Head Coach John Harbaugh
Opening statement:"Good to see everybody. We had a good Friday, had a good week, and we're looking forward to Sunday."* *
How much progress did Jacoby [Jones] make as he tried to knock off some rust this week? (Aaron Wilson) "I'd say he made a lot of progress, significant [progress]. He practiced the whole day today. He looked pretty good."* *
[Is it] encouraging to have [Lardarius] Webb, Marlon Brown and Deonte [Thompson] get on the field today after missing time? (Luke Jones)"Very encouraging. It was good to see those guys out there, and [it] made for a better practice, too."* *
Has Deonte [Thompson] been cleared with the concussion? (Luke Jones) "Not yet. I will say this: He passed the concussion protocol test. But, he's got to go through the practice, and then we've got to check his symptoms out."* *
How is Eugene Monroe doing in terms of picking the offense up in a short period of time? (Jeff Zrebiec) *"He seems good. He seems sharp. He was here all night last night with the offensive line guys. I had dinner with him, and we were talking, and he was like, 'I've got to go.' And they went upstairs, and they went to work. He was in here early this morning again and went through the practice here and seemed like he knew what he was doing. I think we're on schedule, but I'm not sure what the schedule is with a guy like that. This is kind of new to us." *
You've never made an in-season trade. Is this a tough call for Sunday? (Jeff Zrebiec) "I don't know. We'll just have to see. And it might have to do with some other things, too – the injuries and things like that. We've got some ideas, we've got some things we could do, but you've got to pull the trigger on that, too. It's like you said, this is a new experience for us."* *
Will you rely at all on what feedback he gives you on the field of what he's picked up? (Clifton Brown) *"Absolutely. To me, that's probably the main thing is how he feels about it. If he feels confident that he can execute … The good thing is he knows what it's like to play. If he gives us feedback, and he says he's comfortable and can go, I would think we'd be very confident that he knows what he's talking about. If he can translate what we do to what he's done in the past and just carry it right over – what degree he can do that – we'd be confident in his thought on that." *
How has Bryant McKinnie handled it, since it affects his status immediately or down the road? (Aaron Wilson)"Bryant [McKinnie] has handled it like a true professional. He's worked hard. Bryant always works hard. He's been a professional since he's gotten here. I feel like he's practiced really well from Day One, throughout training camp, obviously, and through now. He's had another good week, so he's handled it like a pro."* *
We saw Dennis Pitta catching balls from the JUGS. How is his progress going? I know he's got a ways to go, but how encouraging is it to see him after what was such a bad injury? (Luke Jones) *"I'll be honest with you, I'm pretty impressed. He's running quite a bit in here on these machines, and as you said, he's out here catching passes. That's a ways away, time-wise. Every time I see Dennis [Pitta], I guess I have mixed emotions. I'm happy that he's doing so well, and I'm not happy that he's not already out there playing right now. He's doing a good job." *
How much influence did Daryl Smith have in the acquisition of Eugene Monroe? (Adam Vorce) *"Probably not that much of an influence in getting him and bringing him here because it happened … It was just such a one-on-one thing between Ozzie [Newsome] and the general manager, David Caldwell, down in Jacksonville. I think that was something that we really didn't want out there. I think Ozzie relied on his conversations with David and got it done. Once he came here and it was done, then we spent a lot of time talking to [Smith], and he was very encouraging. We feel great about what Daryl had to say about Eugene [Monroe]. It's been all positive in that respect." *
**You want to win every game, but you're coming off a loss. Are you interested in how the team approaches it, or do you think it will be OK? *(Clifton Brown) *"I don't think we know anything. There is no way to know anything. We have not played well on the road yet. We need to play well on the road. We've got three of the next four [on the road]. We're in a four-out-of-five-game stretch on the road, and it's going to be a big factor in determining how we start the season. [If] we play well on the road in the next month, we'll have a chance to be in good shape. If we don't play well on the road, we're going to have a problem, and we're going to have to overcome it. So yes, we need to come out of the gates, we need to start fast, [and] we need to overcome whatever adversity we face during the course of the game. But we need to play good football, and we need to do it on the road."
