Head Coach Dennis Allen
(Opening statement)"Obviously, a very disappointing loss. You have to give those guys credit. They came in and had a good gameplan against us. They made it difficult for us, really in all phases. That is a good team that we played and they were the better team tonight."
(On if he considered making a change at quarterback)"No, I didn't. There's a lot that wasn't good offensively tonight. There was a lot more to it than (the quarterback)."
(On the lack of touches Taysom Hill received early in short yardage situations)"No, look, just like everything else, you have a gameplan. You have some plays that you like and certainly when they don't work, everyone's going to wonder why you did what you did. Look, they beat us tonight. They beat us in a lot of different areas."
(On the physicality of the Baltimore defensive front)"Yeah, I think that obviously, they did a great job stopping the run. We struggled to run the ball. They got their hands up, batting down a lot of passes. They had some nice pressure packages, and they were able to get to the quarterback. They did a lot of good things defensively that gave us a lot of challenges. We've got to go back to the drawing board, make some corrections, and be better next week."
(On if Baltimore was the most physical team they've faced all year)"Yes. This was a physical football team, and we knew that going in."
(On the challenges of facing a dual-threat quarterback in Lamar Jackson)"Well look, there's a lot of challenges that go along with it. I was just in there visiting with Mickey (Loomis) and I knew the first question that we were going to get was about the run game. I think they had about 40 minutes in time of possession. If you allow that type of run game to stay on the field for 40 minutes, you are going to give up some rushing yards. I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half of minimizing (the run game). I thought as the game went on, that's where you saw some more bigger and explosive runs."
(On the lack of running game affecting the offensive gameplan)"Yeah, it makes it more challenging. Anytime you get into a position where you can't run the football and you've got to just go throw it, it makes it challenging. Having the ability to keep the defense off balance is an important part of what we do."
(On Lamar Jackson's running ability affecting the defense on the first touchdown)"Yeah, I think all of those things they're able to do makes it challenging (on the defense). You've got to get a bunch of heads to the ball. They did a nice job of executing there."
QB Andy Dalton
(on the difficulty today on offense) "At the end of the day, we got beat today. They deserved to win this one. They had a good plan going in. For us, we've got to find ways to hold up in protection; got to find ways to get the ball out of my hands. Guys have to be open on time."
(on how a lack of a running game today affected the offensive production) "When you've got a team like this that has the different pressure packages that they've got, when you get into these third and long situations, you kind of pin your ears back and rush the passer and different things. So, we made it hard on ourselves because we weren't able to run the ball."
(on the Baltimore defense deflecting passes) "I've played Baltimore a lot. And, it's always been part of their thing. If they are not getting to the quarterback, they get their hands up. There are some big guys in their front that have long arms. It's unfortunate that that happened."
S Tyrann Mathieu
(on the challenge of playing Lamar Jackson) "It's tough. I felt early in the game we were kind of in it. We just didn't make enough plays tonight."
(on the drives with a lot of plays) "It obviously takes a toll on you. I felt like we had way more opportunities to get off the field. That's what makes their offense dynamic. They pounded the ball and controlled the clock. They controlled the time possession. We need to figure out how to limit that going forward."
(on having to cover receivers for longer because of Lamar Jackson) "We know that coming into the game. Traditionally, you cover for three or four seconds and the play is over. With a guy like that, it's a seven, eight or nine second coverage. We were aware of that coming into the game. We just have to do a better job of finishing."
(on if the challenge is having a lot of guys at the line of scrimmage and having to defend the pass game) "We definitely had a lot of resources for the run game today. I think the combination of their rushing game, the ability to get an extra hat on defense and what (Lamar Jackson) can do makes it tough."
OT James Hurst
(on not establishing the run and free rushers on third down) "Sometimes they are going to send a free rusher. They watch film. They spend time on game plans. It's frustrating on our part on not being able to get the run game going. We got a few chunks on them. We thought that was going to give us the best opportunity to win. We weren't able to do that."
(on if it is frustrating after coming off last week) "Definitely, it was a very different style of game for sure. Just thinking about the offenses. The Raiders and the Ravens are polar opposites if you will. It was very frustrating. We felt very good about what we were able to do a week ago. We weren't able to follow up with that tonight, so that's tough. We have to go back and pick out the things that we were able to do and why we were able to win that game against the Raiders the way that we did and compare that to tonight and see what was off. We have to get back to where we were a week ago."
