In the lead-up to the Ravens' road tilt with the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, Ravens players knew that Browns Head Coach and former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken wanted to defeat his previous employer.
"[Monken]Â might not say it in the media, but to the team he definitely talks a lot of trash and lets them know [that]Â he wants to beat us," Ravens running back Derrick Henry said.
The Browns ultimately defeated the Ravens, 13-10, after coming back from an early 10-point deficit. Here's some of what Monken had to say after Cleveland's victory:
It's a division game at home. What does it mean to you to beat the Ravens?
"Means it's a division game. I've got a ton of respect for that organization and the players and the coaches from top to bottom. And like I said, I owe a lot to Coach Harbaugh (John Harbaugh) for hiring me there. Kirby Smart for three years previously, changed my career path in a lot of ways after here, and then John took it to another level there of hiring me. I wouldn't have this job without them, without the Ravens and without the players and the coaches that were with us and the players that Eric DeCosta and those guys have drafted. And I saw a lot of them afterwards, and it was a lot better with a win, I'll tell you that, seeing them afterwards. But I wish them nothing but the best, as individuals. I sure as hell don't want them to win every game. That's not it. But I had a good talk with Eric before the game, and we both know from afar we wish each other well. There's no ill will there. It's a divisional game, and this is all about the players."
What do you think the biggest difference offensively was between the first half and the second half, where you started to be able to do something?
"I don't know if I knew that we'd have changed it then. I mean, we just never seemed to get in a rhythm. Whether it was, sometimes we weren't running. We ran a little bit better, and then you're trying to get Harold (Fannin Jr.) the ball and you run a screen and they play it good. Well, then you dump it. Well, that's, screens are great, but you've got nowhere else to go, right? So, everybody says the screen game, which, I'm a big believer in it. But when there's nowhere else to go with the ball, it guarantees what? Frick, you're at second-and-10. And when you're not running as well as you'd like, you're not throwing as well, that's not a great down and distance to be in. And we found ourselves in a number of those. And either by scheme, by call, by execution, it's all of the above. And you're going to give them credit. Jesse Minter is a hell of a coach. And their staff, they have a great staff, and they've got really good players. And when you're just a little bit off, you don't get any rhythm. And you don't get that first first down, you just don't feel like you've got any of that momentum. And we've got to look back, like we do every week, and look at it and say, where do we go from there? Because it felt like two weeks ago against Pittsburgh, we kind of felt we'd gotten a little bit of a rhythm there, run and pass and what we were doing, and again, credit to them and their defense. They've got good players, good coaches. But did we turn it over today? In four games, four the last five games, we haven't turned it over till Deshaun at the end of the game last week. So, that's what's winning games, right?"
You mentioned Carson [Schwesinger]'s play to punch the ball and change the game. You're an offensive guy, I think you normally think about sparks coming from skill guys. What's it like to have a linebacker that can play like that?
"Gave us a chance last week. We just didn't take it from there. We went three and out, then had the unfortunate deal on the snap. But, you know, that's everything. Those momentum plays and how about the defense as a whole? I don't know what Derrick Henry had in the first drive, but I think, with 58 yards in 17 attempts. He might have had 30 yards on the first drive."
He had 11[-] and a 17[-yard runs] then he kind of shut it down.
"That's pretty cool, man, to hold that guy to that. I mean, that's where it starts, right? Stop their O-line and the engine, and Derrick Henry is their engine. He is the guy that makes it go. He was when I was there and he is now. And for us to do that and to hold them where they were at, man, it's so cool. So cool when you're the head coach. Not so much when you call offense, but really cool as the head coach. But for our team, for those guys to keep battling. And at times it just takes one or two stops, and we've had that happen to us. We haven't started fast on offense, which is an understatement. And then defensively, we've given up touchdown drives, right? But it hasn't scarred them, and it seems to have not scarred our guys on offense. Like, I don't know what to say. Like, let them go score. We don't do anything, and then all of a sudden we get stops. All of a sudden we figure it out. I don't know what to say in a lot of ways other than we've got a lot of work to do on the offensive side of the ball, and we'll continue to work at it and get better."
