Head Coach John Harbaugh
(opening statement) "Obviously, congratulations to Cincinnati. They came in here and found a way to win the game in the end. I thought they played well, especially in the first half, and I thought they earned it. It's always a big win on the road in the division. I thought our guys fought back. Obviously, we have a lot of heart, a lot of determination, and that's a good place to start. What we didn't do was execute when we needed to in certain situations, especially early in the game and then right at the end of the game. So, we've got things to go to work on. We had a chance to control the football game. We very easily could have done it by doing some things right. There's going to be a lot of good things on that tape, and we really don't have too much time to be sitting around and thinking about it. We have to go back to work. Coaches will be back at it tonight. And we'll build a game plan for Pittsburgh coming in here Thursday night."
(on RB Justin Forsett's play in the second half) "Justin came in [and] did a great job. He has been playing that way all since he got here, all through offseason, training camp. He proved it in the game. He has been around, he's a seven-year vet. He's a good football player, he did a nice job."
(on CB Lardarius Webb's inactivity) "I'm not going to get into all of that. It's really not important. It's not information I really want out there. It wouldn't do us any good to explain all that."
(on what he saw from QB Joe Flacco at the end of the first half) "That's a play, obviously, you would like to have back. That's a play where you're trying to get a touchdown there. The ball has to come out quick. We have a timeout there, so it's something we're certainly capable of doing, he just didn't pull the trigger there. I'm sure he would like to have that one back. That cost us. It cost us three points, obviously."
(on if he was surprised at the number of dropped passes by the offense) "You have to make those plays. In the first half, we had a number of drops, and we have to clean that up. Our guys have good hands. There's nothing that they're not capable of doing. We stumbled a little bit for some reason, I don't know what was up with the field. Between that and the drops, [it] really threw off our timing in the passing game in the first half."
(on if the run and pass games seemed balanced) "We tried to run a little bit early. We had some things to keep them off balance early. We had some boots and some screens. We wanted to slow down that front. They're good, especially the linebackers. When their linebackers started getting gassed, it helped us a little bit, and we were able to run the ball, but we were behind. But, we ran good in the second half. That's going to be important for us. We're going to be able to need to run the ball. [I] believe we're fully capable of doing it. We have to do a better job of that."
(on the pass rush) "I don't really have any thoughts on that right now, until I look at the tape."
(on what happened on the touchdown catch by Bengals WR A.J. Green) "The coverage was there, you saw that. It's a matter of a great player that got a step behind us and made a great play. Chykie [Brown] got his hand in the air; he was beat by a step, though. He should stay on top there, and he knows that. But, he got the ball out, and A.J. bounced [up] a little bit and made the play, popped up where he made the catch."
(on QB Joe Flacco on the fourth-and-one play) "Joe is a fighter. That doesn't surprise me one bit, for him to go get that and then make that play. He's done that a lot. Joe is a fighter."
(on CB Chykie Brown's performance overall) "He seemed OK. I don't know it until I see it [on film]. There weren't any big plays. It seemed like we tackled, we kept it in front of us pretty well. I thought all of our corners, the whole secondary, really the whole defense played good, solid football. Throughout the game, they really only had one play, at the end, but it was the one that was the difference, though."
(on whether RB Bernard Pierce not returning to the game was health-related) "It doesn't really matter. No, it wasn't a health decision. He's fine. He's healthy. I guess you can extrapolate from there (laughter). We're not too enamored with fumbles. It's not what we're looking for from our running backs."
Joe Flacco
(on the offense's problems) "We just played about as bad as you can, in terms of just simple fundamental things — throwing, catching, running routes, staying up, just running the ball, couple mental busts. Just fundamental things that you do every day, and it's just part of the routine, and we just weren't doing [them] well."
(on the play at end of first half and at the end of the game) "At the end of the first half, that was probably the stupidest play I've ever made in football. I kind of just got caught up in the play and forgot about the situation. There's no excuse for it, can't happen. At the end of the game there, kind of rotated, I knew I had, I think it was Reggie [Nelson] coming off the right corner there, and [I] thought we'd hold him up a little bit and knew I had to make a play [to] get the first down and just couldn't do it."
(on if they threw anything different at him late) "I don't think so, no. This is stuff they do all the time. We just weren't able to execute."
(on where the passes and locations were) "I think it goes a couple early on. The opening play, I saw corner coming off of Torrey [Smith]. I would like to hit him earlier. We talked about that one, and then I hit Steve [Smith, Sr.] on first down. I was behind him a little bit on that. Maybe like that first drive. Other than that, I don't really remember any [like that]."
(on if he's got confidence they can fix the fundamental errors) "That's stuff we do every day. This is our first real live action, our first true test, and we weren't able to do it very well. It's stuff we do every day, and we have to have confidence that we can go out there a lot better than we did today."
(on the second-half comeback and how they look at it) "It's tough to look at it too many ways other than the fact that we lost the game, and overall we didn't play very well. As a player, you don't look for good things in losses. It was a bad day. We got ourselves obviously in position to win the game, but we didn't necessarily play well enough to win it."
(on when he saw WR Steve Smith, Sr. on the long TD pass) "It was when I moved out to the left. They dropped back real deep, made it tough on us to do anything, in terms of getting the first down there. But they didn't rush very many guys. I was able to step up, and, you know, for whatever reason, those safeties, it drew them up a little bit, and Steve kind of saw the same thing I saw and reacted upfield with it. It's kind of what we teach in terms of scramble rules. That guy has to go deep, and he did a great job. That play got us back in the game. We knew there was going to be more game, and we were going to go have to go down and make some more plays. That's when you look back at the little mistakes, like at the end of the first half, getting points, things like that. They always prove to be a pretty big deciding factor in the end of games, and it might have been that way today."
WR Steve Smith Sr.
(on the offense being a tale of two halves tonight) "Offensively, we just couldn't get it done. As receivers we didn't play as well as we could. We came in at halftime and we basically… We screwed ourselves receiver-wise as best as we could; we dropped all the 'gimmies,' but we caught all the hard ones. We've just got to play better, but things can happen and you've got to take responsibility. This receiver group has a lot of opportunities to be great, and today I think we overthought things and ran before we had the ball. We've just got to play better."
(on how to shake off the drops) "You've got to understand what's going on and why. Just taking my eyes off the ball, just anxious and wanting to make a play. It's going to happen, you've got to minimize the mistakes [and] you have to have a short memory. If you do well, you can't allow that to take you into where you don't perform well, and if you have a bad half, you've got to come out and play better."
(on a quick turnaround for the Pittsburgh game and putting this game behind them) "You've got to use a win and a loss the same way; you can't harp on the wins and fuel yourself up, and you can't sulk on the losses. You've just got to be prepared, and ready, and understand who you're playing and what you've got to do, and improve on what you didn't do well."
(on the offense struggling at points today) "We just didn't play well – point blank. We did not play well. We win as a team, we lose as a team. And in winning, everyone has their hand in winning, and in losing, same thing happens."
(on his touchdown catch) "We had a little scramble drill and Joe [Flacco] told me to go, so I went [and] he put up a great ball. I mean, he was throwing good balls all day – I was just making it very difficult on myself to catch them. So, he did a great job."
RB Bernard Pierce
(on his fumble) "I kind of got put airborne, and the ball just kind of slipped away from me. He grabbed my arm and just pulled it out."
(on if he thought he was down on the play before losing the ball) "I thought I was down, yes, but it's 50-50."
(on what coach Harbaugh said to him after the play) "He just said, 'Being a running back in this league, if you're trying to stay in this league, you can't fumble the ball.' And I agree with him 100-percent."
(on if he was surprised he didn't get put back in the game after that) "It could have went either way. If my name was called back up, I definitely would have gone back in and gave my all. And if not, which happened, I'm always going to cheer on my teammates and make sure I'm in their ear throughout the game."
(on if he feels like he can turn things around with the Steelers this week) "Of course. I've just got to make sure I … First things first, protect the ball."
(on how he shakes it off) "This game is done. It's shaken off. On to next week."
(on if he expects to play Thursday) "I have no idea. I can't control that at all."
(on how he feels RB Justin Forsett played) "I thought he did great. He stepped up, and like I said earlier in the week, next man up."
(on if the running game is still a work in progress) "Of course. We've just got to make sure we're all on the same page, everybody gets their reads down, landmarks and just hit it."
WR Torrey Smith
(on the feeling on the bench after Steve Smith Sr. touchdown catch) "We knew we needed a stop on defense but, they just made a great play, and it always seems to come down to a big play at the end. We just have to play better on offense, have to get going faster and have to play a lot cleaner especially in the first half."
(on cleaning up the offensive mistakes) "You know, it's not stuff we haven't done before but, we have to clean it up and just get better."
(on the drops) "We just have to make plays. It's really that simple. There were throws that Joe [Flacco] made that were great; we just have to come up with them."
(on Flacco throwing 62 times) "We definitely have to get the run game going earlier, and we actually did have opportunities. We just have to make the plays."
RB Justin Forsett
(on his approach to his game-time opportunity today) "Just be ready, I was ready. You never know what happens in this league. I've been around a long time, so when opportunities come, you just have to be ready, just preparing."
(on if there is any added pressure substituting for RB Bernard Pierce following his fumble) "No, I just want to encourage him. I know everybody knows how it feels to fumble the ball. No one feels worse than the person that did. Just keep him uplifted, knowing that we still need him. We still need him the rest of the season, so I just want to encourage him and go out there and do my part."
(on how big an opportunity this was for him) "It was good. I said earlier in the week I was going to play like it was my last. Dealing with what I dealt with last year, the injuries and things, you never know when you're going to play another snap. Just come out with that passion and a lot of energy and try to be a spark."
(on if he feels that he seized the opportunity) "I hope so, but you never know. You have to string things together in this league. Anybody can have one good game. You have to try to string them together and try to get better next week."
(on the struggle of the offense in the first half) "Execution. We didn't execute like we wanted to. Just making the right reads, catching the ball, doing those little things, the fundamental things to allow us to be successful."
(on his second-half rhythm) "It was fun, that's why you play the game. Just to be a part of something special, being a spark … It just reminds you of Pop Warner football, going out there playing on a Saturday afternoon, except it's Sunday in front of a big crowd."
(on preparing for Pittsburgh) "We just have to go back and look at this game to see what we can do better and focus on the next team, making sure we're preparing right, taking care of the body so we can bounce back."
(on if Cincinnati showed them things they were not prepared for in the first half) "No, everything we went over, we saw it. It was just execution, making plays when our numbers [were] called. That was what it boiled down to."
(on how he felt about his overall performance today) "I felt good, there's definitely room to grow and improve. I'm just going to look at those things and see how I can improve for next week."
(on if he feels today's performance will impact his playing time going forward) "Like I said, you hope so, but in this league, you can't take anything for granted. You have to string things together. Anybody can have one good game and have success, but you have to put a couple of them together."
(on if it takes time to get used to offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak's system) "Any given game, you just have to start doing the fundamental things right. With the run game, you never know. It starts off three or two yards, and then the next thing you know, you get the 15- or 20-yard runs. That's any team, it's not just the zone."
OLB Terrell Suggs
(on how disappointing it is to start the season off with a loss) "It's very disappointing. It sucks. You lost your last game last year, and you lost the first game this year to the same team. It sucks. But, it's a short week, fortunately for us. We get to look at this one real quick, throw it away and move on to our rivals [Pittsburgh Steelers]."
(on the defense's increased pressure on Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton in the second half) "They did a good job executing earlier. [Bengals offensive coordinator] Hue [Jackson] knew this team and he knew we were going to try to get after the quarterback and he did a good job of [calling a] quick game, and screens and taking it out of our hands. We have to tip our hat off to them. They did a good job executing. They won field position early. You can't spot a good team like that 15 points. The beauty of it is, it is the first of 16 [games], and we just have to grow up and we have to learn from this fast."
(on only letting the Bengals in the end zone once) "We picked a hell of a time to let them in the end zone, if you ask me. At some point, you just have to execute. Our coaches do a great job of putting us in a position that is best for the team – positions that we can win. Despite everything that happened, we still were in a position to win. We have to execute. We have to execute better – we know better. It just sucks to drop this one. We have to look at it and get over it really quick."
(on if they were surprised by Cincinnati running a no-huddle offense) "No, we anticipated that. Pretty much, if an offense is in rhythm and controlling the tempo of the game, then they're able to do a lot of things. We did a good job anticipating that, that's why they didn't score too many touchdowns early. But, like I said, we can't spot them 15 points. We also can't let them start three of four drives at the 50-yard line. We're definitely going to look at the tape. We have to look at it and go man-for-man. We all could've done something better today, and we dropped one. It's a long season and hopefully this won't prevent us from doing what we want to do later on in the year."
(on if this game felt like last year's opener) "I don't even want to talk about last year. If you remember last year, we gave up seven touchdowns in the opener. It's a pretty big difference. It doesn't feel like last year. We just can't give them the big play. Pretty much our big thing coming into this week was to not let one get over our head. We let one get over our head, but it's the NFL, it happens. We have to go back to the drawing board and see exactly why that happened. Learn from it, grow up and get over it quick."
(on WR Steve Smith, Sr.'s fourth-quarter touchdown) "I thought we had it. I thought we had it. We've been living by that – make a team do it the long, hard way. [Our offense] did a good job of giving us a one-point lead. That's all you need in this league, is a one-point lead. And you can still win games that way. It sucks that we gave up the one big deep one, but it's the first of 16 [games]. We have a mature team. Good teams don't let things like that keep happening. We're going to get over it, and we're going to go back to work."
T Rick Wagner
(on if the Bengals overloaded the right side on the Ravens final play of the game) "It was going to be tough, no matter what. I just have to pop off a little sooner."
(on the sacks being costly to the team) "Yeah, they were tough plays. Obviously, we have to do better and get back at it tomorrow."
(on how the Ravens shake this off before the Pittsburgh game) "After today, this game has to get put behind you. Think about today's game the rest of the night and then when you wake up tomorrow morning, it's all Steelers."
(on crediting the Bengals defensive line) "We knew going into the game they were a phenomenal group. I think we prepared pretty well, but that's what happens in the NFL – they're great players."
TE Dennis Pitta
(on the Bengals) "That was a tough game. As usual, they are a very physical team. And it was a typical Ravens-Bengals game."
(on the last drive) "I thought we were in pretty good shape. We were moving the ball down the field steadily, but they made a couple of plays at the end, blitzed us hard, and we just have to do a better job of picking that up. Joe played a great game, but we need to make sure he doesn't have to throw as much."
TE Owen Daniels
(on how he felt out there) "It felt good to make plays out there, but the result wasn't what we wanted. We have to clean some things up before Thursday night. It's a quick turnaround, but that's a good thing because you want to get this taste out of your mouth."
(on Kubiak's offense) "It was pretty much the same as we had in Houston. We tried to set a pace, but just made too many mistakes early in the game. After [Steve] Smith [Sr.] caught that TD late. I thought we would pull it out, but that's just the way it goes in the NFL."
CB Chykie Brown
(on A.J. Green's touchdown pass) "I just have to make that play. I need to stay on top of that route. I just have to have better technique and stay on top of the ball, and stay on top of the man."
(on his overall day today) "I stayed confident, I had a pretty solid day, but I have to make up for that the A.J. Green touchdown pass). I blame it on me, I put that on me. I'm going to get that right. I've got to keep that right, and then we'll be straight."
(on if he knew he was going to start) "I was just going out there planning on playing. And then when I heard my name, I knew I would be up."
(on whether he was expecting the deep ball against Green) "I was looking for the deep ball, but like I said, I have to play better technique. I've got to stay on top of the man, and that didn't happen. He [A.J. Green] made a great play, and that's A.J. Green."
CB Jimmy Smith
(on putting the loss behind him) "There really isn't a way to put this game behind you. After we leave this locker room, I'm going to go home and watch the Steelers game and see whatever we can do to win that game."
(on the defense's performance today) "In the first half, it was kind of a 'bend don't break' philosophy. We were trying to figure out the new scheme they had in. They threw a lot of new things at us, the zone read, and all of that, but we didn't let them get in the end zone, until the end when we let that [A.J. Green touchdown] play get away from us, and they kicked a lot of field goals."
(on A.J. Green's touchdown) "Chykie [Brown] got his hand on the ball – he just didn't get a chance to bat it away. He [A.J. Green] came up with a huge play, and that's what he's known for. He won the game for his team."
(on the defense backs gelling) "It does take time, but our unit is pretty strong. I think that we gelled pretty well in the preseason. There's obviously some things that we have to clean up. This is the first game, and we are not beating our heads, so we'll come back from it."
S Jeromy Miles
(on his blocked field goal) "We had been working our behinds off all week, and it was one of those critical situations where we needed to make a play. I just played hard. I saw an opening, I trusted it, and just went for it. It was just a combination of will and technique; you've got to want it that bad."
(on the Ravens secondary) "It's one of those things, where we take it, and we learn from it. Luckily we have a game Thursday, so we won't have to wait too long. We'll get out there, and we'll perform like we're supposed to."
DE Chris Canty
(on getting over this loss) "We have another game on Thursday night. We're looking forward it. We're going to go back and look at this tape. We're going to learn what we need to learn and move on and get ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers."
(on today's game) "It was tough. We gave up a big play at an inopportune time that cost us. Certainly, that's one of the things we knew we had to limit, was the big play. We had our opportunities in there – we just didn't take advantage of them. They [Bengals] were able to make more plays than we were down the stretch."
(on the Bengals' running backs) "We knew that they had two talented backs, guys that could make a difference. We just wanted to limit the opportunities today to be successful, but like I said, they were able to make the plays they needed to make, down the stretch, and that was the difference."
