Speaker 15: Zach just kind of taking over and everything being new
Speaker 15: this group in particular the last month now to buying
Speaker 15: what's ahead of you?
Speaker 6: How do you feel confidence why.
Speaker 1: It's going into with the way.
Speaker 3: The defense has been playing. Yeah, I think, you know,
Speaker 3: just going forward, I think we're all feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: You know, we we definitely have a you know executed
Speaker 3: you know ways that we like, you know, still have
Speaker 3: more room to improve on.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we're feeling good, feeling confident. But you know,
Speaker 3: we got we got this one. Uh, you know, this
Speaker 3: this Sunday, uh, and this the one we're looking forward to.
Speaker 5: It's a big topic.
Speaker 15: Three games and ten days, one Sunday it happens. Just
Speaker 15: how are you planning to approach.
Speaker 12: That son usual?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Like you know, like I said, we're we're just
Speaker 3: focused on this one and uh, you know, and then
Speaker 3: we'll we're we're really not even looking too far ahead.
Speaker 3: You know, we know that we have three games and
Speaker 3: what ten ten days, but you know, right now the
Speaker 3: Giants is the only get where we're focused on.
Speaker 11: What do you see Familik Neighbors when you watch it
Speaker 11: more take.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a you know, talented receiver. I think that's
Speaker 3: you know, uh, that's what shows a field.
Speaker 16: Uh.
Speaker 3: But you know, we're all we're all looking forward to
Speaker 3: the to the matchup.
Speaker 9: What do you think that defense do you tect area
Speaker 9: need to do? Continue to leverage that you can come
Speaker 9: this defense you started.
Speaker 3: To be towards a quarterback. Yeah, I think we just
Speaker 3: have to continue to, uh, you know, you be on
Speaker 3: the same page, communicate, you know, like we've been doing
Speaker 3: the past couple of weeks, and just playing our style
Speaker 3: of defense, you know, just playing free and playing confident
Speaker 3: out there.
Speaker 11: Zach talked about the defense's desire to generate more turnovers.
Speaker 11: How much of that is a mentality thing where you're like, alright,
Speaker 11: I'm I'm gonna take this chance, I'm gonna try to
Speaker 11: jump this versus changes that you actually make.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you know, y, you never want to
Speaker 3: just chase plays, you know what I mean. I think
Speaker 3: we just had to continue to, you know, play our style,
Speaker 3: you know, and and when when the ball shows up,
Speaker 3: you know. But I think we have to just take
Speaker 3: take advantage of opportunities, you know, cats, the ones that
Speaker 3: give us, you know, strip the ball, whatever the case
Speaker 3: may be. We just have to take advantage of our opportunities.
Speaker 6: Said, I don't not even mentioned the Giants record and
Speaker 6: not meet any and so forth.
Speaker 1: Do you believe in the concept of what the trap game.
Speaker 7: Where the Steelers moving right after this in such.
Speaker 3: Situation, visual game and right out for now, we uh yeah,
Speaker 3: we're not paying attention to the to the uh to
Speaker 3: the record. You know, they're they're you know, any team,
Speaker 3: it's any given Sunday, you know what I mean, you
Speaker 3: have to prove yourself ea Sunday. But not I don't
Speaker 3: really feed into the trap game mentality. You know that
Speaker 3: you know, they're fully capable of of of winning, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And and that goes for every team.
Speaker 3: So uh yeah, we're we're just we just had to
Speaker 3: you know, play our game and you know, uh, play
Speaker 3: to to win.
Speaker 15: When the quarterback has gone back and forth with them,
Speaker 15: but now, I mean, you know it's de beato. Does
Speaker 15: is that any wrinkle where kind of you know that
Speaker 15: that's a little bit late that they come and go
Speaker 15: back forth with them and lock and locks her. Does
Speaker 15: that change anything from your preparation of wasn't sure.
Speaker 8: And now you know, and I might change.
Speaker 3: Not not not really, it doesn't. It doesn't change much.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously you're going to study the quarterback that
Speaker 3: they have in there, but you know, we're preparing for
Speaker 3: whoever shows up. You know that. I think that's how
Speaker 3: we're imputing.
Speaker 1: Them you're listening to Ravens Press Past podcast, also head
Speaker 1: over to the Lounge podcast feed. We sat down with
Speaker 1: safety our Darius Washington talked about his journey to a
Speaker 1: starting role. Really interesting backstory, so you can check that
Speaker 1: out on the Lounge podcast feed. Make sure you subscribe
Speaker 1: to that feed and this one as well. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening and we will be back with
Speaker 1: you again tomorrow