Welcome to the Raves Presspass podcast. The Ravens Fields to the Las Vegas Raiders twenty six to twenty three on Sunday, and today we had a chance to hear from head coach John Harwall.
Okay, appreciate everybody being here. Obviously, a lot of work, a lot of work's going in, you know, after since after the game until right now, all of us coaches going through every part of the game with a fine tooth comb every single play, every single player, every single situation, every circumstance to make sure we understand where we're at and then now make a plan for where we're going.
And we'll continue to do that. Players the same way, taking care of themselves physically and getting back from the riggers of the game and getting in a position to get ready to play the next game and practice and prepare for the next game that we have down in Dallas, which will be a big challenge. So you go to work, you move forward, and you try to continue to improve.
I know that I've heard it said the the NFL season is a race to improve to become the best team that you can over the course of the long haul. And it's the race is a marathon, and we've got to continue to try to improve as much as we can every single day. And I think sometimes, you know, your improvement shows up and sometimes it doesn't. And we had a disappointing game yesterday. We're not happy about it. We want to play better. We want to play winning football.
We didn't. We didn't do things we needed to do to win. So we've got to keep pounding the rock. And the rock is going to crack, you know, but that's our job to keep pound and not get discouraged, not think all is for nothing, and continue to work and our reward will be in will be out there in our future if we continue to do that. So what questions you have, John? I knew you were asked this yesterday, but in a day movement for everything, kind of pay things like that.
Do you untestipate making any kind of moves as far as personnel, starters, anything and won't lose?
Uh?
You know, We'll look at every possibility as a week goes on. I think we're always gonna be searching for ways to make our team better. There's a lot of areas here or there. It's not just in like starting and who's starting and who's not starting, it's and who's playing in what groups? How many reps guys play, what plays they play in, same thing on defense, defensive personnel groups. So yeah, we're gonna look at everything all the time.
I mean, you're always gonna do what you can do with the players that you have, the schemes that you have to try to get better. So a lot of times it's changing schemes, you know, a lot of times it's changing drills to try to get better. It's changing workloads for different guys, giving other guys an opportunity all those guys, all those types of things are things that you do not just and I'll tell you do it
whether you win or lose. You do it all the time, but you especially do it when you when you don't win a game.
Two starters are going on obviously, I mean we're kind of like a rookie after this and all the last year following your position. Bastioned about that month season, what do you see in from those two as far as games are in progress from the what's your assessment on where they are right now?
Yeah, talking about the two guards, those two guys Andrew and Daniel, I think, yeah, we're seeing progress, but big picture volume, it's not progress. It's measurable in a sense if you look at the things and say, okay, overall it's getting better. It's progress in areas and as other areas that show up. And I think that's pretty normal
for young players. So when you put a young group of guys out there, young players in any position, especially in the offensive line, there are going to be growing pains. There's no doubt about it. And I think we've got to continue to work as hard as we can to make as many good plays as we can. We've got a lot of good plays happening out there, but we're just too inconsistent, you know. And you talk about the offensive line, I think that's a fair evaluation. Is inconsistent.
It's almost randomly inconsistent, you know. So that's something we've got to work through. But also across the board with our whole team, you know, we're not we're not a consistent football team right now. And if we become a consistent football team, and when we become a consistent football team, then we'll be a winning football team. Until then, it's gonna be it's gonna be hard to do that. So we need to work to make that show up on Sunday.
That's the goal, is to be a consistent executing team on Sunday.
What was the biggest difference Derek Hary in that first YEF and second half.
I don't know if I'm comparing halfs. I just haven't thought about it that way. As you know, I think we ran the ball pretty well overall. With Derek. We got some some good runs. I can think about the runs we got, but I'm thinking I'm kind of in the weeds with that right now. On certain plays why we didn't gaze many yards other players you get more yards. I'm sure defense starts to get a little bit tired, you know. I'm sure we got to beat on some
blocks and things like that. So I think over over the course of a game, you expect your running game to kind of improve as a game goes on. That's what you hope for.
The offseason.
You talked a lot about kind of going back to the drawing board with the offense, kind of revamping it and continuing to rebuild it around Lamar. Through these first two game, have you seen some of the points of emphasis that you wanted to see through this offense so.
Far, Okay, lot, there's a lot in there, but it's kind of hidden right now. You know, it's in the bushes. You got to You're gonna have to dig in there and look for it right now because the results aren't what we want it to be. But the things that we're trying to build are being built.
You know.
We're working on the details and there's a lot of plays getting made. There's choices being made, there's play decisions being made that I'm happy with, you know, and I think that we got to continue to build on it. We're in the right direction and we've got the right plan. We've just got to learn to execute it better and more consistently, you know, And I think we'll do that as we go. We'll continue to get better. And that's
every single guy doing the best they can. I'll say this, the most consistent player we have consistently executed and consistently playing is Lamar on offense. I mean, Lamar's playing very well. He's making good decisions, he's taking charge of the offense. He's making throws, he's obviously he's moving around when he has to. He's running the ball sometimes when it's a
run pass option. He's throwing the ball when he should on a run pass option, and I feel really good about the direction that way.
He said, you said, you want to kind of see the TV copy if you could.
But on the passenger Eres call against Brandon Stevens, what did you see when you looked.
At it again in a big picture?
What have you seen from the secondary overall the first community?
Well, I think on the passenger fround the pass interference calls, I think there was two of them. Is that right? You had Marlin and you had Brandon? Right right? I think when you look at those plays from a coaching perspective and not from a perspective of evaluating officiating, because that's not our job. That's not what we do. You look and you say, well, what can we coach on the second one Brandon's won? There are things to coach
technique wise, you know. I think Brandon will be the first to tell you because he played he played the other one down in the end zone the other way perfectly. I think there are things that he would say he could do better there that would put him in better position not to have that call happen. So that that's that's something that we can avoid the other one with Marlin. I don't wouldn't have anything any coaching point to tell Marlin he could do better. Didn't see anything there that
that he could improve on with his technique. I thought he played it really, really well in that first one.
John, has Flowers spoken you or the coaching of w a frustration following yesterday's Gabe when he posted the fans comments on Twitter said that it's the second we can row that Flowers has had a big first half and they stopped getting him the ball. Has that been a contention from.
Some Flowers Nothing I'm aware of. I've know day has been great, great conversations with Zay. I'm not aware of an the social media stuff.
I'll go back to the secondary, which been your just overall impression of or maybe evaluation of how they played so.
Far to this point. You think, I think the secondary overall is on track, but we're not consistent. You know, we're not consistent and we need to do And it's not just a secondary. We're talking about pass defense, you know, so pass defense is at all three levels. Of course, the linebackers are involved in that, and the pass rush is involved in that. So we can play coverage is better. Sometimes it's a one on one thing where they make
a good play. I can think of the tight end made the play on the diving catch coming inside for the first time conversion to the right of the offense over there. That was number eighty nine. That's a great play. It's well covered. He makes the play the fade the fade ball on this left sideline to Adams number seventeen. That's well played. That's that's the offense making a really good play. There's other plays where we're not you know,
we don't play it as well as we could. We're not in position, we don't see it quite the same way. We react a little late. There's some few completions that way that happened, especially kind of down the stretch in the two minute stuff. I thought a couple of times and then a couple of other times he got out. You know, we certain situations, especially in the fourth quarter, that you can't let the quarterback out of the pocket, you know, because it just extends plays. That makes it impossible.
And they got the ball down inside the five yard line one time there and it led to a touchdown. So, uh, that's that's on the front level. So everybody takes responsibility for pass defense, so across the board. The bottom line is, at the end of the game, in this this pass game, you know we have a ten point lead. It's on all of us as a team to maintain that lead. We need to we need our punt team needs to
be better, that's for darn sure. Our offense needs to be better, and our defense needs to be responsible to get stops. You know, stops have to be made, plays have to be made. If you make plays to get the stops and you leave with a win. So when we learn to do that consistently, then we're gonna win. We're gonna win, We're gonna win all those kind of games. I mean, giving up a fourth quarter lead is never okay,
it's not acceptable. It should never happen. And you do it because because you don't play consistent football, uh to get the stops that you need to get. And our guys know that they'll they'll take accountability for it. Coaches will take accountability for it. I mean why I say us, I mean all of us players and coaches together, that's our job to get that done. When you guys do.
Lose the fourth quarter, league fans will leak that to other games in which that's happened and say, well, they have an issue with that. But do you do you even look at it that way or do you look at it more as a sort of result of a lot of smaller things that happen in the game and kind of add up to that.
I guess, yeah. Well, I mean, no two things are the same, So I don't know, there's no way to pinpoint it exactly if that's what you're looking for. I'm not really kind of sure exactly how to answer the question, other than to say that you can't give up ten point leads in the fourth quarter. I mean, whatever happens to play consistent football to make the plays that need to be made. I mean, you know, a ball needs to get batted down, a sack needs to be made,
quarterback needs to get tackled. A player needs to get covered. You know, a scrambled drill he needs to get plastered. Somebody needs to catch a pick. You know, over the years you look back, you know, don't drop a pick that didn't happen this game. But you know what I'm saying, plays need to get made to get yourself off the field. Offenses don't take themselves off the field. You've got to get them off the field by the way you play, you know. And I just feel like we just need
to do a better job of that. I mean, that's something that we can be we over the past four or five years, that's something that's been a difference.
Now.
The fact that you have so many leads in the fourth quarter probably lends itself to you're going to lose more leads than most teams. So I understand that part of it. But I also want to win those games. We all do, so we just need to do a better job with that.
You do to prove your efficiency and those challenge when you or your act when you kind of at work just and wise, but take make sure you have only to look over guys.
Yeah, I mean you have your choice, Like basically, you decide if you don't want to, like, if you want to have a winning percentage in challenges, just don't challenge stuff. Just let it go, you know. And if you miss a challenge, you know, if you have one that you should have challenged that you don't challenge, it doesn't get counted against your record. But I don't think that way,
you know, I'm not worried about the record. You know that someone might be printing about what your challenge record is. I'm trying to think about the opportunity in the game to see if we could have a chance to use the challenge to our advantage to try to win the game. So the first one, like I said yesterday, that's probably a situation where I don't mind taking a chance there now one because they did have his hand under the ball, and maybe there's a chance that they'll turn that over.
And you know, I thought probably was less than fifty to fifty when I saw it, I saw it right I looked at it, I saw it. I knew what happened right away. I thought, you know what, I don't mind the time out right here. Let me see if we can get him to turn that one over, because you know, his hand was under the ball, and you know, but I can see why they didn't overturn it. The second one was moving fast, and you know, I saw it from far. I saw it quickly on the replay board.
It was a quick shot in the booth. I thought to myself, it's really close. There's a good chances toes are still on the ground, but there's a chances toes are off the ground and I didn't have time. We didn't have time to get another look at it. So I decided and he the moment, to go ahead and take a shot at it, because I felt like, if we win it, we gotta we gotta, you know, it's gonna really help us. And if we don't win it, I'm hoping that timeout is not going to come down
to be the difference. But I don't have the luxury to know that we're gonna need that time out for sure. So if i'd have been more conservative on that, I wouldn't have thrown the flag, because usually I throw the flag when I'm in a situation like that, I'll usually throw it when I'm sure. I decided on that one to take a shot, you know, and ended up hurting us because if we didn't have the time out at the end of the game.
John hopes these were you with the way that A da fe Away played two and a half sacks and nast a lot about him as far as in the next step, but it's like he was very active in terms of the pressure in the pop.
Yeah, I think A Daugh is just really you know, well, you know, We've been saying it all along. You know that we have pass rushers, you know, and I feel like kind of proud of that. You know that these guys are coming on and we're two games into a long season and we're starting to establish, you know, ourselves and having some guys that can really get to the quarterback.
You know.
So I'm really excited about that, fired up about those guys. I think those guys are going to continue to get better. Da Fe, David Uh, you know Van Noy, you know, the old guy in there, he's rushing the passer well, and Tavius and then you got your guys on the inside between between Nomdie and between Travis and others are doing a good job too.
Just going back to the offensive line, it looked like Roger Rosengartner took a step up in his second game.
What'd you see from him in his product?
Did Roger took really good, really good improvement from week one to week two, you know, as a rookie. First game, now second game, I thought he stepped it up and played well, you know, so that was that was his Obviously he's only played two games, but it was a major major improvement from the week before. So let's hope he keeps on that track.
Maybe you know you've been rotating him in there in the misty games him mccar Would it be a situation you've seen mccar is pretty much go back in each time. Would it be a situation if you felt like Rose Regard was hot or whatever at that time, that he would just would just stick with them?
Well, I think it's possible.
Sure.
I mean, you know Pat's playing well too, you know, but Pat had you know, he's gonna have some places he wants back. So, uh, you know, the more plays you play, the more chances are to have some inconsistencies. But yeah, we're gonna keep working both those guys in there. It's a good thing to have them both. I think that's a positive thing. And I want to get to the point where, you know, the whole offensive line is playing at a consistent level. That's what we gotta that's
what we gotta fight for. Uh, that we're playing on a consistent level across the board with the offensive.
Line's are an ideal.
But is that the onliest one you would think about doing that type of rotations with doing.
The game opposed to it? It just depends on who you have, you know, and who the options.
Are usual.
Expect to achieve that.
No, I think play action passes are really important for us. I mean, that's that's that's a big part of what we need to do as much play action as we can get. Uh, and there's different types of play actions. We threw more screens than we usually do. I think that probably took the place that some play action passes probably in the count, you know, if you're counting. We also ran the ball more than than we have in the past, so that probably might have taken some of
the play action count either. And I think there's always gonna be you know, you might have more play actions, you might have fewer runs, you might have fewer screens, all that kind of stuff. So it goes hand in hand. But you know, play action passes are something we do really well. And I'm I'm a big proponent.
Man.
I wanna see showing the run, throw it behind the linebackers.
Your game.
You up, you're emphasising those more.
You know, wants more consibilities.
Changing the nation.
Well, I mean you're always gonna grow, you know, and the game is never gonna stay the same. You know. We've definitely are trying to take this offense to another level with just being able to being able to do stuff on the field with Lamar Lamar, you know, I would say Lamar has the keys to the offense. You know, he's he's the driver of that car, you know, and
he drives it on the field. You know, Todd's calling the plays, staff is putting the plan together, but Lamar has has has a lot of tools at at his disposal. So that's something that you know that's going to continue to grow and improve and we're going to build on that as we go. I think Lamar's doing a very good job with it, and I'm excited about what we can.
Do with itspctive.
At least broken about from not being Woozers is that Ben Cleveland has held his own when he's played plays out well.
What does he have to do to become an option to playing war snaps?
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, if if Ben had earned the job the right guard, he'd be the starting right guard, you know. So I mean you look at the tape, you know, he didn't beat out Daniel or anybody. I think Ben's a good player. I like Ben. I want Ben to take the next step. You know, he's in the what year is in third year? The fourth year? His fourth year. You know, Ben knows what he needs to do if he wants playing time. He knows how he needs to play, and he knows how he needs
to practice me and gets that chance. So our evaluation right now is that Daniel out played Ben, just fact, straight up, a matter of fact. If we thought Ben and outplayed Daniel, he'd be the starting right guard. So when I see, if I see that Ben's playing better than Daniel, then Ben will be the starting right guard, you know, and he practices every day. So it's like just to tell all the guys, I mean, show me, and that goes talk. We're talking about Ben because that's
the question. I love Ben, and I think Ben can be a great player. I want to see it, just like I want to see it with Daniel, Okay, just so I want to see it with all the players. So we'll keep fighting for that, and UH, those guys will keep fighting for that.
You know.
We coach our guys, and our guys compete and uh, and we're going to continue to improve fine personnel.
Not for twelve persons playing of the N five personnel have you kind of seen that way out of eleven being.
Which you look at in the front and runking.
And asking, yeah, we're trying to run the ball as much as we can. Out of that group, you know that we call tiger, you know, with with Uh, with Mark and with Isaiah on the field, you know, which is gonna be seen as a passing group. It's gonna be seen very similar to eleven personnel or if you want to call it zebra like the West Coast teams do, you could and like we do, you could call zebra in here too. You know, there's a lot of ways
things you can call it. So uh, that's gonna be seen like more like more like eleven twelve is with those guys. And then when you put Pat out there, even even even eleven, Pat might be seen either as a pass protection type of deal or run deal. So you try to balance all that out. But a lot of it's gonna be situationally too. So you can be in third and eight and it doesn't matter what you put on the field, they're gonna you're gonna get nickel
or dime. So you can put whatever you want on the field and you're still going to get the passing stuff, you might get single high more than more than too high, maybe because it might think you're going to try to run the ball, but that might be true more th third and three, third and four, third and five. So we understand all that, and you try to keep people honest. You know, you do the best you can, but you're not going to be fifty to fifty. I mean, there
are going to be tendencies. You know, that's that's part of the deal. There's a reason that Mark and Isaiah are out there. But you also want to take advantage of the fact that they loosen it up too much and you run the ball, you know, And we try to do that, and we'll continue to try to build on that.
We're talking about this yesterday obviously the eleven penalties yesterday. You know, probably a couple of questions once I think seven the week for how much of it when then it's just in the conversation in the meets, have that pan over these for three weeks.
I would say it's a massive point of a massive point of emphasis, has been a massive point of emphasis and will always be. You know, it's it's just not okay. There's know you can talk about some calls here, talk about holding call, definitely talk about a call that was called as a face mask. You can talk about one of the past interferences, you know, and those are those
are game changing plays, no doubt about it. But you can't talk about you can't talk about false starts, you know, you can't talk about obvious holding, you know, things like that. Can't talk about not lining up correctly. Those are things that we have to take responsibility for. And that's we're not there yet by any stretch of the imagination in terms of playing you know, playing consistent football across the board and not making mistakes that are costing us opportunities
to move yards. So I would say that we cost ourselves more plays than our opponents do right now on both sides of the ball. And that's something that just we have to clean up.
John I mentioned the team has to be better on that. On the style of twenty four yards, what's a mechanical issue spreading molding and you.
Didn't see a tape on that orsition.
Yeah, it's it's a technical issue. It's a punting punting is it's kind of like golf, you know, I mean, you know golf. Fortunately, the ball doesn't move, but it seems so hard the punter the ball is moving. I still don't think it's as hard as go. Well, who of us in here could punt the ball? Probably none of us, you know, but some of us think we
can play golf. So I recognize it's hard, but you know, these are the you know, Jordan's one of the best punters in the world, and that punt's got to be made, he knows, you know, not just that one. It wasn't a good game. You know, it wasn't the kind of game he's capable of. It's not the way punting practice. So you got to take your practice performance and you got to take it to the game. You got you
gotta help us, you know. So he's very conscientious. He wants to be the best, and uh, you know, sometimes you got to take a deep breath and just just go through your technique and do it the right way. And he's capable of that. And we're going to keep We're going to keep supporting him and keep coaching him. And I'm confident he's going to get the job done. But the job wasn't done in the last game. Hur Team.
Joh I think ULDs Prissy Natures report with the cushions, you have an update.
On where he is hurt all wise, I don't have an update really. I'm hopeful he'll be back this week though.
Did you get out the game health the other wise job?
I think so, but like you know, you never know, but I feel pretty good about it.
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