Welcome into the Ravens Press Past podcast. It is Monday, September ninth. The Ravens were back on the practice field today preparing for their home opener coming up against the Las Vegas Raiders. After practice today, we had a chance to hear from head coach John Harpall.
Okay, good to see everybody. Appreciate you guys being here. That's a fumble. Those are bad, very bad fumble. That's right. That's a great point. That's right. You get on the ground, you crill up around it. Yes, that's a shot. That's a shot he's taking out of me. I appreciate everybody being here. We're looking forward to the next challenge in front of us. Got a good practice today and we're getting ready for the Raiders. What questions you have We
didn't see them more out there in the practice. Yeah, we had a number of guys that weren't out there, some personal, uh, some some you know, physical. So you know, injury report comes out Wednesday afternoon, so you'll be better advised on that day regarding all those guys. Coach, two sacks, seven quarterback hits against the Chiefs. What do you think of the past rushing team? I thought the pass rush was good. You know, you're you're you're rushing Patrick Mahomes.
I'm a little disappointed a couple of times he got out, but I really haven't seen a game where he hasn't gotten out to some degree to extend plays. I thought we got him a number of times, kept him in the pocket pretty darn well all in all, pressured him. I felt good about it can be better. Absolutely, it can be better, and in some cases with Patrick, just like it's gonna be with Gardner Minshew, because they're mobile
guys who move around knowing better than Patrick Mahomes. But just a matter of just just be impatient enough to go ahead and wrap him up. You know, those are the things I think that that we couldn't do better. And we talked about that today. When did you When were you notified about this point of bamphasis about the formations and are you satisfied that.
Point made it's not going to be an issue going forward or how do you approach it there?
Well, Yeah, we had the officials here in the preseason and uh and we uh, we talked to him about it. Lined up, Ronnie lined up probably closer than he did in the preseason practices in all those times. Uh, and then they called him, you know, so Uh, we hate. We do have data on that, and we have tracking data. They get the chips in the shoulder pads, so we know exactly where Ronnie was lined up relative to where their guys were lined up. Uh. And Uh, I'm not
worried about it going forward. I thought Ronnie was in reasonable position there most all the time. I do think the adjustment needs to be made. Is is like during the course of the drive. If they basically if it's something that you didn't expect and it's totally different than they're calling the games, he's got to make the You got to make the drastic adjustment right away and then we'll talk about it later, you know. And Ronnie was Ronnie actually thought he was doing that. So when you
watch the tape, I think what he said bears out. John, I have to the game. I think some of the players we're talking about them edunication the defense, or can be more so specific when it comes to the cloud and communication on defense. Our issues on defense were, Uh, we had a missed assignment, you know that hurt us. That's something that was really not so much a communication issue, just just a volume issue probably as much as anything. You know, we're looking at that really hard first game
of the season in that kind of an environment. The other issues were more just the way we played the play. So I don't think maybe communication was used in kind of a general term. I think the substitution issues were legit if you want to call those communications. Certainly, probably we had too many substitution groups up to be honest, you know, I think we were trying to play a lot of different guys and get them in their situationally, I guess the no huddle team, and we didn't do
a great job. They were selling guys in like at eighteen seconds on the play clock and calling their play real quick. So that creates an issue where we put our group in there, then you gotta call the play before the fifteen second clock goes off. I think that might have been it. Maybe that was what they were talking about, that was a communication issue, But really more it's a it's kind of a substitution issue. We changed it.
We fixed it in the third quarter when we when we kept our groups on the field, and we didn't have an issue to that, So that's probably what they're talking about Blacker Room the week one breach here when you make the oldest progress that you read that, I've been saying that for seventeen years here, you know, and I would say that, you know, and and that's what you know, I appreciated about. I think what our guys were saying after the game, you know, taking that kind
of positive approach. Not in any way too. I mean the Chiefs, they're a great football team. I mean they won the game because they played the winning is football. You know, they made the fewest mistakes and that's why they won the game. And those are things that you know, those those that get your floor in your ceiling, right, the floor, the ceiling, how highs the ceiling, how highs the floor, how lows the ceiling, How how lows the floor? You want to always raise the floor, you know. That's
what winning football does. It raises the floor as high as it can be. And we've been that kind of team over the years. That's why we won so many games. And I think that the Chiefs floor was higher in that game than our game was and and ultimately that was probably the difference in the game. So those are the things I think we can do this week. We can raise that flo lower up quite high. I'm not
too worried about our ceiling. I know we've got tremendous players and we'll make plays, but I want to see that floor come up a little bit and play a little more that way between week one and week two. The follow up on.
That, in terms of some of the things you just highlighted, was that attributable to some of their success in the middle of the field. It seemed like that, you know, they were particularly successful there if you will.
They had some crossing routes back if you want to know the details of it. I mean, we got quarters covers in the backside. They were on speed from bunch splitz back to the quarter side, and they were leveraging the underneath the underneath defense. A couple of times, especially early in the game, we cleaned it up. We changed which side we were rolling the coverage too, and it cleaned it up. So you do make those adjustments during
the course of the game. I mean, you know, you're playing a team that game plans really well, and that had whole off season to game plan us, you know, so they came up with a couple probably three good ideas that were that were good that. It's the nice thing about it is you play that team in the first week, you see the stuff that other people might see too, probably not, because they're probably the best in the business at that. So I feel kind of good
about that. I thought we adjusted during the game on those things pretty well, things we hadn't seen before.
People talk about the formation stuff about consistency, and I've read some stuff over the weekend that the concern would be different.
Officiating crews may call it different.
I don't know your what your plans were Sunday, But did you watch the game looking.
For that in particular where guys were lined up on other teams? Is that something you guys have paid attention to? Well, I didn't. I didn't watch the games looking for that, but we have we have tracking data, so our analytics people will have the tracking data. We have the tracking data from that game. We know exactly where the chief tackles were lined up and exactly where ours were lined up, so we know and if someone wants to do that,
maybe our guys will do. That's probably good idea. I haven't sent it to you, you know, for the league, and you'll have it. That's not I mean it's public information as far as I know. If it's not, I'm sure we'll get a memo from the league on that. But so that it's not even that's one of those ones that's black and white. You know, you can look at that and know exactly where they're lined up, so
you can know exactly whether it's being called consistently or not. Coach, But was the reaction to Kyle van Noyd's diagnosis and what's the game plan going forward the next couple weeks about the veteran like that on the outside, Uh, my reaction is that their injury report will come out Wednesday after practice and we'll know more then.
So we know.
The run game is a big part of what you guys want to do, especially with Henry here now not a lot of success Thursday night.
What did you see when you watched.
The run game.
I think it's a great quick point and I think it's gonna be kind of Every game is gonna be kind of interesting and different. I like the way the run game looked for the most part, with just the running back run game. There were some plays that I'd like to see be blocked a little better, but other plays that were blocked really well, and and then we rushed for one hundred and eighty five yards overall, and a lot of that to them. A but that's the formula.
The formula is all the guys together. It's not just the one guy. I think we didn't bring Derek in here to be, you know, the guy that gets the ball thirty times a game. He's done that before. That's really not the plan. The plan is is Derek Lamar, Mark, Isaiah Zay, Bait Nelly. You know, that's kind of the plan in this offense going forward. So I think that evaluation will be best made, you know, over the course
of the season. And I'm very confident there's gonna be games where where where Derek's gonna go for one hundred plus or more and you're gonna be asking me, why ISAA only got two catches? You know, that's probably gonna happen during the course of the season, and that's gonna be good for us. That's that's what we want to be. We want to be unpredictable that way, and where what does the game take us? You know as we get into the game.
I guess along those lines, one of the things you were hearing from Putnit's on Friday, was are the Ravens kind of searching for I appreciate the pundit, thank you. Are they searching for an offensive identity?
And I mean you were sort of just touching on that.
I mean, do you feel like you're maybe gonna have a different offensive identity week to week to.
Some well, I mean you're gonna use your different weapons week the week, you know. I feel like an offensive idea entity is definitely something that you you develop over the course of time. We've had We've had a lot of iterations of offensive identities over the years, especially since Lamar's been here. But they do start with your quarterback. You know, if you watch you look at the Chiefs, it definitely starts as Patrick. They're probably more established with
that right now with our guys that they have. But you know, Pacheco gets the ball, where was where was? Kels didn't get the balls many times in this game, you know, So it's just going to be game to a game like that in any good offense.
Obviously a lot of kudos for Justice Phill on those those last two plays blocking Chris Jones won one. I guess first of all, was that what was supposed to happen execution isn't. And second one, just what did.
You kind of see? Yeah, well, I give I give well, I showed the guys that those two plays I get. I thought Justice was amazing. You know, I give him all the cred in the world. That was one of those ones with the crowd noise. We wanted to bake. We wanted to go to a base six man protection and fan our tackles, but we didn't get to it with the crowd noise. Maybe that's a communication thing on offense,
uh that we would have liked to have had. And I think in that protection, Justice made the adjustment he was expecting to tackle to probably, but then he tackled in fan and there he was with number ninety five right in front of him, and I thought he did a pretty darn good job given the circumstances. So that's part of the communication. When you're up there and you're looking for blitz or no blitz, those kind of things, and you check your protections to that kind of stuff.
You've got to work through those things. Roger Rose Garden in for a couple series in the first half. Are you guys pretty committed to giving him more game action, finding opportunities for him to play a little right tackle. Yeah, I mean, I think just it would be smart. He's a talented player. It would be smart to develop him, you know as we go. You know, you got the veteran guy, Pat McCarry's. I think it's about a solid
of a players you're ever going to see. Knows what he's doing, Trustworthy been there before that environment, you know, Pat was Pat was, Pat was what we thought was the best best there and I think going forward, but also Roger is an up and coming player, and we want to make sure that we keep keep giving him opportunities to grow those lines. You know, earlier we were talking about progress week one, week two. It happens for all players. How much of that progress do you want
to see on that offensive line? You know, among everybody? And I guess from a chemistry how much I'd like to see it be ten million times better. That's what I want. But you think it'll be ten many times better, It's gonna be twice as good. Dependine you're gonna get, You're gonna get. The baseline is not He's pretty darn good. Baseline is pretty darn good in that environment against that against that defense. You know, I'm not I'm not as like fair klempt is that is that the right word
for clempt? Okay, thanks, I appreciate that. It doesn't bother me as much as it bothers you, obviously or some others. I'm not too worried about the offensive line because I know how hard day work, and I know how talented they are. And I watch all the other offensive lines in the National Football League, and I think if you applied some of the same standard to the other offensive lines out there, you'd be like, boy, it's a tough position to play against these guys. So our offensive line
is gonna be really good this year. I believe that we're working hard towards that. So I'm not gonna sit here and doubt those guys. I'm gonna coach those guys, and those guys are gonna get out there and play, and I think by the end of the season, you're gonna feel real good about our offensive line chemistry working, you know, working together. The more time they have on
the field together help that massively, massively, no doubt. I mean, when that when that offensive line goes out there again in that in that stadium with that crowd noise against that defense. Uh, and that kind of a game that that's that's it. Man. It's not gonna get tougher than that. So I appreciate that. Now, we got another challenge coming in here this week because we've got another great defensive line that will be lining up again. So let's get
locked in on that challenge. Keep it simple, and we'll be in good shape for fronts for one hundred and twenty two yards. I mean, at this point, seven years into this.
Whole thing, do you does that still impressure or as you kind of go like, oh, that's that's Lamar.
You know, yeah, well it still impresses me. I mean I think it should. Doesn't impress you presses Lamar always impresses me. I just I feel like he never he doesn't really surprise me because I guess we've seen it so much and it's just been a gift to Baltimore and to to to the Ravens and to all of our fans and all of us. But you know, being there and there with him every day, I recognize how how how much it means to him, how competitive he is, what kind of a fighter he is, and this guy
wants to win, you know. He wants to he wants to make plays, he wants to lead his team. You know. That's what I saw on Thursday night. And all the football stuff. We just keep coaching, you know, and he's the leader in that. So but I'm proud of him. I had nothing but admiration for Lamar Jackson.
You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. If you want more of a deep dive into that game against Kansas City, head over to the Lounge podcast feed and subscribe. There, we break down the film and tell you all the things that we learn after looking at the film from that opener. That's it for us today on the Ravens Press Pass Podcast, But make sure you're back on Wednesday, as the Ravens will have a full day of media availability leading into that home open