Ravens vs. Eagles Preseason Week 1 Postgame Press Conferences

Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. The Ravens had the preseason opener Friday night, August ninth against the Eagles. The Ravens drop the opener sixteen to thirteen, came down to a last second field goal by the Eagles. After the game, we had a chance to hear from head coach John Harball.

All Right, good to see everybody.

It's good to get the season kicked off and play a game, get a chance to see the guys in action. The young guys went out there, played hard, fought, competed.

Happy with that.

Many good things and many things to work on. So that's the thing I told them in there. The great thing about a first game is you get an opportunity to see exactly where you're at. You get to get to see some good stuff, and you get to see you're exposed and what you need to work on. Sometimes it's hard to see that in practice. So happy about that, and we got work to do. Give the guys a day off tomorrow and we'll be back at it on Sunday.

Uh, we'll get we'll find out more tomorrow when they get tested. We expect to see gave it a job over.

He did not play on him.

Yeah, he wasn't cleared by the doctors to play in the game.

Kay, John Helpes.

Where you to see Wigans have three pass break ups on that opening drive, you know, rookie.

First round pick, first action.

Nice to see him test and didn't answer that. Uh, very happy to see that.

I thought they kind of went at him a little bit, which was good to see. And heck, yeah, when you're a corner, corner of his caliber, he wants.

That, you know.

So I think he was excited about that and came up and made that hit later and uh, played a good.

Game seem today.

Yeah, I mean a lot of great stuff flies around. Trend's a guy that you know, he just he loves football. He wants to be great at everything he does. I promise he's not happy with it when he played. You know, he thinks he can play a lot better, right, and he'll be. He'll be looking to improve between now and next week. But that's a good start for him.

Uh. He's never gonna be afraid. He's always gonna fly around throw it in there. So he's our kind of guy.

He go things that make some confidence for Tavi and Larry starts down.

Uh yeah, I mean it's good to see made some good decisions. Uh we we gotta get on the same page a little more. Some of the routes he had had some guys not running right routes all the time. That's tough, but uh uh, I thought he started. It was a good start for him.

You mentioned, uh Baco Center, biggest plus from what you had to think. Cleveland's in there to day.

Yeah, I mean we'll see, you know, I gotta look at the tape to kind of get a feel for that. I'm not exactly sure how those guys did specifically too much, but we had we we were pretty solid, look like, So we'll see what looks like on tape.

That's the thing.

You just can't wait to get to the tape and and really break it all down and see where you're at.

What.

Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean he's you know, he feels bad about it, but he's just starting out learning experience for him. I think you the speed of this game is a little different, you know, and going in there that first snap, you know, it's uh, that's a tough situation to be in.

So uh So I don't know, it's he'll learn from it. It'll be fine.

It's preseason, you know, we we learn, try to learn as much as we can from these situations, and he'll be better for it. He's a he's a conscientious guy. He wants to do well. He's a good dude, really works hard. Uh, you know, one of those guys that takes responsibility for all that kind of stuff.

And he'll be fine.

Any of me would take aways from the the special team return and changes and uh, Eagles had one pretty decent return to anything else can cuss home?

Yeah, I mean r L three didn't do a great job of getting in there on his leverage on that one. So I I that's the one thing I did notice. The rest of it, as far as what the play looks like and all that stuff, it's like kind of done commenting on that.

You know, it is what it is. Ever you all saw it.

So we just gotta try to get as good as we can at it. So we'll be we'll be looking at that really hard and trying to trying to keep keep improving there and see see where we were right, and things we thought about in terms of how we are teaching it and things that we can learn from John.

You had declared the jobs in the back up pretty early on on what what.

Did you see from him tonight that you know not most.

Person light and see for him?

When was the last part?

I just seemed like, you know again up the time even Yeah, I mean it's preseason. I think if you watch all the preseason games, you're gonna see the same thing, you know. So, Uh, I thought he handled it, handled it well, made some real good throws, the timing and that sort of thing. Yeah, it's tough to evaluate, cause, y you know, the guys aren't out there. It's not it's not always gonna look real great. But I thought

To talk about with that. But I thought they were pretty solid.

You know.

I'd like to see us.

Running the ball a little better, uh, a little more consistently than we did.

Uh.

Pass protection seemed okay for the most part. So uh, you know, that's all I know right now. All right, all right, good thanks.

We also heard from second year linebacker Trenton Simpson. He's in line for a big role and he had a good amount of action in this game. He talked about the value in those preseason reps and what he learned from the experience.

So what did you think of you know, you know, being.

Able to get out there for today?

How man? I feel like it was an awesome opportunity to get out there today and play as a young linebacker. I feel like a getting its many reps, It's is a blessing. It's more the more you see at this position is the more you learn, uh, the faster.

You can play.

So being able to get out there today get reps under my belt and just I feel like I have to just continue to prove on some things. Get back in the drawing board me with he oh Sunday we got practice against So just continue to get better and build from this game.

What did look into improvement?

I can say everything. I mean, I feel like in every game you turn, you take something, you learn from it. But uh, just run fits communication wise, and uh, just continue to just play fast and like I said, like the more you see the more the game slows down. And I just appreciate the reps they're giving me. So by the time week one come, I'll be ready to row for sure.

And co course said you wouldn't be happy with your performance. So if you're critiquing yourself, what were you not happy with? Uh?

I say, man, uh just uh a couple of run fits, you know, sh uh, shooting my gaps, being a little bit more aggressive. But I mean for the most part, I mean it's a blessing because I can go, you know, go look at them tonight. Get ready to play here and we got another game, another two more preseason games, so just continue to grow up and be ready by week one.

I just resolve a lot of you in the INSOURD game in the last season. Uh is there any parts of.

The game that feel, you know, more under your control now that you've had the sort of whole off season.

This frontways impossible starting.

A line back, Yes, sir, definitely confidence wise. Uh, going out there every day and practice, just continue to compete. Gaining the respect from my teammates and my coaches is my goal. And uh that's that's just a daily quest for myself, Just trying to go out there every day, prove my teammates right, Uh, give them the trust in me,

And you played a lot today, how value want?

Did your preseason rush for you?

Uh?

Man, it was awesome, Cause Uh the more I see, the more the games slowed down, the more comfortable.

Uh.

Today was my first day with the Green Dot, so uh having everybody on the same page, Uh was awesome. Now I see what rocun deals with, you know, getting that call. But man, I had a great time. Uh that Green Dots showed me that I'm I'm ready for that and I had a great time just continue to build and get better every game they.

Put with injury, but which you think of going costs to me?

Oh oh man, they played great, great. Uh just to see him fly around. I was so happy to see him get his uh pass break ups, come make some tackles. That's what it was like at Clemson, and I'm excited to see his contin uh his career to continue to grow. He's gonna be a special guy for us for sure. But just go on working with Ross in this game from Jeordian brus Uh, Man, it was awesome cause you know, me and Ross last year on Skelling Bones well scout team for the offense. So uh, just that comm it's

Uh.

It's a lot of rotation and practice. So just being on the same page and just you know, trusting my guys and them trusting me, and we just going out there and trying to execute the playing with the coaches give us trends.

I know it's which is the pre season, but what's kind of motions out there when at the end of the game, when you see the kicker hit the upright and you think, okay, you kind of U allude to that that one and then all of a sudden things happen in and you and you lose a game. Man.

That's tough, uh cause you you definitely go out We practice to come out here and win and put on a great performance. But uh it's a learning lesson. You know, we go get back to the drawing board. We got practiced Sunday, so you know, we'll get back to it, continue to grow, attack it, and you know our next preseason games, go out there, dominate and uh hopefully we'll be proud of our our winner. Victory was like, ah,

More zactly on the Green job is.

He just mostly calling the players or you said, he's got a lot of emotions. He kind of get me fired up.

Yeah, yeah, he was getting me fired up. He's like, let's go send like you know, but also giving me the call. But uh, just that energy and that confidence he has in me. I just wanna continue to go out there and make my teammates proud, my coach is proud of you know, just go out there and deliver. For sure.

What's like hearing that that man?

I love that man, you know, cause that I gotta send that message to the other teen guys out there on the field with me. But uh, just getting that green out for the first time. It gave me a lot of confidence. Having those guys looking for me and waiting to hear what I got to say and related call was awesome. And I feel like communication wise, after the game, I was asking could everybody hear me? And

Even another player who had a strong showing in this game was running back Owen right he's competing for a spot on the roster. He had a solid show and he talked about that with the media. For you today, what would you kind of comeing, What did you come into this game and kind of wanted to show and how did.

You feel like, Yeah, coming into this game, I really just wanted to show that I was consistent. I can make plays on special teams and on offense. You know, obviously there's areas for improvement, like Trent was saying, as your competitor, you always feel like you want to improve on something. So at the you know, I'll go back and look at film and see what I can improve on and be ready for next week.

I mean, how about these stabs, these reps for you to be able to get.

Out there and getting this experience.

Yeah, huge, getting these reps and everything, and especially on special teams, just trying to be you know, places where I can help the team out the most, you know, sacrifice and do all that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's it's huge, especially in the preseason, showing people what you can do and how you can display your talents anywhere and your abilities.

It's big. Over your emotions, your.

Your name being called the starters, are announced and getting that startup offs.

It was honestly a dream coming true, especially being for Maryland playing Baltimore. It's it's huge, especially for my family being here too. It was really a blessing I wanna remember forever. Honestly, do you feel like you might.

Be competing with al of you for one spot or is that not really how you look at this whole process.

I think we just we're a team and you know, whoever is the best is gonna you know, play, and you know, we just come to work and we just compete every single day and just try to make each other better honestly, and not really focused on all the uh the other things. We just try to be the best we can be as a running back group. Doesn't matter who it is.

What's the difference for you, you know this time now compared to this time.

Last year, obviously catch definitely uh a year under my belt just you know, seeing the whole speed of things, understanding you know, the schemes and the concepts and everything a little bit better. Like I said, having that year under the belt is is huge, especially for me learning this offense offensively.

What do you think is kind of the the big takeaway from.

From the sea, I think we we did a lot of stuff. Well, like I said before this, you know, as an offense, we just gotta, you know, gl go back, look at the tape and see how we can execute a little bit better. Some guys made some plays, and you know, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't, and we'll be back next week. And that's what sport it's all about.

So, yeah, when you had a flitz pick up on a third down, Uh, you know, practices a training game, but the physicality is.

Never what it is a real game.

Just what did that feel like, giving blitz or like that?

Yeah, No, I mean it felt great. I think our defense and practice and just our defense over all gives us a great look. It's the hardest defense I've ever played. I think they give us a great look in practice, and when it gets to the game, it's I think it's as easier to pick up than in practice, honestly because of our defense.

Okay, thanks, thank you guys.

The offensive line is a big focus and talking point for this team. Ben Cleveland started at center. He's in places of Tyler linn Obaum's dealing with an injury right now. Cleveland talked about the refs that he got in this game.

I can but you to that. Yeah for sure.

Yeah, I mean, you know it's it's gonna take a second to get you know, in a groove and things like that. You know, I think he did a good job overcoming a little bit of struggle at the beginning and really pushing his way forward and you know, being being really productive and really efficient for.

Us moving the needle. Like a trust with the coaches, Oh for sure.

I mean, you know, whenever you got a guy that shows up every day and just does what he's supposed to and you know, works as hard as he does, I mean.

It's or to not trust a guy like that, and you got to work on it during the week. But how did you feel just as center tonight?

No, I felt really good. And I mean all of our communication everything was good. I mean I felt very comfortable there. You know, I think we were all on the same page all the time. So I mean I felt really good about how I did.

They're not.

Another really important player along the offensive line is Roger Rosengart and the second round pick. The rookie offensive tackles competing for the starting job at right tackle. He talked about his first NFL action and the competition for that job.

Speaking to it.

But what did you think of the NFL action and I would you think of it?

Yeah, I mean it's the NFL, so it's the best of the best, and you know, that's a weekend week out. That's all I could ask for is going against the best, and that's just going to improve myself as a player. You know, I'm going in, So I'm excited going in the next preseason game and hopefully build off that.

How would you kind of describe the feeling of taking the field for the first time and I don't realizing your dream?

Yeah, I mean it was awesome being out there in the NFL uniform, especially with the Baltimore Ravens such a historic organization, so you know, first game it felt really good and definitely got some things to work on, but yeah, I'm excited.

Did you know what the plan was for you coming into into tonight in terms of like what kind of series you would go before it was just kind of playing by year.

With Yeah, for me, it was all played by year. That's the information I got. I was expecting to play all four quarters, so you know, the times I did go into the game and got the drives I did. I wanted to play hard and work on some things, but yeah, I was excited.

If you are called upon to be the starter of the Week one in Kansas City, do you feel like you're on track to feel good about doing this?

Oh?

Absolutely, you know that's uh. I take everything and it starts in practice, you know, starts in the starts in the boardroom, and it goes to transfers of practice and that's where I build my confidence at. So just going into these next preseason games, you know, I'm excited for those, and i'd going into week one, so yeah, I'm excited to build off that, like any any pointers you got from those have been here before their first time to

So I know you don't know any more.

Than us, but you know, Hartviell told us that, uh, Wiggings is going in for testing tomorrow. Just a guy that you came in right, has made the kind of games that he has. What kind of goes through your mind. He's kind of seeing a guy like that in the first game.

I mean, you know, it's a physical game, you know, I know, I know one thing about Nat is that he's gonna come back from it because, uh, he's he's also my locker maate. So we we sit there next next to each other each day and out, and the guy works hard and he performed super well. So I'm excited for him, and I hope everything's okay. So, yeah, he'll be back.

How big of a difference was the goal from you know, obviously having a lot of reps in training camp, but then in a preseason game, help, what was it kind of the.

Big big change for you? Yeah, I mean the big changes. You know, I didn't I didn't get a single drive out there, but the drives that did go in it's just playing hard, you know. So I transferred my practice reps and going and trying to make practice as perfect as possible, because if I make practice harder, then the games come easier. So that's the kind of mentality I have and we'll continue to build off that.

So it's a nice knob out there and sy percent community.

Yeah, it was. It was definitely humid. It was like, I'm from Colorado and then back at school and in Seattle. I've never felt community this intense before. So yeah, I'm interested to see what my parents have to say about it too, because this Baltimore humidity is an no joke.

You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. If you want more of a breakdown from this game, head over to the Lounge podcast feed. Clifton Brown and I do a full breakdown of everything we learned in this matchup. Get that subscribe button over at the Lounge feed and this one as well. Thanks for listening, Talk with you again soon.