John Harbaugh & Coordinators: Ravens 11/27 Bye Week Press Conferences

Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens are coming off a twenty to ten victory over the La Chargers on prime time Sunday night Football.

Now.

This is the bye week for the Ravens and head coach John Harball talked about that win and what he's going to be focused on during the spy Welcome back.

You look great.

Oh, thank you.

That's what no sleep looks like.

It really does.

Yeah, pretty much.

It's right good to see everybody. This is what no sleep looks like. But a happy It's a very happy no sleep. Everybody's pleased with the outcome and really just got to work as soon as we got back in went to work on the game and then making our plans for the rest of the week. Is a staff players, some players are to check in other players we've given

Then I can't recall from much of the bat. Is it pretty standard we give this whole week.

And what way it kind of for that decision.

Yeah, it's kind of moved that way the last couple of years. You know, five weeks have gotten shorter, I think compared to what they used to be. Heck, you used to be there the whole week until like Friday, you know, and you have the opportunity to come back possibly Monday, Tuesday, even Wednesday if you wanted to. We haven't done that for a while, but it just seemed like the right thing. You know, we're twelve weeks into

Last night, apologize because I was not. There was there an administrating issue with the spots or with those challenges that weren't made. When you go back and watch it, do you wish the challenges hadn't made or what happened there?

Yeah?

Well, there were administrative issues even on the field goals. I mean, the field goals were running down on us every single time we had the one delay a game. That was odd. You know, the guys are pretty much in the same rhythm. So we were struggling with the administrators administrative aspect of the of the play's prematurehole game. But we would look back and look at the challenges, not really, I mean the one on the sideline with Lamar, we looked at that closely this morning. We didn't have

There when you look back at it now, where there's some communication, maybe breakdowns. You're in a foreign stadium, you're not in your home stadium, So sometimes those things weren't in a weird way.

I mean, was there situations where maybe you weren't able to get the answer you were looking for in terms of a first down or a certain call or situation.

Well, yeah, I don't get the view, you know, even on TV, like we have a TV monitor up in the box, but you don't get you get what the TV gives you. So there's not there's nothing on the screens in the stadium that they're giving you like they would at home.

Uh.

And those are all plays, you know, going to the line of scrimmage quickly.

Uh.

So yeah, you don't. You don't get all the information that you'd like to have for sure, But we had, we had the information looking back on it, really, I mean honestly, now, I'd tell you if I thought we should or shouldn't have challenged it, and we would not have won that challenge on the mar you know. And we can all look at it and say, I think he got the first down. I'd like to say, yeah, I think he got the ball over inside, But what are they going to turn over? And we study that

John, How did Ronnie Stanley get out of the game, And just knowing he's dealt with that right in me a couple of different times this year. You know, how beneficial do you think this by week can be for him to try to get him as close to full strength of the rest of the way as you can.

I do think that it's going to be beneficial for him, you know. I mean, it's it's something that's been you know, I mean it's it's it's not been great. You know, it's I think he'd probably be the first to tell you it's not been great. He needs just he needs to get stronger, and he's get his technique right, and he's got out practice and and to keep growing back into you know, his his he's a great player. You know, we want to get him back to playing at that high level.

Talk about because the thirteen games into the season haven't had a break traveled internationally.

You've gone to the West coast. Just how taxing dots the season in and helps the beneficial is this.

By wee can be right?

Well, yes, I told the guys last night in the locker room. I was really I'm really proud of him. I think we all are, because they played with a high level of energy and it took that kind of energy to win. I mean, that's a team that is actually a very good football team, very talented team. It was a desperate team had to have that win at home, and we just played at a high level.

Man.

I mean, our guys were playing hard. It was a very physical game. And to do that, like you said, through the course of this season, with all the travel and all tough games you've had, I think it's pretty pretty remarkable. I'm really proud of the guys. So this is a beneficial time. We're going to try to make the most of it, you know, and then be ready to roll for what's gonna be the toughest schedule in football for the next five weeks.

Talking about your defense, I they talked about it a little bit last night, but I know you guys have had better yardage games limiting the opponent. But the way you guys played last night, I mean, is that not arguably like your best defense at effort of the season.

You think, yeah, you could say that probably, I mean we've had some pretty good ones, you know, but that that's a heck of an offense. They challenge in a lot of different ways, and you know, you take you take away the one quarterback scramble probably and they didn't have much, you know, so and then the one long drive they had also that and then Jadavian Clowney coming up with that. I'm gonna tell you what, I failed

Forty four yarder that Tucker missed last night, I think this is first miss inside fifty. What do you make of the season that he's.

Had so far.

Yeah, I'm Tuck Tuck. That was one he was rushed on. I mean, he was rushed on all those field goals the whole game. So I'm not making excuses for him. You know, he would never accept that. He'll tell you he's got to make him under any circumstance. I mean, we can't afford to call time out there. I don't know why the clock was running so fast, why they didn't administer it the way they normally do, but we knew after the delayed game on the first one that we were going to have to just speed it all

Is there a benefit of the vibing as late as it is like the identity you know, what's the identity.

Of the team that's kind on those sides when you get to kind of make tweaks for the final stretch here from the.

Regular season right right there, We're gonna make the most of it. You know, We've got an opportunity now to kind of get to work as a coaching staff this week. Look at ourselves, look at our opponents. Try to try to drum up some ideas, you know, going down the stretch for situational football, there's plenty of areas of all three phases that you know, we need to improve. You know, we need to get better. There's a lot of things

In for Mark after injury. Would you think of Isaiah Likely in the job he did yesterday?

He did great, He did a great job. I just you know, he's athletic, man. I mean to see him, those are things you guys have all seen in practice and training camp and all that in preseason. Uh, that's kind of kind of who you thought he was gonna be when he got his opportunity. So really proud of him, happy for him, and it's gonna he's gonna be able to build off that these.

Guys in a while.

But is there any updates on the status of David a job though and tights out there?

Yes, David Ajobo had surgery last week late actually in LA to repair a partially torn a c L. He had to make a decision about it in terms of whether to risk it or not, and every every every medical expert said to get it fixed because it would have said he wanted to play. But even even I told him, I said, man, you gotta you gotta get that right for the rest of your career because it's a clean type of surgery. And he'll be rolling again, uh, you know, training camp at the latest, he'll be rolling.

Under the complication of that that you only have that twenty one day window to play with, so you know, you don't want to start his clock, and then you realize he's not ready, and then you're kind of in a roster bond.

Well, it's not so much sad as this. He's just not ready to start his clock yet, you know, physically. So if he was ready to start his clock, I think we put him out there and get going with it, especially this point in time. But we're just not there with the knee.

Did you come out with.

Any other unsettled all stuff out of the game, anything you're word.

About over the next couple of weeks.

Now, John, what do you know of Arthur Mulett six months ago versus? What have you learned from him?

Since?

Well? I knew he's a pain in the butt playing again him, you know, because we played against him quite a bit in New Orleans and then Pittsburgh. You know, I I I didn't like him at Pittsburgh because I thought they lost their nickel. Then all of a sudden he's out there playing and I wasn't sure how good he was gonna be. Then he turned out to be really good, so I was mad about it. And then uh, he came here, you know, and I was happy about it because he's a tough dude. Man. He's a hard

They talked about Kyle Hamilton and how he's.

Having a noble caliber, old pro type season.

What have you seen from his development from the Negos season.

Yeah, I've seen just what you guys have seen. I think Gerty's he's been He's been something. You know, He's just he's all over the field and he and we give him we put more on his plate every single week and he and he makes the most of it. You know, he cleans his plate. So we'll keep putting more on there, you know. And uh, but he's I think he's he's kind of a reflection of the whole defense right now. They they they're hungry, they want to

What you love.

Abottom. I think he's kind of him and all the guys, they're just kind of in the same mold that way.

Nice topic wearing there.

Can you remember a better weekend for the Harball brothers?

And my dad says it's the best one ever. But he always says that, you know, every weekend he says, Oh, the thing is, you never had a better win, and he goes, but this time it's really true, you know, Uh, this time it might be. But uh, now I'm just proud of, proud of obviously Jim and and uh and that whole team. To see that team come together. I see a lot of similarities in the two teams, you know, how how bonded together they are, how they really are

What does bye week look for you?

From now till day? Bye week? Bye week? It'll be from now till probably Friday. Yeah Friday for sure, will be working full week as coaches, So yeah, I'll be in all week doing that. Probably get the weekend you know, get away a little bit and probably watch a Big ten championship game. I'm not here. I'll watch it here though, I'm not going. Yeah, that's about it. It's gonna be simple.

That was head coach John Harball. We also had a chance to talk with the coordinators today. Let's kick things off a specially teams coordinator Chris Horton.

Good to see everyone today.

Hope everyone's doing well, especially guys that travel back from from the West coast. Appreciate you guys being here. Just just looking forward to us throughout this bye week. You know, it's a great opportunity for us, for us as coaches to kind of dive deep into some of the things that you really wouldn't wouldn't have had time to because you're doing so much game planning.

But now I got.

A full week to kind of really just look at ourselves and figure out ways just to get better, really encouraged, like I said before, or by what our guys are doing. I think our guys are playing hard, our guys are executing, but we just gotta we gotta find that consistency. And that's the one thing that we're looking for out of the out of our units questions, Chris, I.

Think, uh total now for field goal misses, I think it's five.

Now.

Has there been a trend a theme to because you know at this point, we don't usually see that that many at this point in the season for you guys, you.

Know, I know, I don't think it's a it's a trend or a theme.

I think, like I said before, every kicks different, right, every situation is different, and I think when it comes down to what we had, the we had the blocks, you know, those things. Those things are fundamental things that you know, we as coaches, we can get fixed that, we get cleaned up, and then we kind of take those things away. As far as as far as the kick, you know, those come down to little detailed things. So there's a lot of there's a lot of differences in

John said the last night that there was some rush, right administrative things, had you guys scrambling or rushing?

What was that all about?

You know what?

I think? Well, I think one of the things.

You know, when those guys get out there, there's a lot of there's a lot of nuance to it. Right, we score on offense, there's a big play, and there's some guys that are on the field goal on the field goal team, that are also on the offensive line. So if those guys are over there celebrating, then also when they spot the ball, all right, what's the play clock?

You know?

And honestly, I think we got to just do a better job of kind of handling it as well ourselves managing the play clock, getting ourselves out there so we're not putting ourselves in those situations.

We go out there, we take our time, we kick the ball, we make the kick, you know. So I think those are also some things we can take care of.

Other than that, Do you think certain things operationally need to improve around the.

Kick into I mean, is there too much pressure at times along the edges?

Well, like did you feel that yesterday early in the game that a couple of those early kicks, so there's a little too much pressure on the edge or now are you okay with how the blocking stuff sold?

Now?

No?

I think the block the blockings, the blocking last night was great.

Uh.

I think from the out from the outside view looking in on the field that that edge player looks close. But when you watch the tape, that guy's that guy's nowhere around the ball. So that's he that's easy to spot on the tape. And when you sit back and you watch the tape, there's there's no pressure. There's no pressure there. Our operation has been smooth all year with our times and things like that, so those guys are getting a kickoff.

To our to our standard so that that will remain the same.

But did Justin's knows every little detailed every kick? Did he did you talk to him?

You feel like he mishit the ball? Or do you think it was kind of a rush. Do you feel like you just a little rushed?

I think on that last one, the one that he missed, he was he felt he felt rush.

When we look at the play clock in the timing of the play with again with the operation, and it's one of those things we got to get out there and we have to see that play clock.

You know, that's part of that's part of our jobs, part of what Jordan does, part of what he does, he sees that play clock. So we're not in those situations.

Your protection coverage humans have performed starting throws. You know, we want to now, especially when it's going up to get us some charges from have the top five and stuch teams got.

At next time.

I thought, you know, I thought last night, outside of the outside of the part return we gave up, we cover the kick you attacking them inside the twenty right, we hadn't put many balls in play.

We get down there, we cover that ball.

You know, I think when you watch that, when you watch that part return play our guys, we've got guys in position.

We just got to go make those plays. And uh, there's some things when those guys get back we'll talk about we'll watch. But I think, you know we're doing We're doing a good job.

We've gotten better, we continue to get better, and we will get better throughout these next five weeks. There's a there's a lot more room for improvement between our guys and we'll start to play the kind of ball that we want to play.

We just got to find some consistency. There's some good and then we might hit a bump in the rope.

But we're not We're not like like discouraged by what's happening because, uh, these these men are really putting their foot forward and giving everything they can, uh with the effort, uh with execution, and then there might be a little breakdown.

So those are things we can get fixed up.

How frustrated do you get that you ventured this consistency two or three times here? How frustrated is that for you that it's not there?

Uh?

You know, I don't.

I don't think I necessarily get I don't think I necessarily get frustrated. I think I just try to remind the guys and what the standard is right and what the standard has been. And I think when they understand that and we continue to show them.

That, they'll they'll get to that, they'll get back to that level of where we want to get to. So I don't I don't think.

I necessarily get frustrated because it's my job to coach them right and try to get them to that to that point, and as a as a coach, Uh, that's not that's just not that's just not what I do.

It's just like, hey, we got to do this better, and I know we can do it, so why aren't we doing it?

I kind of asked those kind of questions, like what did I say something in the media, and you know, I kind of bring it back to me and then put it on them when they go out there and play.

So no, there's no frustration at all.

Twelve weeks into the season. How would you evaluate Jordan scouted the second season?

Well, you know, again, I think it's it's been it's been up and down, you know, and then we're just trying to find that. We're just trying to find that back put those games back to back. But I think Jordan's doing a great job. Last night he punted the ball. He punted the ball great. You know that ball was two yards from the sideline. You know that's a ball we don't want to get back to the field, So

I have a special teams coordinator Chris Horton. Next up is offensive coordinator Todd munket, So why would we look like.

For you and the staff and gat of your self scouting.

The process, it's been an ongoing thing our self scout. Every coach has an area of the game plan, so it's a weekly thing we do anyways, but certainly get to drill down with a little bit more time tomorrow the coaches are work in their areas that they're assigned for a game plan and really take a look at what we've been kind of who we are, where we want to go from here, you know, down the stretch five games left and then, uh, you know what we're missing?

You know what?

What else?

What else is out there that we want to build off of maybe we've shown maybe that we haven't really gotten to so it'll be good. It'll be good for us.

I know you like to find place everywhere, and you spend a lot of time on social kind of give you.

A time you feel it's it's actually really crazy. You know, you feel like you're almost incompetent. You see all this good stuff on social media, like why aren't we doing that? You know, and all of you say, why aren't you doing that? Exactly so, but it's uh, it's fun. You know,

What did you sense with your first game, I mean first game of the season too, but Postmark Andrews looking forward the rest of the season not having him, how do you think the team did and what's kind of the big picture picture there?

Well, we didn't score enough, you know, we got bogged down. We moved it fine, ran the ball well, maybe not explosive in the past game as you'd like, left some things out there, But I don't think it was a matter of you know, not having Mark. I mean, Isaiah played fine, you know, and did some good things. I mean, that's hard to say when someone's not out there what it would have looked like had they been out there.

How do you think Ryan's been dealing with some injuries?

How do you think he's been dealing with that?

And how compete are you that trying to get back to the level that you guys.

Wanted to be at.

I think that's more of a question for Ronnie, you know. Again, credit to him.

He's he's tried to work through it and come back, and for the team, certainly, he would probably say it's not at where his need wants to be, you know, but he's continued to work through it, and like I said, each week it's getting stronger, you know, and he's been able to fight through it. So again, again it'll be more of a question for Ronnie than it would be for us, you know. I give him a lot of credit for getting out there and continue to play.

We'll see him from Keaton Mitchell and you know, what's the next step for him in terms of you know, blitz, pick up past protection. I guess those parts of the of the game for a running back that don't involve him having the ball.

That's a great question, you know. With each week, well I shouldn't say that. You know, this week we got him a little bit more involved. You know, he had more snaps. That was as he gets more and more comfortable, we get more and more comfortable with him and certain personnel groupings we get him in there. He's certainly going to only continue to get better with reps, especially like you said, in terms of the past protection, some of the detail things handing the ball off him is probably

Fourth down play call to Gus Edwards, the direct snap went into that play call and what do you think of the execution?

Well, it didn't work so obviously it uh, you know, didn't go as planned. I mean there's a lot of things we could have done better. It was a speed break for us. Ronnie got hurt. We didn't get Za subbed off the field in time, so that started it off on the wrong foot. Okay, we we weren't able to break the huddle. We allowed them to get their cleats in the dirt, get aligned properly. That happened to us in London. We had an opportunity there one time when when when Ronnie got hurt, or not Ronnie but

How do you alluded to the deck with the explosive past players didn't connect a lot, maybe especially against pressure. Why why did you think that was the case when you went back and looked at it.

Some of it might have been you know, We tried to get it out of his hands a little bit quicker, you know, even without you know, Bosa Kalito Max pretty good edge rusher. Sometimes it forced us to check it down. We had a couple other times we might have had opportunities for shots down the field. It just one and as the game progressed, we ran the ball a little bit more. I mean, it kind of goes hand in hand. I don't know what we end up run the ball.

I don't know what is it gonna There's been some weeks where you've been as dynamic as anybody offensively, played a lot of good offensive games, and there's somewhat games like last night. What do you think it's going to take to be a little more consistent when you're you know, you're facing arguably the toughest remain schedule in football.

Great question, you know, that's the nature of this league. You know, it's very difficult to sustain. That is your goal, obviously, to play at an elite level every week, execute at a high level in all the critical areas. Obviously, we got to coach at better, scheme it, better execute better. That's really what it is, you know, and keep continuing to build what we want to be or what do we want it to look like. So everybody's on the same page, you know, and you know just part of it.

Man's surely what it is. I mean, there's no magic to it.

We have good enough players, we have good enough coaches. Now we just got to consistently do it. And we've been pretty good, you know, really since about since Pittsburgh other in Tennessee. In the red zone, we've we've been pretty good. Certainly can be better. We've gotten better in the red zone. We just we've got to get better on third downs. We've got to continue to stress to be we can be explosive in the past game, but for sure we have we can certainly be a lot better.

Obviously, he scored two touchdowns. With the separation that he's getting, do you see more opportunities down the stretch to get him more opportunities deep down, deeper down the field, and what does he need to do to kind of get those those chances.

Yeah, So.

We're always trying to look for opportunities for him and some of our other players to get the ball down the field. Sometimes it didn't present itself. The other night, he was certainly in some of those pockets you know, certain some of the plays we end up checking the ball down to. We were trying to get him down the field, and he's a guy you're trying to get the ball to in a number of ways. You know, where there's space that's good for him, certainly putting it

John said last night that on the Agalar play that everyone in the stadium thought it was a first down. We called a play thinking it was a first down. What was the kind of chaos of that moment?

Like for you realizing they didn't give us a first down on that?

It was awful. I didn't know it.

Well, I wouldn't have called the play that we called on third than a foot now, that's on me. That's got nothing to do with the official. He spotted it like that. He was beyond it the but he was pointing you know as to where that was. So that's not got nothing to do with them. It's got everything with me. You know, the way I saw it, he was beyond the first down marker, and by the film he was. But that doesn't matter. Officials make mistakes like

You know that that probably was that.

But that's that's that's got nothing to do with the official. It's got everything to do with like, you know, how I saw it and now they saw it, doesn't matter. That's how they saw it, and that's where they spotted it came up on the other fourth and one. Lamar was close enough on the other one to get in the first down and he didn't, you know, So the difference was where the official was. That makes it hard is that the official where he was at. And I

Matter.

Usually the officials well running to the spot and putting the foot down, right, he's back here like pointing.

It's like, I don't know what that means.

And it hurt.

It made it even It made it even more. I know, I'm going to this whole big thing here. But what made it worse was we were going fast. Had we not been going fast, based on the play, you would have within a matter of five seconds someone said, holy cow, where is he spotting it? It just happened to time up with going fast and then the spot. You know, thank god that wasn't third down to fourth down, you know what I'm saying. So we actually got an opportunity in fourth down on the.

Flowers the thirty seven yard touchdown. Before that play, when you're talking to Lamar and the head said, do you tell them this, remind guys in the huddle if you get the first down to get down or should.

Have gone down.

Yeah, that's I mean, I was thinking about the play and when you're doing some of the uh, that's that's all on me. I mean, that's an easy one, dub. We were doing so much of the quarterback driven that you were in my mind like we were so far out. I wasn't even thinking about it at the time, you know, like, Okay, shoot, I'm trying. You're you're really trying to talk about ball security because there's an exchange that occurs. Really, like, the worst thing that can happen is we put the dang

Works. That would be something you tell a quarter tell everybody.

We go down, first down, get down. Yeah, that that's that's normal. That would have ended the game right there. I mean, it's you know that we wouldn't have had to see another silly touchdown celebration by Zay, So that would have saved us all from that. But you know so, But the fact of the matter is you got to tell them to get down and the end the game. I mean, that's that's what you have to do.

So that's on me.

How much time and effort did they put in choreograph and the things.

I guess when you're not it's really sad, isn't it.

I mean you would think that, you know, and Odell's like the first guy in the end zone, like, I mean, I didn't know he had that much juice. He'd been out half the week, and of course he certainly found enough energy to choreograph the end zone celebrations. So but now I think, I think gets great. It's fun, guys

Curious, obviously you want Mark Andrews out there. But with Isaiah likely does his run after catchability his.

Loosiveness open up more possibilities for the offense to just go in a little bit of a different direction with that tight end.

He's a little bit different than Mark. He's got probably a little more twitch, you know, he probably you know, he probably has a little bit as he develops a player to break tackle. He can get to an edge a little bit more than Mark. Mark's more of a powerful get the ball in his hands like a bull, you know what I'm saying, Like run over people and

Was O Todd Mankin And now let's hear from defensive core Mike.

Mcdonomy see every buddy. Shout out to those who made the trip back. Looking at a couple much respect. But we're in it, so let's bang this out.

How are we doing.

Do you have any strong views on touchdown celebrations.

I was hoping there was just one of them yesterday, the second one. I don't know if it was necessary or not.

I just you know, how pleased are you with the defense performos last night for four takeaways stem the talented offense?

Yeah?

Well, the most important thing is winning the game, and you know, we talked about how we wanted to play, and definitely the guys.

The guys did that, you know, trying to get in the start start fast.

Obviously, takeaways a a a paramount of points throughout the entire season, but to actually come to fruition, especially against that offense who hasn't really turned the ball over over the course of the year, it was great to see you us attacking the football, handling the situations.

I thought.

Really, the thing that goes I noticed is the poise that the guys had throughout the game given the situation. I was proud of and I just turned the tape on. You're really proud of the effort and the physicality, and you know, there's things we're gonna always be chasing execution wise, but we're right there, you know, so we're in a good spot.

Going into the by Howilton playing. He's playing really really good football.

He's a special player and he can do just about anything on a football field, and we ask a lot of them and we're just we're very excited to have him.

But he's playing at a high level right now.

Was there a time Obviously, players make jumps from yere one a year or two, so there's a natural progression there.

But was there a time where you kind.

Of start to see a click with him where you could tell he just looked like a different player and how he was moving and just the way he was playing with confidence.

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I don't know if I can pinpoint a time.

I mean, he definitely had some comfort, you know, filling in the nickel spot last year, moving closer to the football, you know, the off season is probably the best best way I can pinpoint it. Uh being able to play both positions and we're really cooking them at safety and was able to make some plays on the ball throughout camp and just really felt them out there.

So that's probably the answer.

Kind of exposing too much of your strategy thought process. I'm that final fourth down molect comes in on untouched what's going through your mind prior to that play and trying.

To attack them.

Shoot, I mean, we're I think in that situation we were trying to throw our fastball, and you know, we talk about what we want to be going forward and staying aggressive. So that was that was a call we had and for that, you know, that particular situation, and you know, honestly, it's a shout out to the guys.

So but you look, you can go through each each of.

The eleven guys in that situation and they're they're doing it exactly how we want it to be done. And you do that in critical situations, you know, you got a great chance to close out games.

I'm curious about the Patrick Kean play when we had an open lane at the quarterback and he veered off and still set the kind of the pick for the stunt. As a coach or you're like, wow, man wa had to execute the play.

I mean, it's actually happened a couple of times over the last year or two, and you know, we say we don't want to dishonor to the organization by aboarding the pick, and he hasn't decided the organization yet. So shout out to p Q in those situations if when you understand the protection schemes that you're getting, you know, go ahead and make your layups. But he's doing we're asked to do when he's trying to set his teammate up. So shout out to Peak.

You going back to the blet, how's Michael Pierce drop back on that one?

It's kind of what's the thought?

You know, how do you think through that when you have a defensive tackle drop back and coverage and you know when you tell Michael, hey, I'm this player and be dropping the coverage as you say, in those situations, oh.

For that that particular technique, I think Pierce's probably the best guy we have at doing it.

And mean he's a really underrated athlete. Uh.

I think it goes back to our philosophy of we're trying to we want everybody to be able to blitz drop. I mean it's it's fluid, right, and having the threat of being able to bring pressure from both sides up the middle, you know, overload a side.

That particular scheme asked him to drop.

And uh, he's got he's got his rule and he and he executed his rule and he's stood right where he should be standing and shoot, almost picked the ball off.

It's closer.

I actually I didn't realize it in real time, but watching him back on the on the coaches copy, I realized it was pretty close to getting his hand on the football, which had been pretty pick But say the play worked out in our favor.

Like I asked John this, but what did you know of Arthur will let say, six eight months ago, and now that he's been here, how have you identified like his skill set?

Well, I mean I knew he played some really good football for Pittsburgh, and you know, you see that kind of stuff on crossover tape. And then when it became you know, known to us that we were interested in bringing him in. Uh, you know, just trust us, trust the scouts and the personnel guys and George and Eric, and they really liked him and we brought him in and he kind of just hit the ground running. But he's a competitive guy and he brings a lot of

So that's all you can ask. So, you know, it just it speaks the whole defense.

All eleven guys playing together, you're gonna have an opportunity to step up and make plays, you know, when their time comes, and just just comes from doing your job and executing one play at a time.

And he's done that is.

It amazing when you step back and think about it, how much you guys improved your defense with guys you added in leap July August, September. You know, I mean people probably traditionally think of teams as set going into training camp, but if you think about the contributors that you added.

In those months.

Yeah, I think, you know, you think when you're listening to your question, I think Eric and Ozzie over the years talking about your roster's never really set throughout the course of the season, and I think that's his philosoph organization is just trying to always improve, I prove the team, and we've done a great job at targeting guys that can come in and be productive for us, and you know, and then we kind of take it from there. But

Mike.

Along those lines, Clearly, you guys didn't draw it up to have Marlin miss as much time as he did, you know, leading up to the bye week. But how much of a credit is it to the guys that have filled in for him that you still played such high level pass defense And what does it say about maybe even even being able to hit a higher level get Marlin back healthy for the stretch run.

Yeah, I think those guys they deserve a lot of credit for I mean, it's been seamless, and it's just it's it's the attitude we have as a defense. We're not batting an eye We're not flinching. We got a lot of great players in that rooms. I've talked to you know, you know in prior meetings, but you know, this is whoever's ready for that week, let's roll. You know, they know their role, you know, understand the game plan. You know, there's a lot of guys that could have

Different defensive metrics to close a game out like you did last night, what do you feel like that does for the for the defense as a whole. Is that something that can you know, carry over and be kind of a building block to finishing more games?

Well, Steff, your point emphasis you know, for the last couple of years, you know, and the more you're in those situations, the better it means you got the lead late in the game. So we want to be in those situations. And uh, it's something we've obviously talked about because of you know, the wave games of shucking shaken out of the last year or two. But yeah, once, you know, once you do it, and you do it

I think we all kind of saw the poudential over the years, and I've seen him improve every year. Why do you think he made the big jump this year to what.

He's doing right now.

I attribute to a few things.

One has just his overall work ethic, and I think when you start to stack those reps over the course of time, you start to really feel the dividends going into year four, you know. So I think that's probably the biggest thing. And I think we've done a tremendous job with them. I mean, just day to day basis, it means a lot to have a great coach and to keep putting you in a great situation. So shout out to Weave on that. And uh, I mean, shoot, I mean he's just he just brings it every day.

Man.

Like I mean, it sounds like coach coach coach cliche, but that really does mean something.

You can't go in and out some days bring it, sometimes you don't. Just it doesn't work like that.

You know, you got to keep building every day and Beaks his guy that's out here every day and he goes one hundred miles an hour every time he's out there.

So spoken to this before, but definitely.

Think of very highly adjustin and the way he plays the game, plays like a raven.

Hearts said that David Jabo had surgery on his knee.

Just your thoughts on the player. He can still come back and be you know next.

Year if this bat, Yeah, David's gonna be a great player in this league. He's kind of a great career obviously. Feel for him the way that his first has, his way his career started, and he's dealing with adversary right now. So he needs our support and he had it, you know. But he's gonna have a great He's gonna have a great career and he's gonna he's gonna recover. He'll be back ready to roll next year. I have full confidence in that.

For you during them bye week, go ahead, create a matic bk Uh.

It seemed like he was getting double teams a lot last night. Have you seen him get more respect?

Is the season's going wrong?

That's a good question. I can't answer that with one hundred percent certainty.

I mean we haven't really like charted, you know how many times he's getting double team and all that. But when he's getting double team means somebody else is getting the one on one and so those guys are expected to come through in that situation.

Is there a focus for you during this bye week?

Is it all self scout?

And if you start looking ahead and teams on your schedule, how do you spend the week?

H Yeah, we met this morning. It's really like threefold.

So the first thing is the first big goal of the week is to kind of look at our guys and evaluate what they're doing well and what things that they can improve on an individual basis.

Uh.

Kind of the next fold would be looking at ourselves situationally schematically, what we're doing well we can build upon, what opportunities are there for us to grow. And then obviously we're trying to get ahead, you know, so working on the rams, working on Jacksonville, San Francisco, Miami kind of phase phase into that, and you know this last kind of quadron of the season.

As a coach, what do you think of the late by.

Whatever? Man, just go wherever they tell me.

You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Now the players get a chance this week to relax and recover and get ready for the final stretch run of the regular season and then into the playoffs. Now we'll get a chance to talk with some of the assistant coaches tomorrow, so stay tuned for more on that. You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. If you want more of a deep dive into everything that we saw from the

Talk with you again tomorrow.

M