Ravens-Cardinals Week 8 Postgame Press Conference 10/29

You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens are coming off a thirty one to twenty four win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The Ravens are now six and two on the season, which is good enough for first place, tied with three other teams in the AFC. Now, this was a game where the Ravens really relied on the running game. Gus Edwards had three touchdowns in this victory, and the Ravens talked after the game about the significance of this win and where they sit after the first

I just felt like it was a tough game. I mean, Cardinals are a good football team, and they're physical, the tough you understand what you're building. Their coaches coaches doing a great job with them. But our guys, you know, coming across country and all the things we've been dealing with as far as that not playing, you know, we we weren't great.

We weren't really.

As chrisp and sharp as we wanted to be by any stretch. And yep, we kept grinding, we kept fighting and found a way to get the things that get the job done.

What questions you have, I gotta get like a diea home or something.

Talking about Uh, Michael Pierce game he played, seeing image plays up front was really dominated.

Mike was dominant, Like you had four or five tackles for laws, he had bull stops on the fourth down. Uh, and he had a sack. I mean, he he just took over the game inside.

How much does that kind of.

Helped set the tone?

You know, you guys obviously move quickly down the field first drive and things kind of slowed from there.

For how much did that help to set the tone when you, Yeah.

When you're struggling a little bit, you know, really not hitting, and they had some good schemes and they were they were running some good plays, and someone's got to step up. You know, someone's gotta make place in this league. You have to make plays. I mean, somebody's gotta make place. You know, market's key. First down, first drive. You know, somebody's got to do something to make the plays and keep you going. I just felt like Michael was definitely that guy for us.

John, how much are you encouraged that you could not play your best, not play great? You can still find a way to win the football game and the build on that.

I think that's a really good point because in this league you have to be able to do that. You're just not going to be hitting on every cylinder every single week, you know, and you have to find a way to win those games. I think the best teams over time prove that they'll win games even when they're not their best. I'll find a way to win games late. They'll find a way to win a game when they can't run it, when they can't throw it, or when they can't stop something, They'll still find a way to

John, What do you think just the accumulative impact of Gus down that down the stretch was to wear down that defense.

It was big.

I mean, you know, the second half, we got the run game going. We were throwing the ball quite a bit in the first half, you know, and and we had some success doing it.

But but to.

Get the run game going the second half and then the fourth quarter to be able to take the ball down there, take up all that time and score.

That was a huge drive right there to two of them. Really you mentioned it.

I think you guys are over seventy percent pass right on early downs in that first half. I guess was that just the game band along? Was that Lamar having control to pick and choose?

No, I mean, I just felt like that's the way the game is called, you know, And we'll definitely look at it, you know. I mean we're going to be our own worst critics. Nobody's is their own worst critic more than our play call. I promise that, huh, Mark, I mean, he criticized himself pretty hard, and he'll look at all that.

But you know, there's a reason for doing that, you know.

I think we were attacking some things and we're trying to go right at him and attack them in certain ways with their coverage and stuff, and and we had some success doing it. But you know, to get the run game going to the second half was big. I mean, Gus had eighty yards three touchdowns. It's a pretty big deal.

You mentioned the run game.

How confident were you guys, and you're running buds today?

You know confident?

I mean We're confident in Gus, We're confident injustice, you know, and obviously we want to get you know, get our guy back keeling, you know, and get healthy with that. And Melvin Gordon, I mean, he's sitting there on a practice squad and we think the world of him too, so we're gonna try to find a way to get him involved.

So, yeah, we like our running backs a lot.

John West carried in the right tackle for a lot of couple of drives. Is that injury.

Related or not?

It was kind of just kind of give give Morgan a little a little chance to not have so many reps. You know, you got Pat, I mean, why not put him out there. He's a starting caliber player.

John at six and two? Now, does it mean anything that right now you're tied with the best record in the AFC with the Chiefs, the Jags and the Dolphins. Does that mean anything to you guys?

You know, my mom always says get the lead, keep the lead. So you know, we're tied for the lead.

I guess.

But it's a long season. As we say, nobody's crowned after eight games. There's a lot of football to be played. The season is long for a reason, you know, and it does weed out the best. And if we want to be the best or considered the best, we're gonna have to do it over the long haul.

Very confident in our guys.

I think our guys have what it takes character, toughness, resilience. I really love our guys. I'm proud of our guys. I think that they fight, man, they fight. And we have really good players who are really talented. We have really good coaches. So one week at a time, we got a very good team coming in Seattle. I think they won, right, they beat Cleveland, you know, so you know, we were already thinking about that.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson threw a touchdown pass in the victory. Now, the offense was kind of up and down. The running game really is what drove the offense today. And here's what quarterback Lamar Jackson had to say.

Obviously, third straight win, but just how the game went, how do you kind of take away, you know, is it still win a win or how do you feel the overall performance for the team.

A win is a win, but I feel like we need to put more points on the board. We was punning the ball a lot in this game. You know we didn't do it last week, but the NFL sometimes they're not gonna things might not go our way.

What was it giving you a problem mark the first half offensively?

Well, what is it more you guys holding yourself back or was it something that were doing that.

Was uh making a difficult they up?

I believe the defense, the type of defense they were playing. Uh some of the cars look well some of the players we we had, you know, we shouldn't be holding the ball along. You know, they was able to get after us a little, rocked the backfield a little. That's all but hash hongs of they defense cause they fought.

They fought well.

Mar Uh, everyzon doesn't blits a whole lot, and don't I don't think they they blitz the ton today. I could be wrong, but what is I it's just the strategy on like a you know, first down, second down to kind of attack.

The way that they dropped back of the coverage.

Uh f W I G.

When they were dropped back in coverage, we that we had longer development routes, and the uh defensive line was you know, cause of habit.

And it's all My big discuss is uh running the second half kind of loosing things up and get you guys well offensively.

I believe it's rung as it was huge. You know, he he made great, great cuts, great runs. Also, line did a great job.

Yeah, we need more more of the phone, Lamara.

Uh Odell didn't.

I don't know if he's ever had a line with this. He didn't have any catches to undrew. Three penalties, two of which were were big. It's for the pass affairs these games. You need to talk about the significance of with that. They obviously s you know, set you guys up pretty well.

Yeah, it's great, but trying to get him a touchdown, you know, Uh, it'll be great if it'd have been touched down instead of prs. But uh, we appreciate the call. But yeah, we just gotta keep getting after it cause we need him to score.

He deserves it, Lamar.

How do you draw that line with being encouraged that you could win different styles of football games yet striving for that consistency.

Weekend and the weekend since that one more time?

How do you draw the line of you know, being encouraged that you can win a different styles of football game, whether you play good or bad or whatever. But also searching for that consistent performance.

I draw the line was just go out there and play hot tails off, you know, but try to get a win at the end of the day, but try to be consistent at the same time, try to balance it.

If anything, one feth quarter, when you got in your last h last touchdown, drive was a ninth play drive, eight runs, one pass. Did you start that drive committed to the run or was it just something that you guys saw.

Uh.

I believe that was coach coach's decision, coach monk uh. But I I believe we got away from the runs. We was passing the ball a lot early in the game, and I believe we should have been running a little bit, just balance our offense out because last week when we was balancing our offense, we we showed strides of being great off all calibers across the board.

Well, Mart, this is a stretch. You had played five games.

Four of 'em on the road, two the AFS or one in London, one of another one out west.

You take any solace of how you guys got through that stretch with uh, you know, four wins and and work put you for the second half.

Uh sh uh.

We got We got tough guys, you know, guys who was willing to win and.

Adapt into s adversity.

Uh.

Different type of weather, long flights, uh s. I it's just crazy, But I believe our team, the Scott's a limit for us, you know, we just got to find a way to fight within all of that chaos.

This game was very special for tight end Mark Andrews. He's a native of Scottsdale, Arizona, so this was a homecoming for him. He talked about playing back in Arizona and what the win meant for this team.

The kind of looking part of you out here of just how many people Ron.

Hamper for you.

Yeah, you know, just being back in Arizona. You know, for me it was awesome. First time playing back here since you know, high school, so that was cool. But really just having my family in there and having them all be there was was special. And I'm happy the way the guys played, how they fought. You know. I thought that, you know, we could have you know, taken control of this game and blown this, blown the game out, but and I think we did. At the end of

Like good. So you talked about what those two interceptions did for you guys offensively, and they did, so you kind of give.

You a spark to set up those short fields huge. They were huge, you know. I think all year, you know, the defense you know that's been you know, getting timely turnovers and for us to be able to capitalize on that and get points off those as big.

Mark, were there any looks defensively that they were doing early in the game that kind of prevented you from getting.

A rhythm, you know, I think that you know, you look at the first drive, it was good, and then we started to find our groove. But there was too many drives where we weren't in a groove, you know, And you know that's the part where I still feel like we controlled the game. Obviously we have a great defense like that, you can control the game and and and have some stalls. But for us, if we're able to capitalize and score and drive the ball, and too many threw it outs. So we got to work on that.

Mark. I think you might heard when I told John that, you know, the Chiefs losses right now, you know, the Ravens, Jags, Dolphins, and Chiefs all art six and two, best record in the AFC.

Do you feel like you guys have have at least at this point, proven that you should be considered among the best.

Do I think that, you know, we have incredible players? Yeah, I do. I think that this team is special. And you know, I think it's it's anybody that watches our games, I can see that, you know, the type of the caliber players from at every position that we have is special and and and that includes the coaching staff. So you know, we're not We're never satisfied. This is just the beginning.

You know.

I think the last three weeks we could have been, you know, turning that leaf over and getting better and better. So for us, just continue to work, focus on ourself, you know, tone, you know tone, All the outside noise that's noise out, that doesn't matter to us. We're just working, worried about ourselves and getting better.

Not being in a groove, but still got grinding through and getting away. How might that develop this team's mental toughness?

That was good, you know, and they hung on for for a long time. You know, it really could have been over faster, but that's the way sometimes, you know, games go. This is the NFL any given Sunday, and for us, we're going, We're thankful to come out of this with a win and proud of the way we.

Thought touchdowns significant to.

You at all?

Forty Yeah, it is one away for Todd heaves record. Let's go, man, we're close. I had to get my guy here to throw the ball.

Someone who had a really strong game was defensive tackle Michael Pierce. He had a sack and was really just a force on this defense that he talked about this win.

So you hear about a lot of offensive players being in the zone sometimes, and do you feel sometimes defensive players can we go out there?

Do you sometimes can feel like you're in the zone a little bit?

Yeah, so those going maybe it may look a little different today. It was a good day for me obviously, But no, man, you definitely be in the zone. Like I said, it could be a lot less eye popping or you know, highlight worthy plays, but definitely you definitely can.

Like I know, you didn't have a sack until today, but you know all the metrics that you were having just a great, great season in terms of beating the guy, maybe just some bad luck.

In terms of not finishing those plays off.

I mean, how'd you feel kind of coming in today and what was the relief to actually get a sack and they get stripsack?

Big, big relief.

You always want to do your part, Like I said, I've like you said, I've been getting to the quarterback, just hadn't getting them down. I happened to get a fine from tackling them and not getting them down. So no, man, it's it's been an interesting year, but our defense has been doing great. We let a lot of stuff slide today, but it's good to be on the board and hopefully a lot more to come.

Michael, how personal were you taking when they were running the ball? Just your defense as a whole when they were running the ball? Little bit on you guys early.

Very very much so personally outside of the Colts. That was probably our worst performance. So anytime we pride ourselves, we haven't. I mean, we gave up a long run in Cleveland too. They pushed them like right over a hundred. But like I said, we pride ourselves on stopping to run. Uh, we got a lot of stuff to clean up in that area, especially the first half tape. So before Seattle comes, we have got some work to do. But uh, I'm glad we made some strides in the second half for sure.

What kind of ut what does that do for your team in general?

And you know, the offense and maybe Sharut Pitsball's game we are out there, but yeah, the defense is.

Better in particulars to kind of keep that going.

That's a momentum jump man, you know, as a defender, you know, especially for me, I never see those kind of players come my way, but uh, it's just a momentum jump for everybody. So two fourth down stops no matter who makes him. We've seen a lot of guys met A Beaks and playing out of his mind. Rose had amazing games. Uh, when you have a lot of defenders who are really good, it's a long season, so you need guys like myself, like Brody's gonna have a

What's the poling for an opposing defense or defenders.

To see a guy like Gus Edwards just kind of getting the ball time after time, especially late that.

Game, that's awesome.

Man, that's a momentum killer. So especially when you can bleed the talk, bleed the clock. Excuse me, that's big time. So we love to see those drives go as long as they want to go. So now, man, like I said, for us getting those fourth down stops, just how we see our offense running the guys over and having Gus run for three touchdowns and run for eighty yards is huge, man. So that's a momentum, momentum booster for sure.

You guys have done some traveling, I mean London to the desert. Now though at your final nine games you play six of them at home.

How big of a you know thing could that be for you guys? Grateful, grateful for that. Just to be back on Eastern tombs zone to be great. So I woke up at four in the morning this morning. It was it was rough, man, but uh, I had a long way to go before the bus left. But no, man, it's it's good to be back on the Eastern time zone. Like I said, being at home, being comfortable, just getting

In the locker room, we had a chance to talk with Gus the bus and he discussed his three touchdown day.

So it was a good feeling.

I man, I felt like I was definitely the goal is always to help my team win and definitely play a big part today.

Do you feel like you guys were wearing them down, running in that part of why you were able to be effected more effectively the second average?

Yeah, we started, we started to get going at some time there in the second half, and we was getting great push. Guys was holding onto their box and the may the holes is kind of huge.

You know how much are.

You kind of relishing that opportunity, particularly second half wearing a defense down like that and so forth? For you?

Personally, I love it.

I love it when whenever my number was called, I try to be relevant, try to make plays for the team.

Figure out.

So Lamar said he didn't think you guys were running the ball or nothing. Yeah, do you agree with that?

And was there something said in the locker room, Hey, let's let's let's start running over more.

I didn't even hear nobody say, but I feel like it was just like everybody knew that we got to get back to the running game before before the game has really started. Before just watching on the film, we definitely seen some stuff on there that we felt like we could run the ball. So I'm glad we was able to get back to to that before it was too late.

Because a lot of speculation to win this game and got what you guys a trade deadline.

I know you don't have a lot of say over that book.

Did you use any of that from motivation in the game of today?

I don't know nothing about that.

We also heard from Betteran linebacker Rowan Smith, no work one always has high expectations for this defense. That he talked about the defensive performance and the win overall.

So it was kind of crazy. I felt bad, I told earlier I shot him with texts this morning and I did didn't realize it. Like, so I got pictures. I can show you pictures on my outfit. I tried on at home everything. I got the hat and you know what I did. I forgot my boots and I said, I'm not wearing all black with DSE shoes, So I was like, well, like in this and I wasn't yes, but it probably would have been yeah. And then I let Patrick down though, you know, Patrick the cowboy.

That's what.

Are your takeaway to this win? Obviously wasn't easy what you guys did with it took just your thoughts about you know, how you guys played.

Defensively, honestly, man, you know, hats off of those guys and personally speaking for myself and I think I can speak for the rest of the defense. Uh, we didn't play to our standard at the end of the day, but that just a credit to those guys for coming out ready to play. And honestly, we just got to look ourselves in the mirror, noring and there's gonna be a tough Seattle team coming into town next week, and we just can't let the same mistakes throughout this game.

How big do you think those picks were by Gino and Brandon to kind of turn the momentum in your guy's favorite.

Oh man, that was huge. You know, hats off to you know, Geno, b Steve and the secondary coaches in the defense, you know, as far as the guys up front too, forcing Aaron throws and whatnot, and those guys taking advantage of it. So I think those definitely cruise you throughout the game, and it was definitely some momentum.

By the way, Peers was kind of wrecking things for you in front of you there today.

Yeah, Juggernaut, that's what we call him, you know, big fellow up front. You know, love playing behind him, man, And like it takes two to block him. I don't really see too many times with one person like just single handling moving, let alone block him, you know, So it takes two to even attempt to move. And so that's how I look at it, and I love playing

Really, are you pleased with the win given?

You know the offense maybe it wasn't clicking and then it's offensive things like you said or or you do you feel more like fortunate.

Than you.

What the offense do is what the offense do. I never concerned myself with anything those guys do. Got a lot of great a lot of faith in Lamar, Todd, Monk all those guys. And what I look at is defensively, how we played, and I just know we didn't play to our standard. So at the end of the day, a win is very hard to come by in this league. So very grateful to be on the winning side, being

Like full well understanding but prey deadline.

So do you feel like this team needs anything or do you think you guys are good enough right now?

Oh my god, yeah, man, I think we I'm kidding, but no, I leave that up to the you know, the GM scouting department and all those guys. Just like last year, I was in that position, so I definitely know how it is. It's definitely a tough positions for some individuals being able to just uproot it and Dan just having to go somewhere. So I'm sure, you know, GM, E, DC and the guys feel as if there are some pieces out there.

That can help us.

I'm sure they'll bring it in.

But you know, I love this team. I think we got a lot of great players in every position throughout from top to bottom. So I'm just excited to be a part of it. And if anybody else come welcome them. If not, we're good as we are.

I know you're you know, obviously it's just game your front or to the next one. But can you reflect on on the last year since you can hear that's been like.

For yeah, man, Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Man, as I think about it, you know, like just actually, you know, at a walk through in Chicago and then you know, basically about to leave the building and go get a massage and whatnot, and then you know, I get a top on the shoulder like in a sense saying, you know, the GM will want to see you, so like it definitely, it's definitely it was Definitely it was emotional during the time, you know, because like just thinking, like you know, Chicago,

You're listening to the Ravens Press Past podcast. If you want more of a breakdown on this game, head of to the Lounge podcast feed. Ryan Mack and I break everything down for you over there and give you our full take on this win. Make sure you leave a rating and a review and hit that subscribe button as well. Thanks for listening, talk with you again, said