BALTIMORE RAVENS POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach John Harbaugh
(opening statement) "Congratulations to the Steelers. They played a great football game – they won the football game. First half, we didn't play well at all. We got behind, started coming back in the second half, and then we turned the ball over. And that's pretty much the story of the game. OK, what do you have?"
(on if the crowd booing prior to the game affected the first half performance) "No, I don't think so."
(on if not having a bye week after the long trip to London played into their performance) "I don't know. I really don't. I could give you an answer here, but I'd be making it up. I have no idea."
(on what needs to be done for the offense to gain momentum) "We just have to improve. You're not going to make a bunch of changes; you just have to improve. There were some flashes in there, and we have to build on those things. It's a process. You have to go to work, and you work to improve. We have playmakers out there, and we can put the ball in peoples' hands. We can run the ball – we've shown that. We have to eliminate the mistakes and make more plays."
(on if it's a tough decision to stick with RB Alex Collins after multiple fumbles in the past two games) "We had a game plan. He was in there for certain plays, and I decided to stick with him. He's not going to keep putting the ball on the ground, though. He won't get any more opportunities [if he continues] – the leash isn't going to be long on that. When you come in here and drop the ball however many times he has dropped, I'm not going to tolerate it. I like him. He's a good kid, and he makes plays, but he has to hold onto the football."
(on if he thought the team had a chance to make a comeback late in the third quarter) "Yes. *(Reporter: "Did that add to the frustration?") *I don't know. I don't have a frustration meter. I'm just trying to get better. You can get frustrated all you want. You can kick over trashcans if you want, but it's not going to make you better. We have to work. We have good guys that work hard and can find a way to improve. We've been worse than 2-2 here before and come back and gone to the AFC Championship. So, that's what you do. This is a long season in the National Football League, so we go to work."
(on if there were any serious injuries) "No, I don't believe so."
(on the defensive performance) "I have to look at the tape. I don't know to be honest with you. We got beat by a counter-play way too often. It's a counter-balance play, and they got outside too many times, and that can't happen."
QB Joe Flacco
(on what the offense needs to get started faster) "We've got to execute. That's where it starts. That's the basics of it. We have to get some energy. We've got to get some confidence – all of the above."
(on his thoughts on his own play) "I sucked. I mean, you know, it wasn't good. We've got to be better off early in games. So, that's the type of game that's going to benefit us right now, is being good early and then putting teams away. And when we're trying to climb back in games like we were today, there's opportunities to do it, and we weren't good enough to do it. That starts with me. I wasn't good enough to get us back in the game."
(on if he found his rhythm in the third quarter) "Yeah, we were definitely going there a little bit. But, I mean, everything that we do on offense is a little bit aided, either by turnovers, good field position, stuff like that. We're not creating a lot for ourselves right now. We're just going the hard way. Obviously, with that one long run, it popped, but besides that one long run, we're not getting any big plays. There's a couple out there, we're just missing them."
(on if he feels good overall about the offense and if change is needed there) "Listen, I mean, we definitely have the ability to be productive, and no matter what anybody thinks, we're all we have right now, so we're going to go out there, and we're going to make it happen."
(on if he was surprised by crowd's reaction to taking a knee before anthem) "No, nothing's very surprising. We talked about it a lot in our locker room, and the organization talked about it with the up top. That's what we felt was best for our team. It was definitely leaking into the locker room, and [time for] us to get back to football and play football, which is the thing that's most important to us. It's something that we felt like we had to do to support some of our teammates and things like that. So, we thought it was best. You're never surprised about reaction. There's no side that you're going to win on here, and it just is what it is."
(on if it's been a distraction, have things felt normal to him) "Early in the week, like I said, we had conversations about it, and you would go home and think about it. But at a certain point, I put it behind me, and I think we did as a team because, like I said, the most important thing for us is to play football. It's the most important thing for us because it's how we make our living. It's how we support our families. It's how we better everybody around us, and that's why we've got to keep our eye on the prize, which is this great game."
(on if he thinks this will be the end of it now) "We haven't had extended talks about how long it's going to go on, but I would assume so. I would like to believe that we addressed it, and we feel good about it, where we are as a team, and now we can move on, and like I said, get back to playing football."
(on if he's kicking himself for missing WR Breshad Perriman on a possible TD pass) "I mean, of course. I mean, come on, look at it. He was wide open, and I was just trying to put it on him. I put it too high, and we missed an
but if they continue to go down and miss that field goal, and then we continue to go down and score, then it's a different game. Like I said, that was one of those opportunities we had to make a big play, and we didn't do it. I think we had a few of them out there today and probably made one of them."
(on how much Pittsburgh's pressure on defense impacted him and the offense) "Listen, I think they, for the most part, they sat back in zone, and they made us throw the ball short, and they attacked from the back end. They get pressure here and there. I don't think they did a ton to try to bring pressure. They brought the nickel here and there off the corner, and we got the ball out of our hands most of the time when they brought pressure like that. I think a couple of times they actually got to me, it [didn't] look like they were doing anything special. Might have just been a good pass rush, or I might have had to hold on to the ball."
(on if he didn't feel like he got hit more times than usual) "When you're back there playing quarterback, that's the last thing you're worried about. No, not necessarily."
ILB C.J. Mosley
(on what makes RB Le'Veon Bell so successful) "He's probably one of the most patient backs in the league. You have a run [played] perfect; you got your guys inside out, he's patient and next thing you know, he makes one cut and it puts you out of position and his linemen correct that play [or] he just finds the gaps that [are] open. Or, if you have the edge set, he can make the guy miss by bouncing that side and bouncing right back out. I feel like some of the big runs that he had, that the team had, and that's kind of what happened. The guys are sitting right, then he makes the little extra move to get us out of position. You know, he's a great back. He's got great O-linemen. They make some plays."
(on why the defense struggled against the Pittsburgh counter play) "I don't think it was more of a struggle, you just got to play technique at the end of the day. You see the runs that we did stop, guys played technique, stayed inside out, kept the edge, and the plays they busted either we didn't have the edge or some guys maybe got out of the gap or something like that. So, at the end of the day, no matter what type of run scheme it is, or back, if you play great technique you'll stop them."
(on how frustrating it was not to stop the run) "I mean, it's frustrating, for a rivalry game, fighting for first place. We're getting three-and-outs here and there. It's the NFL, guys are going to make plays. Like I said, that's a great back, great O-linemen. So, he's going to make his plays, too. When they do make a play, you've got to let it go and move on to the next play. You've got to have a short-term memory with the plays."
(on the defense being on the field for so long) "Speaking for myself, I felt good most of the game. At the end of the day, we're going to say that's an excuse. You've got to get three-and-outs. If you get three-and-outs, there won't be a lot of plays, no matter how many times we're out there. And like I said, the plays that they did break, we got the edge short, or we just made some plays where guys got out of position. We've just got to correct that."
(on how much missing DT Brandon Williams hurts) "In a sense, it affects us. I mean, a loss is a loss. That's not an excuse. The next guy has to step up. When he comes back, we'll be ready for him. But we just can't make that [as an] excuse. If anything, the guy that's behind him have got to see what he does on those types of runs, or watch a little more film and see what you need to work on for those types of runs. You've got to figure it out as a whole group."
(on the pre-anthem kneel) "The leadership discussed it. We all discussed it together. We [made] a collective decision to take a knee before the anthem to show what we're really kneeling for had nothing to do with the anthem, nothing to do with the troops. So, even though it was supposed to be a silent prayer, it was mainly boos, but it goes to show that it has nothing to do with the anthem. And we stood up for the anthem, because we respect the flag and respect the veterans and everything that got misconstrued with us taking a knee last week. So, we stood for the anthem to tell everybody, and send a message why we're really kneeling. Everybody's going to have their opinion. No matter what we do, somebody's going to be happy, somebody's not going to be happy but as long as we know, as long as the team knows and we have everybody's back, at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Pretty much, once we got that out of the way, you've got to focus on football."
(on coming off two tough losses) "As a leadership and as a team, we've got to see what our weaknesses are. We've got to correct it quick. Even though it seems like the season's over, we're 2-2, and it's only Week 4, and we've got another AFC opponent next week; a great team in Oakland. It's going to be a tough road game. We've got to look at it tonight, look at it tomorrow, correct the mistakes Tuesday and get ready to play."
OLB Terrell Suggs
(on losing two straight games) "We're disappointed to lose two in a row. You don't want to lose how you lost last week. Then you come out here, and lose to your division rival. Now they have the upper hand in the division. This is an emotional loss, but man-to-man, we're committed to getting it fixed. We're all dedicated. Yeah, it sucks, but the sun is going to come out tomorrow. We're 2-2. We can still do everything we want to do. Man-for-man, we have to be committed within ourselves to do everything we can to get it fixed."
(on stopping RB Le'Veon Bell) "They're always going to establish the run. 26 [Le'Veon Bell] is one of the best players on their team. They're going to get him the ball. Between 26 [Le'Veon Bell] and 84 [Antonio Brown], we knew they were going to run the ball a little bit. I don't know how long that first drive was, but it was pretty long, and they only got three points out of it. It wasn't a surprise. If you have a back like him [Bell], you're definitely going to get him the ball. They mixed in some of their other runners, too. They out-executed us, so kudos to them. We just have to go back to work."
(on the fans booing) "We knew it was possible that we were going to get it. We just wanted to show to our fans that we still do stand in solidarity. We don't want anybody to lose the narrative of why we're doing it. We don't want people to think that we're disrespecting the flag or the military or anything like that. It was pretty much that we still wanted to show solidarity and an explanation to our fans. As you saw, we all stood up, like we normally do around here."
(on keeping the defense focused) "It's not challenging. We only control what we can control. Defensively, I think their defense out-played our defense. They got more turnovers than we did, and they out-sacked us, too. We only control what we control. We have to play better on defense. We only worry about what happens on defense."
(on not getting pressure on QB Ben Roethlisberger) "I think they had a good gameplan. We're familiar with each other. The two teams are very familiar with each other. Like I said, they just executed. They came up with a good gameplan, and they stuck with it. We just have to take it on ourselves. We've got to go back to work from what we see and be ready to play."
WR Mike Wallace
(on the slow start of the offense) "We had a good drive on the first drive, but after that, it kind of stalled for the whole first half. We have to find a way to kick-start our drives and get them going. We need to get the ball in our playmakers' hands, and make quick plays. We started making plays at the end, but it was way too late. We need to get it going early, and get into a flow. We can't keep putting our defense in those types of situations. They make good plays and put us in good situations, but I don't feel like we put them in good situations. We have to get it together on offense and pick it up. There's no excuses, we just have to make plays."
(on the fans booing) "It's just a bad situation for everybody. I don't care who you are, it's just a bad situation for everyone involved. It's a situation you just can't win. You try and please everybody, try and go the right way about things. But, sometimes it's just going to fall on deaf ears. You just have to know why you're doing it – know the good that you're doing it for. You can't worry about the negativity that comes with it. We did what we felt like we needed to do. We felt it was a positive move in the right direction for everybody involved. Players, owners, every single person involved. I know that everyone else feels the same way, so we just have to continue to move forward."
(on the frustration on offense) "It's always frustrating when you can't score points. With the talent that we have on offense, it's crazy. We have so many players and so many weapons – we're just not making plays. We just have to find a way. A quarter of the season is gone and our offense just hasn't found ways to make plays. I know that we will. I'm more than confident that we will. We've got to find a way to do it. We've got to get it going."
(on solutions) "Playing wide receiver – it's kind of hard to see. I can always be like, 'Just throw me the ball. Throw it to this person, and throw it to that person.' But, it's not that simple. There are so many things that go into making an offense work. Everybody has to work together. If one little thing is off, it will ruin the whole offense. We all have to be on the same page and find a middle ground on offense. We just need to make plays. I feel like we have too many good players to not make plays."
(on his relationship with QB Joe Flacco) "I think we've always had chemistry, me and Joe. It's just a matter of getting the opportunities. I just have to be positive, stay into the game and make plays when they come my way. I kind of let them off the hook early on a big play, when I was trying to run too fast without the ball. You've got to bring those in. That could have been a play, at the start of the game, that could have gotten things going in our direction. Everybody has to do better, but myself to begin with. I have to be better."
(on if it is confidence) "I don't think it's confidence, I just think it has to happen. I can't get any more confident than I already am. I'll tell you right now, whether we win 99-0 or lose 99-0, it's not going to change my confidence. I don't care who it is, I don't think there's a player in this league that can stop me. I can make a play on anybody, but it doesn't matter if you don't go out there and do it. To answer the confidence thing, I don't think my confidence is going anywhere. Mine, personally, isn't going anywhere."
(on his touchdown) "That was a great throw. I had a corner route, and they were in a zone. I honestly didn't think he was going to throw it, but you still have to be alert on every play. He took the only shot he had on the football field. He made a great throw because one guy swatted at the ball, and he missed it. I had to concentrate on that one. It was the only place he could put it. He threw the ball perfectly. I made the adjustment, and it was a touchdown."
RB Terrance West
(on his 2-point conversion being overturned) "Taking points off the scoreboard when we really needed it – of course it was frustrating."
(on if he was surprised he didn't start) "No. [Alex Collins] is getting it going. He had some long runs. Whatever the decision, it is what it is."
(on if he was surprised on his touches) "No, whatever the play call is, I just accept it and go on. I'm just trying to win."
(on what it's going to take to get the offense going) "We have to go back and find our identity. I think that's what we have to go back to. Tough loss today, but we're not pointing fingers at anyone. We just have to go on with it."
TE Benjamin Watson
(on what they have to do to get the offense going) "It's been a struggle, and I think it comes down to execution. That's it. We're not executing, we're not doing what we need to do on an individual or collective effort in order to move the football. It's tough to not get first downs and have the defense have to go back out there. What we have to do is the same thing we would do if we were successful. And that is look at the film, break it down, look at everything. Run game, pass game, coaching, playing, how it all goes together-we have to look at everything, every aspect of the offense."
(on whether there are things that need to change) "It's never as good or as bad as you think even though it's pretty bad right now offensively. As far as changing anything, look, I have enough to deal with myself. Enough to improve upon myself, and we all feel that way. So what we're going to do is we're going to keep pushing, keep striving. We still have a lot of season left. It's only four games. Obviously, there's a lot we can do better, but we're not throwing in the towel by any means. It's disappointing, yes, but we're professionals, and our goal is to get better."
(on two disappointing losses back-to-back) "As you can imagine, it's tough. Last week was a horrible loss, and this week wasn't very good either. Sometimes you're going to hit stretches like that in your life, in your professional life. Many of us have been in this predicament before; some of us haven't. But again, we have to take a step back. It's just four games, and we have another tough opponent next Sunday out in Oakland that we have to get ready for. So, we have to come back ready and get back to work. You have to deal with it. You have to mourn the loss, be upset, get angry and all those things have to propel you to make a difference next time."
(on whether the team's travel is wearing them down) "Really, no. We just didn't get first downs, and they stopped us. I don't care if we played on Mars. It's really simple. You have to run, you have to catch, you have to block and we have to execute. This is the NFL. Everybody travels, everybody gets on airplanes, everybody flies, everybody has injuries. Those are just things that everybody deals with. What matters is those 60 minutes you have on Sunday."
(on fans' reaction to the pre-game kneeling) "It's their prerogative to boo or not boo. Fans pay for their ticket, and they get to say what they want to say. We decided as a team collectively to just have a moment of silence with everything that's going on. We wanted to pray for unity, we wanted to show the unity amongst each other, and that's what we decided to do."
(on whether the fans are not getting the message) "Again, this is something we decided to do as a team, and how people took it is how they took it. I know that some people decided to boo, and some didn't. There's always a mixture in everything. We wanted to show respect to our fans. We're glad they came to the game, and we wanted to put on a good performance even though we didn't put on a great show today."
RB Alex Collins
(on starting the game) "It was a great experience. We came out pretty strong and just being out there with my teammates was really great. Playing against those guys [Steelers] was a great experience, and we'll be ready for next time."
(on the fumble) "I just should've done a better job of taking care of the ball. I'm the type of guy where I don't let my mistakes hold me back, I just try to clear my mind and keep playing football. [I] just kept going with the scheme and got a big run on my next carry."
(on the 50-yard run) "I just had a clear mind. I knew the gameplan, knew the scheme, and when they called that play, I was thinking about breaking it right away. The guard pulled around, and I just got right behind him, read his block, got to the outside and just ran after that."
(on the team's overall offensive performance) "It's frustrating. Any loss is frustrating, no matter if it's by one or by 17. But, we're in this together. We have each other's backs. We just have to get back out there, put this behind us, see the film, see what we did wrong and just come back with a full head of steam and be ready for next week."
(on whether the fans' booing led to a slow start) "No, not at all. Once the clock started, we were completely focused. Any outside noise would not distract us; we just need to make plays."
(on putting the fumble behind him) "You just can't dwell on it. Can't think about the mistakes. I have a job to do out there, and my teammates are depending on me. My number's called on each play, and I have to think about what I need to do right now, not on what just happened. So, I just put it behind me and kept moving forward."
(on what it meant to him to have the coach's faith to start) "It means I just have to keep going and doing the right things. I have to keep my consistency as much as possible."
(on whether the three-man rotation allows him to get into a rhythm) "Definitely. It doesn't get me out of a rhythm. We're all fresh, and we all get to ground and pound at the same time. And it gives us an opportunity to be the fresh guy out there. That's what we do in practice, and we just carry it over into the game."
(on how to correct a fumble) "It's really just a mindset. Most of the time, fumbles happen when you're not thinking about ball security, and you're worried about the play itself. Just the mindset of finishing the runs with both arms around the ball and just making yourself more aware of ball security."* *
S Tony Jefferson
(on his overall feeling about the game) "I just felt that from a defensive standpoint, we didn't really execute the way we wanted to. I know it's a division game, but the only good thing about it is, we'll get another shot at them later in this season. But right now, it's just time to move on."
(on coming back from England and playing the next week) "Personally, I don't care about that, and I really don't think anybody else in that locker room does either. Those are just excuses. We're all ball players. We just have to adjust."
(on containing Pittsburgh's running game) "[Le'Veon Bell] got over 100 yards, I know that. But, he got a lot of those yards at the end of the game. At the same time, we have to do better, be more gap discipline and make plays."
(on the loss) "Sucks. I just hate losing, especially to one of our rivals and a division opponent. Sucks, but the good thing is that's just the first quarter of the season. We finished at .500. Now time to get ready for the next quarter of the season."
DB Lardarius Webb
(on if the intensity of the rivalry felt the same) "It did. It wasn't a night game, but it definitely felt intense and physical. Guys were out there competing."
(on the focus moving forward) "We just have to evaluate the tape, move past it and work on getting better."
(on the reaction to OLB Terrell Suggs' Bane mask) "That was great. It brought us to another level; it brought the crowd to another level."
(on if the team "got up" for the game) "We all got up for the game. We had a great week of practice. We just lost."
(on the defense struggling for two-straight games) "We just have to go back to work. We are 2-2, not 0-4. We still have to come to work. We have a lot of good players on this team, offense and defense. We just have to find our way to get the most out of it."
DT Michael Pierce
(on what he saw from the defense) "I thought we were eager to rebound from last week. It obviously didn't go as well as we planned, but we were just eager to get back from last week. The energy [defensive coordinator] Dean [Pees] talked about that we lacked in London, I think we picked it up, but we just have to execute a lot better."
(on if he was able to settle down after his comments last week that he tried to do too much to replace DT Brandon Williams) "Oh, yes, I think I did a lot better. You just have to trust everybody on the defensive line. [Brent] Urban is out as well. I just wanted to play technically sound, and I think I did that for the most part, but we all have to find a way to be better."
(on how the defensive line is doing, particularly the inexperienced guys) "I think guys are doing well. That was like Willie [Henry's] second or third game playing. He did really well. He ran to the ball and he got a TFL [tackle for loss] last week. Bronson [Kaufusi] is coming along. It is just a learning process. I had to go through it last year. They will get better, and we will all get better."
(on the focus this week in preparing for Oakland) "We are desperate to get a win. We have to even the score and get back on track. Let's get a win."
DT Willie Henry
(on if batting down balls is instinctual for him or something he has been working on) "It is a little bit of both. I try to get my hands up in passing lanes and hopefully get my hands on a couple, which I did today."
(on how good it felt to make some plays today) "It felt good to get it, but it would have felt better if I did that and we got a 'W.' All I can do is look at the film and see how I can get better as a three-technique."
(on what he will be evaluating on the film) "Pass rushing, playaction to pass when they convert from run to pass, getting to the quarterback and making it a hard time for him to be back there and feel comfortable. To me, it seemed like he was just too comfortable back there at times."
(on if he feels the coaching staff has faith in him after playing him extensively in two-straight games) "Yes, I believe so. Not just the coaches, but my teammates and the team. I just go out there, play how the coaches coached me up all summer, last year, this year through camp and go out there and play football."
T Ronnie Stanley
(on if he got a little nervous when the defender fell on him) "Oh, yeah. I usually try not to think about it, but I just felt a little bit of pain. But I think everything is OK. I went back out there and finished the game, so I think it's fine."
(on if he felt OK playing after the injury) "Yeah, I was able to play. So, that's good."
(on if there is a reason the offense has been struggling the past two weeks) "No, I just think we need to execute. Go out and execute the game plan the coaches have set for us. When we're executing, we're going to gain yards."
(on running the ball well, and moving the ball better in the second half) "I think we just executed better, and like I said, if we do that we're going to gain yards for sure with our offensive scheme. I really just try to make sure I'm going to be executing as much as I can for my team."
(on where the confidence level is with the team now) "Oh, we still have the same confidence level. We're not down on ourselves. We're 2-2, it's not like we're 0-4. We know there's a long season left to go and we're not looking back."
WR Jeremy Maclin
(on if the rivalry was everything he thought it would be) "Yes, it was exciting. I thought the crowd was into it. Unfortunately, on offense, we laid an egg. That's kind of been the story. Something has to get better there."
(on what the offense can get better at) "I don't know. I think we're not executing, not being very efficient. We have to sustain drives, and we're not doing that right now."
(on how high the frustration level is on offense) "It's high. It's frustrating."
(on his message to the fans) "We have to get back and view the film and make our corrections. We didn't give the fans what they deserved to see today."
(on his frustrations on the sideline) "You just get caught up in the moment. There's nothing to be made out of it."
S Eric Weddle
(on the offense's frustrations) "I think we're just frustrated as a group. Playing a good team, let alone any team, you have to play well to give yourself a chance. Collectively, offense, defense, special teams, we didn't do that in the first half. Defense battled, offense couldn't really get into a rhythm, special teams [had] penalties, and then before you know it, [it's] 19-0. When you're playing a good team, it's hard to overcome when those things happen. It's a long season. No one's pressing the panic button. We're just not playing well enough to win in all three phases. Second half, we gave ourselves a chance. Defense fought their tails off, made some plays, got the ball back numerous times and we just didn't make it happen. That's credit to the Steelers. They played a well-fought game, controlled the ball, played well on defense and special teams. We had our chances, we just didn't capitalize on them. You're playing a good team; you can't afford to not play well as a team and not think you're going to win. That's the bottom line, so we'll get back to work, look at our mistakes, get a great game plan and get ready to go out there again, because no one's going to feel sorry for us. This league is ruthless. If you're down, they're going to keep you down, and they want to stomp you out. We'll fight, and guys are getting better. We believe in this team. The belief is there, we just all need to get a little bit better. If everyone gets a little bit better, we'll start faster and be able to win these games."
(on the Ravens' challenge that resulted in his interception) "We all saw it. I mean, we all saw it on the field. He was right in front of me. That's why I ran at him, because I knew, and then [the officials] ruled it dead. It's just unfortunate with the way the game was going. We need every play, every point we can get. That could have gotten us going. I mean, it did. I think we ended up getting a field goal after that, but a touchdown is such a huge momentum. It's unfortunate, but at least Coach 'Harbs' reviewed it, and we got the ball, but I thought they were always supposed to let the error on the play play itself out, and if not, then they challenge it. It wasn't the difference in the game, but it could've been the boost that we needed."
