Head Coach Dan Campbell
Opening statement:
"Alright, so that was a tough one. They jumped all over us. Lamar [Jackson] gave us problems. We could never apply enough pressure. And when we did, then we would let him out of there and then, you know, covering, we knew we were going to need to challenge in coverage, play some man. The combination of not getting very much pressure and then having to cover a long time, we just didn't handle it well. Offensively, we never got in a rhythm early. We just kind of felt like they're playing with house money over there. You get up so much by a certain portion of that game, then shoot, they're doing whatever they want to do, and they're out of their tendencies because, why not, which is self-induced. Those guys, they played well. They kicked our [butt]. It's a credit to them. Lamar [Jackson] beat us. He hammered us with his arm. He threw the ball extremely well. He ran when he needed to, and we did not handle it well. Our energy was good, which is crazy. You come out of a game like that, you look at the score, and our energy was good. But our detail and discipline, which has been so good over the last four or five weeks, was not good enough. So, [it was] self-induced. That was a combination of a lot of different things. Just like as we win as a team, we lose as a team, and that was one of those."
On whether the loss was due to a lack of attention to detail:
"Here's the obvious. We say this every week. We have to go into these games, and it takes every one of us to do it right. We have to. That's where we're at. When we do it, we're pretty good. But when we don't, it's hard to overcome some of these things. We're not that type of group. It takes every one of us. You can say that every week we've got to be disciplined, but with this guy [Lamar Jackson], you better double it up because Lamar is an issue. I'm doing my job. I'm handling my job. He breaks contain. He starts going. Well, I'm going to, second, contain him, and I just left my guy. You know, because Lamar is out in the open, and then he just dumps [a pass] over. There's these things that just show up. Man, just do your job. Handle your responsibility. If we're going to play man, that's your man. Stay with your man. Don't have bad eyes. Don't have lazy eyes. Don't look back there. You just cover your man. You know what, if [Jackson] runs in for a touchdown, then so be it. That's not your responsibility. Then, as you get into that hole, what happens is, everybody starts pressing. Man, I've got to make something happen. Then, you get out of what we talk about doing. We start getting outside of the scheme. You're doing more than is asked of you. Because of that, it creates more problems. That's on both sides of the ball. That's in all three phases, really. Look, we just didn't play well, and I hate to say it, but that's one of those games. That was one of those where we just could not get out of our own way. It's a credit to those guys over there. They played outstanding football, and they rubbed our nose in it."
On saying "maybe we needed it":
"You don't want these to happen. When it does, it recenters you. It refocuses you. That's all I know. I don't want it to happen. Nobody wants it to happen. Nobody likes to look over there and watch them have a great time because they kicked our [butt]. Nobody thinks that's fun. I know that motivates me for next week. It motivates our team. I know that you'll do anything and everything you can not to have that feeling again. That's all I mean by that. I know everybody would be like 'How can you say that? How can you say it's OK to lose?' And that's not what I'm saying. It's here, it happened, [and] it'll motivate us moving forward. The shame would be if we don't use this to get better for next week, and it bleeds over into the Raiders. That would be the ultimate shame."
On whether Jackson's play was the difference:
"No, because there was enough time. Here's what happens. There were a number of plays where we've got him boxed in, and it's long. He's back there, six seconds, but it's hard to do. He just keeps squeezing, keeps squeezing, keeps you, seven seconds, keeps squeezing. What happens is, it gets long, gets longer, and then I commit, and then he just breaks out. Now all of a sudden, you've already been covering long, and so that's what happens. That's why he's so dangerous. It's hard to do when you're a rusher. I thought we were pretty disciplined for a while. Then as it kind of got longer in there, and he's holding up. Then we just got ourselves in a bind. Everything plays a hand in each other. There was enough stuff we dropped in coverage. We did not play well enough on offense. You get in a game like that offensively, then you have to be able to match them stride for stride. We got off to a slow start, we didn't convert a first down for a while, then it's hard. You just don't complement each other, so it wasn't good."
QB Jared Goff
On the challenges of falling behind early:
"It's hard. We didn't do much to help ourselves out in those first few drives; we couldn't get a first down. Yes, it's hard. We were putting pressure on our defense. It was no fun. Hats off to them. They really got after us today, and we've got to respond right away."
On what the Ravens defense did to them:
"That's a good question. I don't know if they did something special on third down. They were making it impossible for us, and we just didn't execute. It was really more so on our end. They're a great team, [and] they did a lot of great things today, but if we execute like we know we are capable of, a lot of those plays go a lot better, and it starts with me. I've got to do a lot better."
On the offense and defense struggling at the same time:
"Typically both. They did a hell of a job and they're a great team. They came out and got after us today. We came out and didn't play our best. Both sides of the ball – certainly, I can speak for the offense – we've got a lot of things to clean up, and it starts with me just being better and making sure the ball goes where it needs to go. Everyone has their own thing to work on, I'm sure, but it comes back to me and making sure that I'm leading us the right way."
On his appreciation watching Jackson:
"Man, he's a special talent. He's always tough for any defense. I thought he played really well today."
OT Taylor Decker
On how a loss like that impacts their mentality:
"It doesn't. You just have to take that one on the chin. They just kicked our [butt]. It is what it is, but it's not going to change what we're about. Obviously, we've got a lot to clean up. We'll see what the film says, ultimately, but that's not going to change the mentality of this team. It's a 17-game season. It's one game. You hate to have those games, but even coach [Dan Campbell] said, at some point, it was going to be inevitable that we were going to stumble. We could've stumbled in a win, but we stumbled in a loss, which is embarrassing."
On what the Ravens defense was doing so well:
"They were pressuring a ton, but I have to see the tape to see exactly what they were doing and see if anybody missed an assignment here or there. I don't really know right now. Like I said, they were pressuring a lot, and they were playing with a huge lead early, and that makes us one-dimensional because you have to be [able] to save the clock. So, we definitely could have helped our defense, got some first downs, or at least given them some time to kind of regroup on the sidelines and maybe put up some points to kind of close that gap a little bit, and we just didn't do it."
DL Aidan Hutchinson
On the difference in the game:
"I think they got us on a couple plays today, but you know, maybe it was just a lack of execution on our part. You know, just staying disciplined with some of the plays, some of the different kinds of plays they were running, like the late [Mark] Andrews pass and the late little running back pass. You've just got to execute and focus on the details a little more."
On how tough it is to play against Jackson:
"Yeah, man, he's good. It's what makes him great, being able to escape pressure. He's got great pocket awareness, and if the pocket is not crushing and closing, he can find a way out."
On the difference between the first and second halves:
"They get more conservative, and they run the ball a little bit more. I think they just got a little more conservative in the second half."
LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin
On how the game went:
"It was tough. [There were] just certain plays that we hadn't really seen. It's just hard. It's hard to execute against a team like that. [When] you have a player like that [Lamar Jackson], it makes it really hard, and that's what happens when you don't execute. And [when you're] not on top of all your P's and Q's, they put up 500 yards and that many points."
On the difficulty of defending Jackson without getting much pressure:
"I'm on the back end, too. It's hard when you have a special player like that, just being able to move around the pocket, get out of the pocket, and really rush forward because of the weapons they have. It's hard. They're a really good team, and they have really good personnel."
