Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Past Podcast. It is Thursday,
Speaker 1: December twenty first, and the Ravens are gearing up for
Speaker 1: a game on Monday against the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
Speaker 1: Today we had a chance to hear from the coordinators,
Speaker 1: so let's kick things off with Special Teams coordinator Chris Horton.
Speaker 2: Good to see everyone. What questions do you have for
Speaker 2: many day?
Speaker 3: I love that, Chris. And the plans to Christmas going
Speaker 3: out to San Francisco, I know, but you got any
Speaker 3: plans to still do anything with the family.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you know. The way the schedule is set
Speaker 4: up for so we'll get an opportunity to be at
Speaker 4: home with our families one day before we leave on Saturday.
Speaker 4: So just looking forward to that. You know, it's that
Speaker 4: time of the year, just to be at home with
Speaker 4: the family and then you know, my wife under understands.
Speaker 4: You know, we got to go take care of business
Speaker 4: and then you spend time out west with the other family,
Speaker 4: your football family. So just looking forward to that and
Speaker 4: really just focus on the game.
Speaker 5: You've had a lot of the guys playing gun or
Speaker 5: you had to.
Speaker 6: Use a lot of different guys because of an injury
Speaker 6: is it has that almost been a beneficial this late
Speaker 6: in the year because you have guys who have done it,
Speaker 6: You have guys who are ready to.
Speaker 4: Jump dating as injury than I of course, Jeff, you
Speaker 4: know it's it's always good to have guys that are
Speaker 4: on your team that can play those positions where you
Speaker 4: don't really feel like you gotta go ahead and start
Speaker 4: from scratch bringing guys in and working guys out in
Speaker 4: order to fill those roles.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 4: But uh, you know, like I've said before, man, when
Speaker 4: we get those guys due to certain situations, whoever we
Speaker 4: can put out there, and those guys go out and
Speaker 4: just perform to the level of which we expect them
Speaker 4: to play.
Speaker 1: At a special teams coordinator Chris Horton. Next up is
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator Mike McDonald.
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas. How are we doing when you looked back
Speaker 2: at one of those Jacksonville.
Speaker 5: Are you more proud of some consistent habit that that
Speaker 5: your guys showed in a game like that, like you know,
Speaker 5: the the amount of you know, pass rushes you win
Speaker 5: or something, or you're more proud of an individually great
Speaker 5: play like the one Marcus made at the end of
Speaker 5: the half would kind of last with you longer.
Speaker 8: I think you're always looking at how we play and
Speaker 8: when we play the right way and our focus is
Speaker 8: in the right spot. Those are the things you're proud of.
Speaker 8: How you handle situations that come up throughout the game.
Speaker 8: We can help, we can deal with all the rest.
Speaker 8: You know, to win a game like that, you got
Speaker 8: to be great in situational football. So proud of how
Speaker 8: we recognize those situations. You know, obviously the play at
Speaker 8: the end of the half, but just any you know,
Speaker 8: any given third down, red zone, every play in and
Speaker 8: of itself is a different situation. So you know, those
Speaker 8: ended up being in our favor and helped us win
Speaker 8: the football game.
Speaker 4: When you have to.
Speaker 6: Plan for a team with as many of the playmakers
Speaker 6: as this one, figure out what to do or is
Speaker 6: it more anxiety.
Speaker 2: And that sounds weird?
Speaker 8: They're all the same, I mean, it's ever every team
Speaker 8: presents challenges because it's the NFL.
Speaker 2: And everybody's really really good.
Speaker 8: Uh as we know these guys are really really good,
Speaker 8: So different challenges than you normally see on a week
Speaker 8: week basis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, But yeah, approach is the same. How unique
Speaker 2: is Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 8: Well, I mean he's just he's uh, he's obviously a
Speaker 8: great player, and uh, I think the way that they
Speaker 8: use him is a little bit different than how you know,
Speaker 8: conventional running backs are being used because a lot of
Speaker 8: times he's playing a receiver role for them, so you know,
Speaker 8: he's part time receiver, part time running back, blocker, lead blocker.
Speaker 8: So the way they're able to inter make those guys
Speaker 8: interchangeable parts is impressive.
Speaker 9: Mike.
Speaker 3: What we've seen at times, this is an offense that
Speaker 3: has had guys, some of those premier guys you mentioned
Speaker 3: running open. I saw a couple of times against the
Speaker 3: Cardinals that was the case. What do you see when
Speaker 3: you watch them schematically as to why they're aiding to
Speaker 3: get some of those guys into situations where nobody's in there.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a few things.
Speaker 8: One, sometimes there's an extended place where they're running away
Speaker 8: from people that I had matched them. The quarterback does
Speaker 8: a good job of finding them, and they got good
Speaker 8: chemistry light in the down. So that's one thing I'd say.
Speaker 8: On another hand, diagnosing what defense you're in and having
Speaker 8: certain routes concepts that that put stress on it on
Speaker 8: on those on those coverages.
Speaker 2: That's another one.
Speaker 8: And then just the way they operate through their progressions
Speaker 8: and running away from leverages and things like that, and
Speaker 8: everyone's on tune with you know, the windows they're trying
Speaker 8: to hit in the spots on the field sometimes seem
Speaker 8: like guys are you know, consistently open. So they got
Speaker 8: a great scheme obviously really well, you know, well coached,
Speaker 8: and the guys are executing a high level.
Speaker 7: You know, if you were just identifying some things that
Speaker 7: San Francisco does with the quarterback, I mean people are
Speaker 7: talking about Rock Perdy is a game manager and sort
Speaker 7: of a pejorative sense.
Speaker 5: Is there something about what you've seen on film that
Speaker 5: you think that could could sort of compliments of the
Speaker 5: offense is trying to.
Speaker 2: Accomplish in San Francisco. Yeah, I'm not gonna get on
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 8: He's he's a great player, man, He's he's a great player.
Speaker 8: I mean, he's a great quarterback. Is in charge of
Speaker 8: what they're doing on offense, fully in control as all
Speaker 8: the great quarterbacks are. So I'd put them up there
Speaker 8: with all the great quarterbacks.
Speaker 4: Mike.
Speaker 6: Everything that they do before the snap is obviously kind
Speaker 6: of a headache to deal with. How does that kind
Speaker 6: of interplay with like how narrow performation relative to a
Speaker 6: lot of other Apple offenses are. Does it just kind
Speaker 6: of create more traffic for you guys as you're trying
Speaker 6: to you know, handle covers, executions and get off on
Speaker 6: block and stuff like that.
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I mean a lot of the formations are condensed,
Speaker 8: so you know how you count and who you relate
Speaker 8: to and things like that. Definitely testing your eye discipline,
Speaker 8: Definitely testing your communication, which is obviously one of the
Speaker 8: reasons that they do it. Changing the run fits. I
Speaker 8: mean there's every play, every motion really has should has
Speaker 8: a rhyme or reason on why they're doing it based
Speaker 8: on what they're trying to achieve.
Speaker 2: You just don't know in real time till after the play.
Speaker 8: So, but yeah, having the condensed formations make it easier
Speaker 8: because the numbers change faster, whether rather than being spread out,
Speaker 8: you have longer time to react.
Speaker 6: Like, uh, when we talked to Christy a few weeks ago,
Speaker 6: he said, you know that you guys try to lie
Speaker 6: to the quarterback as much as possible. Was there someone
Speaker 6: or some game, some team or whatever that was kind
Speaker 6: of you know, seminal for you and teaching you that
Speaker 6: that was of utmost important, utmost importance in house coverage
Speaker 6: in the secondary. Was it something you got from wink
Speaker 6: or what?
Speaker 2: What right for that one?
Speaker 8: Gentas Now that I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 2: I think I think you're trying.
Speaker 8: I think it came from I guess actually introductory press conference,
Speaker 8: ask about aggressiveness.
Speaker 2: You know you're you're trying to be I'm trying to
Speaker 2: put pressure on on the defense.
Speaker 8: That's that's are on the offense, excuse me, And that's
Speaker 8: something that's seminal to hear. That's a raven principle on
Speaker 8: how we want to operate. And I think the way
Speaker 8: you see that the game has evolved being so pass heavy,
Speaker 8: you know, especially in critical situations, and the court and
Speaker 8: the office are so good, the quarterbacks are so good.
Speaker 8: How do you can how do you consistently put pressure
Speaker 8: on them to make them make great decisions in real time?
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of what what the thought process was.
Speaker 1: That was defensive coordinator Mike McDonald and last but not least,
Speaker 1: his offensive coordinator, Todd Munkett.
Speaker 3: Todd, how excited are you for this challenge? Your offense
Speaker 3: going up against a pretty good Niner defense.
Speaker 9: They're really good. It's a heck of a challenge. But
Speaker 9: it feels that way every week. Every week. I feel
Speaker 9: like when you coach, when you play at this level,
Speaker 9: it's the ultimate challenge against the best coaches and the
Speaker 9: best players in the world. So the guys are excited.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't want to lose Keith Mitchell.
Speaker 6: But being able to bring up Melvin Gordon, what can
Speaker 6: he bring beyond just experience to add, you know, potentially
Speaker 6: a new wrinkle to your offense.
Speaker 9: Well, I think if you go beyond experience, it's first
Speaker 9: of all, he's made plays for us. I mean at
Speaker 9: the Browns game, we had a huge third down that
Speaker 9: you know that he converted that you know, and then
Speaker 9: obviously he had a big run early in the game.
Speaker 9: So over his career he's made he's made plays, He's
Speaker 9: been a powerful downhill runner, and he does show flashes
Speaker 9: in the past game. So we're excited. You know, that's
Speaker 9: one advantage of you know, last time I was in
Speaker 9: the NFL, like a guy like Melvin Gordon, you couldn't
Speaker 9: have on practice squad who knows where to be. That's
Speaker 9: one of the advantages of whatever that role whenever it
Speaker 9: came into play, when you can have some experienced veteran
Speaker 9: guys i'll practice squad be able to step in and
Speaker 9: be able to help you win games.
Speaker 7: I know you've obviously seen so much of Lamar kind
Speaker 7: of improvise, make players in the run, But what have
Speaker 7: you kind of learned about him and the way he
Speaker 7: runs an offense and kind of manifests.
Speaker 9: Through team Expect the unexpected. I guess you know, is
Speaker 9: I've said this a lot. You know, he's a highly
Speaker 9: competitive loves football, hates to lose, is an elite player,
Speaker 9: wants to be an leade player, wants to grow as
Speaker 9: a player. He has a unique ability to see the
Speaker 9: field and a unique ability to make plays off schedule.
Speaker 9: That's just all the things you see. And so now
Speaker 9: you're just trying to you know, every day he's trying.
Speaker 9: We're all trying, is you know, how do we get
Speaker 9: the ball out on time? How do we do a
Speaker 9: better job of schematically system wise to not have him
Speaker 9: take some of those hits, you know, and not put
Speaker 9: himself at that in that position. But he's unique, that's
Speaker 9: for sure, and it's fun to watch.
Speaker 5: Is there anything about you that has surprised you.
Speaker 6: You know, he obviously knew his talents just beauts.
Speaker 1: Theres anything that's protect.
Speaker 9: Oh, I don't know if there's anything that's really surprised me.
Speaker 9: He's been awesome to work with. You know, he, like
Speaker 9: I said, he's highly competitive, you know, strong willed, loves
Speaker 9: playing football, loves his teammates, wants to be coached. And
Speaker 9: it shows up.
Speaker 5: Much of a worry, is it that both of your
Speaker 5: starting tactors or bangug going out the face of defensive
Speaker 5: front of talent as this one.
Speaker 9: Well, the guys have been playing all year, you know
Speaker 9: that way they've they've been awesome. Morgan and Ronnie have
Speaker 9: battled through a lot of you know, bumps and bruises
Speaker 9: and nicks here and there, and they've fought through it.
Speaker 9: And we've had to deal with other fronts and this
Speaker 9: is just another one of those challenges. Do a great
Speaker 9: job up front. They're awfully well coached, and they're very talented.
Speaker 9: So we'll have our work cut out for us, just
Speaker 9: like we did last week. I mean, well, those ends
Speaker 9: were talented guys, and the week before you know, when
Speaker 9: you play, you know, against any NFL team, you have
Speaker 9: to be prepared for that. So and it's been good
Speaker 9: to get those other tackles some work.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 9: They've done a great job spelling those guys to try
Speaker 9: and help us make through the game, you know, but
Speaker 9: hats off to all of them.
Speaker 5: It took a little time last week to get the
Speaker 5: wide receivers involved, it seems in the passing game. But
Speaker 5: that second half when you kind of hit Jacksonville in
Speaker 5: the mouth.
Speaker 2: With a power run game and some of the readoption.
Speaker 5: How much of the ability to switch identities and beat
Speaker 5: teams with different ways is tied to Lamar.
Speaker 7: As a player.
Speaker 9: Oh, it's tied tied to your quarterback in a lot
Speaker 9: of ways. I mean, what they can do with their
Speaker 9: arm and what they can do with their you know,
Speaker 9: and then the guys you have around them, and then
Speaker 9: then how the game goes. Sometimes a game goes a
Speaker 9: certain way. The week before, we had two different two
Speaker 9: minute opportunities, So we talked about that last week where
Speaker 9: the numbers are gonna be skewed in terms of throwing it,
Speaker 9: you know, right for the half and then the end
Speaker 9: of the game against the Rams were last week, the
Speaker 9: game as it went on was more about, hey, how
Speaker 9: can we churn out yards, continue to run the clock
Speaker 9: and give ourselves the best chance to win. And we
Speaker 9: did a good job of that. Obviously, the teams and
Speaker 9: the offenses, uh, they give themselves the best chance to
Speaker 9: be successful. Can do both if you're able to run
Speaker 9: it and throw it successfully, because you're gonna need both.
Speaker 9: You're gonna sometime be in two minutes, sometimes you're gonna
Speaker 9: be in four minutes. And it is it's hard to
Speaker 9: control the game if you can't run the ball effectively.
Speaker 9: So sometimes the ball goes the white out, sometimes it
Speaker 9: goes the back, sometimes it goes to the tight ends,
Speaker 9: just the way it is. What was earlier in that
Speaker 9: game when the communication in Lamar's helmet wasn't wasn't function.
Speaker 9: I don't even know like the best way to put it,
Speaker 9: you know, So at first, you know, you get that
Speaker 9: through the headset that Lamar can't hear you the so
Speaker 9: then it's like a right t Then signal to him
Speaker 9: because that's the next line of operation. Hey, you're gonna
Speaker 9: signal to him, and then making sure that he gets
Speaker 9: a signal correctly. I think one of the plays to
Speaker 9: he uses an excuse cause I think he just wanted
Speaker 9: to throw it. He kind of called his own his
Speaker 9: own number. I said, well, that's going to work out
Speaker 9: from now on, you can just say I didn't hear you,
Speaker 9: so I called whatever the hell I wanted. So, but
Speaker 9: he did a great job. Coach Martin did a great job.
Speaker 9: He did a great job of again making sure we
Speaker 9: are in the correct play, and then we got it
Speaker 9: switched out and we're fine. You know, really ended up
Speaker 9: not really being an issue.
Speaker 3: So what's it like for you when you're when we
Speaker 3: saw Lamar extend a lot of plays in that game
Speaker 3: Sunday night. I mean, that's a weekly thing for him.
Speaker 3: But what's it like for you in the course of
Speaker 3: that place as you're watching it happen.
Speaker 9: Well, the first thing when he extends plays when you're
Speaker 9: throwing is your eyes go to the skill guys that
Speaker 9: are down the field in terms of their scramble rules
Speaker 9: and how far we've worked to come. When you have
Speaker 9: a two play quarterback, to me, we're unique. We have
Speaker 9: a two play quarterback. They have to defend the first
Speaker 9: play and then they've got to defend the second play,
Speaker 9: and we've got to continue to work to be elite
Speaker 9: in terms of our scramble rules, and early on in
Speaker 9: the game we did that. The very first drive. We
Speaker 9: had two scramble plays that converted. Obviously, we had another
Speaker 9: one that led to a touchdown, you know, the one
Speaker 9: Isaiah down the field. So and you'll see that throughout.
Speaker 9: I mean we were playing the Bengals and we had
Speaker 9: a touchdown Debateman. You know, we had one against the
Speaker 9: Browns to say Flowers, you know, the first time we played.
Speaker 9: So when you're a two play quarterback, as I say
Speaker 9: this all the time, with a guy like Lamarn, there
Speaker 9: there isn't one pass play we're gonna call more often
Speaker 9: than scramble. There isn't. I don't care. Four verts, curl flat,
Speaker 9: three level routes does not matter. There will not be
Speaker 9: a route we'll call more than our ability to handle
Speaker 9: when he gets outside the pocket and our scramble rules.
Speaker 6: God, when you're you know, meeting with John and the
Speaker 6: other staff about something like fourth down decision making, what
Speaker 6: is your kind of role in that collaborative process And
Speaker 6: is there a level of execution that you want this
Speaker 6: offense to hit where we could see it being more
Speaker 6: aggressive in some of those situations where maybe you decide to.
Speaker 9: Count sure, and I think that's it's a great point
Speaker 9: because as you get further into the season, when you
Speaker 9: play better teams, shouldn't say that. First of all, that
Speaker 9: is a dumb statement. Every team in the NFL is elite, okay,
Speaker 9: But as it becomes more competitive, as it gets close
Speaker 9: and there's more on the line, you're gonna have to
Speaker 9: be able to go forward and fourth down to keep
Speaker 9: the football. You're gonna have to feel confident in your
Speaker 9: game planning, whether it's fourth and inches, whether it's fourth
Speaker 9: and a two feet a yard, two yards, three yards,
Speaker 9: to be able to keep the football and score points
Speaker 9: and keep it away from your opponent. So for sure,
Speaker 9: and we're all a part of that. Hey, how to feel?
Speaker 9: How do you like to plan? Where we're at? What
Speaker 9: do you guys think? You know, coach is always in
Speaker 9: communication with us. But for sure, that is a huge,
Speaker 9: huge point.
Speaker 3: Ton What have you've seen it from Lamar in terms
Speaker 3: of that competitiveness, trying to get put ours on the
Speaker 3: ground while also attracting himself and knowing he has to
Speaker 3: be healthy.
Speaker 9: Demonstrated No, he wants the ball. I mean he wants
Speaker 9: the ball in his hands, you know, when it's crunch time,
Speaker 9: he wants to ball in his hands. It's pretty obvious
Speaker 9: he doesn't, you know, as competitive as he is, and
Speaker 9: he gets fired up, you know, when it comes out
Speaker 9: most is he wants to win more than anything, for
Speaker 9: not only himself, but for his teammates, for this organization.
Speaker 9: When the game's on the line, Lamar wants the ball
Speaker 9: in his hands. He wants the opportunity to make a play.
Speaker 9: That's what he's done his whole life. It makes sense
Speaker 9: that they would want that. Take any great player, elite player.
Speaker 9: They want to be at bat when the game's on
Speaker 9: the line. They want the last shot. They want that opportunity.
Speaker 9: So when he gets frustrated with me is when I
Speaker 9: take it out of his hands, and that's when he
Speaker 9: wants to choke me. That's what he wants to wring
Speaker 9: my neck. You know, what are you thinking there? You know,
Speaker 9: and he's right, he's right, one hundred percent. You know,
Speaker 9: he wants the ball in his hands and he should.
Speaker 2: What are you thinking now when he made that throw
Speaker 2: to like when when the ball got.
Speaker 9: In they you know, you know, good stuff, you know,
Speaker 9: because you're like you're up in the box. It was
Speaker 9: like right at this angle, and you're like, now, I'm
Speaker 9: hoping he's coming back the ball a little bit more,
Speaker 9: you know, And and those are the things you go
Speaker 9: over in terms of your scramble rules and the ability
Speaker 9: to be he has a unique ability to place the ball.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 9: I thought back when that throw. I thought back to
Speaker 9: the Cleveland game, the first Cleveland game, and that throwing
Speaker 9: the ends of the Mark Andrews with the angle, I
Speaker 9: had him like touchdown, all right, let's go, you know,
Speaker 9: but you got to gather yourself because all of a
Speaker 9: sudden you're at the five and say wherever we were
Speaker 9: on that one, like, okay, what's the next call? So
Speaker 9: but what are tremendous played by both of those guys?
Speaker 9: And those are the things you coach off of, you know,
Speaker 9: how do we continue to work when he gets outside
Speaker 9: the pocket to be elked in terms of our scramble rooms.
Speaker 1: That was offensive coordinator Todd Munkin. You're listening to the
Speaker 1: Ravens Press Pass podcasts and the Ravens we're facing off
Speaker 1: with the forty nine ers on Monday. It's Christmas Night,
Speaker 1: eight PM games, so make sure that you stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that. We can't wait for this matchup. Thanks for listening,
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