On what he sees in the Broncos' film that explains why they play so well defensively in the second half:"Well, I think they get after it. They're very aggressive in the second half and they make a lot of plays. They're playing with a lot of confidence, and you know, there are 1,000 reasons. There are 1,000 reasons. They stop people on third down. That's the bottom line."
On whether they are blitzing like crazy: "Sometimes, sometimes."
On whether he expects T Jared Gaither to be a game-time decision: "I'm not even going to comment on injuries, so we'll see. If he's out there on Sunday, you'll see him. If he's not, you won't."
On Broncos WR Brandon Stokley making a living in the slot: "I'll tell you, he's a guy that, probably all throughout his career, he's been underestimated and he just keeps making plays. You know, he's a tremendous route runner, he's a real good competitor underneath, kind of a push-off guy, and can get open underneath and just seems to be around the ball. When there is a ball in the air, he comes up with it a lot of times. That play against Cincinnati was pretty indicative of his career."
On whether he felt like this was the Ravens' best week of practice: "Well, I don't want to diminish all of the other weeks, but we think the next week should be the best week. The next day should be the best day. So, to me it would be a natural thing to have your next day be your best day. And I'd say we probably have done that. Our guys have continued to improve all year, and regardless of the outcome of a particular game, I think we've gotten better as a football team every single week. Now we want that to show up in our results. We want to carry that to Sunday. That's our challenge right now."
On whether he can tell during the week how the team will play on Sunday: "Not unless you have a crystal ball. (laughter) *I think you can tell how well you've prepared, and preparation goes a long way. We have not had a bad week of practice yet this year, and we've won three and we've lost three. That probably answers your question. It comes down to a lot of things on Sunday, but we've prepared well all year, and I expect us to continue to prepare even better every week as we go."*
On what progression he has seen throughout the week: "Everything was better. Every specific thing was a little bit better."
On if WR Justin Harper did a good job of representing Broncos WR Brandon Marshall in practice:"Justin really has. He did a good job with Randy Moss a few weeks back. I think it's interesting for a young receiver like that. He gets the chance… When he's a 'look' team guy, he picks out a specific receiver, especially a player like Brandon Marshall, he studies the way he plays and emulates him a little bit in practice. I think he comes up with some things that help him to become a better player. If he can become the kind of receiver that Brandon Marshall is, we'd be pretty happy about that."
On if getting off to a better start includes execution, putting points on the board or having good field position:"We want to play well beginning to end, sideways. We want to play well throughout the whole game. Yeah, we want to put points on the board the very first time we get the ball, obviously. If we can change field position, that's a plus. If we can put points on the board, that's the idea. I would say, yeah, it entails points. That's the goal."
On how much beating a team like Denver would build the team's confidence:"Any time you win in this league it builds momentum. I think the biggest challenge when you don't win is to still build momentum, to still continue to grow as a football team. Swagger, confidence, all those things – I don't think you have a team in there that's not confident, doesn't have 'swagger.' Our guys believe in themselves, and we'll play the way we'll play – this week and throughout. We've just got to come up on Sunday with plays that give us a chance to win games. That's the bottom line."
On if it helps that the team saw new Broncos P Mitch Berger three times last year with the Steelers:"Mitch Berger, we've all seen him for a couple of years, so you pretty much know his particular style. They've got to integrate him into what they're doing. He's a good player, and I'm sure he upgrades them."
On if the team made any mental or technique adjustments during the two weeks since the last game:"The truth is, it's all those things. You can't say it's one thing or another thing, because then we'd be giving short shrift to the other thing. Yeah, it's mental. There are mental, intellectual football things that we're trying to teach our guys every single week, and we focused on a lot of those things. Technique things, absolutely we focus on those things. There are some scheme things that we focused on that we think we can do better. We focused, as coaches, on our preparation. You try to focus on everything you can think of, everything you study, areas specifically where you probably had problems, but also you want to build on the good things. It's more across the board, I think, of a process."
