FRIDAY AVAILABILITY: Week 6 VS. CINCINNATI
Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement: "Good to see you guys. [We had a] good practice – beautiful day. This is what fall is, right? I usually miss the fall. I haven't seen much of the falls over the last 30-plus years. It's pretty nice. (laughter) You guys enjoy it? You're working, too, though. Beautiful. Couldn't have a better setting than what we have right here. It's incredible. It's like football paradise. We had a good practice. I'll get to your question; I know you're going to ask about the two guys [Marquise Brown and Patrick Onwuasor] that didn't practice. They'll both be game-time decisions, so we'll see how they do come Sunday morning. If they can go, they go. I thought they'd practice today, so we'll see how they are on Sunday."
We haven't seen G Ben Powers out here today, and he wasn't listed on the injury report. (Daniel Oyefusi)"Ben Powers? He's out there. He's wearing No. 60 today. You have to learn how guys move. I don't even need to know the number; I can just tell by the way they move. 'Oh, that's Ben. That's Patrick [Mekari].' Could you tell the difference between Patrick and Ben if they didn't have any numbers on?" (Reporter: "Honestly, probably not.")"Probably not. If you watch them enough, you will. You'll be able to."
With some of the recent additions you've made at inside linebacker and a little change in gameday role for LB Kenny Young and LB Chris Board, how have you seen those guys respond over the last week or so? (Luke Jones) "Very well. They understand. They just keep fighting and working. I haven't seen one … I'm sure that they want to have a bigger role, absolutely, and they're competitive guys. But the attitude has stayed positive. They want to help us win. They want to practice well. They both practiced well again, so that will just shake itself out as we go. But I, really, to your point, feel really good about the way those two guys responded."
Did you do anything differently to prepare for the Bengals this week? (Ximena Lugo-Latorre) "We've stayed with our routine, but it's a different team. So, in that sense, we prepared differently. We're not sure who's going to play up front, necessarily, in the offensive line, so we have to take that into account. So, in that sense, probably like every week, you do it a little bit differently. It's the same in that sense, probably."
The Bengals came out and said they are reshuffling their offensive line. Do you try to make projections of where guys will be and game-plan against that? (Jamison Hensley)"Yes and no. We try to do projections about where they'll be and try to speculate a little bit about how we think they'll line up, but our gameplan will be the same regardless of who's in there. We have to practice what we practice, and it's not that contingent on who's in there on the offensive line in different spots."
So far WR Willie Snead IV and WR Marquise Brown have had a large share of the receiving yards. What have you seen from the other three guys? (Aaron Kasinitz)"They're doing a good job. I expect them to start getting some catches. We do, we kind of get caught up in that sometimes, and sometimes different things happen. Sometimes guys are open, and they just don't get the ball. Other times somebody else is open, whatever. The coverage dictates it sometimes. It's so hard to say, 'Ok, now we want to balance it up, and we want to get the ball to this guy or that guy.' Even though you want to have balance, you can't really dictate it as much as you'd like. Over the course of the season you're going to see those guys get catches, and that will even it out just a little bit. Because they're practicing well, and they can catch the ball. So, I think that will even out."
Did DT Jihad Ward have a good three days of practice? And did he pick up everything the way you wanted? _(Aaron Kasinitz) _"He did. He did. He did well. He looks good, and he's an option for Sunday. We'll see what happens with all of our situations and see where we're at."
