Welcome to the Ravens Presspass podcast. It is Monday, September twenty third, and the Ravens got the first win of the season on Sunday over the Dallas Cowboys. Today we had a chance to hear from head coach John Harbaugh during his weekly Monday afternoon presser.
Shit, you guys being here. Got back last night pretty late, most a lot of coaches. We came in, worked, went to sleep, got up, worked again. So we're getting into the grind now for Buffalo they play tonight, so probably watch it game on TV like like you guys, like everybody else, But do all the work we can up until that point and be a big, big tough challenge for us Sunday night football.
Our crowd looking forward.
To that, So be a big AFC game, and we're gonna have to, you know, continue to improve a lot to be ready for that challenge.
So what questions you have? First, happy birthday for you, Thank you Davison.
With Justin Tucker, he's now missed the people in each of the first games, which is not like all wide left. What do you mean from from the missus? And it also I think the TV showed that you talked to Justin after the like as soon as the game ended.
What was part of that conversation as well.
Yeah, from a conversation standpoint, just uh, and we're we're pretty close. You know, we've been together for a long time and we've had a lot of conversations and uh, you know, we know each other. So that was just just two guys talking about you know, where we're at. And I just love the guy, respect him. Uh, he's uh, he's everything that you want and a player and a friend. So that was really the basis of that. But beyond that, you know, for Justin, it's just a technique issue right
now that he's working through. I think he's he's got a technique thing going on, and uh, he'll work through it. He knows exactly what it is and just needs to smooth.
It back out. And I'm very confident that he will coach.
What do you say, philis fourt's the biggest challenge as far as it got scored in the fourth quarter in the past few games.
Yeah, I mean the two things go to go to that, you know, pass rush and pass coverage tie together, you know, so we definitely were rushing the past her well, but we can be a little more consistent in terms of our rush lanes and some of our games and things like that, and then being on point with that, and then coverage is just getting a little loose in the fourth quarter for whatever reason. So that's something that we just have to just understand. Sometimes the call is going
to go against you. It may may be right, it may not be right, but you can't let that change the way you play. You still got to play the coverage the way it's played. If it's an inside leverage, you play inside leverage. You know, if it's if it's supposed to be down on a route, it's supposed to be down on the route, get.
Down on it.
So don't don't don't be playing like not to give up the big play all the time.
You just play the defense away. It's been played.
And we've got really good players back there, and I'd like to see them play that way from a conference standpoint, the way they did the rest of the game. You know, we were we were forcing a lot of tight window throws in the first half. Play the same way in the third quarter, and then play even more that way in the fourth quarter and make them earn it. And I do think sometimes we're just getting a little maybe it's on their brain, weighing in our brains a little
bit about not letting that happen. Then there, then it happens. So uh we're capable of We just got to get it done. Could would you were you giving the explanation of the away tackle? Uh, they said that he lifted them up and dumped him into the ground.
That's what they said that they saw.
After the tape.
Are there were a number of maybe calls that Joe said dyck in the league and gave clarification on anything.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm not allowed to comment on that, you know, But like I always say, you know, the best I can say is the things that we that we can see are wrong, that we'll uh that we'll coach our guys on.
You know.
The things that we can say that we can't see that are wrong, we'll ask the league about and if they confirmed that they're that you know that that it you know, it wasn't a wrong played by the guy, we'll let them know.
You know, It's all we can really do.
But uh, you know, there there are some some head scratchers, but there's also someone that are And when you have the number that we have right now, it's too many. I mean, I mean, that's just something that's got cleaned up. So the ones that that maybe shouldn't be called and we can't do anything about those, but the ones that should be called, we got to clean those up. And that's on us. It's our responsibility to do it. It's
hurting us. I mean, it's costing us points in the end. So, uh, that's a matter of playing football the right way and all those situations. And I guarantee you we're going to be on our guys that do it right. They want to do it the right way. It's our responsibility to make sure they do it the right way all the time as much as possible.
And we got to get better at that.
John, as you ever from a look like there's a long conversation with Tolbert on the.
Sideline after the legal clutching penalty or on a near safety.
Did you get an explanation for why that wasn't potential.
Ground in the end zone.
Yeah, I've never heard of this before, and I guess I don't know if it's something that kind of came up there, if they've seen this before, I'm not sure but they said that it's not it's not intentional grounding because somebody caught it, even though it's an illegal receiver that caught it, which is a penalty. So basically they get rewarded for having a penalty there. You know, that's kind of probably not what they what they want by the rules.
So we'll see.
Maybe it's a loophole in the rule. I'm not sure, something they'll probably look at. But but because he because because a receiver caught it, you can't call intentional grounding even though it's an illegal receiver and there's no eligible receiver in the area which would constitute grounding. So that's kind of how they That's what he explained to me.
Going back to Justin Tucker, feels like maybe the first slum of his career. How have you approached coaching him, working with him, and just something that seems foreign for a guy that is the most accurate in.
History, isn't that?
Yeah?
I mean Justin knows that we support him. I've tried to make sure he knows that. You know, that's part of it, just relationship wise. I mean, the talent, the ability, all that stuff is there. You know that hasn't gone anywhere. We see it all the time. But it's a technique thing. I think we're approaching from a technical standpoint. Randy Brown
does a great job coaching that part of it. That's that's Randy's Uh, Randy's the foremost guy in the business at that, So they work on that every single day.
Uh.
You know.
For me, I just try to encourage what I see and understand with the technique as well. But uh, Justin's a pro, you know, and I have a great belief that he'll he'll get the job done, He'll get.
Related to what you were saying about the pass coverage earlier, to think you guys are second in giving the tight ends, second in your passengers given up between the hashes.
Are you concerned?
I mean, especially when you look at the spinal defense to some of your best players, you concern about what's going on in the middle of the field.
Are going absolutely absolutely, it's uh it's the easiest place to complete passes in the middle of the field, you know, and uh, you know, you got to get between the quarterback and the football and uh, we're not doing a good job with that.
So it's got to stop. We've got to pus stop to it.
You when you got to you're sort of closer. Second, look at the offensive line, did you come away? I mean, I guess what out your visions?
Did you come away with them?
Did that sort of redelli or confidence in that group going forward?
Yeah?
I mean I just think I think we took a step. You know, we took a step offensive line as a team. The good news is we came a long way and the good news is we have a long way to go. And that's good news because that gives us an opportunity to get a lot better. So I see great upside in our whole team. I also see upside and great upside in our offensive line. But by no means we're we perfect anywhere. You know, on the offensive line, they
played well. We got a lot of rushing yards, but there's plenty of things to get better.
At this line.
A couple of the guys really made a point to shout out Daniel follow that yeah list for me. And you can get questions about coming into the possion in reviewing the tape. What did you like about how he played? And you know, you know, improvement and everything. What do you didn't make a difference?
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, he's a young player and he's growing. I think I think he just had a little more a sense of like understanding of what it was going to take. You know, he wasn't playing tentative. Maybe he played a little tentative maybe early on if you want to just get dig into psychology. But he
played with more aggressiveness. You know, he came off the ball, he moved people, he knocked people off the ball, he got up on linebackers, he cut people off, he knocked down blocks down across you know, he knocked tackles across the center sometimes. You know, some things that made those runs really go. He was a big part of that, along with the other guys.
You know.
So that was good, and yet there were other things that he didn't do as well, and he knows that he can keep getting better at so again, Daniel came a long way in that game. I think he's kind of indicative of that whole statement. And the good news is he's got a long way to go, and he's, uh, he's capable of so much more.
Head sets for years and then had a card and part of that, you know, this weaking particular, is there something with those bigger sets that we all against the.
Cowboys, and you feel like some of the.
Packages are essential going forward in the coming week.
Yeah, I mean we have, we have. We live in a lot of worlds football wise. With our versatility, it's it's uh, I think it's a strength. Sometimes it can be considered not you know, some teams come out and they play eleven personnel of the whole game and spread you out and don't motion anybody. Sometimes they use motion. Different teams have different approaches. I think one of our approaches is that we have a lot of multiple personnel groups that we use. That's kind of the way we go.
So from one game to the next, you'll probably see different emphasis in different places probably, But to be able to you know, to be able to run the ball, we call it must run when you really want to run the ball and do it out of big groups that protect the edges and all that. That's that's something kind of in our in our DNA a little bit been that way a long time. So we want to We definitely want to live in that world if we can.
That's only the topic.
The tight ends in the versatility they share its perimeter blockers, right, Yes, how important is that especially is you know, Mark and Isaiah pass catching guys to show themselves as blockers. How important is that in the offense.
That's such a great point, Ryan, I mean the perimeter blocking was okay the first two weeks. It was outstanding in this game. Those guys, I'm gonna tell you what. Mark Andrews might have had three four pancakes. Isaiah likely was. He was he's he was out there reaching guys. The wide receivers had our best blocking game in a long time. I mean, those guys were blocking. I can can think of Nelson Agular coming down and getting the free safety something well right over the ball one time, which is
kind of you don't see that too often. Zay likely Crack blocking down on defensive end. Those kinds of things are really what make to me that kind of unselfish play, you know, being willing to you know, there's one ball carrier and there's ten blockers, so to speak. I mean even Lamars a blocker when he carries out a fake say, you know, you're all helping.
The ball carrier one way or another.
And our guys are really buying into that, you know, and that's something that we just got to keep building on.
Andrews played in many fewer snaps then he wouldn't maybe to Was that purely a matter of the style that you guys ended up playing.
Yeah, I mean you had a lot of big groups out there, kind of to your point about the personnel groups and stuff like that. I think guys will play different amounts different games, you know, with our different guys that we have.
I think I did not bring this up a week or two ago.
We'd go one way and then that someone wouldn't playing, and then that question would be why didn't that guy play? You know, I think that's probably gonna be something that would be every week. You know, they'll always be you know, somebody didn't get the ball thrown to him, or didn't get many touches, or it wasn't on the field as much. It's probably gonna be a part of the game plan each week, and a lot a lot of it's how
the game goes too, you know. But Mark did what he was asked to do in the game, you know, and just to just turn out that way. It wasn't like he wasn't in the pass routes he couldn't have got He could have been thrown the ball just didn't come his way, but the blocks came his way. You know, he was out there blocking those guys and he did a great job.
Nick Wagins got cleared and then he was essentially started. Did get hit with a couple of penalties.
But what did you see from him? And where is he at now?
Yeah?
I think they competed real hard out there.
I think Nate that was a learning game for Nate probably, you know, he he had some really good plays. He knocked that ball out down there going in. That was a massive play for us. So proud of him for that.
Uh.
And then other times I think he learned, you know NFL football sometimes. I mean, we got one passer inference penalty where he didn't even touch the guy. So but he got another one where we grabbed the guy, you know. So uh, you know, you gotta learn from that, and he will. Some of the leverages he'll learn from. But Nate's a competitor, He's tough, he wants to be good. Love everything about you know, who he is and where he's going as a player.
Grab the you know the United session and film further warning they you know that context where you kind of seen from Zach for a real tough job coming game from what the defense was last year. And second hear he hasn't been with you know what he wants. What are you kind of seeing as he addresses those issues and.
Really kind of.
Yeah, that's the challenge of coaching. You know, you want everything to go great, and you know we're coaching so many things. You know, the structure of the defense is the same. You know, there's things that have been added, but that's none of those things are causing any problems. It's just to base some basic execution. Really in the fourth quarter of games. That's really what the issue has been. And uh, and that's got to get cleaned up. And that's you know, guys knowing what to do and they
do and just doing it. So I think zactually doing a good job of letting those guys. He's been very clear about what he expects. He's done a great job of making the corrections, uh, drilling the corrections, getting the corrections practiced, you know, and and then the guy's got to go out there and do it and they will. So nothing ever comes too easy. Sometimes it comes easy.
And first three or four games and it's like, man, this is this is the best of something that there's ever been, and all of a sudden it's not so good anymore. You know, there's always this kind of process and evolution and nothing ever, nothing's ever is good, nothing's ever as bad sometimes as it seems. Is that way
in football for sure. So I when I watch the details of the defense, you know, and we walked, we talked through all that stuff, we can see where the issues are and and you just fix them, you know, and then in steadily you play better. And it's not so much that we have to that we have like we're at this level and we're not good or we gotta It's just we gotta play more consistently. You know that we played the way we played in the first half should be the way we play the whole game.
I mean, just play that way the whole game. We're capable of doing it, uh, and let's go do it.
John with Derek Henry, how impressed were you watching the game back? I mean it's kind of vintage Derek that we saw yesterday and kind of his first breakout game.
Did you see his suit and his hat? Huh? Was that impressive? That was?
I was impressed with the suit and the hat. But that was a lot more impressed with the game. You know, as a football coach, man, I'd tell you that was that was that was that was fun. And you know it's like Derek's it's a team effort. Football is a team game. But we gave him some space or offensive line.
The scheme.
I thought the game plan was really good. Thought Lamar created some space for him as well. Like you said, you guys all said the perimeter blocking all that stuff created the space that he needed to go be who he is, and he was who he is. He made a couple of runs too with vision, you know, where he'd start inside and bounce outside there, you know, or he'd cut back. You know, he saw some things that you know that not every back seats all the time. So and then once he gets that momentum going, man,
he's tough, he's he's he's he's different. So yeah, I was excited about that.
He talked after the game that he challenged the offensive line to you know, improve and to push them to support that he was working out with them and just what can you say about that kind of leadership and how he approached it that resonates with your team.
Yeah, well, he's highly respected and he's a really good person, and he really supportive of the guys. You know, he's that kind of a guy. So he challenges him in a way. I think that is, you know, you're capable of of of so much more. Let's let's go be that, you know, and then and then, like you said, dig in there and work with him on it. You know, that's I think what he talked about, right, So yeah, I mean you see it. He's on there in pre practice.
You guys saw him last week before practice working with the guys in the past protection stuff out there before when the special teams are going. So that's that's that's genuine leadership coach.
With lamar Is tying to throw has kind of significantly decreased on over the past three weeks, almost half a second less from week one.
Lamar's time to throw drop significantly, I.
Mean, getting getting the ball out quicker. Yeah.
Is that kind of something that's support of the game plan, especially going up against a guy like Michael Parsons.
Yeah, I mean, I think on time rhythm passing is important. You know, that's something that we want to we want to be able to be good at because it takes pressure off of the protection, It takes pressure off the route, It takes pressure off Lamar. Uh, that should be a big part of what we do. I mean, even like the.
Boot early to Charlie.
You know that's that's a play action pass and misdirection pass we call movement pass. But the balls out pretty quick there, right, So those kind of things. The more we can do those things, keep the defense, you know, hit him quick, keep them moving, get him going one way, throw it the other way, or Lamar makes a read and brings it back over here with a quick throw. Those are those are yards at execution yards that really take a lot of pressure off the rest of the the rest of the format.
Longer's Life talked about the mores play faking earlier and hit ball handling.
It actually a little look. Exceptionally at times on TV you couldn't even tell who had the ball. How important is that? Now?
Taking to the offense to another level and they don't press for you.
What you watched, Yeah, I was impressed. I was looking the wrong way a couple of times. You know, that's what you want to tell them. If you fool me, man, that's that's uh, You're you're you're doing. You're definitely fooling
the defense. But uh, that's been a big part of our offense for quite a few years now, right, and I think the fact that we've been able to maintain that through this transition style wise a little bit has been really important because it's just one of the things that makes Lamar unique.
You know, he's got.
Amazing ability, you know with his hands, you know, and to do that some of that stuff that he does just so naturally is pretty rare. So we've got to take advantage of it. I mean, you got to You got to use that. Someone has a gift like that, you have to use it. And uh, I think seeing it pay off, it's it's something the defense is. I hear every week about how who's playing Lamar at quarterback and how they're working out stuff. That's kind of what
they're talking about. You know, that has to be respected. They have to spend time on that.
On you said, every game is the must win situation, but just based on NFL history, oh and three seem like almost a test sentence as he got there.
Well, no one wanted that. You know, that's not something that we wanted. So you know, that's what made the fourth quarter so interesting, you know. I mean, it was it was it was. It was tough, you know, it was challenging fourth quarter. I was proud of the guys in the sense that they finished.
You know.
I would have liked to have seen the job done a little sooner, you know, but but they've that. But we finished, you know, and at the end of the day, you have to you have to you have to find
a way to finish and get the job done. And they did so with that, we just got to get better, you know, with all the little things that we do and and you know, get stops in the fourth quarter, get first downs in the fourth quarter, put points on the board, and we have a chance to do it all those things that guys know about.
Some one's talked about what was shot and capable of when you get opportunities.
What are your thoughts about what he was able to yesterday?
Yeah, I was really happy, you know for a shot. I just feel like I feel like he's open a lot, you know, because he runs such good routes and uh and Lamar finds him, you know, and it's starting to
just really grow. So you know, we've got the two young wide receivers out there, and I talk to those guys all the time about they're the future and the present, you know, and we've got the tight ends and we've got the veteran Nelly you know, doing his thing in there, and you see Tayland will go out there and you know, he makes his plays and sometimes he does the dirty work, you know, and he does it so well Justice Hill, you know, I mean, all all these guys are just
critical elements of what we're trying to do. And but bait baits upside is phenomenal.
Okay that they recovered was it?
Is there any detail to coach beyond just pick the ball up?
I mean, or like what what do you take them?
Well, yeah, there's there's there's kind of a technique to that, and I think sometimes you get a little over anxious sometimes maybe, but you know, that's that kick is. It's not a new kick. It's been around for about four years. That little slide roller that bows back. Uh, it's on turf.
You know, we don't we don't play on turf a lot, so maybe that was a little bit different for us, But I think it's something that we just have to It's like everything else, you got to chase every detail, and you try to be in front of everything as much as you can. But I promise you that we're gonna spend some time this week for all those guys picking up all those kicks on turf.
And on grass. You know, we'll do that, you know.
And then sometimes you just got to go, okay, boy, let's let's got it's got to get your attention. And you can't can't overlook something like that when it comes up, because that would have sealed the game, game was over.
I was happy when they went on side kick. I was happy. I was like, all right, well we'll get this on side kick.
We'll go down there, we'll get points, more time will be off the clock, and the game is going to be ours, you know.
And and we we.
Cracked the door open. We we opened the door a little bit there. And that's that's what you got to learn as a team. Uh and our guys know that, and you just got to go do it. And once you start doing that, you start closing the door on people. You start kind of choking the life out of the out of the game a little bit. That's when you become a really good closing football team. And we're going to get there, all right.
Job about the help kicking, I believe the Cowboys were able to kick a third onside kick because of the kick off rule. Is that something that.
Strange to you?
So the Cowboys could not kick a third on site kick as the new kickoff a little stick that you were only allowed to do two onside kicks in the fourth quarter.
I'm gonna have to claim ignorance on that.
I gotta be honest with you. I mean, I'm just being honest here. I didn't know that role, so uh yeah, is that right?
Okay?
Your opinion on that.
I don't know why that.
I don't I wouldn't know why they have that role, to be honest with you, so I don't have an opinion on it. Just I guess I'm grateful for it. I don't know should I be. I'd rather have that than not come up again, if that's okay?
Okay, all right? Thanks everybody.
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