September 8, 2025 • 23 mins
Head Coach John Harbaugh speaks with the media on Monday.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday,
September eighth. The Ravens have opened the season with a
forty one to forty loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
On Monday, we had a chance to hear from head
coach John Harbaugh, who shared his perspective of the game
after having some time to look back at the film
and assess what went wrong during this opening game loss.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, good to see everybody appreciate you being here. Had
a chance to dig deep into that game. Since we
got back late last night and meeting with all the
coaches this afternoon just finished up with that, I've had
a chance to even start on the Browns. So a
lot of work has been put in between between the
end of the game last night, traveling and then and
(00:46):
getting ready for next week. So I got a pretty
good handle on what happened and a good handle on
where we're going going forward. And we're excited about the
opportunity to move on and play the Browns and go
find a way to play our best football on Sunday
here at M and T and the home opener. What
questions you have.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
John, when you're looking at the defense kind of throughout
the whole game.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
What do you think the biggest issue was.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Because you know, repeatedly and not being able to slow
down Josh Hallen.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, well, you know that that was the biggest issue.
I mean, we we understand Josh all we've played him
quite a few times. We had we had a little
more success here at our place last year the last
two times there not quite as much. But you know,
we we had a plan and uh and we just
didn't get it done. We weren't able to execute. We
couldn't keep him in the pocket. That was a big
part of the plan would be to keep him in
(01:37):
the pocket. We weren't able to do that. That's probably
the number one disappointment for me. You know, I think
when you when you when you let him extend plays
like that, you know he'll run for yards, but he'll
also find receivers downfield and they do a good job
of getting open and it's just hard to extend that
coverage long enough with his arm strength and accuracy on
the move. So that's the number one thing this early.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
On the edge, just to keep him in the puckingers
is more complicated than that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's more complicated that which it just was. I mean,
he's not he escaped inside. He gets you going one way,
and maybe we overreact. And I do think there's there's
a way we have to get better at it, and
we can get better at it. And I do believe
watching the tape, you know, and just just really just
working on one thing. You get into a game, we
haven't played a game yet, it's an opening game, uh,
(02:23):
against a very good football team in a very hostile environment.
You know, there's a lot of there's a lot of
emotions in that game there and and and you know,
you don't know exactly what react because you haven't played
a game yet with your guys, not a regular season game,
and so there's a lot of things you learn. There's
a lot of really good things that we learned about
our team, a lot of things that I'm really happy
(02:43):
about and excited about. And there's a lot of things
that you learn that it's like, oh boy, we got
to go to work on that. And I would say,
pass rush lanes. That's something that we've got to go
to work on. And it's not just four lanes. I mean,
there's different patterns that we use and and and we
just weren't as good as we need to be at that.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
It's just one game.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
But going back a couple of years, so of the
fourth quarter leads that have evaporated, is there a run of.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
A reason for it, because it's happened awful lot.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, you know there is. I mean I think that
we've there's all those scenarios. If you look back at
all those games, you know, there's there's been a lot
of every game we've had, there's been a fourth quarter
and there's been a scenario. There's been games where we've
been in the in the bill shoes. You know, there's
been a new new number of games where we've come
back from two scores down and we've won. You know,
and how do you do that? How do you make
(03:28):
that happen? There's been there's been times where we've been, uh,
two scores up and we've and we've won. You know,
we've gotten the first down, we've we've we've we've done that,
We've we've been one score down and we've popped a run,
gone down and kicked the field goal, whether it's an
overtime or at the end of the game, or we've
gotten the stop. You know that we had to get.
But and maybe part of it's the fact that we've
been ahead a lot. You know, we've won a lot
(03:50):
of games, so we've had a lot of and we've
had a lot of two score leads, so we've we've
kept a lot of those, but we've I think we've
lost six of them. If I'm not mistaken, that's too many.
I don't care how many two score leads you have.
And I do believe that we need to be really
thoughtful of, you know, how we decide that we're going
(04:12):
to approach those situations going forward. You know, let's give
it some thought. Let's give some thought to our to
our play calling, Let's give some thought to our defensive
play calling. Let's give some thought to our mindset, like
how we're going to talk to one another. You know,
we're two scores up. You know, we're trying to keep
a lead against Josh Allen or any other or any
of these great quarterbacks in this league. You know, what's
our mindset on defense? How are we going to approach this,
(04:34):
How we're going to talk to one another on the sideline,
you know, try to find a way to get to win.
It's it's kind of a it becomes kind of a situation,
a scenario, game scenario that we need to we need
to be really intentional about going forward.
Speaker 6 (04:47):
I know you were asked about whether or not to
go far on fourth and three, whether to get your thoughts,
what do you think about.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
The play call sequence leading up to that, And to
be more specific, you know Derek try runs in the
first time. Wasn't a big game, but come ball at
the fuel there.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
And you know, maybe not put the ball in Lamar's
hands for a design run design run.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, well there was a design run, so you know,
I mean the play the play today was a design run.
That's a read that's a read option play. You've seen
Lamar keep that going forward before, so you know that
that you know, in fairness it wasn't it was a
design run. And that's exactly right. I mean, that's that's
a play.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
We took Derek off the field because that's that's a
that's a Jay and Justice type play that we had
designed for that. Derek doesn't really run run those plays
as much, so that's why he was off the field.
And probably it's not bad to give him a blow either.
At some point in time he's going to be back
out there again if you know, you're you're hopeful, or
you can throw it. You know. Now, do we want
to run a some kind of a swap boot, some
(05:45):
kind of a naked boot, or pin some kind of
a pin play and get Lamar outside the pocket? That's
definitely going through our mind. That's on the call sheet.
A drop back pass, you can run a drop back pass.
You might get zero, have some kind of a zero
check and try to beat him with a crossing route
or something. I mean, those are all all the types
of things that are that are on the call sheet.
You make a call, you know, and you and you
(06:07):
want it to work, you know, and when it doesn't work,
it's always the other thing. You know, sometimes you drop
back pass and it doesn't work, and so I just
give it to Derek or just do a quarterback design
run you know, why couldn't you run it? Throw it there?
Be more aggressive? You know? How about a boot? I mean,
these are all the questions that we're asking ourselves this morning,
and that that you just have to go to the
(06:28):
next week and try to do better the next week
and help you dial up the right play and execute it,
you know, execute it really well, and hopefully you get
the right defense or you check to the right call.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
When you are in those situations and you have a
double a two possessional lead in the second half, I
just want to know, like, what is your philosophy in
those moments? What is your philosophy when you're up fifteen
and a fourth? Is it protect? Is it still be aggressive?
Just what is your message to the coaches?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, well, my philosophy always on offense is that the
best way to burn it locker is to get first downs.
You know, that's the best way to burn time. So
you know, you do want to you want to manage
the clock, and you want to be smart about that.
You don't be snapping the ball with twenty seconds on
the play clock, and you do want to run as
much time off between places as you can remember the
clock's running, and that's just good clock management. But you
(07:16):
also don't want to do it sometimes in such a
way as that it takes takes away your momentum or
your ability to actually get the first down, because once
you start running play clock down under five seconds, then
the defense can tee off on you. I mean they
get a get off too, because they can see that
they can see the clock and they can see you
have to snap it on the next hut. So that's
that's that's that's a twofold part of it there. It's
(07:36):
like I I lean towards sometimes we'll give up a
little bit of time. Let's let's have a play doubt up,
but we can have the best chance to get the
first down because when you get the first downs like
we did on the first the first and ten play,
when you get the first downs, that's when you have
the that's when you can burn the most time. That's
how you win the game.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You both offensive and defensively down the stretch. So do
you every when when there's a blow and lead? People
always wanted to say, well things got too conservative when
you reviewed the plays offensively and defensively, do you think
you guys were aggressive enough down to scratch?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Offensively and defensively? Generally speaking, we try to be as
aggressive as we could be. You know, did we call
the right plays well? Hindsight, no, I mean they didn't work,
you know so, And I'm not just saying that to
blow it off, you know, I mean I kind of
I kind of might have maybe we could have had
some sort of a naked boot. You know, I kind
of would have liked maybe if we'd have done that.
(08:31):
Hindsight being twenty twenty, I'm not sure I want to
drop back pass, you know, against against the against zero
right there necessarily. But it's not to say we couldn't
have popped it because our guys are our guys are
good man rout runners, and maybe we get the ball off,
you know, and and we get to catch and run.
But that ball can get batted down too, you know.
So that's that's one that you say, would that would
that have been a little more aggressive, That would have been.
(08:52):
But the ball gets batted down there, and it's like, ah,
why don't you just give it to Derek, you know,
or just put it in la Mars's hands and let
him run it, you know. So I think that's that's
the catch twenty two of the whole conversation. Defensively, well,
we tried everything, you know, we tried everything. We were
playing man, we were playing zone, we were blitzing, we
were we were coming off the edge, you know, we
were we were showing and dropping out of there. So
(09:15):
we just didn't really get them stopped in the last
two drives at all, and you know the plays that happened,
so we didn't execute a couple of times we uh
we let them sneak out of there with a sneak
running back, sneak play that should have been covered. I mean,
we have the means to cover that in that defensive call,
uh the sideline play and at the end of the
half that that should be covered. You know, that's there's
(09:37):
that's supposed to be defended there at that at that
depth right there. That's the way the defense is built.
And I think that's part of what I was saying before.
You know, early in the season you do find some
things out, especially when you're playing a really good offense,
you get exposed a little bit. And we learned where
we have to get better too.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
Cramping play falling early and that was more towards the end.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That wasn't really as early, and it didn't come up
earlier when something I had heard.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
About, sorry I mentioned, you know, wanting to be intentional
and just like little details like opening kickoff that they returned,
you know, try trying to bend on that ball in
the one and kind of sliding in the sector points
and other things. How I guess disappointed were you in
those little details that kind of add up to you
(10:30):
knowing no doubt?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I mean, you know, and you know, I promise you
that when the Bills look at the tape, there's a
bunch of little details too. And matter of fact, you know,
he told me that after the game, you know, So
there's a bunch of things that that turn up. But
when you lose the game, that's the one that's when
you start adding them up. You know where where it
could have made the difference. But you know, we had
we coach that, you know, inside the five yard line,
(10:54):
you stand your feet, you never leave your feet. That's
something that's been coached for a long time around here.
So but in that moment, we didn't. We didn't have,
you know wherewith all the thing to do it. So
we've all got to just learned from that, you know,
you you just have to learn from those things, otherwise
it's a wasted opportunity.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
John, sorry to ask with Jack or you guys last time,
but on that four from three call, is there a
conversation between you and the guys who who fell about
the modeling the numbers might show about your your win probability,
Like here's what we can do if we go for it,
which what.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
We can do if we punted.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, you don't know exactly because that was a long gain,
so you don't know exactly what yard line you so
it's got to be quick. Uh. The win probability, I'm
I'm it might have been I'm gonna say it might
have been maybe two percent or one percent something like
that going for it. Uh, And you got to make
the decision very quickly, and you got to say, do
we have a call that we really like? Do we
have a call we love here? Because you got to
(11:47):
send the punt team out. Are're gonna have a delay
a game, or you gotta send your offense out or
you're not going to get the playoff just that fast
and uh, you know, Lamar was coming off the field
at that point. I could see something wasn't quite right,
and you say you gotta ge your punt team out there,
And that was really kind of It's a fast sequence
of events in that moment. But then again too, I'm
not shying away from putting our defense out there. I mean,
if you get stopped on fourth and three, it's did
(12:09):
you think about punting the ball and putting your defense
out there and giving them a chance to win the game.
I mean, that would have been the next conversation because
they'd have been in field goal range already. So I
trust our defense, and I'm going to trust our defense
this year in a lot of big situations because our
defense is going to be really, really good. And I
know there's doubt about that right now, probably, but I
guarantee you our defense is going to play really good
(12:31):
football this year. How do you.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
Balance being aggressive in those moments? Take the Chargers game
last year, obviously different scenario, first half, late first half,
where did one deepen your own end get it again?
Different very understanding, different variables, different time in game, all
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
How do you.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
Balance when to be aggressive and do you feel like
you behind says you feel like you're aggressive enough?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well, I mean the balance is, do I really think
we have a really good chance to get it? You know,
because if we get it, we win the game. If
we don't get it there in field goal range. So
I think as I just explained all those things that
kind of went down in that sequence, you can understand
where it's like, what are our chances of getting that
right here? I mean, the mark's coming off the field.
You know something's not right. It's fourth and three? Do
(13:23):
we have a really good call and time clossing out?
Do I want to call time out and burn that
time out? Or do I want to have that time out?
You know, maybe you burn the time out right there
in that in that moment fourth and three, put our
defense out there. I think we get a stop, get
a good punt pening on. Do we love the punt?
Don't love it? You know? So all the things that
(13:44):
happened after that are just things that happen, and you
got to do the best you can in a very
short period of time. So no, I don't think you
could sit there and say you can say, well, I
should have been more aggressive, And I don't think you
can definitively say that's the right thing either. You can't
really say that for sure, because it could have could
you could make that choice and could easily be having
the conversation the other way here. That's just the way
it works.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And told you we have to go for this. Would
you have had to call timeout? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Because yes, I would have definitely had to call time
out to get to get to get the play up
and do it. We've definitely had to. And I'm not
saying you couldn't have done that. We could have done that,
you know, but in that moment didn't seem like the
right thing.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You mentioned the defense, there was there was a lot
of talk this summer about the.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Depth of the defense, adding Alexander Drafting starts in the
first round.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
There's a load of first round guys in the second area.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
I think it was a collective surprise to see Josh.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Kyle Lambinton even said it was upsetting to see how
many yards the champions people put up against that defense.
Why do you think it was so? Why do you
think they were so successful against.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
This Well, it was in the fourth quarter mostly, you know,
it was it was most of the yards were in
the fourth quarter. So you're talking about just what we're
talking about in the fourth quarter there, you know. Uh, yeah,
I don't think we played. I don't think we played
some coverage is great, and he had too much time
and he had too much opportunity to extend plays. I
mean those two things. You know, a couple of times
we have a two deep coverage and we don't play
it great. They hit a whole shot on the sideline,
(15:04):
you know, we'll get we get a we get a
man route and you know, it runs away from us,
you know, or or we're too soft we're supposed to be.
We're supposed to be more aggressive man coverage out there
and on the edge, and we're five seven eight yards
off the receiver and we give an easy completion on
the sideline. I mean, just play the defense out the
way it should have been played, I think we'll be
We've got to do that, and that's just fundamental, you know,
(15:26):
and all of our guys will all take responsibility for that.
So that's what happened in the fourth quarter. And then
he extends plays, he starts running and he makes a
play downfield. That's what happened.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Well, when in the decision to scritch.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Numbers numbers, you just can't you can't get everybody up,
you know, and you've got to make a decision about
who's going to be up and who's going to be down.
And the number of snaps you can get keating on
offense are pretty are pretty limited. You're going to take
Derek off the field, You're going to take Justice off
the field to do it, and those are all going
to be designer plays, you know. That's that's what Keaton
(16:04):
does right now. He runs to kind of the designer plays,
So the defense is going to be like, what's he
out here for? On the on the four or five
plays that he's out there, it's going to be a
specific play that they are kind of got to have
their intenta up for. You got to you gotta balance
it out. And then special teams, you know, he's he's
he does okay on special teams, but he'll he'll tell
(16:25):
you he needs to get better in that area to
to justify the spot. Otherwise you're going light, you know.
In a couple other areas.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Have you heard from the league regarding Lamar's actions interactionally
with the fan and.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
What's your take on that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I have not heard from the league.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Bo.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
My take is on it, And all I know is
what I read afterwards is, uh, Lamar's down there celebrating
a touchdown with his Teammate's just like you're supposed to do.
I mean, we talk about celebration, and we want our
guys to celebrate with one another, you know, that's what
that's the whole idea. Yeah, you know, and I didn't know.
I guess I didn't know you're not allowed to go
close to the to the to the stands, you know,
(17:07):
to do that without being attacked, you know, by a fan.
You score a touchdown, probably shouldn't have a frozen water
bottle thrown at you either, you know. It's so these
are the types of things that that I'm sure that
the NFL is going to address and deal with. And
it's unfortunate that you should even be in that situation.
I mean, I just I don't know how any of
(17:27):
us would respond in that moment. I think it'd be
something we probably be thinking about protecting ourselves. I do
think that, you know, I just think we have to
understand that we can all say, hey, I'd like to
handle a little better. But that's a surprise when that happens,
I think in that moment probably for anybody.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
Back to what you were saying about the secondary in
terms of the ad is supposed to be a little
more physical word, or in terms of where they were
lining up, was that more of a communication are they
or are they.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Just not doing now?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's just I mean it played a lot of great place.
I mean, we had a lot of really well played
plays too, So it's just consistent execution. There's a there's
a you know, the the ability to continue to execute
consistently and in to who you're going against and and
all those different kind of things. So it's it's a
long it's a long journey. I mean, pass judgment on
the game. That's what we do. We go back, we
gread it, we look at it, we look at each
play exactly for it stands for. We'll study it with
(18:20):
the guys tomorrow and we'll learn from it and we'll
understand that we've got to carry our lessons into the
next game. That's what it is. So that's that's what
you do. That's what you do in football, and that's
what you do probably in any kind of after action
for anything. And uh, and we'll do that. So that's
why you're willing to say, hey, you know what, we
can do that better. We have to do that better.
(18:41):
And then the other thing is to your point is
like why did it happen? So it's not just there's
no general why it happened. Communication, Yes, there's a there's
a couple of plays. It might be communication. Maybe it's
communication in the meeting room we didn't quite make it
clear enough, or maybe it got confused with some other
defense that we're running, you know, could have been confusion
with another call that he's kind of tying together in
(19:01):
his mind. You know. As a coach, you look at
all those all those little aspects of it to try
to get to the to the to the point where
there's a shared understanding and and you guys have a
real good vision of what you're doing, and and we
have that. We have a lot of really good things going.
It's just the start of the season, you know, so
we'll keep chasing that and then you become, like I
said last night, that's how you become the team that
(19:22):
you're going to be over the course of the Seasonal
in here all the full back rule, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I think that was his first NFL ahead. Als Patrick progressing.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, yeah, Patrick's doing doing well. He should be
out there practicing a little bit this week potentially, and uh,
we'll see how it goes. And then I thought, I thought, uh,
I thought Saier did a really good job. I mean
I thought he was really good. You know, he was
explosive and physical. He really brought it up in there
and and unloaded on some blocks and did a nice job.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
You you guys trusted significant responsibility. What way did you
guys him out there as a rookie?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Can you repeat that?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
I like Teddy Muchannan. You guys gave him some snaps
on the defense.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
What that Teddy? Yeah? I think between those two guys
there was about between fifty five and sixty snaps. I
think they were split pretty evenly. You know, Teddy might
have had like four more snaps something like that. And uh,
it probably was a plan going in. You know, in
that range of me, you never say one guy's going
to play a little more. Just the way it shook out,
we were splitting snaps, and uh, that seems appropriate right now.
(20:32):
I just kind of see how it goes. I thought
they both played solid.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Tyler said he was not happy with his process on
the miss extra point. On the other hand, he does
hit the two long field goals after you guys got
backed up. Did you see the data's kind of a
net positive for him or what was your kind of
takeaway on what needed.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
To do this right?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I thought he made some great field goals and he
missed an extra point. You know, he pushed it and
hurt us, you know, so I'm really happy about the
I'm really happy about the other kicks, the field goal
extra points. I'm really disappointed in the extra point that
he missed. I like the kicks that he was putting
on the ground and the kickoffs. I really didn't like
the one that he came up short on, you know,
(21:12):
so I just kicked the kick. Really to put a
general grade on it, I don't know, you know, does
it matter? You know, like as a kicker, you you know,
when you especially when you don't win the game, you
want to you want to be you want to be net.
You want to get everything, you know, every positive you can.
I know that's how he feels about it. So I'll
go with him on that. Let's make them all, you know,
and let's kick them all perfectly on the kickoffs.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yeah, you're two more. Speaking of process, just the kind
of a clarification from the last night.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Would you would you like to see Lamar take it
down to two minutes at that two of the three
mark instead of staffing you or or what was.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We got you're talking about that? No, No, that was
our plan if we got to play, we wanted we
got a five yard gain on that one, want.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
To take it down to like run more clock. I
believe he could have taken it to the two minute
warning before.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Well, the idea there is because you want to get
a good play too, and sometimes you take it down
there and the defense thinks you're going to take it
down there, and they give you a look that you
really want, like that you can run out. Might be
a little soft look to run out that you might
not get otherwise. Sometimes if you're trying to save time,
it's a free run because you know the clock's going
to stop afterwards. But in that case, if we hadn't
(22:20):
gotten the look that we wanted, we would have just
taken it down. But since we got the look we wanted,
we ran it. I think we picked up five yards
on that, which was a good gain. That was our
thinking on it. I know the idea on more time
off they they don't get the ball back, but you know,
you don't know how fast you're going to score. But
at that point it's kind of that comes back to
the aggressive category. You want to be less aggressive and
(22:40):
run the time off, and you want to be more
aggressive and try to get some yards there and try
to get in the end zone. I mean, we're trying
to score a touchdown. There is what we're trying to do.
You know, it didn't quite work out that way. I
don't think we had some bad plays after that, but
that was the idea.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Do you see anything to have about that?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Later on with tempt out, I did. No, couldn't have
been a safety I don't think. Am I wrong about that?
Which yeah, yeah, I told him that. I just questioned
whether we actually graduate from Notre Dame or not. That's
(23:19):
what I questioned him on. You know, It's like I
thought that was one of the most foolish things I've
ever seen. So he agreed and it should never happen again.
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Thanks you're listening to the Ravens Press Past podcast. Make
sure you are subscribed here. Also head over to the
Lounge podcast feed and subscribe there as well. Thanks for listening.
We'll be back with you on Wednesday.
Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday,
September eighth. The Ravens have opened the season with a
forty one to forty loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
On Monday, we had a chance to hear from head
coach John Harbaugh, who shared his perspective of the game
after having some time to look back at the film
and assess what went wrong during this opening game loss.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Okay, good to see everybody appreciate you being here. Had
a chance to dig deep into that game. Since we
got back late last night and meeting with all the
coaches this afternoon just finished up with that, I've had
a chance to even start on the Browns. So a
lot of work has been put in between between the
end of the game last night, traveling and then and
(00:46):
getting ready for next week. So I got a pretty
good handle on what happened and a good handle on
where we're going going forward. And we're excited about the
opportunity to move on and play the Browns and go
find a way to play our best football on Sunday
here at M and T and the home opener. What
questions you have.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
John, when you're looking at the defense kind of throughout
the whole game.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
What do you think the biggest issue was.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Because you know, repeatedly and not being able to slow
down Josh Hallen.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, well, you know that that was the biggest issue.
I mean, we we understand Josh all we've played him
quite a few times. We had we had a little
more success here at our place last year the last
two times there not quite as much. But you know,
we we had a plan and uh and we just
didn't get it done. We weren't able to execute. We
couldn't keep him in the pocket. That was a big
part of the plan would be to keep him in
(01:37):
the pocket. We weren't able to do that. That's probably
the number one disappointment for me. You know, I think
when you when you when you let him extend plays
like that, you know he'll run for yards, but he'll
also find receivers downfield and they do a good job
of getting open and it's just hard to extend that
coverage long enough with his arm strength and accuracy on
the move. So that's the number one thing this early.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
On the edge, just to keep him in the puckingers
is more complicated than that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's more complicated that which it just was. I mean,
he's not he escaped inside. He gets you going one way,
and maybe we overreact. And I do think there's there's
a way we have to get better at it, and
we can get better at it. And I do believe
watching the tape, you know, and just just really just
working on one thing. You get into a game, we
haven't played a game yet, it's an opening game, uh,
(02:23):
against a very good football team in a very hostile environment.
You know, there's a lot of there's a lot of
emotions in that game there and and and you know,
you don't know exactly what react because you haven't played
a game yet with your guys, not a regular season game,
and so there's a lot of things you learn. There's
a lot of really good things that we learned about
our team, a lot of things that I'm really happy
(02:43):
about and excited about. And there's a lot of things
that you learn that it's like, oh boy, we got
to go to work on that. And I would say,
pass rush lanes. That's something that we've got to go
to work on. And it's not just four lanes. I mean,
there's different patterns that we use and and and we
just weren't as good as we need to be at that.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
It's just one game.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
But going back a couple of years, so of the
fourth quarter leads that have evaporated, is there a run of.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
A reason for it, because it's happened awful lot.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, you know there is. I mean I think that
we've there's all those scenarios. If you look back at
all those games, you know, there's there's been a lot
of every game we've had, there's been a fourth quarter
and there's been a scenario. There's been games where we've
been in the in the bill shoes. You know, there's
been a new new number of games where we've come
back from two scores down and we've won. You know,
and how do you do that? How do you make
(03:28):
that happen? There's been there's been times where we've been, uh,
two scores up and we've and we've won. You know,
we've gotten the first down, we've we've we've we've done that,
We've we've been one score down and we've popped a run,
gone down and kicked the field goal, whether it's an
overtime or at the end of the game, or we've
gotten the stop. You know that we had to get.
But and maybe part of it's the fact that we've
been ahead a lot. You know, we've won a lot
(03:50):
of games, so we've had a lot of and we've
had a lot of two score leads, so we've we've
kept a lot of those, but we've I think we've
lost six of them. If I'm not mistaken, that's too many.
I don't care how many two score leads you have.
And I do believe that we need to be really
thoughtful of, you know, how we decide that we're going
(04:12):
to approach those situations going forward. You know, let's give
it some thought. Let's give some thought to our to
our play calling, Let's give some thought to our defensive
play calling. Let's give some thought to our mindset, like
how we're going to talk to one another. You know,
we're two scores up. You know, we're trying to keep
a lead against Josh Allen or any other or any
of these great quarterbacks in this league. You know, what's
our mindset on defense? How are we going to approach this,
(04:34):
How we're going to talk to one another on the sideline,
you know, try to find a way to get to win.
It's it's kind of a it becomes kind of a situation,
a scenario, game scenario that we need to we need
to be really intentional about going forward.
Speaker 6 (04:47):
I know you were asked about whether or not to
go far on fourth and three, whether to get your thoughts,
what do you think about.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
The play call sequence leading up to that, And to
be more specific, you know Derek try runs in the
first time. Wasn't a big game, but come ball at
the fuel there.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
And you know, maybe not put the ball in Lamar's
hands for a design run design run.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, well there was a design run, so you know,
I mean the play the play today was a design run.
That's a read that's a read option play. You've seen
Lamar keep that going forward before, so you know that
that you know, in fairness it wasn't it was a
design run. And that's exactly right. I mean, that's that's
a play.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
We took Derek off the field because that's that's a
that's a Jay and Justice type play that we had
designed for that. Derek doesn't really run run those plays
as much, so that's why he was off the field.
And probably it's not bad to give him a blow either.
At some point in time he's going to be back
out there again if you know, you're you're hopeful, or
you can throw it. You know. Now, do we want
to run a some kind of a swap boot, some
(05:45):
kind of a naked boot, or pin some kind of
a pin play and get Lamar outside the pocket? That's
definitely going through our mind. That's on the call sheet.
A drop back pass, you can run a drop back pass.
You might get zero, have some kind of a zero
check and try to beat him with a crossing route
or something. I mean, those are all all the types
of things that are that are on the call sheet.
You make a call, you know, and you and you
(06:07):
want it to work, you know, and when it doesn't work,
it's always the other thing. You know, sometimes you drop
back pass and it doesn't work, and so I just
give it to Derek or just do a quarterback design
run you know, why couldn't you run it? Throw it there?
Be more aggressive? You know? How about a boot? I mean,
these are all the questions that we're asking ourselves this morning,
and that that you just have to go to the
(06:28):
next week and try to do better the next week
and help you dial up the right play and execute it,
you know, execute it really well, and hopefully you get
the right defense or you check to the right call.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
When you are in those situations and you have a
double a two possessional lead in the second half, I
just want to know, like, what is your philosophy in
those moments? What is your philosophy when you're up fifteen
and a fourth? Is it protect? Is it still be aggressive?
Just what is your message to the coaches?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, well, my philosophy always on offense is that the
best way to burn it locker is to get first downs.
You know, that's the best way to burn time. So
you know, you do want to you want to manage
the clock, and you want to be smart about that.
You don't be snapping the ball with twenty seconds on
the play clock, and you do want to run as
much time off between places as you can remember the
clock's running, and that's just good clock management. But you
(07:16):
also don't want to do it sometimes in such a
way as that it takes takes away your momentum or
your ability to actually get the first down, because once
you start running play clock down under five seconds, then
the defense can tee off on you. I mean they
get a get off too, because they can see that
they can see the clock and they can see you
have to snap it on the next hut. So that's
that's that's that's a twofold part of it there. It's
(07:36):
like I I lean towards sometimes we'll give up a
little bit of time. Let's let's have a play doubt up,
but we can have the best chance to get the
first down because when you get the first downs like
we did on the first the first and ten play,
when you get the first downs, that's when you have
the that's when you can burn the most time. That's
how you win the game.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You both offensive and defensively down the stretch. So do
you every when when there's a blow and lead? People
always wanted to say, well things got too conservative when
you reviewed the plays offensively and defensively, do you think
you guys were aggressive enough down to scratch?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Offensively and defensively? Generally speaking, we try to be as
aggressive as we could be. You know, did we call
the right plays well? Hindsight, no, I mean they didn't work,
you know so, And I'm not just saying that to
blow it off, you know, I mean I kind of
I kind of might have maybe we could have had
some sort of a naked boot. You know, I kind
of would have liked maybe if we'd have done that.
(08:31):
Hindsight being twenty twenty, I'm not sure I want to
drop back pass, you know, against against the against zero
right there necessarily. But it's not to say we couldn't
have popped it because our guys are our guys are
good man rout runners, and maybe we get the ball off,
you know, and and we get to catch and run.
But that ball can get batted down too, you know.
So that's that's one that you say, would that would
that have been a little more aggressive, That would have been.
(08:52):
But the ball gets batted down there, and it's like, ah,
why don't you just give it to Derek, you know,
or just put it in la Mars's hands and let
him run it, you know. So I think that's that's
the catch twenty two of the whole conversation. Defensively, well,
we tried everything, you know, we tried everything. We were
playing man, we were playing zone, we were blitzing, we
were we were coming off the edge, you know, we
were we were showing and dropping out of there. So
(09:15):
we just didn't really get them stopped in the last
two drives at all, and you know the plays that happened,
so we didn't execute a couple of times we uh
we let them sneak out of there with a sneak
running back, sneak play that should have been covered. I mean,
we have the means to cover that in that defensive call,
uh the sideline play and at the end of the
half that that should be covered. You know, that's there's
(09:37):
that's supposed to be defended there at that at that
depth right there. That's the way the defense is built.
And I think that's part of what I was saying before.
You know, early in the season you do find some
things out, especially when you're playing a really good offense,
you get exposed a little bit. And we learned where
we have to get better too.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
Cramping play falling early and that was more towards the end.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That wasn't really as early, and it didn't come up
earlier when something I had heard.
Speaker 6 (10:06):
About, sorry I mentioned, you know, wanting to be intentional
and just like little details like opening kickoff that they returned,
you know, try trying to bend on that ball in
the one and kind of sliding in the sector points
and other things. How I guess disappointed were you in
those little details that kind of add up to you
(10:30):
knowing no doubt?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
I mean, you know, and you know, I promise you
that when the Bills look at the tape, there's a
bunch of little details too. And matter of fact, you know,
he told me that after the game, you know, So
there's a bunch of things that that turn up. But
when you lose the game, that's the one that's when
you start adding them up. You know where where it
could have made the difference. But you know, we had
we coach that, you know, inside the five yard line,
(10:54):
you stand your feet, you never leave your feet. That's
something that's been coached for a long time around here.
So but in that moment, we didn't. We didn't have,
you know wherewith all the thing to do it. So
we've all got to just learned from that, you know,
you you just have to learn from those things, otherwise
it's a wasted opportunity.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
John, sorry to ask with Jack or you guys last time,
but on that four from three call, is there a
conversation between you and the guys who who fell about
the modeling the numbers might show about your your win probability,
Like here's what we can do if we go for it,
which what.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
We can do if we punted.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, you don't know exactly because that was a long gain,
so you don't know exactly what yard line you so
it's got to be quick. Uh. The win probability, I'm
I'm it might have been I'm gonna say it might
have been maybe two percent or one percent something like
that going for it. Uh, And you got to make
the decision very quickly, and you got to say, do
we have a call that we really like? Do we
have a call we love here? Because you got to
(11:47):
send the punt team out. Are're gonna have a delay
a game, or you gotta send your offense out or
you're not going to get the playoff just that fast
and uh, you know, Lamar was coming off the field
at that point. I could see something wasn't quite right,
and you say you gotta ge your punt team out there,
And that was really kind of It's a fast sequence
of events in that moment. But then again too, I'm
not shying away from putting our defense out there. I mean,
if you get stopped on fourth and three, it's did
(12:09):
you think about punting the ball and putting your defense
out there and giving them a chance to win the game.
I mean, that would have been the next conversation because
they'd have been in field goal range already. So I
trust our defense, and I'm going to trust our defense
this year in a lot of big situations because our
defense is going to be really, really good. And I
know there's doubt about that right now, probably, but I
guarantee you our defense is going to play really good
(12:31):
football this year. How do you.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
Balance being aggressive in those moments? Take the Chargers game
last year, obviously different scenario, first half, late first half,
where did one deepen your own end get it again?
Different very understanding, different variables, different time in game, all
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
How do you.
Speaker 6 (12:56):
Balance when to be aggressive and do you feel like
you behind says you feel like you're aggressive enough?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well, I mean the balance is, do I really think
we have a really good chance to get it? You know,
because if we get it, we win the game. If
we don't get it there in field goal range. So
I think as I just explained all those things that
kind of went down in that sequence, you can understand
where it's like, what are our chances of getting that
right here? I mean, the mark's coming off the field.
You know something's not right. It's fourth and three? Do
(13:23):
we have a really good call and time clossing out?
Do I want to call time out and burn that
time out? Or do I want to have that time out?
You know, maybe you burn the time out right there
in that in that moment fourth and three, put our
defense out there. I think we get a stop, get
a good punt pening on. Do we love the punt?
Don't love it? You know? So all the things that
(13:44):
happened after that are just things that happen, and you
got to do the best you can in a very
short period of time. So no, I don't think you
could sit there and say you can say, well, I
should have been more aggressive, And I don't think you
can definitively say that's the right thing either. You can't
really say that for sure, because it could have could
you could make that choice and could easily be having
the conversation the other way here. That's just the way
it works.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And told you we have to go for this. Would
you have had to call timeout? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Because yes, I would have definitely had to call time
out to get to get to get the play up
and do it. We've definitely had to. And I'm not
saying you couldn't have done that. We could have done that,
you know, but in that moment didn't seem like the
right thing.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You mentioned the defense, there was there was a lot
of talk this summer about the.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Depth of the defense, adding Alexander Drafting starts in the
first round.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
There's a load of first round guys in the second area.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
I think it was a collective surprise to see Josh.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Kyle Lambinton even said it was upsetting to see how
many yards the champions people put up against that defense.
Why do you think it was so? Why do you
think they were so successful against.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
This Well, it was in the fourth quarter mostly, you know,
it was it was most of the yards were in
the fourth quarter. So you're talking about just what we're
talking about in the fourth quarter there, you know. Uh, yeah,
I don't think we played. I don't think we played
some coverage is great, and he had too much time
and he had too much opportunity to extend plays. I
mean those two things. You know, a couple of times
we have a two deep coverage and we don't play
it great. They hit a whole shot on the sideline,
(15:04):
you know, we'll get we get a we get a
man route and you know, it runs away from us,
you know, or or we're too soft we're supposed to be.
We're supposed to be more aggressive man coverage out there
and on the edge, and we're five seven eight yards
off the receiver and we give an easy completion on
the sideline. I mean, just play the defense out the
way it should have been played, I think we'll be
We've got to do that, and that's just fundamental, you know,
(15:26):
and all of our guys will all take responsibility for that.
So that's what happened in the fourth quarter. And then
he extends plays, he starts running and he makes a
play downfield. That's what happened.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Well, when in the decision to scritch.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Numbers numbers, you just can't you can't get everybody up,
you know, and you've got to make a decision about
who's going to be up and who's going to be down.
And the number of snaps you can get keating on
offense are pretty are pretty limited. You're going to take
Derek off the field, You're going to take Justice off
the field to do it, and those are all going
to be designer plays, you know. That's that's what Keaton
(16:04):
does right now. He runs to kind of the designer plays,
So the defense is going to be like, what's he
out here for? On the on the four or five
plays that he's out there, it's going to be a
specific play that they are kind of got to have
their intenta up for. You got to you gotta balance
it out. And then special teams, you know, he's he's
he does okay on special teams, but he'll he'll tell
(16:25):
you he needs to get better in that area to
to justify the spot. Otherwise you're going light, you know.
In a couple other areas.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Have you heard from the league regarding Lamar's actions interactionally
with the fan and.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
What's your take on that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I have not heard from the league.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Bo.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
My take is on it, And all I know is
what I read afterwards is, uh, Lamar's down there celebrating
a touchdown with his Teammate's just like you're supposed to do.
I mean, we talk about celebration, and we want our
guys to celebrate with one another, you know, that's what
that's the whole idea. Yeah, you know, and I didn't know.
I guess I didn't know you're not allowed to go
close to the to the to the stands, you know,
(17:07):
to do that without being attacked, you know, by a fan.
You score a touchdown, probably shouldn't have a frozen water
bottle thrown at you either, you know. It's so these
are the types of things that that I'm sure that
the NFL is going to address and deal with. And
it's unfortunate that you should even be in that situation.
I mean, I just I don't know how any of
(17:27):
us would respond in that moment. I think it'd be
something we probably be thinking about protecting ourselves. I do
think that, you know, I just think we have to
understand that we can all say, hey, I'd like to
handle a little better. But that's a surprise when that happens,
I think in that moment probably for anybody.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
Back to what you were saying about the secondary in
terms of the ad is supposed to be a little
more physical word, or in terms of where they were
lining up, was that more of a communication are they
or are they.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Just not doing now?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's just I mean it played a lot of great place.
I mean, we had a lot of really well played
plays too, So it's just consistent execution. There's a there's
a you know, the the ability to continue to execute
consistently and in to who you're going against and and
all those different kind of things. So it's it's a
long it's a long journey. I mean, pass judgment on
the game. That's what we do. We go back, we
gread it, we look at it, we look at each
play exactly for it stands for. We'll study it with
(18:20):
the guys tomorrow and we'll learn from it and we'll
understand that we've got to carry our lessons into the
next game. That's what it is. So that's that's what
you do. That's what you do in football, and that's
what you do probably in any kind of after action
for anything. And uh, and we'll do that. So that's
why you're willing to say, hey, you know what, we
can do that better. We have to do that better.
(18:41):
And then the other thing is to your point is
like why did it happen? So it's not just there's
no general why it happened. Communication, Yes, there's a there's
a couple of plays. It might be communication. Maybe it's
communication in the meeting room we didn't quite make it
clear enough, or maybe it got confused with some other
defense that we're running, you know, could have been confusion
with another call that he's kind of tying together in
(19:01):
his mind. You know. As a coach, you look at
all those all those little aspects of it to try
to get to the to the to the point where
there's a shared understanding and and you guys have a
real good vision of what you're doing, and and we
have that. We have a lot of really good things going.
It's just the start of the season, you know, so
we'll keep chasing that and then you become, like I
said last night, that's how you become the team that
(19:22):
you're going to be over the course of the Seasonal
in here all the full back rule, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
I think that was his first NFL ahead. Als Patrick progressing.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You know, yeah, Patrick's doing doing well. He should be
out there practicing a little bit this week potentially, and uh,
we'll see how it goes. And then I thought, I thought, uh,
I thought Saier did a really good job. I mean
I thought he was really good. You know, he was
explosive and physical. He really brought it up in there
and and unloaded on some blocks and did a nice job.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
You you guys trusted significant responsibility. What way did you
guys him out there as a rookie?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Can you repeat that?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
I like Teddy Muchannan. You guys gave him some snaps
on the defense.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
What that Teddy? Yeah? I think between those two guys
there was about between fifty five and sixty snaps. I
think they were split pretty evenly. You know, Teddy might
have had like four more snaps something like that. And uh,
it probably was a plan going in. You know, in
that range of me, you never say one guy's going
to play a little more. Just the way it shook out,
we were splitting snaps, and uh, that seems appropriate right now.
(20:32):
I just kind of see how it goes. I thought
they both played solid.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Tyler said he was not happy with his process on
the miss extra point. On the other hand, he does
hit the two long field goals after you guys got
backed up. Did you see the data's kind of a
net positive for him or what was your kind of
takeaway on what needed.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
To do this right?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I thought he made some great field goals and he
missed an extra point. You know, he pushed it and
hurt us, you know, so I'm really happy about the
I'm really happy about the other kicks, the field goal
extra points. I'm really disappointed in the extra point that
he missed. I like the kicks that he was putting
on the ground and the kickoffs. I really didn't like
the one that he came up short on, you know,
(21:12):
so I just kicked the kick. Really to put a
general grade on it, I don't know, you know, does
it matter? You know, like as a kicker, you you know,
when you especially when you don't win the game, you
want to you want to be you want to be net.
You want to get everything, you know, every positive you can.
I know that's how he feels about it. So I'll
go with him on that. Let's make them all, you know,
and let's kick them all perfectly on the kickoffs.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yeah, you're two more. Speaking of process, just the kind
of a clarification from the last night.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Would you would you like to see Lamar take it
down to two minutes at that two of the three
mark instead of staffing you or or what was.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We got you're talking about that? No, No, that was
our plan if we got to play, we wanted we
got a five yard gain on that one, want.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
To take it down to like run more clock. I
believe he could have taken it to the two minute
warning before.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Well, the idea there is because you want to get
a good play too, and sometimes you take it down
there and the defense thinks you're going to take it
down there, and they give you a look that you
really want, like that you can run out. Might be
a little soft look to run out that you might
not get otherwise. Sometimes if you're trying to save time,
it's a free run because you know the clock's going
to stop afterwards. But in that case, if we hadn't
(22:20):
gotten the look that we wanted, we would have just
taken it down. But since we got the look we wanted,
we ran it. I think we picked up five yards
on that, which was a good gain. That was our
thinking on it. I know the idea on more time
off they they don't get the ball back, but you know,
you don't know how fast you're going to score. But
at that point it's kind of that comes back to
the aggressive category. You want to be less aggressive and
(22:40):
run the time off, and you want to be more
aggressive and try to get some yards there and try
to get in the end zone. I mean, we're trying
to score a touchdown. There is what we're trying to do.
You know, it didn't quite work out that way. I
don't think we had some bad plays after that, but
that was the idea.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Do you see anything to have about that?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Later on with tempt out, I did. No, couldn't have
been a safety I don't think. Am I wrong about that?
Which yeah, yeah, I told him that. I just questioned
whether we actually graduate from Notre Dame or not. That's
(23:19):
what I questioned him on. You know, It's like I
thought that was one of the most foolish things I've
ever seen. So he agreed and it should never happen again.
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Thanks you're listening to the Ravens Press Past podcast. Make
sure you are subscribed here. Also head over to the
Lounge podcast feed and subscribe there as well. Thanks for listening.
We'll be back with you on Wednesday.
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