*FRIDAY PODIUM TRANSCRIPT: Week 5 at OAKLAND
Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement: "Good seeing you guys – appreciate you being here. Beautiful day, very good practice, and we have a plane to catch. [We're] getting ready to head out to California."
Early in the week, you expressed some disappointment with CB Jaylen Hill, [that he] has taken so long [to recover]. How good was it to see him back on the field, and how did he look? (Luke Jones) "It was good to see him back. He looked good, moved well, had a couple interceptions out there during the course of the week. So, that was good to see."
**What about the Raiders' kickoff return game? I know you're familiar with their returner, WR/RS Cordarrelle Patterson. *(Jamison Hensley) *"He's certainly the best in the league, statistically, right now. It's not a fluke; he has talent. North, south, they bring it out pretty much every depth in the end zone. They're doing the old school way. They don't care if the touchback brings you back to the 25- [yard line]. We have to be prepared to go cover kicks against a very good kick returner."
It seems that ILB Patrick Onwuasor has played more snaps the past couple of weeks, more than LB Kamalei Correa. How much have you seen in Onwuasor's development?* (Jeff Zrebiec)*"Both those guys have played well. I don't think either one of them has taken total charge of it. Patrick is playing well. He plays fast, he makes tackles, and the production for him has been up – that's a positive. He continues to develop, but also, he had some misreads on some of those counter-schemes we talked about. He didn't read it out quite the right way, either – and not just him – the whole defense, basically. Those are basic things that he's continuing to learn, and he works really hard at it. He did have a really good week of practice."
T**his could possibly be your last game in Oakland because of the franchise moving to Las Vegas. What will you always remember about your times in the Black Hole? *(Jamison Hensley) *"It's funny – I haven't been there much as a coach. When I was in Philly, we didn't play there much – maybe once. Then, here, we played there, I think, twice now since I've been here. That sounds about right? Tough place to play, old … You walk through their bench … One of the cool stories that Gerry Sandusky [WBAL gameday broadcast team] told me yesterday was when he was a ball boy for Miami, Philadelphia? Philadelphia – his dad was the offensive line coach in Philly, and he was a ball boy and traveled out there. He was out there early, doing his ball boy work, and John Madden was sitting 20 rows up in the stands. I guess he always did that; [he] got there early and sat there for an hour, just kind of thinking through the gameplan, things like that. I'm thinking about doing that. That's pretty cool." *(laughter) *
Is it good to get CB Jimmy Smith back out on the field? (Jeff Zrebiec) "I know we didn't announce that, but that was not a question. So, he's good."
