Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Presspass podcast. The Ravens approved a
Speaker 1: nine to five on Sunday after a thirty five to
Speaker 1: fourteen victory over the New York Giants. The Ravens are
Speaker 1: now on a short week with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming
Speaker 1: to town for an AFC North showdown Saturday at four thirty.
Speaker 1: As the Ravens prepare for that game, today, we had
Speaker 1: a chance to hear from head coach John Harbaugh.
Speaker 2: Okay, appreciate everybody being here. Happy with the win, which
Speaker 2: we needed to keep pace, and now we're heading into
Speaker 2: the challenge this Saturday against Pittsburgh, a very important game
Speaker 2: for a lot of reasons, and we're going to need
Speaker 2: to be at our very best. They're an excellent football team.
Speaker 2: We're ready for the challenge. What questions you guys have, John.
Speaker 3: We just saw a statement that was released about Dean
Speaker 3: Tate Johnson jually read noticipate team activities this week. After
Speaker 3: this week? Do you do you foresee him practicing with
Speaker 3: the team again.
Speaker 2: What I foresee really, to be honest with you, and
Speaker 2: all I'm really thinking about right now is Pittsburgh. I'm
Speaker 2: getting our team ready for Pittsburgh. So he won't be
Speaker 2: here this week and next week will take care of itself. John,
Speaker 2: I guess I just want to quick follow about that,
Speaker 2: and then why did you just decide to handle it
Speaker 2: that way and not simply releasing I'm really interested in
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh Stealers. To be honest with you, I know you
Speaker 2: guys want to hear the story. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: moving parts there are. There are reasons for doing things
Speaker 2: that are front office type reasons, you know. Do I
Speaker 2: want to sit here and get into all the different
Speaker 2: calculations that Eric makes, I really don't. I want to
Speaker 2: think about Pittsburgh and our team get ready for Pittsburgh
Speaker 2: and the guys who are going to be here playing
Speaker 2: against Pittsburgh. That's that's my folk, because one hundred percent, John,
Speaker 2: what are.
Speaker 4: The challenges all of you talked about how big of
Speaker 4: a game this is obviously going up against the Steelers,
Speaker 4: but play on one a short we both you guys
Speaker 4: are playing on the show. We just what are the
Speaker 4: challenges for those all the field challenges at this time
Speaker 4: of the year, and also just how big of a
Speaker 4: game is is in the grass game?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's a challenge for both teams you know,
Speaker 2: we're both playing on the same deal. We both played Sunday,
Speaker 2: we're playing each other on Saturday. So that's just a
Speaker 2: unique Justice schedule. Uh it's a little shorter game planning
Speaker 2: type of operation than you would have, but we play
Speaker 2: each other enough, right, I don't think that's a problem
Speaker 2: for either team. And uh, guys got to do a
Speaker 2: great job taking care of themselves, you know, getting ready
Speaker 2: for the game that's gonna be in terms of their bodies,
Speaker 2: you know, and then making sure they get the game
Speaker 2: plan right. You know, we want to get our football right.
Speaker 2: That's what we wanna do. We wanna prepare it, you know,
Speaker 2: to the best of our abilities to go and go
Speaker 2: out there and play our best, you know, on point
Speaker 2: in that game, just like we do every week. Really,
Speaker 2: I mean it's really not any different than any other week.
Speaker 2: So we're ready to do that and we're excited for it.
Speaker 2: And I can't wait for the guys to come walking
Speaker 2: in tomorrow morning.
Speaker 5: How much does that Last Encounters needed you with it
Speaker 5: all because of the fact that it was such a
Speaker 5: winnable game, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I just been watching I watched a game a
Speaker 2: number of times now. The last actually last week. I
Speaker 2: watched it, we got ahead with a bye week and everything.
Speaker 2: Watch it again this morning, and so much to learn
Speaker 2: from that game, so much to learn from all the
Speaker 2: games really that. But every game is at the same time,
Speaker 2: every game is different, even though they seem like they're
Speaker 2: the same. The scores are about the same. It seems
Speaker 2: like I'm talking about over over seventeen years and even
Speaker 2: beyond that. But every game is different, you know, and
Speaker 2: try to learn from it and try to try to
Speaker 2: try to do you know, where we're at, where they're at,
Speaker 2: what we need to do to try to win this game.
Speaker 2: Play our best football is we're focused on.
Speaker 3: I know a lot of the players said that you
Speaker 3: didn't even when you play the Giants, didn't even address
Speaker 3: their record. That was not even brought up. You bring
Speaker 3: up kind of the magnitude because this is such a
Speaker 3: big game. When you bring up the magnification or you
Speaker 3: know from from.
Speaker 2: This this game, probably don't have to. I mean, I
Speaker 2: always talk to the guys about, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: big picture. We talked briefly about the big picture. Then
Speaker 2: we always come back to want to know, you know,
Speaker 2: we start want to know that's our focus. Here's the
Speaker 2: big picture. The big picture is this is our opportunity
Speaker 2: to win the division. You know, we have to win
Speaker 2: this game to have an opportunity to win the division.
Speaker 2: And then let's do well everything we can do to
Speaker 2: we want to know, you know, and put our best
Speaker 2: foot forward.
Speaker 3: John, can you put into perspective just how big of
Speaker 3: a game was for those rookies the step of what
Speaker 3: they did against the Giants specially needed that now to stretch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a great point, you know, for
Speaker 2: those guys to get a chance to play as much
Speaker 2: as they did in the fourth quarter, and even guys
Speaker 2: who played throughout the course of the game, like Ted
Speaker 2: you know, he played, he played here and here and
Speaker 2: there the whole game, played on special teams. They all
Speaker 2: played well. I mean that was great to see.
Speaker 5: It.
Speaker 2: Just just appreciated seeing that. I think this rookie class
Speaker 2: is really good class. I think it's got a great
Speaker 2: future and they're already contributing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, movement over the last.
Speaker 2: Three four or five.
Speaker 6: When he said sideline back the spot an extra world aquad.
Speaker 6: Do you feel like you're getting a good feel for,
Speaker 6: you know, what what you want there in terms of
Speaker 6: what Chris Bard's doing or maybe more in the passing
Speaker 6: situation won Harris and maybe playing against him.
Speaker 2: I do, I do, and we have a I think
Speaker 2: we're kind of finding that a little bit. And you
Speaker 2: know what, you know, you mentioned two guys. They played
Speaker 2: really well. My league played well. Uh, Chris played well
Speaker 2: and Trent played well when he went in. So to
Speaker 2: see that, I think, you know, from a standpoint of Trent,
Speaker 2: it's it's good for Trent to you know, maybe takes
Speaker 2: the pressure off a little bit, you know, let him.
Speaker 2: He's a young guy, you know, and he he plays
Speaker 2: all heart, all heart, and he cares so much, so
Speaker 2: he can kind of take a breath a little bit
Speaker 2: just in terms of his picture, his side of it
Speaker 2: and come back in there like he did in the
Speaker 2: game and play well. Uh then for a leak to
Speaker 2: get this opportunity, uh, to prove himself. You know, he's
Speaker 2: been working hard for that opportunity and he's just he's
Speaker 2: done great with it. And Chris board same thing him.
Speaker 2: He's even more of a veteran guy. And I know
Speaker 2: those guys appreciate that and they're and they're making the
Speaker 2: most of it.
Speaker 6: So we training is that kind of a game plan
Speaker 6: moving forward for now or sort of see how things
Speaker 6: go with that.
Speaker 2: Almost week the week, you know, week the week.
Speaker 7: John, we saw Jordan stout kickoff. Was that just a
Speaker 7: function of the score and you felt like, why not
Speaker 7: give the look, get some game reps on it, or
Speaker 7: is that kind of a plan going forward?
Speaker 2: That was it could be the plan going forward at times,
Speaker 2: but you know, the fact he can do it. Getting
Speaker 2: getting him out there in the game was a big deal,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Jeff, I mean, he hadn't
Speaker 2: really been out there in a game, a real regular
Speaker 2: season game yet, just to kind of get the field
Speaker 2: for doing it, and you can see how good he
Speaker 2: is that. I mean, we've seen him in practice pretty
Speaker 2: much every day and when we do kick off strong
Speaker 2: leg to have that option, you know, is a plus.
Speaker 6: You mentioned the rookie class.
Speaker 5: Nate Wiggins had a lot of action in this game,
Speaker 5: a lot of one on.
Speaker 6: Ones with neighbors and held up really well. Where have
Speaker 6: you seen Nate make strudes?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: When you watch corners, I mean, it's it's a technique
Speaker 2: game out there, you know, it's it's a fundamentally sound game.
Speaker 2: It's a tough position to play around the island, as
Speaker 2: they say, and you have to do everything exactly right
Speaker 2: from from beginning to end, you know, from when the
Speaker 2: when the ball snapped and the receiver makes his release,
Speaker 2: or if you're in zone, or you make a run
Speaker 2: past read, if you're a primary force guy, if you're
Speaker 2: not all those different things. Where your eyes are at,
Speaker 2: where your feet are at, where your hands are at,
Speaker 2: your leverage, there's a lot of detail to the position,
Speaker 2: you know. And uh, I think he's making progress across
Speaker 2: the board with that, and yet you know, he knows
Speaker 2: he's got well, he's got a whole career's worth of
Speaker 2: improvement in front of him still. But he's he's he's
Speaker 2: doing a good job. He's made a lot of progress.
Speaker 2: He's doing well.
Speaker 4: Job with the kick and that justin Tuncker obviously didn't
Speaker 4: have to be using a field goal game. But on
Speaker 4: the extra points it look like he went from a
Speaker 4: couple of times on the white hash. I believe he
Speaker 4: moved into the middle of the field as well. Was
Speaker 4: there a reason for them, was a win in fact
Speaker 4: or what kind of went into.
Speaker 2: The Yeah, it was kind of a win decision that
Speaker 2: he and Randy made. They've done that before in the past.
Speaker 2: He's kicked it from all three spots in the past.
Speaker 2: But that's what they talked about in terms of going
Speaker 2: to our right the right side of our bench, I
Speaker 2: think it was he was on the right hash and
Speaker 2: then going the other way. I think he was in
Speaker 2: the middle, if I'm correct about that. That's how I
Speaker 2: remember it.
Speaker 7: Always put up some fantastic numbers.
Speaker 3: He just liked. Lamar has always kind of put up
Speaker 3: these fantastic order. The one team that has kind of
Speaker 3: been his challenge has been the Steelers. I'm sure there's
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, intricacies to say it, but
Speaker 3: is there something generally back the Steelers do they have
Speaker 3: done well to kind of limit Lamar that other teams.
Speaker 2: Have not been needed to do well. I mean they've
Speaker 2: created plays, you know, they've created plays against us, They've
Speaker 2: they've had sacks, they've had some you know, timely sacks,
Speaker 2: some timely turnovers, timely stops. You know, they've they've managed
Speaker 2: to do that, and that's that's what it is. That's
Speaker 2: what winning games is, you know, and have done a
Speaker 2: good job of that.
Speaker 7: I'm assuming, like Ronner Rosencuardin had another really.
Speaker 3: Solid game history.
Speaker 6: I mean, do you feel like over the last month
Speaker 6: he's kind of gone for a really promising player to
Speaker 6: just a good starter.
Speaker 2: I think Roger's doing a great job Chiles. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's he's definitely playing winning football at right tackle. So
Speaker 2: that's what you look for, you know. And if another
Speaker 2: guy kind of talking about those rookies, about the question
Speaker 2: about the rookies, he's he's really establishing himself out there
Speaker 2: and done a nice job. And you know, I like
Speaker 2: to I like the way he looks out there.
Speaker 6: Similarly with with Tavi, if you know, you're talking about
Speaker 6: him last week, but how significant is it to have
Speaker 6: him be, you know, seemingly like pretty dependable throughout the
Speaker 6: course and continuing to get better kind.
Speaker 2: Of every week. Yeah, it's very significant. I mean he's
Speaker 2: established himself probably as a three down player. You know,
Speaker 2: he's gone from a rundown player to a guy that's
Speaker 2: out there all the time. Uh, you know, had a
Speaker 2: had a had a play where he retraced, you know,
Speaker 2: on a on a draw. I made a great play.
Speaker 2: He's kind of doing everything well right now.
Speaker 3: I know you're focused on this game, but you're still
Speaker 3: in a you're in a span of three games in
Speaker 3: eleven days. Well, this week, I think you're losing one day.
Speaker 7: This week we'll practice.
Speaker 3: Do you have to dress anything with practice this week?
Speaker 2: Lose one day will be kind of swat, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean we will, we will. There'll be We'll still got
Speaker 2: to get our guys going, you know, and then we'll
Speaker 2: still be out there tomorrow. We'll go out there and
Speaker 2: practice tomorrow and try to move a little bit and
Speaker 2: I'll just kind of decide if practice goes along that,
Speaker 2: and then we'll for sure the full practice the next day,
Speaker 2: and then uh, Thursday, you know, that'll be kind of
Speaker 2: see where they're at numbers wise, and how we're looking
Speaker 2: and feeling. So a little bit of a plan but
Speaker 2: also a little bit of a feel for next week.
Speaker 3: We'll be kind of your usual Thursday where you're not
Speaker 3: you're doing much just because it's Wednesday. I'm sorry, because
Speaker 3: it's such a.
Speaker 2: Short you'll, right, the four day week, it'll be a
Speaker 2: four day week schedule, and we usually go one day
Speaker 2: fast and that on that on that week and then
Speaker 2: but again, you know, whether we do that or do
Speaker 2: less or do a little more, I don't know, but uh,
Speaker 2: it'll be along those lines.
Speaker 7: You've got penalties on the films, specifically from the defensive
Speaker 7: past coach penalty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know it's they're they're calling them tight,
Speaker 2: you know, that's what sticks out, and uh, we play
Speaker 2: we play man, you know. And when when you've got
Speaker 2: you covered downfield and you've got your back to the
Speaker 2: to the quarterback, it's important, really important to get your
Speaker 2: eyes around play the ball. Not late. We got them around,
Speaker 2: but we were probably you know, I don't in the
Speaker 2: eyes of the referees, a little late. So we've got
Speaker 2: to learn from that. Uh, then be careful with uh
Speaker 2: you know, you know we say to the guys all
Speaker 2: the time. You know, one of the things that we
Speaker 2: say is you cover with your feet, you play the
Speaker 2: ball with your hands, you know, and and you play
Speaker 2: the ball with your eyes as well. So we just
Speaker 2: got to keep working on that. It's a technique thing
Speaker 2: and we've covered well, you know, so eliminating those passer
Speaker 2: reference penalties, it's a very costly penalty, especially downfield. That's
Speaker 2: really really a big part of it. If like we said,
Speaker 2: if they hadn't if those penalties hadn't happened, or just
Speaker 2: a few of them hadn't happened, they wouldn't have probably
Speaker 2: had any points, you know, and that would I think
Speaker 2: we played to the level of that, you know, of
Speaker 2: them not scoring, especially because we had a couple of
Speaker 2: big stops and we had to stop on the goal
Speaker 2: line and had to had to stop on downs right,
Speaker 2: so and we had to turn over at the end.
Speaker 2: So you kind of want to get rewarded for that,
Speaker 2: you know. So if we can eliminate the penalties, that
Speaker 2: would be a little truer indication. I think of how
Speaker 2: we played with the two penalties that Brandon got.
Speaker 7: Do you do you sit down with him and break
Speaker 7: those out in the micro detail or is it more
Speaker 7: just sort of re emphasizing the broader rules that you're
Speaker 7: just talking to.
Speaker 2: It's micro detail. I mean, it's both. You look at
Speaker 2: the it's always an application, you know, it's an application
Speaker 2: of the big picture, you know, the understanding of how
Speaker 2: you do it any kind of any kind of a
Speaker 2: any kind of a technique. Right then you apply the
Speaker 2: principles of that to the situation, and you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: it's unavoidable, you know, it's like, you know, there's not
Speaker 2: much you can do there. We might have had to
Speaker 2: play one of our players was in pursuit and another
Speaker 2: guy kind of he should have stayed inside out on
Speaker 2: the ball. Care that's a principle. When you're inside out,
Speaker 2: you know, inside hip, inside half, you know, you go
Speaker 2: full speed, drop your weight, run through the tackle. And
Speaker 2: he ended up the ball across his face back inside.
Speaker 2: It should never really happen. But when we watched the tape,
Speaker 2: you know, I told him, I told him, I told
Speaker 2: him on the train. Man. When I watch the tape,
Speaker 2: I can see what happened. He got fooled a little
Speaker 2: bit by the angle of the other player, you know.
Speaker 2: So sometimes there's mitigating factors. Other times it's pretty clear.
Speaker 2: But we do. We break it down. We break every
Speaker 2: play down with every player about as detailed as you
Speaker 2: possibly can. That's that's where the position coaches really really
Speaker 2: break it down. And then you know, for me, I'll
Speaker 2: pick my spots and the coordinators pick their spots.
Speaker 7: John with Brandon Stevens in particular, people how sticky is
Speaker 7: and coverage and everything go good position so often and
Speaker 7: finding a ball for it is an issue. Are there
Speaker 7: concerns with the penalties and the fact that teams could
Speaker 7: be targeting him deep because they're seeing that same stuff
Speaker 7: on field.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's what That's what teams do. You know, that's
Speaker 2: what teams do. They look for their opportunities.
Speaker 4: Similarly to the child's question about coach on the Stevens,
Speaker 4: when you look at Matta BKA's penalty on you know,
Speaker 4: I guess driving the quarterback to the ground. I know
Speaker 4: technique wise that ten years ago that would have been great.
Speaker 4: But how do you kind of teach these guys to
Speaker 4: hit the quarterback these days?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do it with pads, so we we have
Speaker 2: sometimes it's the dummy we never put you just hard
Speaker 2: to put a live body in there and do that
Speaker 2: some of our I might I might volunteer a couple
Speaker 2: of our coaches to do that this week. Matt robertson
Speaker 2: our outside backer coach seems like a good guy. Maybe
Speaker 2: he's kind of built like a quarterback. He's young. He
Speaker 2: probably take it so, but yeah, we try to drill it.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's to me it's as much as a
Speaker 2: field thing as anything. But it's not easy to drill.
Speaker 2: Came around there a little bit blind, not making excuses.
Speaker 2: I think he was, you know, the quarterback was on
Speaker 2: him pretty quick. But you know, it's something you just
Speaker 2: have to do. You know, you just have to hit him.
Speaker 2: You have to come off to the side. You got
Speaker 2: to turn off to the side. And he knows that.
Speaker 2: He knew it right away. You know, he was disappointed
Speaker 2: with it as well. So we'll drill that. We'll drill
Speaker 2: all those things, and those things will be drilled. You
Speaker 2: go to practice, you talk about you look at it
Speaker 2: on tape, you study it, you break it down in detail,
Speaker 2: like Child said, and you go out there and you
Speaker 2: have a drill for it that applies to the specific situation.
Speaker 2: You're always chasing that that execution.
Speaker 5: John, you changed your story punt returner Tyle the Wallace
Speaker 5: to the King after the Philadelphia Eagles game. Is what
Speaker 5: did you see over the bye week and over the
Speaker 5: practice week to promote keep from the practice squad to
Speaker 5: that starting role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Des has you know, been a really good player
Speaker 2: in this league. You know, both as a defensive back
Speaker 2: and as a as a special teams guy and as
Speaker 2: a punt returner. So, uh, he's always been good back there.
Speaker 2: You know, he's always caught the ball well, he's made yards,
Speaker 2: and he looked good in practice. You know, he looked
Speaker 2: really fundamentally sound. He's just got a lot of experience.
Speaker 2: He's caught a lot of punts over the years, and
Speaker 2: he could see it. You could just see it in
Speaker 2: practice definitely. You know, I was anxious. I was excited
Speaker 2: to see him out there in the game doing it,
Speaker 2: and I thought he looked really solid sound out there.
Speaker 2: And they got the got the big middle return. So
Speaker 2: he did a good job.
Speaker 5: That's starting cool. Do you see that as a guy
Speaker 5: keeps that position until they made a mistake? Is it
Speaker 5: more of a fluid thing because ton of Walls was
Speaker 5: there and then you kind of moved back. But how
Speaker 5: do you go about the starting rotation or role of
Speaker 5: that return duty?
Speaker 2: Just like every position, Yeah, just like every position. You know,
Speaker 2: it goes based on circumstances, you know, production, performance, opportunity,
Speaker 2: you know all those things. In the end, it's what's
Speaker 2: what's best for the team. You know what is best
Speaker 2: for the team. And you know Dez will be the
Speaker 2: pump returning next week, you know, and starting in Thailand
Speaker 2: will be right there time we get down on Tayland
Speaker 2: Wallace at all, he's a young punk returner. He's only
Speaker 2: had what twenty returns or something like that in his
Speaker 2: whole career, he's done a great job. I think he's
Speaker 2: had a couple of touchdown right, and some big returns.
Speaker 2: So I like the fact we have a little depth
Speaker 2: now too, you know. So it's a it's a it's
Speaker 2: a good good situation for us. If you guys have
Speaker 2: game help. What's that.
Speaker 6: Help us? We did?
Speaker 2: We did all right?
Speaker 3: Didn't play? Is that just nothing?
Speaker 2: He had a pre he had a pre uh pre
Speaker 2: uh pre game issue uh uh injury issue uh soft
Speaker 2: tissue issue. Injury wise, not too serious, but probably would
Speaker 2: have been risky putting him out there as it turned out.
Speaker 1: This is the Ravens Press Past podcast. Make sure you
Speaker 1: hit subscribe. Also subscribe to the Lounge feed as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. We'll be back with you again
Speaker 1: tomorrow