Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco, 10.23
On how he felt physically during the course of the game…
Oh, good. I felt good the whole game.
On what the Jets did in the second half to cause so many problems offensively…
We didn't move the ball. Obviously, we turned the ball over two times. The turnovers hurt, but we didn't do anything. We just didn't do anything. I felt like they got a little more pressure on us and we allowed them to pin their ears back a little bit, get the momentum rolling on the other side with the turnovers, and just keeping them in the game. Even in the first half, we scored nine points as an offense. We never really got to the point where we were threatening to score touchdowns. When we're playing this kind of football, you can't make mistakes in the second half and down the stretch of games because you're not going to give yourself the best opportunity to win.
On how tough it is on him when the team can't run the football…
When I'm out there and throughout the course of the game, you don't notice things too much, but I would say the tough thing about it is when you're constantly put in long down situations and a little slip of not being patient enough or things like that turn into bad things and I think that's the biggest thing. It's a funny game. If we have that one run that went long and we didn't have a penalty on it, then our rushing stats are probably completely different for the game. Like I said, I think we were in third and long a lot. I think we converted a couple of them, we didn't convert them and bad things happened on the ones we didn't convert. It's tough to win like that.
On how you turn things around after a four-game losing streak…
You have to stay confident. You have to keep your head up. It's a man's game and you just have to keep going to work and get in your routine. Listen, the next weeks come up very quickly and I think that's why we all get into such good routines and throughout the course of the week leading up to that Sunday because it allows us to put last week behind us and move on to the next week. So I think the veterans on the team will have to lead that and get the guys back into their routine for the week and just move on.
On whether his two interceptions were the result of bad throws or miscommunication…
I mean you can see it. The first one was a one-on-one he's been playing off all day. We kind of had been attacking him with Mike (Wallace). We lined up Mike in the slot, he ended up being on Darrelle (Revis) on the right side, I made a decision pre-snap, I'll go to the one-on-one on my left and I really didn't get a good look of it afterwards. I think he undercut the route and I was just throwing a timing shake route. The second one was just, it wasn't great on anybody's part and I have to be better.
On whether those mistakes were frustrating…
Yeah, I mean, mistakes are frustrating and they hurt because obviously we gave the game away there, but the more frustrating thing is just the fact that we can't consistently do things well. If we were out there and we were playing really good football, we would probably be able to live with a mistake here and a mistake there. That stuff is very frustrating because we are still playing games that are tight and we're in closely, so obviously we have a shot to win the game down the end or tie it, extend the game. So I think when you look back at those types of tight games, you look at the penalties and you look at the things that you missed and you kind of forget the fact that we're just not playing good. We're not good right now and I think that's the biggest thing. We have to find ways to move the football and to give ourselves more opportunities and when that stuff happens, when you start playing good football, the mistakes tend to start to diminish and guys get confident and they turn it over.
On how he feels about where they stand in the division right now…
Like I said, it's tough after a loss to feel good about where you are, but the reality of it is, is Pittsburgh is about to play in a couple minutes and Cincinnati, I think, is even with us. We haven't played either of them yet and that's why we have to keep our head on straight and get back into a good routine and just be confident that we have the team and that we are who we think we are and we have to stop playing like this. We have to get better. There are a lot of games left and we definitely have the ability to do what we want to do inside of our division and that's what we have to look forward to.
On whether his shoulder injury is something he will have to deal with the rest of the year…
I hope not. I didn't deal with it today. I felt good; my arm felt great. I was a little bit nervous early on in the week, just because I wasn't sure what it was. I was having a little bit of trouble with it, so I was a little bit nervous early in the week, but when I went in on Thursday, I felt pretty good and I felt optimistic that I was going to be feeling ready to go. The last couple days have been great and I felt great coming in throwing the ball, so hopefully I won't have to deal with it. I'm sure there will be a little bit, but the fact that we have a Bye Week this week, hopefully I can get over it.
On whether this injury is something different than he's ever had…
No. I feel like I've probably dealt with a little bit of this, like nine years ago back in college. I never got it actually looked at back then. It was just a little bit of a sore arm and stuff like that, basically what this is now. Early in the week, when I wasn't really sure what it was, I was a little bit nervous just with the fact of what I could and couldn't do with my arm and not really knowing if I did something to it or not. The other weird thing was last week, I really had no idea when I did it. If I had to look at a play, it was probably the play I hit to Mike (Wallace) on the deep ball on the sideline. I just got hit from my left side and I landed on my arm with it extended out. So I think it was just a little bit of a, you know, my shoulder just took a little bit of a concussion from the ground and I think it will get better pretty soon here.
On whether he will err on the side of safety during the Bye Week…
Yeah, I'm going to play it day by day and go in there and rehab and strengthen it and do all those things. I definitely don't want to mess around with my right shoulder.
Baltimore Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh, 10.23
Opening statement…
Congratulations to the Jets. They did what they needed to do to win the game and they deserve credit. They came up with the big plays in the second half that made the difference. We just didn't. We didn't play winning football. In the end, I think you all know the situations that happened. You're welcome to ask me about each of them. But those are the things that make the difference in games.
On what he saw from the Jets defense in the second half…
Well, they stopped the run. They stuffed us. They're pretty darn good with the run defense, so we tried to stick to the run a little bit at times until the end when we were down by eight and trying to get down there to score to tie it up. And then the turnovers – those are the things that stopped the drives.
On if things are not getting corrected at practice…
No, they're getting corrected. We're practicing really well. We're practicing exceptionally well. That's why it's so disappointing. I came in here and expect to win all these games. We should have won all four of those games. We did the things to lose those games. That's it. Not to take anything away from our opponent, but we're looking at ourselves, not our opponent. That's what we look at. And we did the things that you can't do to win a football game. We're working hard in practice. Guys are young, they're paying attention and we're practicing well. I tell you after practice when we have the press conference that they have a good practice. I'm not going to say that if we don't have a good practice. I'm not going to be happy. You know my moods. If we don't practice well I'm not going to be happy. So that's what football coaches do. It's about practice. What's happening at practice is not happening in games. It does reflect some immaturity, it reflects poor decision making in game situations and we've got to get it fixed. It's my responsibility to get that done.
On Timmy Jernigan fumbling after a fumble recovery…
Yeah, you've got to stay in the end zone there and he knows that. That's not one where you bring it out. You're not a ball- carrier. It was a huge play in the game and, obviously, it was a difference in the game. We're going for a field goal at the end and not a touchdown. Those are the kinds of things that are costing us games and those are the kinds of things that have to stop.
On if he saw anything with Joe Flacco suggesting his shoulder bothered him…
I don't really know. I think you have to ask Joe. I don't feel what he's feeling or anything like that.
On having an imbalance run-pass ratio on offense…
I think you've got to look at first and second down, especially in the third quarter when we weren't able to run the ball and had the turnovers. So, we're not going to run the ball too much on third down if we're in long-yardage situations. We popped a huge run in the second quarter (and) we got the holding penalty and now we're back. We jump and now we're back to first-and-25 I believe. So, we're still running the ball if we hit that run down there and that changes everything in terms of the yardage. You've just got to look at the circumstances in the game. We wanted to run the ball even though they have a very good run defense. We were trying to run the football. Even in the third quarter we came out and wanted to run the ball and we got nothing out of it in the third quarter. And by the time the fourth quarter came around, you're not just going to keep pounding your head into a wall and keep running the ball there. You're going to go at their weakness and we thought we had a chance to do some good things throwing the football.
On if the defense being on the field a long time factored in to not stopping the run…
I don't care how long we're on the field, we expect to stuff the run. They had a couple runs, (Matt Forté) made a couple good runs. He got an edge one time. Our defensive ends smashed the edge blocker down inside and Forté bounced it outside. You've got to be able to make that play. We're capable of stopping the run no matter how long we're on the field.
On Quincy Enunwa's touchdown…
I think 81 is a nice player. He's a really good player. (We have) a lot of respect for him. We respected him coming into the game. But that's the kind of play we've been making all year. Inside and in front cut tackling is something that we've been very good at. We weren't as good at it today, obviously, in that situation. We gave them a couple scores that if those things don't happen and we win the football game.
On why practices aren't translating to the field…
I think that's the thing you always chase as a football coach. You chase it. There is no one answer for that. It's an unanswerable question. You pursue perfect practice. You pursue perfection and you try to get everything exactly right. You do it with the players you've got out there. You try to come up with schemes. The players work as hard as they possibly can and to do things right and you go out and you compete like crazy. It's a tough business. It's a tough league. You're going against an opponent that's trying to thwart everything you do. That's what sports is. There's no easy answer for that. You've just got to go fight like crazy and get better. You've got to make it happen on gameday. For our team, where we're at right now, we're not going to be a margin-for-error team. It's not going to be like that. We need to be a sound, tough-minded, fundamentally smart-playing football team. We got the penalties knocked way down this game. I'm happy with that. But I don't like the two penalties that hurt us. I think we had four for 35 yards. But one of them is hands to the face that should never happen, and the other one is a hold that should never happen. Even the flinch should never have happened, but those things will happen sometimes.
On the team not showing killer instinct when up 10-0…
Killer instinct is executing when you get ahead, putting people away and making plays, taking advantage of the fact that they're down. Whatever killer instinct translates to, we certainly don't have it right now. It's not just this group, it's been every single game for the last four weeks that we've lost. Well, I'll say the last three weeks, to my memory. We've jumped out to a lead and we give them an easy touchdown to get back in the game. Instead of us taking that 10-0 and making it 13 or 17, it's gone 10-7 three games in a row. That's got to be fixed.
On how hurtful having seven starters inactive is…
That's just another question that's impossible to answer because you can't put a measuring stick on how hurtful it is. But it's not ideal. We also had to make some roster moves just to get 46 guys active. But that's the way it works in our league. That's the cards that we've been dealt. And I fully believe that every single player out there in this game, and I think that's evidenced by watching the game, is good enough to go out and win the football game.
On what the focus of the Bye Week will be…
The focus is going to be learning how to play winning football. It's as simple as that. All the things that go into that – playing with discipline, intelligence, fundamentally-sound football, and getting better at the things we need to get better at. We'll look at those things, we're going to practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're going to work at it like we always do. Our guys are going to come to work. That's just the way they are. We've got high-character people who love the game and we're going to get better.
Baltimore Ravens DT Timmy Jernigan, 10.23
On whether he thought he could pick up Matt Forté's fumble and put the Ravens' offense in better field position…
That's what I thought, but from now on I don't care if I have 100 yards in front of me with no one in front of me, I'll fall on the ball just to make everybody happy. Everybody stays happy that way.
On where the Ravens are right now…
I don't know. We've just got to keep working. It's easy to sit up here and say what's going to happen and what we can do and all of that, but you've got to do it. It's easy to talk.
On Baltimore's four-game losing streak…
We definitely could have won all four of them. I feel like we could be undefeated right now. The only one that could stop us is us. So we have to do a great job to figure ourselves out, figure out what we're lacking as a team. Not just one side of the ball or anything like that. It's all about us. It's a team. We win together, we lose together. Once we figure this thing out, the sky is the limit.
On the team's confidence…
It's still high. I can't speak for the next man. I'm confident. I know what we're capable of doing because we practice against each other every day. So I know what we've got on this team. We just have to come out and execute.
Baltimore Ravens TE Dennis Pitta, 10.23
On what was different in the second half…
I don't know. I'll have to go back and look at it. We (have) to do a better job of protecting Joe (Flacco). I think he was getting hit a lot. It always starts there. At the same time, we didn't move the ball at all in the second half. That's on us as an offense. We have to figure it out.
On self-inflecting penalties…
That's part of it. You can look at the first half where we moved the ball pretty well and then in the second half we couldn't put it together for whatever reason. We'll have to go back and look and assess and see what our real issue is. We did have that series where we had a false start and a holding (penalty) that brought back a big run which hurt us, but other than that, I don't think penalties hurt us that much. We'll have a long hard look at ourselves this week as we have the bye and we'll be able to assess a lot of things.
On where the team is right now…
We're not in a good place. We just lost four straight. We still can win our division and we understand that. We have nine games left and lot of football left to play. It's never too late, but we have to put it together and put it together fast.
Baltimore Ravens WR Mike Wallace, 10.23
On not being able to run the ball today…
It's hard. I'm glad I'm not the offensive coordinator in those situations. You have to try and pull a rabbit out of the hat when you're one dimensional like that. I didn't know we had that amount of rushing yards. It's the position we put ourselves in. The coaches, it's not their fault, it's the players.
On if he saw anything different from the Jets defense in the second half…
I don't think so. They may have put a little more safety help, but I feel like they are who they are. That's why you have to respect them. They don't let us dictate how they are going to play defense. Even though they gave up some big plays early, they stayed true to who they are and things just came around for them. They have a great defensive line and a great front seven and those guys made plays. That's just what it was.
On if the Bye Week is coming at a good time…
Most definitely. You couldn't ask for a better bye. Hopefully we can come back and get Ronnie (Stanley) and (Marshall) Yanda back up front. Not even just them but (Terrell) Suggs and Steve (Smith Sr.). That's four or five top guys that we have out. Hopefully we get those guys back. Not only are they great players, but they are great leaders for us. We need that leadership. We have a lot of young players who need those guys on the field. Not even to say anything, but just their presence makes you feel better.
