Speaker 1: Welcome to the Raves Presspass Podcast. It is Monday, January fifteenth.
Speaker 1: The Ravens are preparing for a Divisional round matchup coming
Speaker 1: up at Mt. Bay Stadium. Today, we had a chance
Speaker 1: to hear from head coach John Harboll.
Speaker 2: Okay, good to see everybody. Appreciate you guys. We are
Speaker 2: deep in the preparations. Last week we spent time on
Speaker 2: all four of the potential teams doing the plominary work,
Speaker 2: a lot of film study, a lot of analytics, things
Speaker 2: like that. Since then, since Houston one, we have been
Speaker 2: dialed in on Houston since the end of that game
Speaker 2: till now, continuing till about seven thirty tonight, and then
Speaker 2: we'll see if we have to pivot to Pittsburgh. So
Speaker 2: that's where we're at with that. What question do you have, John.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Houston. I think when you guys played week one,
Speaker 3: you talked about it would be very good football team.
Speaker 3: What's different about them now? About them you know then
Speaker 3: versus Netflorks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there are seventeen games different, I'd say,
Speaker 2: you know, coaching experience, all the things that a good
Speaker 2: team does that continues to improve throughout the season. They've
Speaker 2: done a really good job of that. Obviously, they're very
Speaker 2: well coached. They have really good young players, some veteran
Speaker 2: players as well, and they've continue to improve throughout.
Speaker 4: It's Monday, and you don't know for playing Saturday or Sunday.
Speaker 5: How's it impacting you the practice schedule.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll just depend that. We're just waiting to see.
Speaker 2: We'll do our normal week either way. So if we
Speaker 2: play Saturday, or week will start tomorrow. If we play Sunday,
Speaker 2: our practice week will start on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: So have you just told your players just you know,
Speaker 3: you play it by year right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I told them to be ready to come in
Speaker 2: the morning for Houston, or we will come in the
Speaker 2: afternoon to do our prerimary work for Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5: Thanks for Saturday at the stadium.
Speaker 3: Did you get stuff accomplished? I mean not knowing still
Speaker 3: again what.
Speaker 6: Lies in the store?
Speaker 2: I thought it was really good, Jerry. I mean we
Speaker 2: had an hour and a half practice. You know, we're
Speaker 2: running around fast, timing, execution, good spirits. It was cold
Speaker 2: and windy, and we had a sense of the stadium.
Speaker 2: I think it was good to get in there psychologically,
Speaker 2: you know, just to feel that, you know, just even
Speaker 2: driving down to the stadium. He kind of felt like, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's like a game, you know, because that's what we do.
Speaker 2: We drive to the stadium for our home games. All
Speaker 2: of that, to me helped us stay kind of psychologically
Speaker 2: in the right place.
Speaker 7: John, what will go into your evaluation of whether elevate
Speaker 7: Dalham Cook as soon as this weekend?
Speaker 2: It'll be you know what's we have options. The nice
Speaker 2: thing is, but the way the rules are now, we
Speaker 2: have those options. So we'll just look at it and say,
Speaker 2: from a game plan standpoint and opportunity standpoint, you know
Speaker 2: what makes our team thus strongest at this particular time
Speaker 2: based on what we're going to try to do offensively?
Speaker 3: John, weavest do a lot over the years about preparing
Speaker 3: for weather conditions, probably usually rained, but I mean, in
Speaker 3: this case, the forecast is for it to be very
Speaker 3: cold and usually cold for here.
Speaker 5: Is there anything to do to prepare.
Speaker 2: For that or not?
Speaker 7: Really?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's not gonna be as much. It's
Speaker 2: not gonna be as cold as it was in Kansas City.
Speaker 2: It's not gonna be as much snow as there was
Speaker 2: in Buffalo. So we're good.
Speaker 1: We're good.
Speaker 2: It's good. We feel okay, about it.
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll see more later this week, but say, Flowers,
Speaker 3: is the expectation that you would practice this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're pretty optimistic about everybody, and then varying degrees
Speaker 2: of optimism with certain guys, and uh it really, I
Speaker 2: mean it's just like any week. You just have to
Speaker 2: see it unfold. I mean, some guys are good to go,
Speaker 2: other guys are gonna be more day by day.
Speaker 6: How big was this rest week just for you seeing
Speaker 6: however players coming.
Speaker 2: Back the the health or just how far can you
Speaker 2: say it again? How good was the rest week were
Speaker 2: you guys from that standpoint with health or energy, you
Speaker 2: just kind of getting to see time off. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it was good, you know, just from the mental standpoint,
Speaker 2: also certainly the recovery standpoint. I mean, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: late season, a long season. We had a lot of
Speaker 2: very physical games, very physical games down the stretch, and
Speaker 2: they were all Every one of our games is a
Speaker 2: meaningful game for us and for our opponent until the
Speaker 2: last one, which was still meaningful for them, and most
Speaker 2: of our guys played. So I think the mental rest
Speaker 2: was valuable. You know, you work hard to get that buy.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's ever requested not to have the
Speaker 2: buy when they aired it, have they? So it's definitely
Speaker 2: a positive, you know, and I think I know our
Speaker 2: guys looked at it that way, and we had a
Speaker 2: really good week of practice, so we did what we
Speaker 2: need to do.
Speaker 7: I recognize you don't you can't look ahead. You mentioned
Speaker 7: you know you were looking at the four teams you
Speaker 7: might play. There's also teams you can play the AFC Championshiame,
Speaker 7: you have not seen yet this year. How much time
Speaker 7: do you spend looking at even those teams this week?
Speaker 2: Well, that's the that's preliminary work that we do. So
Speaker 2: we will look at the two teams that are playing
Speaker 2: in the other divisional game this week with the individual
Speaker 2: you know, the coaches and the staff that are assigned
Speaker 2: those jobs, and they'll have all that information organized, you know,
Speaker 2: after we have an opportunity for gonna play those guys
Speaker 2: in one of those teams in the game, John, Because.
Speaker 3: So much rides on this afternoon's game kind of you know,
Speaker 3: when you play who you play everything.
Speaker 5: How much will you be watching this game?
Speaker 2: It's gonna be hard not to watch, you know, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be hard not to.
Speaker 1: I like to.
Speaker 2: I'd like to think I'll have the bulk of my work,
Speaker 2: my own personal work done by then. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: been working hard at it for you know a lot
Speaker 2: of days now. Even though those other teams a lot
Speaker 2: of it seems like it's wasted. You still do learn
Speaker 2: a lot of football. But as far as the Houston stuff,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be hard not to keep an eye in
Speaker 2: that game, for sure.
Speaker 6: Is there any level of frustration or anticipation with just
Speaker 6: how circumstances force the game to be moved in Monday
Speaker 6: and your certainty on who your opponent is when you're playing,
Speaker 6: your entire schedule is forced to be not until figured
Speaker 6: out until tonight.
Speaker 2: Yeah? Really, I mean no, there's no frustration. It's just
Speaker 2: it's the way it goes, you know's it's okay. We're
Speaker 2: excited to be in this situation. We're fired up to
Speaker 2: have an opportunity to play in the divisional round of
Speaker 2: the playoffs. That's that's deep in the playoffs, you know,
Speaker 2: as we see it, and we're hoping to you know,
Speaker 2: do the best we can put our best foot forward player,
Speaker 2: our best football game of this season. That's really that's all,
Speaker 2: it's on our minds as.
Speaker 5: Much as you were able to absorb the games in
Speaker 5: between work this weekend.
Speaker 3: Was there something maybe you saw that maybe you wrote
Speaker 3: down and said, that's maybe something I've taken note of
Speaker 3: and I should be passing along of the guys.
Speaker 5: Anything you've gleaned from any of those games.
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, you probably do. From a playoff standpoint. I mean,
Speaker 2: there were teams that came out and played really well.
Speaker 2: There were teams that came out and didn't play well,
Speaker 2: you know, and you take notice of that and you
Speaker 2: try to say, well, why, you know, why are those
Speaker 2: things happening to that team? That's not something they expected.
Speaker 2: So it's I think I think all the guys do
Speaker 2: the same thing. You know, I might mention it somewhere
Speaker 2: along the way to some degree. But the game last night,
Speaker 2: both teams played great, you know, So we just got
Speaker 2: to be focused on playing our best football. We're gonna,
Speaker 2: we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, we want to be focused,
Speaker 2: but we want to be loose at the same time.
Speaker 2: Those two things are very important. And that's Suppo. Shoot for.
Speaker 4: John, it's been they were coming about a year and
Speaker 4: now since you guys promoted Scott la to spending conditioning coordinator.
Speaker 4: I guess, you know, considering all the attentions of Kaid
Speaker 4: to Steve fairly, what made you guys decide to kind
Speaker 4: of keep it in house and what have you been
Speaker 4: impressed by for you guys saying it will be being
Speaker 4: strong everything that kind of.
Speaker 7: Goes in that condition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, couldn't in the in the end looking
Speaker 2: back on it in terms of making the choice to
Speaker 2: stay in house and to go with Scott and and
Speaker 2: the rest of the staff there, Uh, we have a great,
Speaker 2: great group with Ron, with Anthony, with k They're all
Speaker 2: all three do a fantastic job. And uh, Sam roseen Garten,
Speaker 2: I'm putting that category as well from a performance standpoint.
Speaker 2: But Scott led it and it was really a a
Speaker 2: an evolution of what we had been doing. We felt
Speaker 2: we were doing a lot of great things in the
Speaker 2: weight and we felt like we had a really good program.
Speaker 2: And you know, I have a lot of respect for
Speaker 2: Steve Saunders. I think he did a worked really hard
Speaker 2: and did a heck of a job and and made
Speaker 2: us a strong and in condition football team. And then Scott,
Speaker 2: you know, through the circumstances that take place. They are
Speaker 2: what they are, and Scott stepped in, uh and you know,
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of a tough, sick circumstance, right
Speaker 2: and I just handled it just gracefully and aggressively and
Speaker 2: did a great job. I think he's I think he's
Speaker 2: one of the stars of the season, you know, not
Speaker 2: just Scott, but the whole group that I just mentioned
Speaker 2: before that weight room is one of our star uh
Speaker 2: stars of the season. For sure. They've done They've just
Speaker 2: done phenomenal. The guys love going in there. They work
Speaker 2: really hard. I think it's very comprehensive in what we do.
Speaker 2: And I'm in there. I'm in there every day, you know,
Speaker 2: with people and you know, maybe not quite as much
Speaker 2: weight you know some of the guys, but uh, but
Speaker 2: but I think it's just a great environment that we
Speaker 2: have in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, when you look at this team, obviously
Speaker 3: there's better guys. Guys have won a young talent Mike
Speaker 3: McDonald and what you've done and Todd as well in yourself,
Speaker 3: what just stood out to you, I guess from the
Speaker 3: makeup of this group staff. I'm sorry, the team, the team.
Speaker 2: I just think and believe, I believe that This is
Speaker 2: one of the most connected teams I've ever been around,
Speaker 2: you know, And I think it starts with the fact
Speaker 2: that I really believe they love one another, and I
Speaker 2: think they have a kind of a spiritual connection that
Speaker 2: runs through the whole team. I think the guys you
Speaker 2: can just tell when a group of people like being
Speaker 2: around one another, like working together, trust one another, believing
Speaker 2: one another, and want to see everybody succeed, you know,
Speaker 2: the idea that if one of us succeeds, we all succeed.
Speaker 2: I see that with this group. There's much more than
Speaker 2: any other team that I've been around in you know,
Speaker 2: forty plus years of coaching. So that's that's a real,
Speaker 2: real joy to be around. And it's a reflection of
Speaker 2: all the people that are involved. It's a reflection of
Speaker 2: all the different individuals that go up to make the group,
Speaker 2: the culture, whatever you want to call it, the environment,
Speaker 2: the worldview that they take on, the challenges that are
Speaker 2: in front of them. And I'm just I admire everybody
Speaker 2: and those seats that sit right there in our team meeting,
Speaker 2: I admire every single person sitting in those seats.
Speaker 5: All right, John, how much easier is it when you're
Speaker 5: preaching these guys and a foot I'm not obviously everyone's
Speaker 5: gonna be focus in the playoffs, but just throughout the season,
Speaker 5: when your quarterback is constantly talking about staying off.
Speaker 3: Then and staying in the home, and.
Speaker 5: When Lamar's constantly preaching that message, how much does that
Speaker 5: help the coaching staff?
Speaker 2: Tremendous. I mean, it's a player's game and the team
Speaker 2: belongs to the players. When when you coming up, you
Speaker 2: play sports in high school or college, right, what are
Speaker 2: the I always say, you know, it's the seniors run
Speaker 2: the team. It's a senior leadership is the key. You
Speaker 2: have great senior leadership. And that's true in the NFL too.
Speaker 2: You've got have great senior leadership. And we have that
Speaker 2: our seniors, you know, and I don't mean like old
Speaker 2: age type seniors, you know, I mean our veteran players
Speaker 2: and our best players are also our hardest workers. There
Speaker 2: are our most responsible guys, and that's what drives the
Speaker 2: whole thing, through the whole deal. So, you know, you
Speaker 2: talk about vision, the vision basically the definition of vision
Speaker 2: is a shared understanding. You know, we have a shared
Speaker 2: understanding of what's required and what we need to do
Speaker 2: and how we're going to go about doing it, And
Speaker 2: I just feel like those guys drive that every single day,
Speaker 2: locker room, meeting room, practice field, hanging out, going to dinner,
Speaker 2: whatever it might be, that gets reinforced all the time.
Speaker 2: And once it gets reinforced all the time, it kind
Speaker 2: of centers back on itself and gains momentum and next
Speaker 2: thing you know, it's roll.
Speaker 1: That was head coach John Harbaugh and we also have
Speaker 1: a full breakdown of what to expect in the division around.
Speaker 1: You can check that out in the Lounge podcast. Make
Speaker 1: sure you leave a rating and a review here as
Speaker 1: well as on the Lounge feed, and don't forget to
Speaker 1: hit that subscribe button as well. Thanks for listening. We'll
Speaker 1: talk with you later this week.