RAVENS VS. GIANTS PRESEASON GAME
Head Coach John Harbaugh
(opening statement) "OK, there's a lot of good things to talk about, football-wise, but before that, we'll get to the injuries. Donte' Stallworth has a broken foot, so that's really disappointing for him and for our football team, obviously. We'll do what we do. We'll step up and the next guy will play well. But the good news is that it's not a season-ending injury. So, he'll get surgery right away. He'll put a screw in that thing, and we'll hope to get him back right around the bye week. So, that's where we're at with that. Mark Clayton has a concussion. We'll see how that goes. That's obviously something to be careful with, but we'll see, it shouldn't be a long-term thing. As far as the game, I just thought we played like we are supposed to play in the third preseason game. There's plenty of things we have to get better at. We'll watch the tape, obviously, and look to improve on those things. But I like the way we played. I thought our offense was crisp. I thought playmakers like Anquan [Boldin], Joe [Flacco], Donte' and others made plays. I thought our defense really got after it. I thought our coverage was good, some of our base coverages. Special teams were solid. We played well. I'm a little disappointed with the touchdown at the end. We wanted to go through the whole preseason without giving up a touchdown, so I'm disappointed in that."
(on if he entered the game wanting to establish a rhythm) "I think you always do. We wanted to establish a rhythm the very first game, and I thought we would. To be able to do that, I thought that was kind of part of the game plan a little bit. But it goes to the players. Guys made catches. Joe [Flacco] made throws. Protection was there. What we did in the first half too, we had a lot of no-huddle. On some of our tempo offense things, I thought our guys did a nice job. We had a lot of hard counts. We didn't jump offsides a lot. We did get lined up. It wasn't a hurry-up-type of situation. It's really hard to [be effective] in the preseason, but our guys did a good job with that. Penalties are way down, and that's something that was a big priority going in, obviously starting from the OTAs and mini-camps, and we've done a good job thus far."
(on the return game) "Well, we have athletes, no question. All the guys who are returning punts are capable of taking it all the way. I like the way our returners in the kick return game – Jalen [Parmele] especially – he's a north-south, hard-running guy, and it's hard to get in front of him. But the bottom line is the blocking has been very good. Our guys are doing a nice job, and they've been very precise with their techniques. They understand the geometry of the play, so they're doing a good job with that."
(on if WR Derrick Mason and TE Todd Heap are the keys to the offense) "You hate to say that because you don't know. I think they're keys to the offense certainly, but those other guys are too. Anquan's going to be a key. Ed Dickson's going to be a key. I don't want to leave anybody out. Mark Clayton. Marcus Smith made some plays in the second half, so it's nice to have a lot of keys."
(on if Todd Heap is as good as he's ever been) "Since we've gotten here, there is no doubt this is the best that we've seen. He's been healthy, he's had a great offseason, he hasn't had to come back from any kind of injury he had the year before. He's making plays, and he's a real matchup problem for a defense right now."
(on why RB Willis McGahee did not play) "We just don't need to play those guys every single week. Willis has gotten reps. He may or may not get some reps next week. I don't think we need to see what Willis McGahee can do. He's touched the ball during the preseason. He does in practice. He's a veteran back, and we don't need a lot of reps from him."
(on the play of S Haruki Nakamura) "How about that interception? That's as good a play as you're ever going to see. I don't know how he came up with the ball. He's just a tremendous athlete. He's a football player through and through, and he's a big part of our football team, no doubt."
QB Joe Flacco
(on if it was a good night for his passing game) "Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I like to play and come out and just throw the ball, throw the ball, and throw the ball some more. It was fun man, I had a great time. And I think everybody out on the field did. We clicked for the most part except for the first drive. We were really clicking - hitting on all cylinders. And it felt really good to throw the ball around and see guys making plays."
(on if tonight's performance shows that they are ready for the regular season) "Yeah, I guess so. We definitely don't want to come in here and not do well. So it definitely feels good to go out there and play. Any game you play in, you want to do well in. So it feels good to do that. We're definitely confident on how we are going to enter the season. We feel good about ourselves, but we still have to go out there and practice and play well on Sundays. So we still have a lot of work to do. But we feel good about where we are."
(on his impression of the no huddle offense) "It's a good tempo for us. We were pretty well-conditioned. Obviously, I think we got a little tired at times when were doing that, but you've got to realize we're not subbing the defense. The defense has got to stay out there on the field, and they are probably sucking wind a little bit more than we are. It just takes away the pass rush, and our offensive line did a great job on those guys. Really creating some time so I could wait for some other routes to develop down field. It didn't always work out, but I definitely had some time to do that. And the guys did a great job at getting open."
(on the loss of Donte' Stallworth) "Yeah, it's a shame. He's been coming out here and doing a great job for us. He's been a big addition for us, and we've been excited about it. To see that happen is a shame, but he's a good guy, he's going to work hard to get back. And we'll be ready for him when he does."
(on the importance of performing well this game) "I think any time you go out there and take the field you want to do well and you want to prove to yourself that you're going to go out there and do well. Having said that, I think if we didn't play as well for some reason, I don't think it's something that we'd have to come in here and think to much about because that wouldn't be good for the mental aspect of the game. No matter what, we've got to come out on Monday night in a couple of weeks ready to play. It's definitely a huge benefit that we did play well. We just proved to ourselves that we can do it. But like I said, it's still about going out there in the regular season, and we'll see how much correlation there is."
(on if he still goes to Todd Heap and Derrick Mason first) "It really is who has the match up on him. They tried pressing us and playing some pretty tight coverage on a couple of our guys. Especially on the two touchdowns. They weren't necessarily primary guys, but they had tight coverage, and they were running up the seam. They didn't really have a safety over top of them to get in the way. There was a tight coverage on those guys, they are big body guys. They are going to beat the guys at the line, but even if they don't they are going to be in good position to go up and get the ball like Todd [Heap] did. I'm just looking for whoever has the match up and trying to work those guys."
(on if this game is indicative of the rest of the season) "Yeah, I think so, I hope so. I thought it was great, it doesn't matter who you were throwing to, it just so happens that we're spreading the ball around to the whole offense. We don't even realize it until the game is over, and we're talking about it. But it was a lot of fun, and you could tell that everybody was having fun. You could just look in their eyes, and we were having a good time out there today. So it's definitely an extra benefit when you get everybody involved like we did."
(on if Anquan Boldin and Donte' Stallworth were ready for the no huddle when they got here) "Yeah, I think they were ready for it pretty quickly. I don't know about when they first got here, but I think they adjusted pretty quickly. You can see…they've only been here for a couple months, so to go out there and do that…I've said all along those guys are good receivers. And when you've got good receivers, you've got good players in general. It's not too hard to develop a good relationship with them because they are good players, and they are going to get open, and they are going to catch the ball. So how tough can it be? And that's the way it's been."
(on the difference between the offense tonight and the previous preseason games) "I don't know, there's not really any difference. We came out in the preseason games we played, and I think we really accomplished what we set out to do. Like I said, I think we would've liked to score more points and convert on some third downs last week, but we didn't. I think we were still going in the right place with the ball and still doing the right thing. I think the biggest thing is…we turned the ball over I guess a couple times tonight. Or one time, I don't know. But for the most part, we held onto the ball, and we looked pretty crisp the way we were doing it up and down the field. The biggest thing is ball security with us in the first two games. And we're on the way to getting that fixed."
WR Anquan Boldin
(on if it was big getting in to a rhythm)"I think for us it was something we wanted to emphasize going into this game. We wanted to emphasize throwing the ball, getting into a rhythm and being in a fast tempo - getting up to the line of scrimmage – getting plays called. Really not letting the defense get settled in."
(on the success of the no huddle) "It says that we're on the right page. Like I said before, we're not where we want to be, but I think we are heading in the right direction. Today, we were able to do the no huddle, we were able to work on communication, and I think we did a pretty good job."
(on the increase in passes he received) "Yeah, we threw it around a lot. But we don't need to see Ray Rice in the preseason. We all know what he can do. He's a great guy to catch the ball, run the ball, a lot of the backfield work, so like I said, the passing game is something we wanted to stress."
(on Donte' Stallworth's injury) "It's a big blow for us, because he's definitely a guy that can help this team out. Especially with his speed stretching the defense. That's a blow for us."
(on his blocking) "That's always been a part of my game. I hate to see a running back break a run. He could have gone for 30 or 40 yards, but my guy makes the tackle. So that's something I take pride in. I was in one of those situations where a guy put his hand on my face mask, that pissed me off a little bit, so I had to get him back."
WR Marcus Smith
(on his long journey back) "Definitely, it felt good. It was hard for me to come back off that injury. I was trying to better myself as a receiver. I'm just trying to find my role. I know we have guys in here, and now that Donte' is down a couple of weeks now, that was a really big play for me."
(on what his thoughts were lining up for the play) "I kind of felt that it was coming my way. I knew that they were in man-to-man, and I felt really comfortable. We talked about, after that nine-route, Troy [Smith] said, 'Don't worry about it, I'm coming back to you, I've got faith in you.'"
(on whether he feels more confident each week after recovering from last year's injury) "Definitely. I worked my butt off to get back [and] I worked on little things at wide receiver, just to better myself coming back to the team. Even though we brought in the guys that we brought in, [it's] just knowing my role. [I] came into the game just confident with my abilities, confident and knew we were going to play the whole entire second half, and I was going to have some shots. So, I might have dropped that one that I should have had; me and Troy [Smith] talked on the sideline a little bit, and then he said he [was] going to come back to me. So, knowing that confidence that he's going to come back to me, I knew I had to make the next play."
(on there being a whole new scenario now at wide receiver with some injuries and him making a few nice plays tonight) "Definitely. That's the nature of the business; you've got to be ready. You never know what's going to happen, you never know what guys might be up [or] might be down; you've just got to be ready and keep yourself poised under the pressure knowing that you're going to have an opportunity to play and just make the plays."
(on where he feels he is at in his recovery from his knee injury last year) "I think I'm still working my way back. I'm almost there. [I've] got a little bit of soreness after we play, after a long game like today or a long practice, I definitely feel a little bit of soreness [and] ice it down. But, it's still the same little monotonous things that we've got to do to get back; icing it, getting my rehab and still strengthening that leg. I definitely feel that I've got a little bit more ways to go, and we've got some more opportunities to build from."
(on whether the mental part of the knee injury is more prevalent on offense or special teams) "More on offense. [It's] more of the stopping, more of the cutting and changing direction. It's not a free-run straight down the field, so I definitely feel on offense the leg favors more than on special teams."
LB Tavares Gooden
(on how it felt to make a few plays tonight) "It felt great to be back out there. Having a lot of injuries last year, it just feels good to go out there and make some plays. You know, coaches, they've been coaching me all week, so I think coaching plus ability equals make big plays."
(on what tonight did for him in the inside linebacker position battle) "It's all love between all of us. We know all of us have our roles on this team, and it is a competition, it is a battle, but at the same time you can't let that get in the way of you being great, or you getting better. That's supposed to push you; I think that's what it's mainly supposed to do. You've got three great, young linebackers in here, and that's what we do. We give each other breathers when we have to – like I'm out there flying on special teams – we're all a brotherhood. If they see me tired, [Dannell] Ellerbe will tell me, 'I got you, [Gooden]. You just relax this time, because you've been hustling out there.' It's great to have three linebackers in our position."
(on how the defensive group felt to have another strong performance again tonight) "It really felt great. All we've got to do now is just put those little pieces together, find out who's going to be on that 53-man roster. And I think that's what it came down to at the end of the game. You know, when those younger guys are in, coaches are trying to see who can play when the lights are on. And I think for those younger guys, that's the biggest thing; making plays when the coaches put you in the game, because you never know how many times your number is going to be called. But when it is called, you've got to make plays, and that's what they were looking for. We were kind of upset that they scored, but we were like, 'We're going to go to practice, and we're going to iron out those things and correct those things so that maybe next week we can get a goose egg.'"
LB Jarret Johnson
(on the defense not allowing a touchdown until the end) "It's a good start for preseason. This is the game we played the starters the most. And it's the most reflective of how we want to play this season. It was good for us to play this way tonight."
(on Greg Mattison and how the defense has matured) "He's improved, he's gotten more comfortable. He's gotten better every game. Last year, we didn't start out so hot. It was a matter of us being too simple and us not playing well. Later on, we started being more multiple and opened it up more. And that's just us trusting each other more and more. We played well at the end of the year, and hopefully we'll play well this year."
CB Chris Carr
(on his thoughts about his play) "Starting to get in a groove, I just [didn't] want to get injured. I took on a lot more than I anticipated with Brandon Jacobs. But if I have to do that, I have to do that. Everybody played welll on defense. They scored a touchdown at the end, but we pretty much shut them out. Defensively, we have a lot to take from this game."
(on how he felt about the defense overall) "That's a good team, they're a physical team. They have [Ahmad] Bradshaw and [Brandon] Jacobs, those are two really good running backs, and they have an experienced quarterback in Eli [Manning]. So, for us to go out and perform like we did today, it was good. But it's still preseason; we have to take confidence from the game, but once the real games start, nobody's going to care what we did to the Giants. We just have to keep on trying to be consistent and trying to be better."
(on the secondary having injuries and the importance of his role) "I feel good. I play this game as a professional. If I'm a backup, I treat it just like I'm a starter -- watch film just like I'm a starter. What they email me, I study. I'm just happy for this opportunity, and with the guys that we have, what's most important is that we pick up where we left off last year. If we play together, I think the sky's the limit for our secondary."
TE Ed Dickson
(on the fact that his number keeps getting called) "It feels pretty good. Whenever I can come in and contribute to the offense. Todd Heap set the tone tonight, so when I go out there to compete, I don't want the offense to miss a beat."
(on comparing how he feels about his play from the beginning of camp until now) "When we first started, we just needed to get that chemistry. I was brand new; I didn't know where I was going to fit. I'm a competitor, and I wanted to battle Todd Heap for the job. Todd Heap has been the man, and I want to be the man behind the man. Our goal is to take it one game a time all the way to the top."
(on the pass/run ratio) "It's always good to have some passes out there, so we're going to make teams defend us; whatever we're going to do. If the teams give us a pass, we'll pass, if they give us a run, we'll run. We're going to take what the defense gives us and keep rolling."
TE Todd Heap
(on the offense's performance in the first half) "That's what we wanted to do, was get into a rhythm, and you could see the way our offense was moving the ball, we were able to kind of get a rhythm and catch the defense on their heels a little bit. Joe [Flacco] was just sitting back there and picking the match-ups and you could see he was going from one guy to the next, all the way down the field."
(on the overall performance of the offense) "We had some fun. Obviously we had a few missteps. In the first drive, we were a little bit disappointed, but we came back and were able to move the ball down the field. Our main goal is just to get points, but offensively we're a little more selfish than that. We want to get six every time, so that's our goal. We were able to do that a couple times. I think we left a few on the field, though."
(on the balance and unpredictability of the offense) "That's kind of what you want to have. You want to have that—we've got that ace in the hole where we know we can run the ball. We've been successful with that before. The backs that we have, and the physicality we have up front with our line [is good], but at the same time, we want to be able to do it passing the ball, too, and be physical in that aspect of the game as well."
(on Flacco's performance and how everyone is working well together) "The thing that goes along with that is the confidence that Joe has in the guys on the field and how we've been able to develop that this whole off-season and through training camp, and you can see when he's releasing the ball, he's confident that it's going to get caught."
QB Troy Smith
(on how the offensive line helps make things happen) "Everything starts off with the five guys up front. Without them blocking and opening up holes…we can't do anything. As long as those guys give us time to work with, we'll do exactly what we're supposed to do."
(on how the offense is coming together) "Those first couple of games, everybody is still feeling their way out, and I think that's what the preseason is for, and these guys are doing nothing but settling in on the offense and learning it. It's going to be fun to watch."
(on the importance of the line) "We talk all the time that the battle and the war is won in the trenches, whether it's offensive line or defensive line. Our guys up front did a great job."
(on how much easier his job is when the line does well) "Without them, I'm nothing."
S Haruki Nakamura
(on his health) "I'm about as close to 100 percent as I'm going to get right now. I've been really working hard, trying to stay healthy and even trying to get more healthy. I've really been focusing on doing the little things for rehab. I'm just out here having fun. Through this injury, I've learned to appreciate this game for what it is. This is a privilege for us to be out there."
(on his interception) "I was about as lucky as I could get right there. The receiver had shook the heck out of me right there. He made me look so bad. It was one of those things, where I was trying to finish the play. The ball bobbled, and I just got lucky. It was just one of those things, they always preach 'run to the ball, run to the ball no matter what happens, and good things happen."
(on blitzing the quarterback) "More than anything, it's just that we have packages for everybody. Anybody could come in and play the position. More than anything we just want to be aggressive, we want to hit the quarterback as many times as we can. That's been the emphasis of the preseason so far. Coach Mattison has done a good job dialing up some great calls. And we're out there just trying to be physical."
RB Ray Rice
(on tonight's performance) "I think we performed well. We proved tonight that we could move the ball. Our goal tonight was to come out, move the ball and stay consistent. We passed a lot because we want to establish our pass game. We have our running game in our back pocket."
(on his role) "My yards come all-purpose, catching, running, whatever it is, I just want to be a part of the team and help us win. One thing you do in the preseason is you work on things you need to work on. We're working on our pass game, but we definitely have our run game lined up."
(on all the Ravens' offensive weapons) "We're going to have our weapons, I want to say pick your poison, because our team is good. We have guys that can block, we have guys that can catch, we have guys that can run. I want to say we're a complete offense, and we definitely feel like we're a complete team. We just have to work on some little things."
DT Cory Redding
(on tonight's defensive performance) "Right now, we're doing some good things. We're not where we want to be right now, and we have a long way to go. After this third preseason game, I think we kind of know where we're at right now. We're going to go to work on Monday and get ready for the Rams next Thursday."
(on the 4th down stop) "That's one of the things we work on everyday, short yardage, red-zone type stuff. When the ball is on the line, its third and one, someone has to step up and make plays. And we did that tonight, first team and second team. My hat goes off to just the way we played tonight."
(on comparing the Ravens' defense to other defenses) "Alignment, assignment and details, basically, it's all the little details of everything you have to do. These guys take so much pride in their work, because they know what kind of talent we have on this team. They know what kind of heart we have on this team, and they know the levels of expectation on this team. So everybody pays close attention to those minute details, which really makes a huge difference in whether it's a big play or a negative play."
