Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Presspass Podcast. It is Monday, January sixth.
Speaker 1: The Ravens are gearing up for a wildcard matchup at
Speaker 1: M and T Banks Stadium. It's gonna be on Saturday night,
Speaker 1: eight pm against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's Ravens geared up
Speaker 1: for that game. We had a chance to hear from
Speaker 1: head coach John Harbaugh and here's what he had to
Speaker 1: say today during his time with the media.
Speaker 2: Hey John, good morning.
Speaker 3: Zay Flowers left with that knee injury on Saturday. What's
Speaker 3: the latest information you have on him and what do
Speaker 3: you think his availability will be for the wildcard game.
Speaker 4: It's not a season season ending injury, so it's just
Speaker 4: gonna be day to day. Try to do everything he
Speaker 4: can do to get back as soon as he can,
Speaker 4: and we'll see where that takes us.
Speaker 5: John, what do you see from Pittsburgh? Much has been
Speaker 5: made about their losing streak, you know, heading into the playoffs,
Speaker 5: So what have you seen from them the last couple
Speaker 5: of weeks.
Speaker 2: I don't even know.
Speaker 5: You've had a whole lot of time to go over
Speaker 5: the film from recent games because the game was you know,
Speaker 5: because you guys have been on a limited time frame
Speaker 5: and you didn't know who you were going to play.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've been studying them. And that's what we make
Speaker 4: of what we study. What we what we look at
Speaker 4: the football, what they're doing schematically, the players, how we
Speaker 4: think that they're going to, you know, attack us, how
Speaker 4: well we can try to attack what they do or
Speaker 4: don't do. And we know them, they know us pretty well.
Speaker 4: There's always that little uh, you know, chess game going on,
Speaker 4: Game of Thrones, I don't know whatever with them because
Speaker 4: it's always something different. There's always wrinkles thrown in every week.
Speaker 4: So that's the part of it that we study really hard. John.
Speaker 6: Two things real quick, just on on Dave Flowers, was
Speaker 6: it can you just confirm whether that was a sprain knee?
Speaker 4: No, I don't really have any confirmation on anything like that.
Speaker 4: It's not really what we're required to do. It's his knee, yeah,
Speaker 4: to tell you that.
Speaker 6: So and the and the second thing, what's it's just
Speaker 6: the challenge of playing a team like Pittsburgh third time
Speaker 6: this time of year, played a few weeks ago. What
Speaker 6: is the difficulty for that in terms of game planning,
Speaker 6: particularly if you have to deal with injuries and so forth.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think there's any specific difficulty in it.
Speaker 4: You know, this process is still the same. You probably
Speaker 4: have certain things that you're are understood. You know, there's
Speaker 4: a lot of things that are kind of ingrained in
Speaker 4: your knowledge of a team in the division like that.
Speaker 4: You've already played twice that year, so you're jumping off
Speaker 4: point is further down the road for sure. That's about
Speaker 4: the only difference. Coach.
Speaker 7: Following up on that, I believe it's the fourth time
Speaker 7: you've done this.
Speaker 6: So can you draw back on the experience of playing
Speaker 6: this team, you know, for a third time in the postseason.
Speaker 4: How many times have we done it? We did it
Speaker 4: against them and eight I want to say eight, fifteen,
Speaker 4: maybe fourteen fourteen? I think twice, that's all right.
Speaker 7: I want to say eight to ten and fourteen.
Speaker 4: Okay, maybe I can't remember. I don't really remember the
Speaker 4: other time, to be honest with you that well, like specifically,
Speaker 4: I think it's just part of the process. We played
Speaker 4: the Bengals a couple of years ago, right, once or twice.
Speaker 4: So a lot of our teams teams this division make
Speaker 4: the playoffs, We've run into them. It's probably pretty normal, Hey.
Speaker 7: John, just kind of to piggyback on the zave flowers.
Speaker 7: You know, Rashad obviously made a bunch of plays after
Speaker 7: they went out of the game. You know, I know
Speaker 7: there's day still up in the air, but you know,
Speaker 7: how do you feel about Rashad's ability to lead this
Speaker 7: wide receiver group and about how he played against the
Speaker 7: Browns in the second half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just same as I've always felt about it. You know,
Speaker 4: he's always been high, high on my list, my charts.
Speaker 4: I think he's a tremendous player, tremendous athlete, tremendous competitor,
Speaker 4: excellent receiver, brings us a tremendous skill set to it.
Speaker 4: He's been playing at a high level all year, made
Speaker 4: big plays for us in that game, this this past week,
Speaker 4: he was a factor in those drives and getting us
Speaker 4: into scoring position numerous times. So I just yeah, he's good.
Speaker 4: And not just not just for shot. I mean, I
Speaker 4: don't think it's just about one guy. It's everybody. We
Speaker 4: have a lot of weapons. You know, we could move
Speaker 4: guys around different ways, scheme those guys up, and they
Speaker 4: can all make plays.
Speaker 8: Hey, Coach. Over the course of the season, the offensive line,
Speaker 8: They steadily made improvements. Can you speak to just the
Speaker 8: job that offensive line coach George Warhaup has done, especially
Speaker 8: given the circumstances in which he came.
Speaker 4: In, Yeah, yes, I sure could. Those guys have played
Speaker 4: at a high level, and George has done a great job.
Speaker 4: I mean knowing George, like I said, I think earlier
Speaker 4: last week or the week before, since we were both
Speaker 4: twenty five years old, you know, and he was working
Speaker 4: for Mike Godfree to Cans, he played for coach Gottfred.
Speaker 4: Coach Godfred and his family were actually here for the
Speaker 4: game this weekend, so we got a chance to reminisce
Speaker 4: a little bit about that and laugh a little bit.
Speaker 4: We were two young, young guys back then. But uh,
Speaker 4: you know, over the course of the years, I kind
Speaker 4: of followed his career more pals or anything like that.
Speaker 4: Those old line coaches, you know, they tend to kind
Speaker 4: of they stick together. They call it. They're called the
Speaker 4: mushroom Club, you know. They they say that they they
Speaker 4: say that they get shoved in the dark and they
Speaker 4: get fed crap, you know, like mushrooms. So they're the
Speaker 4: mushroom Club. And he's he's a full fledged member of
Speaker 4: the mushroom club, but one of the all time great
Speaker 4: I think old line coaches. And uh, the fact he
Speaker 4: was available to me was a god thing and it's
Speaker 4: worked out really well. But he's just done a great job.
Speaker 4: He's he's he's been able to pick up on, you know,
Speaker 4: the offense in a short period of time right when
Speaker 4: he came in, the calls, the line calls, the techniques
Speaker 4: he had to, had to had to had to kind
Speaker 4: of merge and then and also at the same time.
Speaker 4: But coach is his way, according to his and I
Speaker 4: think he's a really smart guy, very experienced, very talented teacher,
Speaker 4: and he's done a great job with that.
Speaker 9: Hey John, I know we've asked you kind of variations
Speaker 9: of this question all season, but do you feel now
Speaker 9: that you're going into the playoffs that Derrick Henry gives
Speaker 9: you a different element than you've had in recent years
Speaker 9: and really in your whole tenure here?
Speaker 10: Yes, Hey John, we all know what Mark Andrews was
Speaker 10: going through at this time last year, you know, trying
Speaker 10: to get back from the injury. He was able to
Speaker 10: make it back, but we know he wasn't his you know,
Speaker 10: his best self with the way he's played down down
Speaker 10: the stretch, knowing how big he is on third down
Speaker 10: in the red zone, and knowing how important those elements are,
Speaker 10: you know, and magnified in January. Just how excited are
Speaker 10: you for him to be healthy and what he does
Speaker 10: for the offense in those areas.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mark's playing a really high level for sure, Luke.
Speaker 4: You know, he's been playing well all year, made some plays,
Speaker 4: running fast. He's gotta be one of the fastest tight
Speaker 4: ends in the league. I mean, it's just gotta be.
Speaker 4: His ability to get open, make contested catches really showed
Speaker 4: up in this last game. It's phenomenal catches. I mean
Speaker 4: the one down the right sideline. I don't even know
Speaker 4: how he saw the ball alone, find it, get to it,
Speaker 4: catch it, and then Lamar's trusted Mark of course, all
Speaker 4: those things just it's been really great.
Speaker 2: We'll go Cordell Woodland and then Jameson Hensley, Hey John,
Speaker 2: going back to Derrick Henry.
Speaker 11: I know, earlier in the year it kind of had
Speaker 11: the quote of you know, you didn't know how much
Speaker 11: you guys wanted to use him. It wasn't the plan
Speaker 11: to go twenty five to thirty carries a game. But
Speaker 11: just looking at it, in the games that he has
Speaker 11: had twenty plus carries, in eight of those games, he's
Speaker 11: gone one hundred plus ten total touchdowns. What's kind of
Speaker 11: the What does that do for you for you personally
Speaker 11: going into the playoffs knowing that you can kind of
Speaker 11: ride this guy on the offensive side.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's exciting. It's great to have a great back,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. He's obviously running really hard
Speaker 4: and really physical and downhill. I think our guys are
Speaker 4: blocking well, and you know, there's other elements to the
Speaker 4: offense that you know, allows allows that he's if you
Speaker 4: look at his career, he's he's definitely not getting a
Speaker 4: first contact as early as he has oftentimes in his career.
Speaker 4: That's been great. All those things have come together well,
Speaker 4: and it's gonna be a big, big part of our
Speaker 4: our our approach in the in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Jamison don a big narrative of course this
Speaker 2: week will be Lamar and you know his two and
Speaker 2: four record in the playoffs. I know you've always used
Speaker 2: the term a lot of times about how players kind
Speaker 2: of get calloused, you know, how they get You'll have
Speaker 2: to go through some experiences, whether physically. Do you think
Speaker 2: the past experiences that Lamar has had will that serve
Speaker 2: him well going forward?
Speaker 4: Jeff I answered, right, I like to elaborate, but there's
Speaker 4: really no aberation. It's pretty clear that that's that's the truth.
Speaker 5: Wrote to jeff'surreyback, John, I know they can't interview this week,
Speaker 5: but have you gotten any slips on one of your
Speaker 5: coordinators for a head coaching job?
Speaker 4: If I had, I wouldn't probably announce it. Uh, maybe
Speaker 4: on't they put that out like the NFL put that
Speaker 4: out or whatever? The insiders. Yeah, so you can get
Speaker 4: it from the insiders when it happens.
Speaker 6: I guess, John, there was so much attention on zach
Speaker 6: or early in the season, you know, DMPs brought in
Speaker 6: Week five games in. Zach himself even talked about trying
Speaker 6: to maybe do too much early on with substitutes and
Speaker 6: substitution packages and so forth. Just what were those conversations
Speaker 6: between you and him, you know, as the weeks went on,
Speaker 6: And secondly, why in your view was he able to
Speaker 6: navigate that and all of that and and you guys
Speaker 6: able to continue to improve, you know, defensively to get
Speaker 6: to this point.
Speaker 4: We stuck to it. You know, like you always do.
Speaker 4: It's week to week, Brian. You stick to what you're
Speaker 4: you know, the principles of what you try to do.
Speaker 4: You try to solve the problems. I mean, so much
Speaker 4: of everything in life is problem solving, you know, and
Speaker 4: no more so in this kind of a deal. I mean,
Speaker 4: football is a multifaceted game. There's just so many things
Speaker 4: that go into it. There's a lot of scheme things,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of personnel things, a lot of personality things.
Speaker 4: There's there's a physiology matchups. There's just a lot that
Speaker 4: goes into it. You know, there's day to day personality,
Speaker 4: personal lives, there's psychology. I guess you'd say. So you
Speaker 4: just try to do the best you can week to week,
Speaker 4: day to day and try to improve and you have
Speaker 4: a growth mindset toward all those things. And I stick
Speaker 4: to your guns, not panic, don't overreact, don't bite like
Speaker 4: what you were saying, a lot of talk that was
Speaker 4: coming from the outside. Don't really bite on that. Say confident,
Speaker 4: believe in one another, and try to do the best
Speaker 4: you can. And that's what everybody does. I think all
Speaker 4: the teams do that. That's a great thing about sports.
Speaker 4: I say, it's a metaphor for life. I hope you
Speaker 4: do it in your own life, so anybody could understand
Speaker 4: that process and coach.
Speaker 12: I don't know if this will list it an elaborate answer,
Speaker 12: but Lamar said after the game the other day was
Speaker 12: sort of a T shirt and hat game, and he's
Speaker 12: really focused on what's ahead.
Speaker 2: Is that sort of the team focus and your focus
Speaker 2: and sort of the message.
Speaker 10: Yes, hey, John, do you have an update on you
Speaker 10: expectation for Justice Hill, Patrick McCarey and just those guys
Speaker 10: that their health for practice this week.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're trending well. They're trending well. They were illness
Speaker 4: at the end there. Patrick, as you know, played, I
Speaker 4: just felt like he you know, I wanted to help
Speaker 4: help him. I just he would have played. Believe me,
Speaker 4: he had to play. He wanted to play, and Justice
Speaker 4: wanted to play too, but he wasn't as close as Patrick.
Speaker 4: So those guys will be much stronger this week than
Speaker 4: they were last week. John.
Speaker 7: You know, we talked a lot about how the defense
Speaker 7: has improved in the last two months. I mean, you
Speaker 7: guys also have an interception and in four straight games.
Speaker 7: How has winning the turnover battle in your view kind
Speaker 7: of overall impacted how this this defense is turned around
Speaker 7: in the last few weeks and and is there anything
Speaker 7: that you've seen that has made the defense more successful
Speaker 7: coming down with those turnovers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's all it's all like
Speaker 4: anything else. It's it's turnovers, it's uh, tackles, it's it's sacks,
Speaker 4: it's big plays against, its penalties, whatever. They're all individualized.
Speaker 4: You know, they're all. They come when they come, and
Speaker 4: they're usually a result of, you know, a foundation of
Speaker 4: chasing and trying to do things the right way and
Speaker 4: again trying to improve in whatever area we're talking about,
Speaker 4: and uh and just not be stuck and mired in
Speaker 4: some idea that everything is fixed and it's just the
Speaker 4: way it is and it's the way it's always going
Speaker 4: to be. So I think, you know, you get you
Speaker 4: get interceptions by pressure and the quarterback, by covering tight,
Speaker 4: by disguising coverage, by catching the ones they throw to you,
Speaker 4: which we didn't do, you know a few times early
Speaker 4: in the year, costs us one game. Probably. Those kind
Speaker 4: of things are very important. Running to the ball is
Speaker 4: important because when the ball gets on the ground, you
Speaker 4: want to have people around there to recover it. Sometimes
Speaker 4: the ball bounces to you, sometimes it doesn't. But having
Speaker 4: more people that you know lengthen your odds hitting, showing up,
Speaker 4: showing up for the run game, you know, showing up
Speaker 4: when people catch passes before they get turned around, punching
Speaker 4: the ball out, punching the ball out when they're on
Speaker 4: the way down to the ground, have enough people around
Speaker 4: the ball to punch the ball out, have an extra
Speaker 4: guy or to you there. All those things are part
Speaker 4: of it. So it becomes a reflection of just playing
Speaker 4: better defense. Even when you play great defense, sometimes they
Speaker 4: don't come to you. But that's just that's part of it.
Speaker 4: All kind of goes together.
Speaker 2: Cordella Woodland and then Brian Whacker.
Speaker 11: Hey, John, I feel like it's been a while since
Speaker 11: we ask, but do you expect arthuram Alet to be
Speaker 11: able to come back in the postseason?
Speaker 4: I don't know that's up and I don't have a
Speaker 4: great handle on that right now. Sorry.
Speaker 6: Can you articulate just how having him, you know, impacts
Speaker 6: the calculus, particularly in the playoffs when these games are
Speaker 6: tight late in the year. All of that and just
Speaker 6: the impact it has on Lamar when there's you know
Speaker 6: so much. There's always been so much focus on him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I know, I really can't articulate the
Speaker 4: calculus because I don't really see it as a math equation.
Speaker 4: Maybe it is, but if it is, I really don't
Speaker 4: have time to work it out. I don't have like
Speaker 4: a big board here in front of me with you know,
Speaker 4: like that movie, what was it, Goodwill, Goodwill Honting. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so the calculus, Brian is like, I don't even know
Speaker 4: what you're asking me for me, I think it's pretty
Speaker 4: self evident the answer to your question, you know. And
Speaker 4: that's why he's here, and he's done a great job,
Speaker 4: and we're going to be leaning on a big time,
Speaker 4: just like we all all of our guys. It's a
Speaker 4: team game, and that's what we're going to try to
Speaker 4: bring every every aspect of what we bring to the table,
Speaker 4: all of our firepower, try to execute as best we can,
Speaker 4: try to put the best schemes together as we can
Speaker 4: to make the calculus add up at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, you know. So that's it, that's how it.
Speaker 2: Works, Childs Walker.
Speaker 4: John.
Speaker 9: When you talk to the team at the beginning of
Speaker 9: this week, do you talk at all in terms of
Speaker 9: a four game mission or a five week mission, or
Speaker 9: however you want to put it, or are you straight
Speaker 9: week to week right now?
Speaker 4: It's both. I've talked to them already about that, but
Speaker 4: we're going to be focused on this game.
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