Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Thursday, December fourteenth. The Ravens are gearing up for a matchup on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road on Sunday Night Football. As the Ravens got ready for that game, today we heard from the coordinators, So let's kick things off of Special teams coordinator Chris Hornon.
Good to see everyone.
Hope everyone's doing well right now. Our attention right now is just strictly on Jacksonville Sunday Night Football. We understand what's in front of us. We understand that Jacksonville has a pretty good special teams unit. We faced these guys last year, which is looking to go out and really just play our can continue to try to play our best football. Questions, how can.
You make it so if you have seventy six yards returns for touchdowns every time?
You know, that's a good question.
You know.
One of the things, man, I think a lot of things have to happen, A lot of things have to go right in order for those things to happen, right, won you got to get the ball, you gotta get the right the right punt, and then you gotta you gotta take care of the gunners, right, You take care of the gunners, and then you take care of the guys covering down the field, uh legally with good blocks, good attention to details. And then you gotta have the returner back there. Uh one make a guy missing, go
to distance. That's really how it's done. If those things could happen all the time, Shoot, i'd I'd be happy.
You know.
Obviously a lot happened for Tayland in that game with the off sides, and then you know has to come in for Devin. You know, both were your conversations like and you said he was really hard on himself.
Did you were you sensing that?
And you can try to bring him out of that, you know, uh, on that all sides play, it's just one of those things. After the game you kind of talk to him.
You don't really understand because that's the same.
Play that Duve actually got hurt on on that play. So shoot, as his coach, I was, I was frustrated. You know, that's a that's a change of possession. And then you know, I kind of go over I have a conversation with and then at some point throughout the game, you know, they say, hey, dudes down all right, and then you go back to Thailand and you say, hey, you're gonna be the punt returner. There's gonna be some
opportunities there. And the first things versus a possession of the football, that's one of the things we talk about all the time. He did that, and then from there it's just let his natural football ability take over. I mean he's got that right. He's a good receiver. H Once he once he gets the ball in his hands, all those guys have capability of making those kind of plays.
Tilant's town's resilience because he's a guy.
Remember we talked a great trading camp, but he said he was sitting in his car waiting for the clock to turn four o'clock to.
Make sure that he was gonna make the team.
To go from that point to what he did this past weekend, can you talk a little bit about his resilience.
You know, it just just speaks to kind of who he is and and and what he's done. H there's a guy that goes out there every day and he just puts it, puts the work in, and uh, he just waits for the opportunity when his numbers called, and I think that's that that speaks a lot to kind of who he is as a person. I mean, when he first got here as a as a rookie, I didn't I didn't really know who he was and what
he was. And she knew he was the receiver. We put him out there, you know, as a young guy, and he played gunner and he made plays, you know, so you just speak back to all those all those plays he's made. I mean, this is just the one that got in the end zone, this big return, right, But Thailand's been making plays for us really since he's got here as a special teamer.
Forbo said, that was a long run all the way down there to the end zone, and we saw you in the camera running.
Right along there with him.
Did you feel that too, I definitely, I definitely felt that. You know, my adrenaline was it was it was gone. I got all the way down to that hot too. I started to cramp up a little bit, and then you know, I realized, you know what I got to give back Chases on the other side. Chase was one of my teammates in New York, so had to go down there, you know, shake his hand. But you know, it's all love. Those are the those are really the plays that that we look for, the plays that we
aim for. I talk about, you know, it's it's easy to go out there and have good plays. We've had good plays this year, but those are the great place, you know, the I always talk about in the return game. The plays that score are the great plays. But we've had a lot of good ones, and we finally got us a great one on Sunday. We're just looking forward to going back out there and man continue to trying to build on that.
For you, is that the most exhilarating moment of your coaching career? And how does that compare it to your playing careers? Is set the the best moment.
Of your careers?
That is the best moment of my coaching career by far, to to win the game in that fashion. As a coach, you know, you're just you're so excited for the for the guys first, you know, and then and then as a coach, you sit back and you think about how much time you know, uh, Randy, TJ and Sam and I and Harves when he's in there, how much time we put in there just working and trying to come up with ways to score for a great plays to happen,
and the attention to details in that situation. But that was definitely the best one as a coach for sure.
All Right, that was Special teams cordinator Chris Horton. We also heard from offensive coordinator Todd Munkett.
Coach Todell Beckham. You know previously, what do you think has been the biggest difference in him over the last month where the production has gone way up and it's not as though he's playing one.
Of the staffs.
I think health. I think he's played a big part of it. He's relatively healthy, He's able to practice. So the confidence that he has to play at a certain level of the confidence we have to play him put him in certain situations.
And did you feel like Ronnie really raised his level from steeks earlier? And how critical is his performance to you getting where you need to go on offense?
He certainly fought through, you know.
I mean I think that it's uh, the knee is going to continue to strengthen, you know, And I thought he worked awfully hard last week to get to get to that point and it's only going to continue to get stronger. As I just said, so certainly we need that.
Certainly it's you know with all these teams that you play and then you get in the playoffs and we've gone gone a bunch of them, you know, from the Bengals to the Steelers to the Browns to the Charge to where you're like, who's lighting up at left end? You know, our left side. So it's a real challenge for anybody's left tackle. And it's real credit to Ronnie in terms of how hard he worked up to keep strengthening that and how hard he's working this week.
That would you kind of describe against the continuity and Lamar and say like versus some of the other guys in now versus.
You know, the first couple of years to see.
Well, like anything, it's just practice reps, that's all it is. The more you're around.
The guys that you have to have that rapport with, the connection is going to grow, the anticipation of where they're going to be, the communication how we call it, you know, in terms of targets, sometimes you're trying to design things where you want the ball that's there, and sometimes the ball just finds them, you know, just by progression.
Sometimes it's it's not always by design, especially with a guy like Lamar, you know, some of the plays that he ends up making, it's not by design, it's where he ends up.
So everybody be alive.
Ty. There was a lot of talk this all season about you know, more saying that you're handed him the keys to the offense, talking about how he feels more empowered for what he can do with this offense. And how often do you kind of see him doing changing the plays there at the line, and how do you think that that has gone so far?
It's been fine.
It doesn't come up as as often as you would think, but when it does come up, he has the authority to do that, you know, in terms of within the scheme of what we're doing or the concept itself. Certain concepts lend the more flexibility to that I don't even know if that's the right word, but lends itself to where he has the better change things. But most of the time we work through that during the week in terms of what he likes.
And doesn't like.
And there's not one constant up that if Lamart doesn't like, we don't run it. I mean, I ask him as the week goes on, like you know, depending on it could be a shot, could be a quick game, could be anything that's in there, like, let's go through them. Do you not feel comfortable with this? And if you don't, then we take it out. We don't need more plays. We need to execute better.
Be some deep shots against the rams. How much of that was by virtue of the opponent you were facing into seeing opportunities for that, versus coming out of the buy and seeing your offense in a better position to take more.
Of those shots.
Sometimes it just presents itself.
Sometimes you have those called in other games and the ball doesn't find that spot, ends up a check down or ends up you have a breakdown in protection. So to the naked eye may feel like we took more shots, and I'd have to go back and look at it, but we certainly have the same amount within reasons each game when you're looking at screens, get the ball out, rhythm throws, movements, play actions and drop backs. Try to stay within a certain window the best we can. Certain
games go another way than others. You know, like I said, sometimes the ball finds and you know, I mean, did we go into the game anticipating that many throws? No? Did we anticipate two lengthy two minute drives that are gonna skew that, that are gonna make it look a little bit more like you know that we were throwing it more of and we were a little bit, but not to that extent. How we had eighteen plays till
we had that twelve play before halftime. So sometimes by design and sometimes by protection coverage you know, allows itself, you know, for the ball to find that some of the other plays, when Lamar moves around, it lends itself to that.
By a drive like the one lay regulation or needed a score and kind of get up to get the two after that seem from.
The confidence state board st to do that to keep spot.
Well.
First of all, I think Lamar is First of all, he's already very confident in his ability. And I don't mean that over confident. He loves playing football. I mean he's one of the rare guys I've been around. There's guys that like football. He loves football, he loves to play, so those moments never get too big for him. Ever, from what I've seen, I should never say that. Hell of what have I been here thirteen games? I mean, so hell it should never. It's a pretty short stay
but it doesn't feel that way. I do think that the more often you're able to have success, certainly it builds confidence with your ability to feel like you know you're never out of it, I guess would be the way to say that. So, I mean, obviously the way it turned out was I mean, I don't know, I've been doing this thirty something years and you can count on one, maybe two hands a number of times you
have a game like that. I mean pretty cool. I mean, you don't what the night didend because the next day you're on to the next team and you're like, well, it's over.
You gotta be kidding me. Can I enjoy this?
Can we get a week now? That would have been really cool going on the bye week right now. You could have enjoyed it a lot longer than that. But it's like, okay, it is over. Great, But that was that was unbelievable. Credit to our players and their execution down the stretch. Obviously didn't feel like that in first and second down. Didn't feel like that execution was at high level, but we certainly came back on that third down.
So I wrote it to your time with Odell before compared to what you see with him now, just physically and his abilities to receivers, he looked.
Like the same guy that you knew before. Is it different? What do you see? Well, I think I said this early on when he came. You know, he's up.
He's always been a highly intelligent football player, understands the game, outstanding balance and body control tracking the football, which you still see. You still see that, like with any player, you know, over time, you know, your body gets older and it's the way it is, I mean, but he still has it and you see it every day when
he's out there practicing the way he moves explosiveness. But you can certainly see, like I said, guys that are crafty, guys that are great at tracking the ball, balance and body control, they never lose that. They never lose that part of like their game. And he still has that.
Savoring the Rams game a little bit longer, the two point conversion to play that Lamar made on that Your thoughts when you look back on that play on.
Film, Well, what's interesting is you know you don't.
Give it due justice when it's at full speed because you don't always see. And it's the same thing with the throws when you're under duress. You might not see to the naked eye that there was a d lineman in your face. You might not see what exactly like to me, it worked just like we designed it. We blocked that thing perfect, got out there a shark ronrock, but didn't like that went there and let you.
On, how did that look like?
Crap?
And he made a hell of a play him and Jay like, I'm serious with naked eye, you're all all fired up. Hey we ran this and you look back. Oh yeah, guyus could run anything. He's ran around me to play. I mean, and I'm joking, but there's some of that, you know, was really good route by Jay, and you know, we got a little loose with the protection that he had to step up there, and you
know what I mean. And I've been on the other side of that where you don't get the two point conversion and they go down and kick a field goal, and that was the difference that margin right there. I mean, Wow, what a tremendous play by both those guys. And you know, obviously was a big part of us winning the game. It's just the way it.
Is, Todd, I know you with pat Riccard, He's he's listened to a full back pick kind of extended as as a tight end. But you've heard over the years about the fullback position. I mean, do you think that will always be a part of a football or do you think that is still one position that could ultimately kind of down.
Well, I think you said he's not really a full back because we don't line him up there very much for a number of reasons. Why he lined up a little bit more there last year when when Oliver was here.
A little bit.
Different when you have you know, you know, when you end up with like maybe a blocking tight end a little bit more in terms of a sea gap area. But so he's more of a tight end. But you know, you know, teams that are using full backs. I think that's where our guys have done a great job in the run game in terms of utilizing his strengths because now you're seeing teams that are using full backs, they're using them more. As you know, they're they're not as
big as Pat. I mean, let's let's be real, honestly, they're more athletic guys you can do more with and that that hold on scratch that cut off every camera, all right, Pat is very capable. I'm just saying that there's just different skill sets. I'll just put it that way, all right. So and we're fire up the pats here. Goddamn, I gotta go back, you know. Gee, So we're fired up Pats here. It just the days of that part of it. The game is changing, and it's changing from
the levels below. Same with your tight ends. You know, guys that are more blocking tight ends are playing tackle or defense. You see more air raid wise playing tight end, more route running, ball catch, and that's also you you don't have fullbacks. That's what Pat wasn't like he was a dealer there. You're you're having makeshift guys in those positions.
So it's just but fired up. We had him. He's done a great job and we've used him a lot more.
Like I said in line, that was OC Todd Mulkin. Next up is defensive coordinator Mike McDonald.
Good to see everybody, What do you got? I can't be this easy obviously. Jacksonville last year was a tough way to the end that game. We didn't get a chance to ask you after the Cleveland game and how that kind of ended in the forty quarter.
Yeah, you guys are usually good. You know, quarter one through quarter four, But when there have been those falloffs in the fourth quarter, has it been easy to pinpoint what has kind of contributed to those those sudden collapses.
Yeah, well, so talking about the Cleveland game, Uh, we're in a two minute situation and then at some point it really becomes a four minute situation, you know, when time kind of goes back on their side and they're trying to kick a field goal. So are our mind kind of shifts in that in that particular situation. The Jacksonville game last year was a straight up, Hey, they got four downs, they got plenty of time to go
down and score. We got to stop them and that you know, with that game, we had a we got them to a third and long, you know, had two downs to try to get them to fourth down, and you know we didn't didn't make those plays to make it. I think when you when you're looking at you know, fourth quarter drives to win the game, you're not really thinking in terms of the calls and plays. You're thinking
in players of players and matchups. And my guys understand, you know, it's hard to stop a team before down. So a lot of times it's a takeaway or a sack that you know, it leads to victories of the situation. So our mindset is to go out and play our technique and be aggressive, and you know, obviously there's a strategy involved and what the things that the offenses are doing and the things that we're you know, kind of countering with on defense. And that changed from game to game,
but the philosopy is always the same. We want to be we want to be in a tack boat and stay aggressive and ultimately, you know, it's gonna it's gonna take a play, you know, to win those types of games.
Impressed for you with Kyle Hamilton's toughness me tweaks Ane comes back in tweaked it again. He said he wanted to come back in until you guys set him down. And he's already practicing this week. I mean, just beyond his talents, with which are a given. I mean, what does that say about someone just wanting to be out.
There like that?
Yeah, well you said, I mean it's he's a tough guy.
And uh, you know, just I think, you know, talking to him about what he was thinking through the situation, and it was, you know, he's a It was a funny story to hear about it, you know, because it was the there was a play before where he hit you know, he tackled the crosser and then come back, didn't really realize it was banged up until later. Probably had some adrenaline going in that situation. But yeah, he's a he's a tough dude.
With Trevor Lawrence, obviously, his ability to run is something to monitor. He was coming off the ankle injury before. When when you look back at the film, did you see see a quarterback that can still very much hurt you with his legs and and that's something you have to focus on this week.
Uh, yeah, definitely, he wouldn't have guessed that he heard his ankle, you know, the week prior.
So just like we're talking about with Kyle, you.
Know, obviously a tough player and uh we're willing to stand in there and and take hits and make throws and try to extend plays and even you know, doesn't slide much down the field either, but very competitive player, very tough.
Definitely speaks to, you know, type of guy.
He has come back so quick and not really shown any signs of weakness like.
During the five week John Harball City's not at all concern but unch defense on Sunday.
Obviously the second half you shut down there in the game.
The first half you probably give it one like where where is that R defense at?
Do you have any concerns?
And how you know?
Do you see needferent improvements there? You know down the sum scrap, I don't.
I'm not gonna call it a concern, but absolutely absolutely area for improvement. It goes with every aspect of the defense, right you're always evaluating it. Shoot, we're doing it in game making adjustments of front tructures, want to play personnel groups. The rams are a little unique in how they in
terms of what we've seen throughout the year. So making sure we're playing the plays that we need to be able to play, and then he turned the tape onto a lot of it is we're not calling different things throughout the game, but how we're playing the plays then guys getting used to it.
There's something to be said about that.
And obviously schematically you gotta be able to adapt as games go on as well.
So we're not I'm not We're never concerned about anything.
You're always thinking about Okay, through the lens of where are we where do we want to be?
How do we get there? And that's that's how we're approaching it.
Like with you know, Kyle does so much and he's so versatile. If he's not on the field, Like, what does that affect you at all? Schematically? I mean, but I guess you know, what's the difference between having a guy like that on the field.
And it's not.
Well, he's like you said, I mean, he's such a unique player, so you can use him uniquely and if he's not out there, not just not one guy is going to be able to do the things that he can do. Now, we have people that can go in and perform at high level what you've seen, but you know, it probably won't be just one person filling you know,
the roles that we'd have him to play. So you can get there through personnels and different calls and things, you know, to uh, kind of alleviate the stress of not having him out there.
How involved do.
You get during the week knowing how he's feeling and responding so you can prepare for you know, X Y or z if depending on his health.
Yeah, anytime someone's kind of up in the air, you you kind of have to have a contingency plan, and I think that goes the same for really every position. Hey, what happens if so and so breaks a you know, a chin strap. You know who's going in, what's your backup plan? How does the game plan adjust? I mean it's it's impossible to cover all those bases, but you try as much as you can and try to think
through some of those things. So when it does happen, it's kind of like you've been practicing it all week. You kind of know what direction you need to go, and coaches do a great job of input on who's ready for what, and you know, in this situation, we have, you know, the whole week to kind of work our contingency plans on how everything shakes out. So it's a little different when it happens in real time, but yeah, you're definitely always thinking about those things.
All right, Thanks Mike, Okay, all.
Right, thank you.
That was defensive coordinator Mike McDonald. We also heard from Todd Monkin and Chris Horton. Now the Ravens will play Sunday on NBC and that game kicks off at eight twenty pm against Jacksonville