John Harbaugh on Ravens’ “Massive Sense of Urgency” | Baltimore Ravens

John Harbaugh on Ravens’ “Massive Sense of Urgency” | Baltimore Ravens

here uh hard at work and uh ready for uh the upcoming week. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make. We’ve got a lot of a lot of planning to do. We’ve been at it since last night and uh we plan on uh putting ourselves in position to to win this football game and then going forward to win a lot of football games this year. That’s that’s what we’ve got to that’s what we got to do and the urgency is high. So, what questions do you have John? uh with with Lamar not playing yesterday uh any thoughts about his status for this week? Yeah, with the you know Lamar and the other guys the list of guys I would say uh we’re in pro process of figuring that out right now. So uh through through the week we’ll know you know those kind of injuries are going to be just have to see how they progress. Hope that maybe a couple of those could could be back Hamilton Stanley etc. Maybe. Yeah, there is there is hope for that. Yeah, I I would think there’ll be some number of those guys back. You know, how many is up in the air? It won’t be everybody. Um so, we’ll have a pretty good handle on who those guys might be probably as the week goes on and uh we should be in a little better shape than we were. The good news is we didn’t have any any new major injuries from this game. So, that really is that’s that’s a plus. I mean, that’s heartening. That’s good. So, uh, we should be in better shape than we were last game. I mean, last game was, you guys are going to ask the question, it was it wasn’t it was tough. I mean, it was it was a tough circumstance. It’s one of those I don’t know how many how many games in the NFL have had that many guys out for a team. So, u on top of Nambdi. So, that’s just reality of it. But appreciate the way our guys fought. I thought our our defense played really really hard. Really hard. And uh there were some big mistakes, you know, there were some mistakes that, you know, some young guys made that that hurt us, you know, against a good offense and those guys were, you know, they did a nice job against us, but you know, there’s a lot of there’s a few plays out there that really shouldn’t happen that are kind of young guy type of mistakes. So, um they’ll learn from that. There’s there’s positive in that and uh and uh and we’ll get some guys back. John, you mentioned you just said decisions have to be made. Are you talking about personnel lineup changes, decisions, or what kind of decisions? Oh, yeah. Well, I talk about I talk about everything, you know. I mean, I got a long list. I got a long list, you know, based on how the game went. I can tell you that there’s a there’s a a long list, all three phases. But, uh, it starts with, uh, you know, it starts with that for sure. You look at, you know, how guys did and where guys are at and what you need to do and who else might need an opportunity, you know, and a lot of that’s with the injuries, too. too. I mean, getting guys back, you know, that’ll take some pressure off some guys that uh, you know, thrown into a tough spot, did their best, and they’ll grow from it. Um, and then scheme wise, too. There’s a lot of scheme stuff we have to look at. A lot of scheme stuff on all three sides. A lot of scheme stuff offensively. Uh, some scheme stuff defensively as well that we got to continue to evolve and tweak and get better at that we can improve upon, I think. and and it’s nothing that is not good, but you know, there’s things that we just got to look at and say, you know, we got to find some different ways to put our guys in some spots to be able to make some plays, you know, that’s something we’ve got to try to manufacture some some things, you know, and that’s what coaches always need to do. You need to find a way to manufacture some some success for your guys as much as you can with scheme. So, that’s that’s a big part of it, too. John, you mentioned the young guy mistakes. I guess have you ever been in a situation where you’ve had to rely on so many rookies? And how do you, I guess, balance it being the excuse of youth and inexperience versus just not performing up to standard? Well, I mean, it all goes together, you know. I mean, experience is a big deal. You know, when you have experienced guys, they they’ve been there before. They’ve seen things before. You know, they they know how to handle circumstances. Take a guy like Kyle Vanoi, you know, he’s going to he’s going to he’s seen things and he’s going to react to things a certain way and he’s going to make some good decisions and and and make some plays because of that. Other guys, you know, it’s your first time out there, you’re seeing it for the first time. You know, it’s just going a little fast and and uh and things you end up being a little you end up being a step late, step behind sometimes. U you head one way when you should be heading the other way sometimes. You know, that’s that is part of it. It’s just it’s a there’s a lot there’s a lot going on in a in a football game. You put yourself in the middle of a football play. It’s it’s really chaotic, you know, and experience helps you make sense of that chaos. So, I if I was to sit here and say that wasn’t important or wasn’t a factor. It just it wouldn’t be right. I mean, it’s real. Coach, uh after you spoke yesterday, a lot of the players were asked about accountability amongst the locker room. Are you sensing there is enough in there going around? Oh, yeah. I mean, this this a very accountable team. I I I I I know I’ve said it to you guys before, but this this a very seriousminded uh determined team and they take accountability, you know, and they take it hard and uh they don’t make excuses. They don’t sit up there and point fingers. Uh they’re not they’re not going to be, you know, the heck with this, you know, it doesn’t matter. Uh they it matters. And I I know how much I know how much they care because I see how hard they play. I also see how hard they work during the week, you know. So, um I we we do talk about that. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. You know, and and they’re and they’re working hard and they’re and they’re they take responsibility for their mistakes just like the coaches do. The coaches are the first ones to say, you know, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to find a way. So, that’s what I like about our team. That’s why I think that we have what it takes to to pull ourselves through all this. You know, it’s a tough circumstance, tough start to the season. At the same time, it’s uh it’s what we make of it. You know, and I I’m not You can’t sit there and say, you know, all is lost. we just don’t, you know, and I think year after year it’s proven that that approach gives you the best chance to be successful and uh we’ve done it before. Other teams have done it before. So, uh we’re going to go to work on that and try to make that happen. John, what’s it going to take to get the pass rush going? I mean, I think the last couple weeks the blitz rate, you know, some of the numbers I looked at has ticked up, but I mean, it’s hasn’t really been something that you guys have been able to do since the start of the season. Yeah, it’s it has to be better. I mean, you know, it’s got to be better all three downs. It’s got to be better on first down, too. You know, our our you stop the run and you try to stop the run. And I think we can we we stopped the run, you know, I thought pretty effectively yesterday when you watch the tape. Um, except for two plays, you know, and that’s always what it is. And the first run that got out was a straight up, you know, just misaligned defense by, you know, a guy that, you know, just learning. And then the other one was a scramble, you know, quarterback scramble. So, that that shouldn’t happen. Uh, they got one outside of us for 11 yards. That was the third longest play. Um, but yet they bleed us for three and four more than I want. I want to see those threes be nuns and ones. And I want to see the fives and sixes be threes. You know, that’s that’s what we can detail and be just be better, tear off better, not get not get reached, maybe line up a little differently here and there. These are all little detail things that we got to keep working on to get the run game better. But but with that, you got to transition from run defense to pass rush is my point. And that’s the challenge on first and second down. Okay. Hey, then can we create some some pass rush in those situations, too? And when you start sending people, it’s good to stop the run, but also sometimes the ball comes out real quick and now you’re light downfield. You get catch and run play. So, that’s the trade-off you have. Um, but we’ve got to find a way to manufacture uh more pass rush on all three downs. I’d like to see us in third and long a lot more. That’s why I bring up first down because it it makes it a little bit a little bit more a little easier to call call the blisses, you know. Uh, so those are all the things that that we’re looking at. Clarify something. Um, yesterday Teddy Buchanan started the game with the green dot. Did you Did he Did it switch to Malachi starts? I think one of your No, not at all. Teddy wore it the whole game. Yeah, Teddy had the whole game. Yeah. Uh, Malachi is a safety, you know, he was a free safety, so he was communicating. The safety communicates to the secondary. you know, the call oftentimes he’ll he’ll get it from the the play caller and and get and he’ll give it out to the corners a lot of times or he’ll the safeties have got to communicate based on formation adjustments a lot of times what coverage tool we might be using because those things change based on alignments and formations and motions and things like that. So there’s a lot of communication there. Yeah. Some there was somebody that said that Malachi was you know communicating. So I think that’s where the confusion was. Okay. Um, John, you know, not often do people question physicality of the Ravens, but I guess with not being able to stop the run, not being able to run the ball, I think a lot of people are are saying, you know, is there an issue with physicality? And when you’re watching the tape, do you feel like there’s an physicality issue? I mean, in the result, you know, we’re not we’re not running the ball. We’re trying to run the ball, you know, we’re not running effectively. I do I do think it’s uh there are reasons for that. And um it’s not the guys aren’t, you know, playing with physicality. They’re playing with physicality. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of physicality going on, but uh the result has got to be, you know, we we believe in that. We believe in running the ball. We believe in stopping the run. Uh you got to keep people honest. You know, people are going to are going to make it a point to stop your run at all costs, then you got to make them pay for that. I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of that, you know, with complimentary type plays and things like that that have been executed that well. We just haven’t sustained and created a rhythm on offense enough. We’ve had now we’ve scored points in some games and that’s that’s been good because we’ve had so many big plays, but that’s not really a rhythm either. So, you know, we’re not we’re not on the field enough. I mean, we were on the field for 40, you know, 40 plays yesterday basically that were executed. That’s that’s way low. We’ve been between 40 and 50 55 plays. So, that puts a lot of pressure on your defense. So, that’s complimentary football. You got to be able to sustain drives, get first downs, get ahead of the sticks. Same thing on defense. You want to you want to put them in long yards. We’ve been in long yardage and our our opponents have been in manageable. That comes back to first down again, first and second down. Comes back to running the ball, but it also comes back to the the complimentary plays off the run. So, we got to execute better and we have to stop the run better. Although, it was better on tape than I thought and I think we’re going to be okay with that. Uh, I believe that. And we got to run the ball better, but we’ve also got to make people pay for stopping the run better. To that point about running the ball better and some of the things about looking at kind of everything. I mean, is looking at personnel changes maybe on the offensive line something you you consider? Oh, yeah. Everything’s on the table. I mean, it’s we’ve we always consider that. We look at it. I’d say it’s a conversation every week. Sometimes it’s it’s not really a conversation because you know you you know you know who you’re you know when Kyle’s healthy I know he’s going to be our starting safety you know and Marlin’s going to be our starting nickel but there are guys that are you know in that area where they still have to prove themselves you know and those guys are are uh are under consideration all the time there are the starters because they have earned that to a point but you got to keep earning that and uh and you got to keep getting better you know you can’t you can’t plateau it can’t be it can’t be like we’re want to build something and then all of a sudden it’s not getting there as fast as we think it should or we envisioned it. If we were we were hoping for you to make more progress as a player and it’s not happening then at some point in time somebody else is going to get a chance and that’s just the way it should work. John, you’ve talked a lot about getting Jer ready. He talked yesterday about how it was unfamiliar I guess for him to come in as a reserve but how how did you think he did yesterday with his I thought he I thought he did okay, you No, I mean, I I think his I just love the guy. I mean, I love his attitude. He’s working super hard. Um I don’t think he’s 100% back yet, but we sure needed him out there with all the injuries and stuff like that. And I thought he went out there and really uh you know, really fought and really tried to do well. Um so, you know, as far as you know, the level of it, you know, I mean, there’s there’s a lot more football in Jaier for sure, and that’s what we got to just try to keep pulling out, you know. John, the lack of turnovers, I know has been something you guys have talked about even going back to the offseason. It seems like in some of the softer zones that you run it, do are you liking the I guess how easy it is looked at times when you guys do run some of these softer zones that guys are just always open. Yeah. No, I’m not liking it at all. I mean, it’s uh it’s zone coverage. I mean, the Texans played a bunch of zone yesterday, you know, and and they played better than we played it, you know, so it wasn’t as, you know, soft as you said. It wasn’t as much space created. And that’s uh and they and they play spot drop zone, too, and match zone just like we do. They play in both. So, I would say that we got to play them better, you know, and we got to react quicker when we do play zone. Um, we play man. I think we can play man. I like our man coverage guys and we played quite a bit of man yesterday. we have um I see us playing man in the future you know quite a bit but uh there’s a you know man man is a is a is a big energy burn you know it takes a lot and you got to if you want to if you want to play it a lot you really got to be you got to be getting a big pass rush because you need the ball to come out quick when you play a lot of man so uh those things are kind of complimentary and I think so I think we got to be you know we some younger linebackers in there you know you start getting a more of a feel younger nickel younger safety who we’re playing those underneath zones, they play a little more tentative because they don’t have that experience and they’re a little late and it looks like it’s softer zone. Those aren’t by design, you know, those are those those should be matched quicker than they are. And that’s what we keep working on. You know, we keep practicing. That’s why I say the experience is valuable. Uh you play you should play better every time. And if you don’t, then if you start, like we said, if you plateau, you’re you’re just not going to be out there. You got to keep getting better. So, um, that’s all the things you’re talking about is all part of the stuff that that we see as well. John, um, if Mark can’t play or is it Cooper Rush or could you consider maybe getting Tyler some consider everything consider everything, every part of it to try to try to get the win. That’ll be uh we talked about the next 24 hours. Coach, after looking at the film um on the third interception that Cooper rushed through, um, what did you see from Rashad? Did he stop the route? Is Is that what happened there after watching the Well, I mean, what’ you see? It looked like he gave up on the route. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know why I haven’t talked to him about it, but that uh you know, you got to keep running through that ball. No doubt. Talking about Cooper Rush overall and watching him, how did you think he he handled his first start here? I thought he handled it well, you know. I mean, I don’t like the result. I think it looked it looked bad, you know, and all those different things. Um, I think Cooper would probably tell you that the interception, the late throw interception to Petray early, that was not a good one. You know, he’d want that one back. Uh, the tip ball was kind of crazy. Just a crazy play. Uh, I mean, you know, this one of those years so far, you know, you got hopefully the odds will come our way a little bit. You got to think it’s going to turn. you know, I think we’ll start getting some interceptions or some crazy plays, you know, some some tip balls for touchdowns and all these different kind of things that happen. Um, that’s uh that’s uh it’s going to make us stronger. So, uh and then the deep ball one, you know, I really couldn’t put on him. It just wouldn’t be fair. Is that what you kind of how many times you watch that second like and try to be like what you know what happened there sort of thing? Yeah, it was it’s a crazy play. I think the question are getting the most is why isn’t Patrick Ricard on IR? Are you getting close to that where you have to make a decision there? Because yesterday you were pretty short-handed in the secondary. Yeah. Pat Ricard. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I guess we’ll put Pat up at some point in time to talk about it, but people are like wondering what’s going on. It was just it was a surprise deal for us. I mean, I’m just going to be honest about it. Okay. That Okay. you know, Pat Pat it just, you know, it was supposed to be a two, three week injury, you know, when it first happened in training camp and then he kind of retweaked it and it was supposed to be another two or three weeks and the thing has just been like it’s been a slow it’s been a slow burn. If we’d have known it was going to be this, we’d have put him on our, you know, the first week, you know, and we’d have had we’d had another roster spot. So, it’s just nobody’s more frustrated than Pat. And uh and that’s been a tough one, you know, so we’re looking at that. We’re looking at that to be, you know, the Bears game. I mean, that’s the one I’m hoping for for Pat. I’m hoping for the Bears game. He is, too. To put it out there. We’ll see if he makes it or not. You know, if he makes it, that’d be great. If he doesn’t make it, then whoever we play after the Bears, it’ll be that game. You know, that’ll be what we’ll be shooting for. So, Pat’s a Pat’s a part of it. It’s definitely a factor. John, I know it’s a different season, different set of problems, but is there anything that defensive staff that you can take from how the defense started slowly last year that carried over to the two? Yeah, that’s a that’s a really interesting and good point and and I do feel that way. You know, I feel like I feel like I feel confident a little bit because of that and also because I feel like we are in a better place than we were last year. You know, last year there were some real challenges, you know, and um and we we were able to get those things turned around and fixed. And I talk about the defensive staff and Zack, you know, that was that was impressive. And I feel like these things that you’re seeing right now are more fixable even. So after, you know, watching it, like it’s still frustrating and, you know, you put five or six, you know, rookies out there and at one time you know, and and this happens or that happens, but a lot of times like that happens in defensive football. A lot of times plays get made to overcome that and it doesn’t really affect you. So, it’s not nothing’s really perfect, but we’ve we’ve been forced to be a little bit perfect. And so, you know, we’ve got to we’ve got to get get veterans back on the field. We got to find a way to create plays, manufacture pressure, uh get some tip balls, uh get some balls batted, you know, uh step in front of some passes and get some picks, put pressure on the offense more than we have. And that’s what we’ve got to be going for with the players that we put out there and then the schemes that we come up with. goes back to this player and scheme conversation. It both goes hand in hand that way. John, earlier you talked about this kind of just being that type of year to this point uh in re just in passing, but with it going so unexpectedly different, do you feel have you felt the need to do anything out of the box, whether it’s saying something or doing something like have you felt just the need to try to do whatever? I guess even if it’s different to try to stop this. I honestly I’m having a tough time following the question, you know, because yeah, we do something every second of every day, you know, we do a lot of things all the time and we’re working we’re working like crazy because it because it matters so much. So, we’re doing different things, different schemes. We’re figuring out different ways to play man coverage. We’re figuring out different blitz patterns all the time. We’re looking at our players. We’re changing our practice schedule up. I mean, even when you’re winning, you should be doing that because if you don’t keep things moving in this league, they catch up with you just like that. So, heck no, we don’t do things the same way. You know, everything’s been changing every day. Everything changes every year. Uh everything changes every week. It’s nothing stays the same, you know. And I think that’s if you’re going to be successful in this this league, but probably any anything in life really, but I know for sure in the National Football League, you better be evolving and getting finding ways to do things differently all the time because it’s just so competitive. There’s a lot of challenges out there, you know, and and it it’s uh it’s uh it can be fixed. It can be corrected. Things can turn, you know, that’s been proven uh by us and by other teams. So, we know we can do it. We just we’re going to fight like crazy to do it and come up a way to do it. John, I imagine you’ve heard the data on how few one in four teams have made the postseason. Um, is that something that you guys would talk to the team about to sort of emphasize the urgency of the week or is there no point in talking about it because everybody already understands the urgency of the week or I mean does does that sort of context even matter? Well, yeah, that is the context. I mean that’s the reality, you know. Um, I think uh I think we’re perfectly perfect perfectly capable of doing it. Um, but we’ve got to become a really good team, you know, and we certainly weren’t a good team on Sunday. I mean, we weren’t even close to a good team on Sunday. So, now there’s a lot of reasons for that. And that’s not like that doesn’t say that that’s all we can be, you know, we we were better than that, you know, Sundays before that. So, we need to be a lot better than that Sundays going forward. So, that’s what we’re going to try to do. And and I’m I’m really I’m fired up and I’m confident we can do it. you know, and I’m I’m hoping that, you know, my hope would be four, five, six, seven weeks from now, you know, the uh you guys will look back and acknowledge, you know, some of the some of the uh you know, the gloom and doom. But I get it because that’s how it feels to us, too. So, if you’re asking me like, do we have a sense of urgency? It’s like, I promise you, Charles, like these guys, all of us have a massive sense of urgency. And we have had a sense of urgency. It’s not like all of a sudden like, “Oh, we better get our act together.” It’s like, “No, it’s been that way like every single day, you know, in our building.” That’s how guys are approaching it. So, we haven’t we haven’t turned it. We haven’t reaped it yet, but we’re we’re going to we’re going to fight for that, you know, and and we all believe we’re going to get there. I know you were asked about Zachary yesterday, but a year ago, right around this time, you brought in Dean Ps. It’s not the same exact situation, but on staff. He’s a pass defensive coordinator. How much is Zack? How much are you how much is the defensive staff leaning on him with his experiences, you know, little bit of a fresher perspective if he wasn’t here last year in terms of trying to get this back on track? Uh, yeah, immensely. I mean, you know, I would say that’s true for all the coaches, you know, and Chuck, uh, Chuck as much as all the coaches and also different because Chuck’s got all that experience, you know, like you said. Um, Chuck is he’s he’s been there every day, you know, he’s into me. He’s he’s a big part of how the defense is built already. And uh you know, Chuck is involved. He’s on the phones. He’s making suggestions, you know, on the phones all the time. It’s great conversation with the whole staff. And uh Chuck is a great coach and he’s a he’s a huge part of it. And he and Zach are are talking all the time. And uh you know, he’s right in there. That’s one of the reasons I’m so confident, you know, because Chuck’s there and and uh and we talked to Dean, too, just so you know. I mean, had a conversation with Dean and uh uh you know, today, you know, and and uh and Zach has a conversation in the staff, you know. So, you know, he’s he’s watching. He’s, you know, he’s he cares, you know, so he’s part of what we’re doing. We got people that that we lean on for sure. You know, it’s not like we just if you got people if you got people that you lean on that know the defense, that are part of this structure that you want to get their their their view of it, you know, we definitely do that. Okay.

Head coach John Harbaugh on possible personnel changes, the pass rush, cornerback Jaire Alexander’s performance in Week 5 and more.

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