Speaker 1: You're listening to the Raves Press Past podcast. It is Thursday,
Speaker 1: January twenty fifth. Today we had a chance to hear
Speaker 1: from head coach John Harbaugh.
Speaker 2: Beautiful day, weather turned out good, the fog finally cleared.
Speaker 2: Once the fog cleared, we were okay. We weren't sure.
Speaker 2: You know, it took a while, but guys were high
Speaker 2: spirited and in focused. So we're happy with where we're
Speaker 2: at and still got plenty of work to do before
Speaker 2: before we play on Sunday.
Speaker 3: So what questions you have.
Speaker 4: John, I know you have a lot going on here,
Speaker 4: but have you congratulated your brother and just thoughts of
Speaker 4: him coming.
Speaker 5: Back to the NFL?
Speaker 2: I have, I have, and my thoughts are we play
Speaker 2: him next year. So we're looking forward to all of it.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm just very happy for him, proud of him, excited
Speaker 2: for him, excited for his family. I heard my mom
Speaker 2: and dad told me that he called back in the
Speaker 2: evening and he found out that all of his kids,
Speaker 2: starting with Addie and Katie, had their bags packed already.
Speaker 2: They're ready to go, so they're excited too.
Speaker 3: So it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2: He's well deserved. And I'll say this the Chargers just
Speaker 2: got themselves one great coach.
Speaker 7: You don't you have a bit.
Speaker 8: Of an unorthodox practice and that you're rotating out players
Speaker 8: and left and right tackle. You've been doing that for
Speaker 8: a few weeks. And what makes that work with the
Speaker 8: players that you have as a part of the system.
Speaker 9: Is the talent?
Speaker 8: What is helping make that work?
Speaker 5: The pig the page.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 2: Probably the biggest thing is we've got good players capable
Speaker 2: of doing it. You know, Pat and Daniel step in
Speaker 2: there and play very well and when you it's not normal.
Speaker 2: I understand that it's not something you see very often, but.
Speaker 5: We're able to do it.
Speaker 2: And it was kind of started with you know, the
Speaker 2: knicks that the guys had and tackle between Ronnie and Morgan,
Speaker 2: and it just has really done. It's been good for us.
Speaker 2: It's something we found and we're happy with it.
Speaker 8: You a strategic advantage just due to the differences in
Speaker 8: their size and their play style.
Speaker 10: Is that something it all considered?
Speaker 9: It might be.
Speaker 2: You know, we really haven't talked too much about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, we just want to run the plays and
Speaker 2: have the guys go in there and execute to the
Speaker 2: best of their ability. Everybody plays their way, you know,
Speaker 2: so get the job done your way.
Speaker 10: The coach for Darting grim real quickly.
Speaker 11: If he does come in to watch the game this weekend,
Speaker 11: you expect him to be wearing Ravens.
Speaker 2: That's such a great question because I actually thought about that, well,
Speaker 2: Jimmy wearing Ravens gear if he comes in for the
Speaker 2: game this weekend. I don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 2: We may have to require it perhaps, I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: so that's a good questions.
Speaker 10: New Division rivals.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I can't help.
Speaker 12: But no, see when I go back and look at
Speaker 12: the twenty twenty one Chiefs game that you guys beat
Speaker 12: him here, Lamar's emotions, especially in the fourth down call,
Speaker 12: was that a.
Speaker 4: Big hurdle for him to get past the team like
Speaker 4: that and what they've done?
Speaker 13: And when he approaches this game, do you see that
Speaker 13: kind of mentality in him to get past one of
Speaker 13: the top teams to get where he needs to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's always part of all of us.
Speaker 2: We all want to, you know, accomplish the next thing.
Speaker 2: So that that particular game something well one that was
Speaker 2: you know, a good memory Force and we're proud of it.
Speaker 2: Seems like it was a long long time ago and
Speaker 2: this game coming up is the immediate challenge right in
Speaker 2: front of us. And really that's kind of really all
Speaker 2: really thinking about all the other things are part of it,
Speaker 2: but not focused on those things right now.
Speaker 3: John with with Mark or Andrews. The continuing practice out there,
Speaker 3: I mean, does it look like then he's gonna be
Speaker 3: able to fight one.
Speaker 2: Sunday, Mark practice went through the whole practice, and we'll
Speaker 2: just kind of see on all those things how they
Speaker 2: go and if guys are ready to.
Speaker 3: Go, Nona.
Speaker 7: You guys already started to you know what, the idea
Speaker 7: that maybe he will be available. Mark did the idea
Speaker 7: of you know, putting him finding ways to exploit the
Speaker 7: defense with him and likely on the field.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean that's just a great way to ask the
Speaker 2: question and really very creative, and really it's just gonna
Speaker 2: be you know, you gotta get through practices and you've
Speaker 2: gotta you've got to come back the next day.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: You know, so if I stand up here and start
Speaker 2: telling you guys are gonna play, then they no play.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be looking at me like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm steering you the wrong way either way. You know, So,
Speaker 2: like I said, I made a Viob's just not going
Speaker 2: to get into it. You know, not a doctor, don't
Speaker 2: make predictions. But who's going to play? But all the
Speaker 2: guys who are active and then the receiving corps, all
Speaker 2: the guys will have a chance to get out there
Speaker 2: and make some catches. And I'm rooting for all. I
Speaker 2: promise you that one is.
Speaker 10: You see injury, something that could sign to Sunday.
Speaker 9: I don't know yet to see John.
Speaker 5: The league changes so much your year alone every ten years.
Speaker 14: Or so, it's the last time you were in this game,
Speaker 14: Like do you do you can you use that experience
Speaker 14: for this week or is it just like too much
Speaker 14: time as fast a different food.
Speaker 10: But it's not that it's not as relevant as you
Speaker 10: might think. It's come up like a championship game. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 10: like yeah, since you've done well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I guess you can in the sense
Speaker 2: of the perspective of of U the opportunity, you know,
Speaker 2: and how far you've come and the opportunity to go further,
Speaker 2: how valuable that want to know is right now? I
Speaker 2: want to know is really valuable and you've you've you've
Speaker 2: made it valuable because all the investments you've made going
Speaker 2: into it. Right, So this this particular one to know,
Speaker 2: it's a it's a it's a bigger benefit than want
Speaker 2: to know maybe second or third week of this season,
Speaker 2: even though that was really an important one to know.
Speaker 2: So our guys understand that. But that's just kind of intuitive.
Speaker 2: I don't think you have to necessarily play in one
Speaker 2: of these to know that.
Speaker 5: But we're just.
Speaker 2: Focused on the game itself, the opponent, our our our responsibilities,
Speaker 2: our assignments, our techniques, and trying to be as ready
Speaker 2: as we can to play a good football game.
Speaker 7: John, who gives the better pre game speech?
Speaker 10: Between you and Rokwon?
Speaker 3: He's the best?
Speaker 2: Well he's the best now, I mean him and Ray
Speaker 2: would be probably the better comparison. You have to at
Speaker 2: some point in time that would be really interesting, like
Speaker 2: have a pregame speech off right between Ray and Roe Kwan.
Speaker 3: You could sell that length before you have got time
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's a good question. All right, thanks everybody appreciate.
Speaker 1: It, I would say, coach John Harball. We also heard
Speaker 1: from the coordinators that's kick things off a special teams
Speaker 1: coordinator Chris Horton.
Speaker 9: Good to see everyone.
Speaker 3: Uh, what questions you f.
Speaker 7: Chris when you have vantaged point what happened on the.
Speaker 5: Pump return touchdown?
Speaker 6: You know one of the things is, uh, you know,
Speaker 6: everything we do obviously always starts with you know, uh,
Speaker 6: giving guys punt direction. And I think when the ball
Speaker 6: when the ball didn't go where they expected it to go,
Speaker 6: I mean pretty much all eleven guys at that point
Speaker 6: there was there was a breakdown and that ball got
Speaker 6: to uh Sims pretty quickly. Uh, and he was able
Speaker 6: to just kind of hit us, split us right up
Speaker 6: the middle. You know, It's just it's just a combination
Speaker 6: of uh, everything going wrong at at the same time.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know, and.
Speaker 6: Those when those things happen on those plays, Uh, you
Speaker 6: kind of just kind of go back and you look
Speaker 6: and you ask, and you say, hey, man, we gotta
Speaker 6: we gotta defend this play better, regardless of word that
Speaker 6: ball is, we need to make adjustments a lot quicker.
Speaker 6: And that's really what happened on that play.
Speaker 14: Chris.
Speaker 8: Give the couple of games with some of the weather,
Speaker 8: feel like they're pretty well prepared in case what they're
Speaker 8: being rained in the forecast to.
Speaker 6: Get you know, I would think so, you know, we've had,
Speaker 6: we've had an opportunity to play in in some of
Speaker 6: these games with with weather, and you know, we just
Speaker 6: gotta we gotta go out there no matter what the
Speaker 6: what the conditions are. You know, we got to do
Speaker 6: our best to execute at a high at a high level.
Speaker 6: Every team is going to be at that at the
Speaker 6: same advantage point, right uh with the weather. But I
Speaker 6: think we're pretty prepared for it, and I think our
Speaker 6: guys will be ready to handle it.
Speaker 7: These games this time of year, they tend to usually
Speaker 7: come down to the kicker at times. I mean, what
Speaker 7: how does it feel to to have a guy like
Speaker 7: Justin Tuckle on your sidelines knowing it could come down.
Speaker 3: To his leg? Yeah?
Speaker 6: With Justin Man, the one thing you know about him
Speaker 6: is he's always ready for the moment.
Speaker 9: These situations.
Speaker 6: This guy, this guy lives for he prepares for uh
Speaker 6: daily and on Sundays, Man, when the lights are, when
Speaker 6: the lights are at their biggest stage, Man, he shows
Speaker 6: up and uh, you know, if his numbers and and
Speaker 6: and that's what we need, I think he's gonna go
Speaker 6: out there with all three of those guys, you know,
Speaker 6: because it starts with the snap, then the hole didn't
Speaker 6: the kick. But having him around, man, it's a it's
Speaker 6: obviously a luxury.
Speaker 8: Cool.
Speaker 9: All right, thank you coach.
Speaker 3: Thanks guys.
Speaker 1: That was Chris Harden. We also heard from defensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Mike McDonald.
Speaker 15: All Right, good to see everybody.
Speaker 3: Scaring enough to play.
Speaker 9: This weekend.
Speaker 13: But have you talked about the fact that you may
Speaker 13: be going against your own old Boston sometime next season?
Speaker 10: And Uh no, I haven't.
Speaker 5: I actually didn't even know what you're talking about, is
Speaker 5: the question?
Speaker 11: Like he just talks about road Fund's leadership and what
Speaker 11: you feel like he's done to kind of lift up
Speaker 11: the rest of the defense, the rest of the.
Speaker 5: Players that uh tough to find a place to start.
Speaker 15: I mean, he's he's the guy we look to, you know,
Speaker 15: when when we need something to be said, he knows
Speaker 15: what to say. And when I think, I think, you know,
Speaker 15: what's cheeky about him is what shows up on the
Speaker 15: field has backed up all the talk. When you play
Speaker 15: the style football that he plays, you know, it's contagious
Speaker 15: and the guys see it and it pops off off
Speaker 15: the screen. We talk about expectations and playing like a raven.
Speaker 15: You know that that's what it is, so you don't
Speaker 15: need to explain it. You just show it and the
Speaker 15: guys understand it so well.
Speaker 10: You prepare for the putum, like I presume you need
Speaker 10: to start with the quarterback. You look at the list
Speaker 10: of things he does well and try to take that
Speaker 10: away as you prepare for a patrickball home where.
Speaker 15: He well, it's a long list of the stuff that
Speaker 15: he does well. It's a great question. You know, if
Speaker 15: if we had the answer, if people the answer was
Speaker 15: out there, you know, he probably wouldn't be in this game,
Speaker 15: you know, so or.
Speaker 5: Have the consistent success that he's had.
Speaker 15: So hats off to them, and and the type of
Speaker 15: player is an ultimate comp editor.
Speaker 5: Uh so you know, we have our handsful. It's a
Speaker 5: great challenge.
Speaker 15: You know, there's things situationally obviously that you feel like
Speaker 15: that we do well that you're gonna want to be
Speaker 15: able to, you know, exploit, you know, given those certain situations. Uh,
Speaker 15: but you're right, it's it's a it's a lengthy list
Speaker 15: for sure, of all the of the things that he
Speaker 15: does really well.
Speaker 4: Mike, talking to players yesterday, they did say that it
Speaker 4: does benefit them when they face a guy like Mahomes
Speaker 4: that they have to face like guy like Lamar every
Speaker 4: day in practice.
Speaker 10: Is there anything to that?
Speaker 4: I mean, in your eyes, does it help your defense
Speaker 4: that they've seen Lamar every day since? You know OTAs
Speaker 4: in minicamp?
Speaker 15: You know probably you know, I mean just one just
Speaker 15: when you're when you think about training camp and you
Speaker 15: know you're great in your in your scoring practice, and
Speaker 15: you know, practices get competitive, and you know that the
Speaker 15: cadence of the play becomes a little longer when he's
Speaker 15: able to hold the ball and sometimes we think it's
Speaker 15: a sack, but it's really you know, Harp says it's
Speaker 15: not and play it out. Yeah, of course, I mean
Speaker 15: those are those are things that you have to you
Speaker 15: have to be able to adjust to and and and
Speaker 15: you know play kind of the extended plays.
Speaker 5: But I wouldn't put too much stock into that.
Speaker 15: I mean, were's so much time we're spending a part
Speaker 15: and on book teams and things. I would say that,
Speaker 15: you know, our backup quarterbacks do a great job every
Speaker 15: week of studying you know the quarterbacks mechanisms and kind
Speaker 15: of how they operate and where they like to go
Speaker 15: with the ball.
Speaker 5: So shout out to those guys.
Speaker 10: Mike Rokwan called you a magic scientist yesterday, Say what's
Speaker 10: just in the.
Speaker 3: Right spots and let's just kind of be who we are.
Speaker 10: I can see the look in your face as well.
Speaker 3: They all say, we know big things.
Speaker 9: Are coming from him in the future. How do you
Speaker 9: view that and what do you bring to a squat
Speaker 9: if you have to be from the head coach?
Speaker 15: Well, well, it's it's it's it's humblings flattering to hear that.
Speaker 15: You know, as a coach, you're you're just you're trying
Speaker 15: to put your guys in spots where they can be successful.
Speaker 15: And like that's that's the viewpoint. That's why we do
Speaker 15: what we do. You know, when they have success, you
Speaker 15: have success, and and that's that's what.
Speaker 5: We're trying to do here. That's why you know all
Speaker 5: this is here.
Speaker 15: That is why you guys are here, you know, and
Speaker 15: that's that's what rewarding to us. So when you feel,
Speaker 15: when you hear things that your players feel like you're
Speaker 15: helping them have success like that, that means a lot.
Speaker 5: But like I said, I mean, it's it's a it
Speaker 5: is a team effort.
Speaker 15: Man there's a lot of information that has to be
Speaker 15: kind of cultivated and broken down and then deciphered and
Speaker 15: then give to them. At the same time, I'm in
Speaker 15: charge of organizing it and making sure, you know, it
Speaker 15: gets them the right way, and ultimately making the call
Speaker 15: on Sundays. But to answer your question, yeah, it feels
Speaker 15: great that we're helping our players have success for sure.
Speaker 12: The Chiefs Bills game was the a lot of the
Speaker 12: Ex's and Nozon only seemed very excited by what they
Speaker 12: saw from the Chiefs the way they would, I guess
Speaker 12: make changes to the line of scrimmage to maybe target
Speaker 12: individual defenders. I mean, do you kind of go into
Speaker 12: your game expecting or preparing for them to do that again,
Speaker 12: or do you assume you'll see something fairly different from them.
Speaker 15: Well, the great thing about their offense is they're able
Speaker 15: to It looks like they carry a lot of volume,
Speaker 15: but it's similar concepts packaged differently, which I think any
Speaker 15: good scheme is going to do. Because you can't run
Speaker 15: every play known to mankind all the time. You have
Speaker 15: to eventually you got to, you know, kind of keep
Speaker 15: it in your wheelhouse. So they do a great job
Speaker 15: of hiding what they're what their intents are, and obviously
Speaker 15: you know they understand how to attack coverages and stuff
Speaker 15: they got. They do a great job of scheming up
Speaker 15: routes and things like that. So we'll see, we'll see
Speaker 15: things that we haven't seen, you know, presented early in
Speaker 15: the snap that you know you're just gonna have to
Speaker 15: play your rules out and uh hopefully you know you're
Speaker 15: in a position to make the play initially after it snapped,
Speaker 15: and then if the ball is extended, you know, be
Speaker 15: able to attach the guys and crawl the quarterback.
Speaker 3: Back to the world.
Speaker 13: Find you guys have invested more just as a franchiser
Speaker 13: that in sideline back the spot, which what has that
Speaker 13: done for the Whether they should.
Speaker 10: Just happen to election.
Speaker 15: As a good that has like a tree, Well, I
Speaker 15: am sure I have zero to do with how we
Speaker 15: invest any any any penny that goes into the salary cap.
Speaker 5: Uh. Yeah, Like I said, we.
Speaker 15: Love having great players that can you know, that play
Speaker 15: great football, play the way we want to play.
Speaker 5: So it's our chart.
Speaker 15: It's you know, our responsibility as coaches to put them
Speaker 15: in spots where they can go be successful and you know,
Speaker 15: given the decisions that we made, like we'll go coach
Speaker 15: them up and get them ready to roll. But yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 15: I mean you look at the middle of our defense.
Speaker 15: We got some I mean throughout the whole defense, but
Speaker 15: the middle of our defense especially are great players, man,
Speaker 15: and they deserve a lot of credit for kind of
Speaker 15: forcing the ball out on the perimeter, which is when
Speaker 15: I was part of our philosophy.
Speaker 5: So uh yeah, I mean they're just fun guys to
Speaker 5: work with. For sure.
Speaker 12: What does that phrase, uh, play the rules out or
Speaker 12: I forget exactly who to put up a week we
Speaker 12: hear your players say that again and again too. I
Speaker 12: mean I think Queen said it after after the last game.
Speaker 12: Does it kind of warm your heart to hear them
Speaker 12: say that?
Speaker 3: I mean does it? Does it sort of show that
Speaker 3: it's gotten through?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 5: It tells me they know what to do, which is good,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 15: Yeah, It's just you know, you know, what do you
Speaker 15: you're gonna go out? Where do you go, where do
Speaker 15: you go stand? Where do you look at? You know
Speaker 15: when that guy does something? How do you know how
Speaker 15: to react to it? It's just those are your rules,
Speaker 15: you know, And to me, if if it's clear on
Speaker 15: where your expectations are and how to do what we
Speaker 15: expect you to do, then you can.
Speaker 5: Go play fast and you'll play the right way.
Speaker 15: So yeah, if they if they know what their rules are,
Speaker 15: then that's that's definitely the first step to be successful.
Speaker 10: Kids seem lay with a lot of twelve for two
Speaker 10: personnel defense.
Speaker 11: Buffalo, What kind of what do they need to put
Speaker 11: stress on that those defensive I guess how well do
Speaker 11: you get you guys to evolve the defense?
Speaker 9: That's kind of that agency.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I mean, anytime people are changing.
Speaker 15: Personnels on you, you got to make the decision are we
Speaker 15: how are we gonna match it with the people that
Speaker 15: we're gonna put on the field. So without giving you
Speaker 15: the answer of how we're gonna do it, those are
Speaker 15: the decisions you have to make.
Speaker 5: And then you know where the stresses of the calls
Speaker 5: you're gonna make and things like that.
Speaker 15: So and a lot of times you know it's gonna
Speaker 15: morph and evolve over the course of the game. After
Speaker 15: you make a decision, you kind of see how they
Speaker 15: make their decision. You're kind of playing off one another
Speaker 15: as a game starts to unfold. So you know, we
Speaker 15: have an initial plan and how we're gonna play it,
Speaker 15: and then obviously it'll evolve is as the game starts
Speaker 15: to declare itself, like you've.
Speaker 10: Got guys step on us and Place and Marl and
Speaker 10: you think, missing.
Speaker 4: So much time a year of how valuable, how it
Speaker 4: setting would you get hick back.
Speaker 8: He's bountil this week did just how versative he is
Speaker 8: going back fort.
Speaker 15: Well, it'd be great to have more on back And
Speaker 15: you think about just the season he's had. He's had
Speaker 15: a lot of adversity and you know he hasn't had
Speaker 15: it's been different than his experiences of the years past.
Speaker 15: So you know, if he is ready to come back, man,
Speaker 15: it'd be awesome just to see it and be back
Speaker 15: and feel like you can you know, you know, contribute
Speaker 15: physically on game day.
Speaker 6: But Mike yel have had success with the cornerback blitz
Speaker 6: a couple of times a game without giving away too
Speaker 6: much of it.
Speaker 3: How do you decide when to run that is at
Speaker 3: a high risk?
Speaker 9: Hyer work, Can you share much about your hornack blitz?
Speaker 15: Yeah, sure, I've spoken to our kind of pressure philosophy
Speaker 15: in the past. You know, it's a it's a team
Speaker 15: rush mentality. So even when we're rushing four. You know,
Speaker 15: we want the illusion of pressure a lot of times
Speaker 15: and just have the threat of blitzing off one side,
Speaker 15: blitzing off on the side, coming up the middle double edge,
Speaker 15: or bluffing out of there. I mean, we want that
Speaker 15: threat to be at all times. So in order to
Speaker 15: have that threat, you have to do it.
Speaker 5: And uh, you know, so guys aren't just calling your
Speaker 5: bluff all the time.
Speaker 9: One more from Mike.
Speaker 10: I know what's sad? Uh?
Speaker 9: No pressure?
Speaker 10: You look look at the film for you guys. Obviously
Speaker 10: tight ends are understanding.
Speaker 11: It's part of how that type of offenses to see
Speaker 11: brook on p F how gets the best and make
Speaker 11: it difficult to lose those passes. You're not kind of
Speaker 11: gonna need a part of field. How you need the
Speaker 11: skill is at and I guess what how port could
Speaker 11: that be a game with the tight end?
Speaker 15: TRN Still don't you ask him about the tight end
Speaker 15: or how we put the linebacker.
Speaker 5: To hit their spots and make somebody offense?
Speaker 15: Well, yeah, I mean you're you're trying not to show
Speaker 15: your intentions, uh until the till the ball snapped. So again,
Speaker 15: go back to rules and how we want guys to
Speaker 15: play things. It's just playing discipline football, understand, you know
Speaker 15: where you're kind of one eleven fits in the whole
Speaker 15: the whole puzzle, and then trusting that the guys around
Speaker 15: you're gonna do it. And then I think what you
Speaker 15: see on tape and over the course of time, if
Speaker 15: you keep doing it right, you know, it's hard to
Speaker 15: it's hard to find the right spots to you know,
Speaker 15: matriculate the ball down the field.
Speaker 5: And that's the whole idea.
Speaker 1: That was DC and Mike McDonald. We also heard from
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator Todd Monkett.
Speaker 9: All right, because I have to start with all right.
Speaker 9: I don't know why. It just feels like I can't start.
Speaker 13: With that.
Speaker 10: Later the season anywhere. Is it a bigger challenge facing
Speaker 10: anything you have not seen yet before?
Speaker 16: In some ways, In some ways it is, you're starting
Speaker 16: it's a normal week, I guess is the best way
Speaker 16: to put. It's a normal week of someone you haven't
Speaker 16: played and then getting up to speed with.
Speaker 9: Uh, with who they are. In some ways that's you
Speaker 9: know that way.
Speaker 16: In another way you're like, okay, we're not playing someone
Speaker 16: that really knows us.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 16: In some ways you know they have the same issues
Speaker 16: we do. You know, they haven't seen us before other
Speaker 16: than maybe some crossover tape.
Speaker 10: You most about the Chiefs defense.
Speaker 16: How they do it collect I mean, what a great
Speaker 16: job they've done collectively. They're coaches and I know a
Speaker 16: number of those guys and they're outstanding coaches. They got
Speaker 16: outstanding players. They're very disruptive. You have to have I
Speaker 16: don't want to say this, whatever you're going to run,
Speaker 16: you better have the answers for what they're going to
Speaker 16: give you. So they're certainly and it isn't you know
Speaker 16: something that's a game or two. I mean, when you're
Speaker 16: fourth in the league in yards per play and I
Speaker 16: don't know how many games they haven't given up twenty points,
Speaker 16: but you can see it on tape, how hard they play,
Speaker 16: they tackle well, they're well coached, and they're very disruptive.
Speaker 12: For Lamar's perspective on the adjustments you guys are able
Speaker 12: to make at halftime in the last game, John's perspective,
Speaker 12: But haven't gotten to talk to you with what you know,
Speaker 12: what positive changes were you guys able to make at
Speaker 12: half time?
Speaker 16: Well, we just we called it better. We executed better.
Speaker 16: I mean that's really what it was. I mean, it's
Speaker 16: it's always that in my mind. You know, you look
Speaker 16: back at certain calls you know that you would have
Speaker 16: done differently possibly. But then also you know there were
Speaker 16: things that everybody taking turns that doesn't allow you to
Speaker 16: stack plays.
Speaker 9: That's that's really it.
Speaker 16: Some of us getting the ball out, some of it
Speaker 16: was just execution, and sometimes it's just momentum.
Speaker 9: You know, you get momentum on your side.
Speaker 16: You you know which to me started off the second
Speaker 16: half the kickoff return, get it out of our hands
Speaker 16: to Nelson and then the big play by Zay that
Speaker 16: get you fired up. You know, it eliminates some of
Speaker 16: the anxiety. And then when we got down there, we
Speaker 16: scored touchdowns. That's that's the other big part of is
Speaker 16: you're you're able to separate, you know. I think about
Speaker 16: the Miami game when you know it was there in
Speaker 16: the balance and they kicked a couple of field goals
Speaker 16: and we got a touchdown on a seventy five yard play,
Speaker 16: got the ball back and got that fourth down, and
Speaker 16: we scored touchdowns and all of a sudden, you gain
Speaker 16: some separation there when you're able to when you're able
Speaker 16: to score touchdowns and keep their offense off the field.
Speaker 16: That was big, you know, running the ball, getting the
Speaker 16: ball of our hands and controlling the game.
Speaker 11: Anxiety as you put together your game plan and think
Speaker 11: about your guer play calls, do you.
Speaker 10: Factor that inspect in human nature? There's going to be
Speaker 10: a higher level of anxiety to start a championship game.
Speaker 9: Oh, I don't.
Speaker 16: Pretty much every game we kind of think of it
Speaker 16: the same way, you know, how we want to start
Speaker 16: the game and try and start fast. We've been pretty
Speaker 16: good at that. I don't know where we rank, but
Speaker 16: we've been pretty good at starting. We've had some games
Speaker 16: not so much, but trying to get Lamar off to
Speaker 16: a fast start and us off to a fast start,
Speaker 16: get the lead.
Speaker 9: But I feel like that's maybe every game.
Speaker 16: You have a little bit of anxiety at the start
Speaker 16: of the game and so try to get the guys,
Speaker 16: you know, comfortable when you.
Speaker 7: Guys as a team are going up against the quarterback
Speaker 7: like patching Maholmes. How does does that impact you and
Speaker 7: your offensive game plan and how you may call the
Speaker 7: game at all?
Speaker 16: Not really, I mean as the game goes it might,
Speaker 16: you know, in terms of where you're at. Not not initially,
Speaker 16: I mean I get where you're going with it in
Speaker 16: terms of the anticipation of whatever, maybe that they're never
Speaker 16: out of a game or they're able to score. Sure,
Speaker 16: all those things are part of it, But until we
Speaker 16: get to that point, we're more concerned about each drive.
Speaker 9: We have, what we have to do offensively.
Speaker 17: I know you guys are hoping that then Mark, you know,
Speaker 17: would be healthy enough for per Sunday, has Isaiah likely
Speaker 17: as emergency since Mark's been out. Maybe kind of breathing
Speaker 17: to there bade you when you think about how those
Speaker 17: two might fit together on the field, and.
Speaker 10: That you guys haven't did it with a lot of them,
Speaker 10: all these passing steps.
Speaker 16: Sure, you know, I think all that figures in how
Speaker 16: well he's played, and then leading up to each like
Speaker 16: last week or leading up to this week, how well
Speaker 16: Mark's practice. That all leads into Okay, at every position, really,
Speaker 16: who's healthy, how do we anticipate that fitting into our
Speaker 16: game plan, and how can we incorporate them in the.
Speaker 8: Experience from the past two years of going to the
Speaker 8: National Title game and just calling place in high leverage
Speaker 8: you know, spots and situations.
Speaker 16: Oh, I don't know about that. I mean, it's felt
Speaker 16: like every game we've had has been high leverage. I
Speaker 16: don't know, it's the NFL. I mean, I don't you know.
Speaker 16: I mean, we've had a lot of games this year
Speaker 16: that it feels like at some point in the game,
Speaker 16: you know, very rarely is it not that way? Last
Speaker 16: week felt like that at halftime in the second drive.
Speaker 9: You know, that's high leverage.
Speaker 16: I mean, you know, when we got to the back
Speaker 16: end of the year and being on the road at
Speaker 16: San Francisco and Jacksonville and you know, playing home against
Speaker 16: the Rams. I mean, you're going to have a number
Speaker 16: of those, And so I don't know if I can
Speaker 16: draw back from the last couple of years per se
Speaker 16: that would be any different than the games we've played
Speaker 16: this year better and stand again where you're going with that.
Speaker 16: But you know, again, it is what it is. I mean,
Speaker 16: a lot of big games. It just happens to be
Speaker 16: one of them along those lines.
Speaker 10: I don't know if we've ever asked you, have you
Speaker 10: in a or teach you in Mike ever.
Speaker 11: Talk about you guys taking together in the flush bum
Speaker 11: PLAYFF and one funny one and find yourself.
Speaker 16: Got yeah, a little bit, just joking around a little
Speaker 16: bit once when I was interviewing, and it's kind of
Speaker 16: an awkward conversation, you know. It's, uh, it'd be the
Speaker 16: other way too for me, you know. I mean it's uh,
Speaker 16: you know, and we had you know, they were really good,
Speaker 16: but we had a generational defense. I mean, all those
Speaker 16: guys were, you know, for a lot of first round
Speaker 16: picks on that and we were just starting to get
Speaker 16: really good on offense, and the next year we were
Speaker 16: a lot better. So you know, it's you know, just
Speaker 16: like I said, sometimes you're they did a great job.
Speaker 16: I mean, holy cow, I mean, because they got so
Speaker 16: much better on defense, and they did a coaching wise
Speaker 16: is why they got to that point. But you know,
Speaker 16: we were pretty good as well. But uh, yeah, we
Speaker 16: don't really talk about it too much.
Speaker 12: Jo about the ongoing rotation to the tackles. Was that
Speaker 12: kind of something that you guys did by necessity that's
Speaker 12: turned out maybe even better than you could have imagined
Speaker 12: it would turn out, or.
Speaker 9: I think somewhat.
Speaker 16: I think somewhat, you know, taking a little bit of
Speaker 16: the pressure off those guys.
Speaker 9: It was it was already happening in practice.
Speaker 16: It was already happening where you're having a hard time
Speaker 16: getting through all the reps in practice, so those guys
Speaker 16: were already getting reps, so it just became more natural
Speaker 16: to allow that to occur in the games.
Speaker 6: So did you have a king knows who I'm going
Speaker 6: into doing that, Scott Ymon don't like to come out.
Speaker 16: You'll have to ask those guys, I mean to an extent,
Speaker 16: I mean, I don't mean that like from a negative standpoint.
Speaker 16: I think in critical situations, I think that would be true.
Speaker 16: I think that would be I think in some scenarios,
Speaker 16: I think they enjoyed having a little bit of a break,
Speaker 16: you know, with their body because it was happening during
Speaker 16: the week anyways, to an extent, so you know, you'd
Speaker 16: have to ask those guys whether they were frustrated or not.
Speaker 16: I know last week in the second half, I mean
Speaker 16: they went you know, and that was the anticipation trying
Speaker 16: try and get through the year. We thought there was
Speaker 16: you know, we needed to get them to the back half.
Speaker 16: There's really what happens. We needed to get them to
Speaker 16: the back half of the year, back end of the year,
Speaker 16: not half hell, back end of the year.
Speaker 2: I'll bet coach, is this easier to make halftime adjustments?
Speaker 3: Versus in game adjustments.
Speaker 9: It's I don't even know what to say.
Speaker 16: I mean, when it works out like that's that was
Speaker 16: great halftime adjustments. I mean, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 16: We just played better, you know, we just executed better.
Speaker 16: We got a few plays that kind of got us going.
Speaker 16: Momentum is a powerful thing, you know, when you're you're
Speaker 16: moving it, you're getting stops, you're making adjustments during the
Speaker 16: first half. Now you are collectively as a staff talking
Speaker 16: through things, what you want to get to, what we
Speaker 16: haven't gotten to. That's a little easier to take a breath,
Speaker 16: But I don't know that there has been. It wasn't
Speaker 16: like even in the second half that we weren't talking,
Speaker 16: if that makes sense. So it's ongoing halftimes A part
Speaker 16: of it. What you do during the week is a
Speaker 16: big part of it. What you're doing during the games a.
Speaker 9: Part of it.
Speaker 16: What you want to get to is a big part
Speaker 16: of it. Momentum is a big part of it. And
Speaker 16: like my wife says, I don't know why you just
Speaker 16: don't call the plays at work. Just seems that simple.
Speaker 16: I mean, just why would you call anything but the
Speaker 16: plays that work? I said, you're right, honey, as usual,
Speaker 16: you're right.
Speaker 1: In the locker room. Today, we also heard from some
Speaker 1: of the players, including cornerback Marlon Humphrey.
Speaker 3: Marlin has the cap to it's doing good. Marlon.
Speaker 13: That's when I got Lane Kiffin. I wanted him to
Speaker 13: be the Bama coach. I told him, he said, coming
Speaker 13: to Bama. But then like an hour later, they already
Speaker 13: had the new coach. So but I still Land is
Speaker 13: my guy. But you know, I still believe Crimson, still
Speaker 13: big Crimson.
Speaker 9: Marln.
Speaker 14: Do you just talk about the challenge of of Payson
Speaker 14: Patrick Mahomes if you do play of course, and what
Speaker 14: he poses.
Speaker 13: You know, I feel like I don't know why I
Speaker 13: was thinking about this on the field, but I feel
Speaker 13: like the Chiefs, you know, over the years are like
Speaker 13: are the the.
Speaker 3: College football version of Alabama.
Speaker 13: It's like every year and a year out, you know,
Speaker 13: they might be like, ah, they're not looking that good,
Speaker 13: They're not this.
Speaker 3: You know, they're still that team.
Speaker 13: They're still the team to beat, you know, whether they're losing,
Speaker 13: whether they're winning, they're they're still the Chiefs and they're
Speaker 13: you know, they're the team to beat.
Speaker 3: You know, they're super Bowl champs.
Speaker 13: I think and for us to beat them, it's it's
Speaker 13: gonna take you know, everybody firing and all cylinders.
Speaker 3: You know, Mahomes, you know, I think him and.
Speaker 13: Lamar, I think those two quarterbacks are it's those super
Speaker 13: quarterbacks and then everybody else. So when we're playing the
Speaker 13: you know, one or two the best, the best quarterbacks,
Speaker 13: you know, both the the two best quarterbacks in the
Speaker 13: foot in all the world are gonna be on the
Speaker 13: same field. And so we're facing one and they're facing
Speaker 13: the other. So it's a I think it'll be a
Speaker 13: a match up, uh, A match up, A really good
Speaker 13: match up.
Speaker 14: Mom are A ask you the the the defensive last
Speaker 14: couple of days, just about that skill set that Mahomes
Speaker 14: has and you guys face that skill set every day
Speaker 14: facing Lamar.
Speaker 4: How much does it help in practice seeing that and
Speaker 4: and plays that he's.
Speaker 14: Able to extend stuff like that? How much does that
Speaker 14: help in practice seeing that and l you know, it's
Speaker 14: gonna benefit on Sunday.
Speaker 3: And it's good to see that.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I would say the the biggest difference is, you know,
Speaker 13: ain't nobody been to touch Lamar in practice? You know,
Speaker 13: we would try to say pretty pretty far away from him,
Speaker 13: but uh, you know, obviously m Lamar's a lot fashion
Speaker 13: than Mahomes, but Mahomes, it's it's like what he's able
Speaker 13: to do. Hey, he's able to you know, evade pressure.
Speaker 13: I was telling some of the guys, you know when
Speaker 13: you come off the blitz, you know, Mahomes or or
Speaker 13: pump fank Yo, and I was I was telling him about.
Speaker 3: My own experience.
Speaker 13: You know, I had a really good hit QB hitter
Speaker 13: on Mahomes a couple of years ago. But the tragic
Speaker 13: part was he threw a touch out at before I
Speaker 13: hit him.
Speaker 3: So he he he. He does a lot of things
Speaker 3: with the ball obviously, what he can do.
Speaker 13: You know, when I started seeing him in the aus
Speaker 13: in practicing running backwards and throwing the ball, I knew
Speaker 13: the league was in trouble. So the subf he does
Speaker 13: on the field is is it's pretty crazy. But I
Speaker 13: think we've got uh, We've gotten some pretty good looks
Speaker 13: at it with uh Lamar. But obviously it'll be a
Speaker 13: little different when uh it's a lot of bullets.
Speaker 11: Marrow.
Speaker 7: You talked about the respect you have for the Chiefs.
Speaker 7: You know, obviously to win this game be big in itself,
Speaker 7: but doesn't need anymore to to beat the defendant champ,
Speaker 7: to beat the team that you know, HA has been on.
Speaker 3: Top of a while. Yeah, I mean be huge.
Speaker 13: I just you know, I'm just super excited to to
Speaker 13: to hopefully get out there. It's been to beat them.
Speaker 13: For the city, for the fans, it's been it's been electric.
Speaker 13: I feel like, you know, the fans, they always they
Speaker 13: talk about you know, this moment, this moment, this is
Speaker 13: our year, this is our year, and you know, to
Speaker 13: to finally get here, to be able to have it
Speaker 13: in in M ANDT Bank Stadium in front of our
Speaker 13: fans and our home color, it's just it's a it's
Speaker 13: a really exciting moment. I was texting with uh Eric
Speaker 13: last night and I was s Harves Alway says, don't
Speaker 13: peak too early, and I was he almost had me
Speaker 13: peeking too early, just getting too excited for the game.
Speaker 3: But it's, uh it, it's just really special.
Speaker 13: All all the things about it, the defendant Chiefs and
Speaker 13: my homes, our fans, is just it's it's so many
Speaker 13: things aligning. I think it's just gonna take everyone's best
Speaker 13: best put forward to beat this team.
Speaker 18: Marylan Marlan you've been here for the a whole sort
Speaker 18: of rise and putting together with this team, I mean
Speaker 18: up the ups and downs of it. So how painful
Speaker 18: was it to not be able to play the second
Speaker 18: half of the Miami game?
Speaker 3: You know it was the playoff game last week? And
Speaker 3: you know, did you d did you think you might
Speaker 3: be close to the Miami game of one play? I mean,
Speaker 3: what what does the sort of this whole experience.
Speaker 13: Been money, Yeah, it's been rough. I've been kind of
Speaker 13: trying to just stay positive through it. It's it's it's
Speaker 13: definitely not not been ideal uh for me, But I think, uh,
Speaker 13: the the best thing that's kind of really helped me
Speaker 13: get through it is honestly telling me to get through
Speaker 13: the most just seeing how the guys are playing on Sunday.
Speaker 13: It's like, I mean, I obviously watch the defense a
Speaker 13: little closer than the offense, cause I know what's going
Speaker 13: on the defense, But the way those guys have been
Speaker 13: flying around, it's it's been it's really been inspiring to
Speaker 13: see that you can have the comfortability to just shoot
Speaker 13: your shot and if if you miss, there's Rod coming,
Speaker 13: there's peak you coming. It's been there's so much just
Speaker 13: it seems like the defense has just been flying around crazy,
Speaker 13: and I think, you know, that's something that's really changed
Speaker 13: since we added roconn to our audition. You know, he
Speaker 13: runs the ball like I. There's no one it's not
Speaker 13: even like a debate. No one runs to the ball
Speaker 13: the way Roquan Smith does. And that's that's literally been contagious.
Speaker 13: It's actually been contagious to to everybody on the defense,
Speaker 13: how everyone's game is elevated since he's come, since he's
Speaker 13: been our leader on defense, and so just that's really
Speaker 13: what's been keeping me going. Man, It's like, I gotta
Speaker 13: do whatever I can to get back out there, cause
Speaker 13: the way these guys are playing, I just wanna be
Speaker 13: a part of that.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a sort of how you feel on
Speaker 3: some day. Is it gonna be a like a pre
Speaker 3: game workout that kind of thing or is it? Yeah?
Speaker 13: I usually let all that happen with with Harbes and
Speaker 13: the medical team and then uh, I go from there.
Speaker 1: That was cornerback Marlin the Humphrey. You're listening to the
Speaker 1: rap this Press Past podcast. Make sure you leave a
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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 10: We'll be back with you tomorrow