Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement:"[This was] just a great night. As you see now, we got all the kids [down here]. When Gerry [Sandusky] called the kids down with about a half hour left in practice, I was a little fearful for a bad result – those kids came flying down those steps, didn't they? (laughter) They're all fired up right now. It's a great night here in Annapolis; everybody's having a lot of fun. It was a good night for our football team. It's a different environment – it's a night environment. Again, we're going to be playing night games here through the preseason and during the regular season, so it gives us a chance to prepare for that. It was a less physical practice tonight because we had two very physical practices over the weekend. We'll have a chance to recover a little bit for a day or two, we'll be doing all [our] San Francisco [game] preparations over the next couple days, and then we'll play Thursday night. That's where we're at. It's a great time in camp, and we're excited to start playing some games."
John, have you decided how much your starters will play Thursday night? (Aaron Wilson)"We're kind of on a standard plan right now, as far as that [goes]. I don't know exactly the number of plays yet, but it won't be anything we haven't done in the past, along the lines of what you're talking about."
It looked like QB Keith Wenning had one of his better practices today, especially throwing the deep ball. What did you see from him today? (Ryan Mink)"I'll tell you, Keith was on fire during the third-down drill. Did he have an incompletion? And it wasn't just converting [first downs], it was throwing touchdown passes. That's a good thing. He did a nice job of driving the team down there at the end in the two-minute [drill]. [He] didn't quite get the two-point conversion – we made it a little tougher on him – but he handled himself with a lot of poise. There are still some wrinkles to iron out – delay of games, getting the guys in the right formations, and things like that, which is [the case for] any rookie quarterback. He's doing a heck of a job."
It looked like CB Chykie Brown had a great night tonight. (Kevin Richardson)"Chykie did have a nice night. He did a great job. Chykie, in the last week, has really come on. He's calmed down a little bit. He's playing assignment and technique football, and really, at that position, you have to play with some patience, and he's doing that."
John, we've been talking about RB Ray Rice throughout the whole time, but what have you seen from him as a player on the field? (Jamison Hensley)"Right, well that's a good question. Thanks for asking that question. Ray has looked really good. Comparisons to years in the past – we'll find all that out during the season. But he's in tremendous shape. I'm seeing him make a good lateral cut. He has really good burst, acceleration is there [and] vision is there. He's been very patient with the zone runs, which is something that I believe to be an improvement over the past [few years] – even two years ago. He's catching the ball well [and his] pass protection has been very good. Ray looks really good."
