RAVENS HEAD COACH JOHN HARBAUGH
Opening statement:
"To the Browns, that was a well-played, hard-fought football game. That is a very good football team. We've been playing tough games against the Browns for many years and they are even better than they have ever been before. They are extremely well coached, they are physical and tough. That was AFC North football. It is a great victory on the road. To win an AFC North game on the road this year is going to be really, really hard to do. Our guys stepped up and did it. I am proud of our men. Special teams had a blocked field goal and we did a great job handling the ball on a windy day with the punt returns. We forced a field goal, Sam's (P SAMKOCH) punt hit down inside the 10. They were all huge plays that helped to give us field position at the end. Offensively, we ran the ball very well. We had plays in critical situations. Start with Steve Smith and Joe Flacco. For those two guys to make the plays that they did in critical situations to give us a chance to win the game. That's what great players do and that's what 89 (SMITH) and 5 (FLACCO) did. Defensively, that's a really good offense and (Browns QB) Brian Hoyer deserves a lot of credit. He played really well and the offensive line played well. They've got quick guys who made plays. Their wide receivers are talented guys. They ran the ball well. We had a tough time stopping the sweep. Their two drives in the third quarter are about as good as you are going to see. Our defensive coaches did a good job of getting on the chalkboard and figuring out how to get the run game stopped and how to get the three three-and-outs that made the difference at the end of the game. Two of those were in sudden-change situations, one after the big play (70 yard catch by Taylor Gabriel) where we stopped them and backed them up, and the second after the turnover where we backed them up again and made those tough field goals into the Dawg Pound end. I want to give a lot of credit to our coaches who did a great job as they always do. Both of our coordinators called good games. The guys were well coached. Our players have the hearts of lions. Our players are tough, hard-nosed, mentally strong people and I am very, very proud of them."
On the play of RB Lorenzo Taliaferro:
"I think the results speak for themselves with Lorenzo. He was downhill running, physical and was hard to tackle. That is an element that is a big plus for an offense. That goes with our offensive line as well, our offensive line played very well."
On if RB Bernard Pierce is a short-term injury:
"I hope so. It is a muscle injury. We thought we'd get him into the game, but it didn't work out. We should have a good chance of getting him back next week."
On Cleveland-native FB Kyle Juszczyk scoring a touchdown:
"He did a great job on the swing pass out of the left side of the backfield. I am sure he was pretty excited when the his number was called and to make the catch in that situation. It's a great thing."
On if they added WR Steve Smith for the big play he made at the end of the game:
"It was for moments like that that we brought Steve Smith in here, and for everything else that he brings. I have been a big admirer of Steve for many years, ever since the draft when he came out. We've always had a great relationship and I am just happy that the Ravens and the Ravens fans have a chance for him to be part of us. I think he is happy to be here too."
On the atmosphere on the sidelines following several early injuries:
"We're persistent and we're tough-minded. That's a good place to start. Determination is probably the best way to describe the sideline. Our guys were very determined to find a way and they did."
On why the secondary didn't tag WR Taylor Gabriel down on the 70-yard play:
"I haven't talked to them about that. We will have a chance to talk about that tomorrow. We want to get guys down right away and you have to recognize the fact that they are not down until they are down. You have to put them down. That's something that we have to be more aware of. I don't know what happened on the play, we'll have to take a look at that on tape and see what happened. It was a double move, it looked like it was kind of a post-corner-post that got us. That was a bad play. We had a couple other plays on the back end they had early a deep pass against us that we could have played a lot better, the one that got down to the 5 yard line. Those are issues. Big plays are always going to hurt you and that was the case today."
On injured CB Lardarius Webb:
"We were trying to get him back in practice. I don't really think you can push something like that. He hasn't really played much. He is coming off the lower back injury. He is just going to have to get out there and play full speed and get his wheels back but hopefully we can play him back."
On the decision to punt with 2:35 left:
"It wasn't very difficult at all. It was fourth and a long, long way to go. It was a pretty easy decision. We had a couple of timeouts, and we felt that we'd get the ball back with the worst 1:40 left. We got it back in front of the two-minute warning, which was big. The key is that your defense has to come up with the stop. They did a great job."
On the play of the defense on Cleveland's last three drives:
"I thought we did a good job just getting penetration up front against the running game and we held the edge a little bit better. They had some good schemes. They do a great job on offense led by (Offensive Coordinator Kyle) Shanahan. He did a great job of motioning and moving and getting you in situations where they create some blocking advantages for you. They also put themselves in jeopardy too when you have to call some timeouts."
On the injury to TE Dennis Pitta:
"I don't know how serious it is. I haven't heard. He told me on the field that it wasn't as bad as before, but I don't know what that means. I am just going to be praying and hoping for the best until I get some more information. That was so disappointing."
On if he had issues with the pass to QB Johnny Manziel:
"Yes, they had illegal motion on it. It is a deception play so I felt they hid him (Manziel) on the sidelines and brought him back out, but they didn't. It was within the rules. When I first saw it, I felt it was a deception play but I was wrong about that but happy the running back was in motion."
On playing following the adversity of the week:
"The best way to silence it is to handle it with class. There are always going to be, in life, challenges and attacks and consequences and all those kind of things that we'll talk about this week and ongoing forever. You just have to stand up, be accountable, be who you are and try to stand for the right things. Our guys do that."
On if he agrees with reports that he wanted to cut RB Ray Rice in February: "This is a football day. This is definitely a football day and I'll address that question tomorrow. I'll tell you this, and (Ravens VP public & community Relations) Kevin (Byrne) told me not to answer any questions (on this topic), but I can tell you this. We work together in our organization. I am going to go ahead and answer that question, okay? Every single football decision that we make, we work together. We get together, hash it out. (General Manager) Ozzie (Newsome) uses the term scrimmaging. You scrimmage it out, and everybody has their opinions. It is not black and white. It is never nuance than anything. That decision was like all of the other ones. When we walked out of that room, we were united, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and that's how I felt about the decision. I thought it was the right decision, and the way we handled it all the way through was the right way to handle it. I felt we did the right thing and I stand behind it."
