John Harbaugh & Players: Ravens Practice 11/8 Press Conferences

Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. The Ravens are getting ready for a divisional matchup coming up on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, and today we had a chance to talk with head coach John Harbaugh.

Appreciate you being here in this beautiful day. Another great day for football. Every day is a great day for football. Very excited about the upcoming challenge. Division rival, very very good football team. We know what kind of games these are in our division. And then we're excited to be at home. You know, we've got we got a chance to play in front of our fans and in a real big game. I know they're going to be really

Okay, what question do you have if you think the crowd.

Was responsive for that?

Genoebeck Excuse me, I mean the crowd was responsible for that Gene Hopeck communication here.

Oh yeah, yeah, you know what, that's probably probably had a lot to do with it. Actually, you know, they had a miscommunication. They might have been checking a play there or a route and they didn't They certainly didn't get it. So that's a very good chance of that happened.

Thank you. That's right. Appreciate that. Good shout, John.

Obviously, the Browns defense, I think the huge arts loud right now this year when you're watching film though, what kind of impressures you the most about that defense?

Very very very aggressive, I mean very attack orient They're kind of they're kind of a mindset of a puncher, you know. They come out swinging downhill in every at every level of tight coverage all the way up to the linebackers downhill versus run defensive line upfield. That's kind of their their way.

Uh.

They understand who they are and they played very well, very hard.

On the ground.

Step one of the lowest third down seases.

Them out on the defense. What do you think, what.

Do you say, would you watch the tape on there? Just that makes it so hard to get first down.

Right, I mean, I don't think it's any secret. You know, they're just really good. You know, they can rush the passer and they can cover. That's that's kind of the combination on third down. Plus you'll find out you'll see that during third they have third and long a lot. You know, they get into they get people into third and long a ton because they're so successful on first and second down as well. So it kind of all goes together.

Trying.

I know you expected to see Deshaun Watson last time and then he didn't play, But you've studied him, your prayer for him. What impresses you about him at this point in his career.

Right, Well, I mean, just Sean's a playmaker. You know, that's the thing he's gonna He's gonna do it on time with the rhythm passing quick game he can do with the play action the boots and the and the and the drop and the play action stuff off of their own run game. And then he can do it start as far as extending the play, uh, both as far as running and then also I think he does a really good job on the run to find receivers when he's moving out of the pockets. So, uh, playmaking quarterback.

You're playing Division teams, especially for the second time. How much do you take from what work the first time you play those teams?

Well, you do, You do take a lot of that, and you try to you kind of try to extrapolate a little bit about what their answer might be and what you're gonna need to do to counter that. I mean, it's kind of a guessing game there. But you don't

They have opinion great to make your time last a week, I believe che and fair. Now, you know, it's kind of paying the media chatter that oh, he's gonna give them secrets and that.

How much did you think about that and talk about that?

Is that a factor when it comes to players that recently win beIN with.

You guys, No, I mean it's it's you're changing from week to week so much in terms of the plays that you actually run and the way you run them. And then anytime any kind of like code words or signals or anything like that, that you're always protecting those, you're always changing them so that I don't think that's gonna be an issue one way or the other.

Job you made your value at organizationally just being unpredictable for moments that you consulate involving aspect how meet to this point of the season, how do you think Todd has gone out of the all kinds to keep an Opponents of bounce us to play calls me? You know, for example, this last week you saw him called for runs and a lot more at early downs. Is that's something that you've seen and maybe police with everybody?

Absolutely. I mean there's there's a there's a lot of layers to that, you know, and I think sometimes we look at it and you can it's easy to look at like pick out one one factor or another, whether it's like you say, early down, how many times you run, how many times you're passing? But there are so many layers into that that people are studying so much information that we get who's on the field, where they're lined up, what the motions look like, Uh you know, what what

John, We've seen Lamar be very efficient so far.

Two plays, a two paths.

I think you want to have back or maybe to rashat the deep ones a couple of deep ones.

Do you think maybe the.

Consistency of the deep throws its guys, that may be the kind of the next step that you guys are trying to achieve.

That Yeah, I mean you know it's uh those when we hit those plays and games, it's gonna be it's gonna be great. I mean that's a big it's a difference maker, I'm sure, and we chase that all the time, but we were hit them in practice. Uh regularly, Sometimes things come up. I think sometimes you make a decision maybe just to throw it away. Other times, Uh, you know, it might be a step or two further than you

Leader Mob in particular open the pretty big hole of Mitchell and is a touchdown run is that?

You know what have you seen them handing the year two?

How much is he adding in terms of rud block into the line?

No question, Well, he adds a lot. I mean, he's a he's a great run blocker. I think he's a I think he's an excellent pass blocker as well. But he's he's a guy that can really sustain a block. I mean, when it really comes right down to it, he can. He can get into a fit very quickly. He's just an explosive athlete, and then he can sustain. Really, that's the bottom line with blocking. He does it really well.

John Lamar's done so so much so well this year. But there have been a couple of mesh points problems with Justice Hill. What's happening there and how do you fix it?

Well, you fix it by just consistency in terms of the angles and the mesh you know.

Fit.

So something came up in that last game that that kind of altered the spacing between the quarterback and the running back there that you know just kind of happened, and you got to judge keep working through it. So we're not happy about that at all. I think that's probably the main thing, you know, for us right now, to make sure we clean up all those things and keep the ball off the ground.

That was head coach John harry Ball. We also talked with center Tyler Linderbob, he's having a great season. Here's what he had to say.

Well, I mean when you get to get that running game going in a game, I know you're not counting the yards it's happening, but I mean as an offensive line, do you kind of feel kind of the taking over in a game like that when these rushing yards keep falling up?

Yeah, I think as an alignment, that's your dream to get the run game going. You know, certainly every game we're trying to, you know, be effective in the run game because that opens up a lot of other things.

But you know, especially talking.

About last game, you know, it was, you know, it's kind of slow early, just stay with it, stay at it, and running back started hitting those holes and you know, so saw saw things start to get moving, we're.

Teler reach, you're seeing different elements. How much where did you think this offense still has to run?

Yeah?

A lot.

You know, there's still a lot of things each and every game on tape that you know we can improve on, you know, and certainly just being that almost to the halfway point, you know, we're doing a lot of good things, but also things that when you get better at.

Uh.

And you know, I think we've got a good group of guys that know that and want to improve, you know, aren't aren't content with what what where we're at right now. So that's always good when we have a good group of guys like that.

Tell her, Uh, the left guard position was a competition at the beginning of the season. John Simpson won it. And if you played next to him for the next nine weeks. Just what's been like working next to him and and how have you seen him perform just over the course of the season.

Yeah, John's been awesome. You know, He's definitely deserved the starting job. Just coming in here every day, working his tail off. I'm gonna just thing with him, just gaining confidence each and every week. Uh, you know, he practices hard, goes out there and performs on game day. So you know we're looking at teammates. That's what that's what you want to have your teammate.

You got for that play on the sixty yard run by Keith Mitchell, take out one guy, run down field, take out two more guys twenty five yards downfield. What's your mentality on that play where you look ahead of you, the run still going and you you're trying to get downfield in that play.

Just trying to be explosive, trying to make those explosive plays happening. You know, if you look on the on the tape and on the film, you know, all everyone's doing their job. Everyone's you know, finding someone to block. I'm just trying to do my part, and so are other ten guys on the team.

Tyler, when you talk about being explosive, a lot of the time when Nets mentioned it's about positions, you know, skill players, wide receivers, running backs. Does that also go to the offensive line that you guys also want to be explosive.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, we got to block the guys in front of us, you know, and then block guys in front of us were to next level and then you know we have you know, awesome skill position guys here that can make a lot of things happen. So we do our job, they do their jobs, a lot of good things can happen.

So you're in little three games home stretch here. How beneficial is to be playing at home in front of your crowd.

Yeah, it's been awesome.

You know, our fans especially, you know, this past last game was awesome. You know, the more fans we can get out there are, the better. You know, we really lean on them, and they've been tremendous and you know this this whole you know, this next two game stretch, you know we can get more fans out there as well, because you know, when they're rolling, we're rolling.

So it's good to have him out there.

Brown goes without saying how special player Miles Garrett is, but knowing that he can move arounds and I mean just how much discussion is there among the offensive line, but just knowing where.

He is, I'll never see the plane. Yeah, he's definitely a guy that you got to know where he's at.

Uh.

You know, one of the best d ends in the league, one of the best defenders in the league.

Uh.

And the tape speech speaks for itself. You know, he's he's a guy that has all the tools. You know, just his size, strength and speed. You know, it definitely makes it makes it challenging. So you know it's someone you you definitely know have to know who who and where he's at. But you know that starts with the game plan, starts with this week and just trusting our fundamentals and technique and to get the job done.

The miner's passion ten story down, he was saying, he is there's in the offensive plays.

From your standpoint, you feel like differences are defending differently since he's working most where they're still restarting.

Yeah, I mean, you know you got to defend his legs, right, he's one of the most electrifying players in the league. But also he can throw the hell hell out of the ball. So you know, he's done a tremendous job. And you know, like Lamar said, you know, we got a lot of good weapons that can get the ball. So but when the times that he had to run, he can run. When he needs a throw, he can throw.

When you get a new coordinator, I.

Mean, people obviously focus on what that means for the quarterback through.

The wide receivers, et cetera, et cetera.

But much lardy, Kurt, would you say there's.

Been for the offensive line with the function you know of course of this. Yeah, I mean.

I still think you know, starting having ot as with Coach Monk was huge, you know, just getting familiar with, you know, maybe our philosophy and in how we want to be as a unit, understanding the communication, and I think he's been tremendous just trying to get everyone on the same page. And he always preaches over communicate. He'd rather over communicate than under communicate. So, you know, just creating our identity OTAs into fall camp, you know, finding

Does your jump feel much different under him than it did under greg Or?

No?

I think, you know, it's it's it's about the same also too.

You know, it's just at the end of the day, wherever you go, you know, communication has to be important for the limp position, So as long as everyone's on the same page, you know, five guys doing the same thing, you know, including tight ends and quarterback knows what's going on. You put yourself in a successful situation.

Justin Mettapeak is having a great year on the d line.

How what have you seen from him in practice? And have you guys ever gone at it full speed?

Yeah, I mean shop Beeks was a problem in camp OTAs. He's been a problem for us all lying for a while now. So we've all seen the issues that he's caused, the havoc havoc that he's caused in games, and we've gone against that in practice. So what he's doing right now, it's not a surprise to any of us because that's just the type of player he is. I mean, shoot, you watch him in practice that he's going the same speed, so you no credit to him, and that's why he's so successful.

On Sundays. You see the.

Defensive pressure packages and practice every day. How different are they from what you see from a typical defense the NFL.

Yeah, they certainly, cause, uh you know, there's a lot of different fronts that you can see for them, and they come at you in a lot of different ways, and it can it can be challenging, you know, They and that's it, and it helps us, you know, when we can see that in No TAC, that in fall camp.

That was center Tyler Lennarbaum. If you want to hear more from Lindy, check out his appearance on the Lounge podcast that's dropping Thursday morning. Some really interesting insight from him, the improvements that he made this offseason and also the player in the NFL that he watches film of every single week. I think you would really enjoy that conversation,

Number One in completion percentage as far as you know, accuracy thing, what do you think has been the difference for you? I mean you've always been in the sixty percent, but now over sevens pric what do you think has been the big difference this.

Year for you to get that up there.

What if I'll have an answer? Oh no, it just Harvard dedication. Going out there and just compete my tail off. That's all, not even really to change, just a percentage of anything.

I don't know that's.

Something you ever look at it? Like do you ever look at those staffs or that kind of stuff where you are and that kind of thing.

Nah, to be honest with you know, probably after the game if they tell me about it. But I'm not just gonna go and look and see what I did. I'm tryna win. I don't really care about the stats.

Who are Uh?

This year first year with t Martin at your quarterbacks coach?

Uh?

Did can you talk about how he has helped you develop and what he is like kind of behind the scenes and meeting rooms and things like that.

Uh?

Just he want us to be perfect, me, Josh snoop. He want us to be perfect. And every morning he got something like a championship quarterback and what you you being a championship quarterback? And he always tell me like, i'm'a grade you harder than you know probably anybody else will. And I'm cool with that, you know, cause I'm hard on myself and I I know, I wanna be great and so is he. So so does he you know, as our coach, he want all of us to be great. And that's pretty much it.

Obviously he played the game and he's kind of troubles or in his own right. See, somebody that you admired with is a if a player, the person the way that we you know, the way he can have to do based up his experience as a player as well.

Yeah.

Absolutely, Like you said, his experience being able to play at this level, being a UH national champion in college. That's that's crazy, Labar.

You've been talking about consistency.

You guys have won four in a row.

From your perspective, what's been working so well? I g I believe our whole teams just locked in every phase, especially teams, defense, offense. Each and every week, I believe we gotten better. It's certain things in the game wh when we finished with games like we we we hard on ourselves about but at the end of the day, were trying to get wins. And I believe us just knowing each and ever we gets a championship game. To us,

Lamark, Cleveland's always had good defenses, Noles Garrett's been there for a while. What what have you seen when you watch them on field as to why they are one of the better defenses in the league this year.

Uh?

Like you said, and numb one Miles Garrett the leader of that defense, I believe, And those guys just fly around, you know. I believe those guys are hair hunters, secondary linebackers, and like you said, defensive line. That's they just flying around and trying to attack with aggression. And that's pretty much what stands out to me.

You were a better version of them this this time, and then you guys jumped on them in the first half and play one to do to you to go be a better roll round team this summer.

Uh I, I can't call it, you know, I'm just going to we just going in there and just tryna focus on getting dub I don't know how they gonna come out of play us, you know, but I believe every team's gonna try their.

Best to beat you.

That that's part of our job.

That's part of the game. Well, or how does the.

Preparation change when you are facing a team for the second time in the same season, and you know the first meeting wasn't that own there.

Uh, just go back and watch the things that they did well against us, you know, when they started best from completing drives. Because they might try to piggyback off that and try to watch ourselves against other teams. They might try to do things that they did to stop us certain things.

But that's it, Lamar.

With your rushing, the tempts going down at least to this point in the year. If you notice defenses defending you differently, are they still guarding you kind of run first a little bit still?

Ah?

I believe they are, you know, but we we have so many weapons on offense, they don't really know what to do, you know, cause we got guys running out the batfield, Justice, Gus Keaton, you know, we got obj Bait Mark you say, you know, both of the Day's dude, we got all these guys, you know, So that it's it's really hard to define with the ball gonna go and uh, that's pretty much hur hurting the defenses. So we just need to keep staying locked in and focus and keep that going.

For for a long time, we've asked guys on defense and helped playing against you in practice makes them better.

How does this defense make you better?

And particularly this year's defense, which appears to be.

One of the best in the league.

Just by I I believe I'm not trying toot that own horn, but I believe our defense has no weakness. Uh, just from the defensive line, the linebackers, the secondary, how they flying around and disguising defenses to make it look like one coverage but it's something else. And and how they how they time up they blixes. It helps us out a lot, you know, cause were playing other teams, they find around and give them us their best shot. It's like we said, one of the best defenses every day.

In some defensive snaps to them.

Yet now yet try to get get me a second like Art and car hopefully why you.

Mentioned, you know, T Martin Just curious, like when you think back to nothing, you think back to this, But when you do think back to earlier your career and have you maybe led the quarterback or in their work or just how you were in the quarterback room versus how you are now, how do you think.

You've evolved in that room?

Just from a leadership standpoint and in what you're seeing and vocalizing and things like that or what you.

Just said, Like I'm more vocal than I was before. Early on, I was just wanting to learn, you know, the ins and outs and the defenses in the NFL. But now like me just seeing 'em s each and every week, dif different defenses every week. I got a l a lot more questions. I see certain things and then I wanna just tell coach, like yoship, try to put this in, put this in the game plan, stuff like that.

What dynamic like in that room?

Just what's the vibe kind of liking there?

Uh, it's to be honest, we be locked in.

Like we might laugh around, but it's pretty much we locked in. We tryna, were trying to be great. You know, we're trying to be a tempionship team and that's what we chasing right now.

More right off, you take it as a sign of respect for defenses, like do you drop ad and C.

I don't think something that that happen a lot more.

Fast and Nah, I guess I guess John, but I don't. I I can't call it, you know, I'm just tryna. I'm tryna win.

I don't care what they do.

I'm tryna win, tryna wanna play the drive the game.

Alright, And among all the good things that have happened, there have been a couple of issues with the mesh point and fumbles with Justice hill on exchanges.

Why do you think that's happening? And how does it get fixed?

We tryna win, just getting t we were trying to be too We tryna move too fast. I believe on all the all the fumble exchanges, it's been us just being too fast too. I don't know, too antsy, but you know what, I believe we gonna come down, come down with that. It w it won't be any more. Uh, fumbles unbelief.

Mark wins and losses are calculated mostly the same.

Just uh when you play the Division, though, doesn't feel like more.

So.

I mean the it's the division game. We we I won't we we know our opponents. But at the same time, all of us trying to make it to the playoffs. All the game's gonna be aggressive. Uh, Stiller's Cincinnati Browns. It's just we just gotta go in lockdown, you know, by our treat every game the same.

Sty're talking in the locker room about how crazy good the AFC North has been in this year, specifically everyone not at all.

No, alright, we're focusing on us.

That was quarterback Lamar Jackson, and then over on the defensive side of the wall, we had a chance to hear from linebacker Patrick Quet.

For the London game that you felt like this defense wasn't as respected I as you should be.

Do you feel differently about that now?

Uh, a little bit. I feel like it's al a long season. We still got a lot of games ahead. I feel like we are getting more respect, but I feel there's still not the respect that we want and I I honestly we just we having to accomplished the things that we wanna accomplish yet, so I feel like there's a lot of respect out there to still be taking.

Do you feel like.

Cleveland with Watson movie a different it's the tea than they weren't with the rookie.

When when you playing.

Uh, yeah, obviously it's the sion Watson. They give him all that money for a reason. So he's a great player. But at the end of the day, he's coming to the hard stadium with our team, with our defense, uh, with our fans. So Uh, that player's gonna be rocking. We gonna have it rocking. We're gonna do what we need to on defense to get him jumping and just you know, try to shut him down.

Huh.

How much do you feed off that as a defense when the crowd is kind of going crazy in.

That last year, crowd definitely makes a difference. They just give you, like that extra motivation just to go even harder. Like I don't know, Like it's just when you second and stop 'em on second and eight or make whatever, and it's thirty and eight, thirty seven or whatever and the crowd starts jumping. It's just like the extra motivation. It could be a long drive and you just just when the crowd gets up and you got the extra motivation and just feel like you're unstoppable at fork.

Uh.

Marbles just asked about the Ravens defense and he said he doesn't think there's any weakness that is a player who plays one of the defense.

Do you do you kind of agree with that assessment? I definitely agree.

Uh, if we all lock in, just do what we're capable of. Just each play, just lock in, communicate, play as hard as we can and have the best technique we can. Uh, it shouldn't be nobody will be able to stop with us. The only person, only people that can stop us is us. So as long as we go out there and focus in and just take one play at the time and just dominate, it will be fine.

You feel it that way in past years here or is it? Is it more so a this point in the season when it happened in your your careers, or.

You always feel like that, you always feel like you got confidence in your defense saying it's just small players here and there that could actually just change, like those pass defenses. So uh obviously, Uh, I feel like those defenses still were pretty damn good. And it's just like I said, a few plays here and there that stop us from being that number one, number two, number three defense.

How much of a monivating factor is it for you to be going up against another against them but on the same field as another great defense to kind of show you the better defense is.

Uh, there's a lot of motivation. It's a it's a lot of talk right now, and we just wanna talk with our past. Honestly, we just wanna go out there, dominate, wanna play at the time, have fun, with it, talk a little trash on the field and go at it again.

Patrick Anse, You guys are focused on Sunday.

But when you look at Stanley's NS North.

And the five days of the Rounds and the Bengals, how.

Big for this season where you guys wanna be at the end, How big are those five days coming up?

It's huge cause obviously you know you get a few days off after that. So uh, I think the big kids just locking in, uh on the task at hand, just not looking forward, just taking each day at at one at a time. Uh, when no game presents itself, go out there, dominate after that game, just whatever you gotta do to recover, recover, come into that next game on that short week, and just get ready to dominate a game. But uh, overall, just take one day at a time.

Is there a comparison three these games and the old as you see it is? I mean, you know, you guys are playing so well, but it's hard to get away from these other teams that seem said does they ever winning through it?

Just does it?

Is it a someone with fielding or it definitely is. Uh, it's just everybody always wins. And this is a tough division probably the toughest division in uh the NFL. So when you see how the division is stacked up right now, it's just like no room to breathe. So you just gotta keep on foot on o on everybody else's neck and just keep doing what we're doing right now, just trying to keep winning. Those are good.

You got Child's brought up tell us as he said.

That you guys flew out a lot of teams right that National Champions of season.

You going out a lot of teams now.

But I wanna ask you that some of the games you guys had it earlier and you see earlier, and that's tell us U season, Like before a game, you guys had to come back in the third quarter. But for what do you think that game and that resilience you guys showed meant for you guys along way you get to you know, champion game, gainst Pipe says down you can think you still how to figure that out to come back?

Yeah.

Oh it was just uh just a a huge confidence boost for our defense. Uh, just knowing that we could actually stop people. Uh. I think in the beginning of the year that we were letting up scores and stuff and They all came from communication. And that's the biggest thing that I preach, cause I seen in the first hand just how communication could change everything out for the tennis score that second half, and then we went on a r little run like shutting teams down and whatnot.

Deshaun Watson probably.

Will be their quarterback.

What does he bring and how different are.

They with him?

Uh, it just brings with who he is. Uh, he could put the ball anywhere on the field. He can run, he does not wanna slide. So uh, anytime you got a quarterback that's willing to lower they shoulder, that's a huge threat to your defense. And we just gotta go out there and play our game, honestly. Uh, it could be in the quarterback in the league that goes out there. Uh,

All right, if you had players.

You need president tweet today about how there's a frustration among the players in terms of how fines or decided on levy.

I know you got fined, we're happy about it. And basically what reaction. What is the frustration for you personally about how to secure a side it? Uh?

I think they fine first stuff that they think rightfully, so should be a fine. I think there's certain angles that you could check and actually get a clear of you. But at the end of the day, they have a job to do. I have a job to do, and we do have the option to appeal. So I think you have if you obviously not playing dirty or doing anything dirty or not knowing your head or whatever it

That was linebacker Patrick Queen. The Ravens are gearing up for a matchup coming up on Sunday at M and T Bank Stadium against the Cleveland Browns. This game kicks off at one pm and we can't wait to see you there. May make sure you get there early. We're gonna have some cool stuff planned pregames, so get to your seat around twelve forty pm and be loud. The Ravens want great for your homefield advantage, and be loud. The Ravens want great home field advantage in this game.