John Harbaugh on Injury Updates | Baltimore Ravens

John Harbaugh on Injury Updates | Baltimore Ravens

Appreciate everybody being here. Uh big win. Proud of the guys. Tough opponent. And uh on to the next game. So we’re four and five. Have an opportunity to get back to 500. Uh, but we’ve got to we’ve got to win a game to do it in a tough environment against a tough opponent that we uh know each other very well. So, what questions you have, John? We’ve obviously seen the results over the past four games as far as the defense and how things have turned around there. Um, with Zack, what have you seen as far as maybe adjustments of any scheme wise? What things have you seen as far as what he’s done to help improve the defense? The biggest thing I’ve seen probably from uh Zach and all the coaches and the players has been just steadiness. You know, I haven’t seen a lot of changes. I’ve seen steady uh commitment and consistency of approach. Uh hard work. Uh you know, you you you you um identify issues and things that need to improve and you try to work at them and have good good drills and good meetings and good teaching sessions and players, you know, really I think as much as anything, it’s it’s just a two-way street. You know, it’s a it’s a collaboration. You know, it’s a partnership in the National Football League. Coaches, coaches, players, players, players, coaches, coaches, players. You know, that team thing is what really matters. And um that’s really what guys have been doing. So, uh the results have been good, but we have a big big challenge and a bunch of big challenges in front of us. John, after reviewing the tape, what did you see? What did you like from Draymond Jones making this big mistake? Yeah. Yeah. Boy, Draymond, he did well. you know, he didn’t uh he got all his assignments right and had all the terms right and was versatile along the line. I think we talked about that possibility during the week and was a factor, you know, physicality, quickness, knows how to play the game, you know, he he added he added a good flavor to it. John, um Candre Jackson is has had an impact, you know, the five games he’s played and obviously a big one yesterday. What what have you seen from him just, you know, along this way that made you guys, okay, you know, he’s the guy and and and uh we kind of believe in him to to have an impact. You mean leading up to the last few weeks? Uh well, I just you watch practice, you know, you’re out there every day and uh you you see how guys perform in practice. uh and uh and uh he was bringing it. You know, he was showing us a lot of progress, a lot of development, improvement, and all those things. And you know, he’s got some unique skills. He’s a big, rangy, fast, explosive athlete who, uh who’s certainly not afraid to throw it in there and mix it up, which he does at a high level. So, uh, you know, those are and and I I think he’s a football player, you know, and he proves that infectious personality, high energy, uh, and to see it show up on the field the way it has is really is a great thing to see. And we’re, you know, he’s building a resume, but, you know, now the standard keeps going up for him, you know, and he’s raising the bar for himself, which is awesome. John, we’ve seen Makai now be able to start racking up a couple of these interceptions over the last two weeks. What’s changing for him? Is it just matter of him getting more comfortable now to try to make these plays of these ones that were there before? Have you noticed just him looking more comfortable that’s leading to these turnovers? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I think he’s starting to get a get a sense back there. You know, it’s such of a such a processing the game inside the game when you’re a player is so much about just feel, you know, and you call it feel, call it what you want, but that all the awareness of of being able to calculate all the different crazy things that can happen inside of a play at the level of the NFL. I mean, I think you you can only know understand that if you’ve played in the NFL, which which I haven’t, you know, to know how fast it is in the inside of a play in the National Football League. and you can see him starting to starting to click for him, you know, and he’s reacting just a little bit faster and and he’s conscientious. He always wants to do things right. So, it’s coming together. John, in your experiences at the safety position, you coached secondary at one point. Is there a little more of a learning curve there just because of how much space they have to cover? I mean, not just all the processing you mentioned, but it’s it’s just a lot of territory. Yeah, just experience as a coach and even experience as a player at that, you know, it’s much smaller level. It’s it’s tougher to play inside than it is outside from a from a processing standpoint. When you’re outside, whether it’s a corner or an outside backer, uh it’s just a little bit you see the game, you see the game this way and it’s just it makes a little more just a little simpler to process. When you when you’re in here, you see the game this way and it’s just there’s more going on that you have to have a sense for. John, there was a report that Rashad Baitman left in a boot and do you have an update on him in as you watch it again, did you think that was a hip drop tackle on him down in the goal line? What is a hip drop tackle? Uh, it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s an enigma apparently that can’t be called during the game. It looked like a hip drop tackle, I think. So, yeah, based on the definition is am I going to get in trouble for saying that? I hope not. You have an up the down shot. I think he’s going to be okay. Yeah, it’s he’s got he’s got an ankle sprain. We’ll see how how serious it is going forward. So, do you not expect him to miss time or is that still TBD? Excuse me. Do you not expect him to miss time or is that still TBD? So, we’ll see where we’re at. Yeah, probably no more on Wednesday, you know. Yeah, we also saw um Jay Higgins walk out with a brace. Is that a significant knee injury? That is uh not not a season ender, but it’s going to be a few weeks for Jay. John, we’ve seen the um the change of pace with Katon Mitchell work really well uh the last few weeks. Um do you sort of like the level at which you’re using that right now or is that something that we could maybe see even more in certain games or Yeah, I think more. Yeah, more. We should uh and we were kind of intentional. We want to do more, you know, we just for whatever reason we we didn’t get to it, but uh definitely want to see more Katon and you know, I think more you can mix it up. It’s hard to take I mean, you know, it’s hard to take plays off Derrick Henry’s plate, you know, that’s that’s a challenge. I you got to you got to I think anybody can understand that, but mixing it up is also a good thing too, you know, and uh I think all the guys uh understand the value of that too. So try to find that it’s going to be game to game probably, you know, but try to find that u that world where you know everybody’s most effective. Was it something that he improved on that led to his increased role or was it really more from the coaching game plan side? Anyways, was it something that Katon did that earned him an increased role or was it more from the game planning side? Yeah, I would I would say it’s a little bit of both, but probably more Katon. you know, just watching him throughout the course of the season, you could, you know, he’s he’s he’s been working hard, but he’s he was coming back. Hadn’t played a lot last year. And I thought I think he kind of was getting his sea legs back as a football player, you know, offensively and on special teams, both. And he made a big impact on special teams yesterday twice as a gunner. I don’t know if you noticed, but he had he had one play on the left sideline where he got down there right away, and then he had one where he got tackled and backed him up to the inside to the seven yardd line, which was huge for us because it backed him up on that last drive. And then um McCarthy got the big scramble, but it only got him out to like the 35 yard line because of that. That was a massive play. Kind of hidden yardage play by Keaton. But uh even as a running back, I I think he’s really starting to in the last not just now, but in the last probably four weeks, five weeks, you could really starting to see him see him uh come alive. John, um Nate Wiggins said after the game that he again went to the coaches and said he’d like to shout out Justin Jefferson. How much do you appreciate that when a young corner wants that assignment shows and shows that confidence and how important do you think that level of confidence is when you’re a young corner trying to learn how to play one of the toughest positions in the league? Yeah. I mean, yeah. Heck yeah. It’s you appreciate it. It’s important and uh you you expect uh anybody, you know, corner, I mean, if you want to be a cover corner, you better want to cover them all, you know, and believe in yourself and appreciate about, you know, he’s not the only corner on the on that defense that feels that way. They all do. Every one of them feels that way and they’re all talented. We’ve got a bunch of good cover corners, you know. I really I thought our secondary played great. I thought our defensive line covered really well. Batted a bunch of balls down. That was great to see. We had we had a bunch of uh defended passes. I was told it was the fourth most in franchise history passes broken up in a game. So, uh that everybody played a role in that. But no, I I think all those guys are covering great. Nate. And yet Nate, if I’m, you know, since we’re talking about Nate, he’s he’s bragging about how he should be covered. Everybody, you know, Nate knows he could play better, too. I promise you, he knows he could play after play, he can play, he can play even better and more dominant than he is, uh, locking in from one play to the next. And all the guys, the thing I love about our guys is that’s the approach they take, you know, and try to improve and get better all the time. John, only two for five in the red zone yesterday. What has to happen for you guys to be more consistent there? Yeah. Uh yeah, that was disappointing. You know, um great field position. Appreciate the two touchdowns. You know, we got them kind of late a little later there after the after we didn’t get after the three we didn’t get. Uh but uh we need to be we need to be scoring touchdowns down there. We’re good enough to do it. We we just it’s a combination probably of got to keep putting our guys in the best position we can with, you know, great plays and creative things to do. You got to run the ball in the red zone. That’s really important. And uh and then you got to do things right down there and find a way, you know, find a way to get open like we executed a really good play uh to to u to bait, you know, on the on the on the on two-pointer. That was a nice little scheme against what they were doing and it was executed well. So it kind of goes to, you know, come up with the good plays down there because it’s tight quarters and then execute them really well. Takes time in practice, get them oiled up, we can be better down there across the board. John, on that related to that, you had the play where it looks to be a tush push lineup, then Mark Anders gets him. It’s a toss to Jackson. Um, without giving any state secrets here. How does how does a play like that come about? Yeah, just that’s a state secrets. Uh, it’s it’s a very creative play. I give the coaching staff credit, Todd and the guys, uh, just all the credit in the world for that, you know, for coming up with that idea. But, uh, that was that was one we’ve been working on for a while, you know, and trying to get that kind of honed up. And I don’t know that anybody’s really done that before that I’d noticed. And so, we had to kind of work through the kinks in practice. And then the other one was the the the quarterback uh uh sweep, you know, to the left was a a check with me type play that we had been working on for a few weeks. So now that those have been run, you know, maybe maybe they’ll show up again in some form or some other thing we have to come up with. Those are the things that win games for you. What do you think of Lamar’s one hand grabbing the toss? A hot toss. I thought it was a great catch. Yeah, it was a great catch. I was I did gulp for one second. You know, I was very thankful that uh Lamar was the guy catching it. You know, he’s got great hands. So yeah, and you know, he didn’t even miss stride. Just pulled it right in like it was nothing. John, uh, obviously your roster was healthy yesterday going into the game. Uh, one thing that stood out in the active was Carson Vincent was up. Um, who’s that? Carson Vincent. He was active. I know he only played a little bit on special teams, but what have you seen from him in terms of his development and kind of what goes into that decision to have him up and, you know, he had no active? Yeah, it was kind of just an opportunity. I think he had probably gotten to the point where he was on the same par with Joe in some ways. I mean, they’re different because you’ve got a veteran guy, then you got a young guy. So Joe’s more um you know just un you know has more understanding. So Joe uh you know scheme wise and you know Joe’s going to know what to do and he’s and Joe’s heck of an athlete. Then you got this young talented big rangy guy that you want to kind of give an opportunity to and see how he can do but not until he’s somewhat ready. You know you can’t put him out there until he’s ready. He really hadn’t been ready up until the last week or two maybe probably two weeks. We felt like he was he was back. He was in the conversation and then we just decided to do it. see if he could handle field goal protection and then if you know he would have had to be the backup if something happened. Likewise with um Carl Lawson yesterday not getting elevated. Was that just a numbers slash situational thing more maybe even uh still coming up to speed on defense or Yeah, it’s it’s the it’s the first point. Okay. I mean just what what you do is you look at the you look at the the the the group and you say where are the reps? you know, it was just we just we didn’t have the reps, you know, to have him up and we needed the reps more in the D line, you know, because we because that’s just the way the numbers worked. So, I definitely want to get him up and I kind of talked about that last week. He’s he’s ready to roll. John, what was the discussion like before that last play on your last offensive drive, whether to throw it, whether to run it? It was after the two-minute warning. Um, the boot the bootleg. Yeah, the bootleg. You know, staying aggressive or trying to run clock. Uh what was kind of that that was that was pretty much the discussion. You know, we this we we wanted to get it. That was really the thing. What gives us the best chance to get it and it’s a run. It’s a it’s a a movement pass probably or it’s a uh you know, you can do a quarterback driven run if you wanted to. We didn’t really want to go there. Uh bootleg we thought was a good movement for Lamar to get out and make some happen or a dropback pass which was inviting a bunch of pressure. And what we didn’t want to do is be sitting in the I didn’t want to be sitting in the pocket with with a blitz or some crazy thing happened to us with a some, you know, we end up getting a batted ball, but I didn’t want a batted ball. I didn’t want I didn’t want a sack. I didn’t want anything any risky thing. I wanted to get out there where Lamar could make a decision and and he did make a good decision. I mean, that guy wasn’t going to intercept that ball there, but um I take on Van Ginkle, man. I mean, that guy is something, you know, he he made a bunch of plays on the perimeter on screens and different things. So, um, yeah, didn’t work for us. We we just want we wanted to keep our offense on the field and keep our defense off the field. We tried to get the first down. John, big story, I guess, yesterday was all the false starts that the Vikings committed. Um, did you think that Well, I don’t know if you saw, but it seemed like they the players and the coaches seemed like they thought that the you guys’ players were doing things. Oh, really? Did they Did you read all the quotes? Uh, I mean they said I’m reading. Did you read the head coach’s quote? I didn’t see the head. I see some from Aaron or all the other players. Uh, one one of the players said that and uh and then pretty much I don’t know. I think I read it like five five other players and one of the head coach said no. But I can tell you I watch I did it did catch my attention. Yes. And uh so I went back and I watched it and because I didn’t I didn’t we we didn’t have a game plan for that. If we did, I wouldn’t have been I would have been happy. But we’re not gonna do anything illegal. You know, if you if you stem, you make a move call, which is what you do. And you’re allowed to say move. You’re not to say set or hut or anything else or a cadence, which we never have done. Uh but then I watched I watched all of them and none of them did we stem. Not one did we move. Numerous times. We were even like kind of like like kind of like going like this when they were get when they were when they jumped because of the cadence that they were giving. They were doing a lot of cadence. They were they were doing a lot of uh on two trying to draw us off sides and then they were doing some shifts where they could uncover man zone and try to see what we were in and they jumped a few times when they were doing that to try to get to their alerts and their change of plays. So you had, you know, like like coach Okonnell said, it wasn’t anything we were doing. John Also with, you know, since you got Gilman, you put Hamilton a little bit closer to line, moving him around like that. What makes him so good to be, you know, create so much havoc and unpredictability when he’s so close to that line? Good jeans. I think probably good jeans. Uh he’s he’s talented. Uh but you know, the other thing is uh he really, you know, you just gota versatility is not just talent, you know, it’s also uh understanding the game and also study, you know. I mean, he’s he’s got to know a lot. There’s a lot he has to know uh and process and understand about the game plan and stuff. And I just think he he kind of knows the whole defense, you know, probably he probably can line up in any position. We’ll keep him away from those guard. How about that? You can play all the other ones. But he’s uh yeah, he’s special that way. There’s a lot more football left, but how much of a statement is it that this team’s been able to come back, win three in a row, and now be in a situation where they’re just one game behind the Steelers, right? Um, I think the statement remains to be stated, you know, uh, that’s what it kind of means is like we have a long way to go, you know, and uh, and uh, that’s where our guys are at. Text Jim, thanks for Yeah, I did. I sure did. Absolutely. Said him of numerous more good luck texts than usual, you know, surprisingly and uh I was very pleased with the outcome. Yeah. John, this Marlin’s finger, he talked a little bit about it. He said he’s never experienced anything like it’s something you guys are just going to have to manage or is could he need maybe need some time away? Uh yeah, he might uh he might need to get something done to to tighten it up, which would be uh would only be would be he he could play right away, maybe the week or might may take a week to get him back from that if he does decide to do uh a surgery. Um but it would be only a week at the most what I was told. I don’t know. I guess you could when you say a week then I’m thinking maybe two, but maybe none. So if he decides to play with it and and keep it wrapped up, then he could play in this game. So that was that’s where he’s at right now. Okay. All right. Thanks.

Head Coach John Harbaugh on injuries to cornerback Marlon Humphrey and others, the defense’s approach over the last several weeks, getting running back Keaton Mitchell more touches and more.

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