Coach John Harbaugh on heading into the bye week with a win

Evan (0:01)

Hey John, how are we doing?

John Harbaugh (0:02)

Good Evan, how are you?

Evan (0:04)

Good, good. I want to go back to something you said yesterday about just, this was a player's win.

Given everything that happened in the game, whether it was James contributing when he came in, Fedoni's first catch, McFadden stepping up, just, I know you say every win, the game at hand is the most important game, but how important would you say this game was with so many contributions from different players in positions of the running backs and KJ and whatnot?

John Harbaugh (0:31)

Right. That's probably the main point, Evan. Just so much contribution from all three phases and different players, all the different positions, stepping up when they had to, players making plays, executing technique. I think it was our best execution game after watching the tape across the board. Certainly many things that we need to improve upon, that will be very focused on going forward, but because we have to keep getting better. But this was our best all around, well played football game as a team. And that's the players. That's what the players do. They did a great job.

Evan (1:04)

And do you think it kind of sets the table going forward? I mean, you mentioned obviously the next two games are important, and obviously there's body weight. But do you think that that kind of sets a great table, given how much you guys have lost some of the guys to injury, that it shows what this team can do with guys stepping up and showing that they can move past those injuries?

John Harbaugh (1:22)

Sure. I mean, you know, it's just a matter of keep growing and keep building our execution and our ability to do things the right way at a high level. You know, it takes that. It's a race.

You know, it's a marathon. But a marathon, I've been told, is a series of sprints, one after another. And that's really what we're doing, a series of sprints. So we'll get a little bit of a break here, grab some Gatorade and a, I don't know, a granola bar at the table. And then we'll be back into the race when we get back.

Evan (1:55)

Thank you, John.

Patty Trana (1:56)

Right, Johnson.

SPEAKER_4 (1:59)

Hey, John. I'm curious about your philosophies when it comes to bye weeks because you have the best winning percentage among head coaches after the bye. I don't know if you know that, but what do you think is going into that? And what are the things you're going to be looking to evaluate and improve with this group?

John Harbaugh (2:14)

Right. Well, yeah, you just try to see, we'll try to see where we're at, things we can improve upon. The guys are in today, film review, looking at the game.

Also getting a workout type of work, certain type of a workout and we'll be in tomorrow again. We're going to have a developmental, we call it a keep ready practice, stay ready practice, keep ready, stay ready practice. Also, we'll have that in the late morning tomorrow, around another lift and we'll have a team meeting tomorrow. And then the guys will be away. We'll take advantage of that as much as we can. We have five full days plus a little bit for them to rest, recover, all three phases, you know, mind, spirit, body. And then we'll be back Monday, Monday afternoon, to start on the Eagles.

SPEAKER_4 (3:00)

Is there any secret formula you feel like to being so successful after the bye week?

John Harbaugh (3:05)

No, not that I'm aware of. I think we just come back and play really well after the week after the bye. It's the secret formula, play good football.

SPEAKER_4 (3:13)

Thanks.

Patty Trana (3:14)

Patty Trana. Good afternoon, John. How are you?

John Harbaugh (3:17)

Good, Patty. How are you?

Patty Trana (3:19)

Good. Thank you. John, last week, it just seemed like you and the coach, your assistant coaches, Dennard, whatnot, were a little bit more vocal in terms of challenging guys openly as opposed to keeping that behind closed doors. I'm just kind of wondering, what's the balance or the philosophy you have as far as openly challenging guys and how you go about challenging guys to get them to up their level of play?

John Harbaugh (3:44)

Yeah. I would have to say Dennard probably beat me on that one, wouldn't you say, as far as he openly?

I think he got me by a little bit of a stretch there.

And, you know, it's to me, it's not really, I don't know if it's a philosophy so much, Patty, is it is just a week to week field thing with your guys. We have a bunch of good guys. It's not like our guys are, our guys understand that we have to confront everything that has to do with our football. And if we do that, that comes from a place of love because what we're trying to do is we care enough, you know, we all care enough and we need to hear it to as coaches. And we did from our players. There's plenty of things that our players talk to us about that they want to see done better from a coaching perspective. And if we have that kind of relationship, that kind of partnership, coaches and players, to me, they just have a chance to be successful because you build trust that way. And I just am appreciative of the fact that everybody in the building made it about what's important, which is the football. And that's what we have to continue to do. And we will continue to do that. You know, I think we've all seen it be successful, but we have a long way to go. We have a lot of work to do. We're going to be playing some really tough games coming up here in the next few weeks. Really physical, violent, tough games are going to require our best football, our best execution. We're going to have to be at our best. November football is in front of us. And that's what we've got to be pointed towards.