Coach John Harbaugh: 'That's what winning teams do'

John Harbaugh (0:00)

All right, great locker room after the game. Really, really fun to be a part of that. That's what winning is. That's what winning teams do. You know, they find ways to win games. That's why they're winning teams, and I'm proud of these guys for that. Also proud of their faith. I felt like, I'm gonna just be honest with you. I was praying, you know, I was praying, and I guess God came through. So, excited about, and you know who else came through?

Tay Banks? Tay Banks came through with a huge play, and after a crazy pass interference penalty, I thought you had to touch the guy for it to be pass interference. I thought that was part of it, but you know what? It's just, they didn't bat an eye, nobody flinched, nobody blinked, kept bringing the heat.

The pass rush was there all day, you know, forcing that ball just a little bit early. And that's an accurate throw, and they got some guys that can catch, make some tight, contested plays, at least they did on that drive. But our guys kept tackling, and I mean, that forward four downs from what? The four, was it? Yeah. And we get to stop. That's big. So.

SPEAKER_3 (1:02)

How do you keep, not you, but the whole team, how do they stay focused after a call like that? I mean, you can cry about it, but that's the call, and, you know, they got to keep their heads in and try to finish the game.

John Harbaugh (1:12)

Right, right, right, right. Crying in, I was crying inside about it. You know, was it crying? Was it rage? Maybe it was rage. It's kind of a mix of those two things, right? But you're right. You got to come, you got to play the next play, which is what they do.

You know, you got to keep believing, and then you got to do, keep doing, keep believing, keep doing, keep believing, keep doing, keep believing, keep doing. That's really what life is. Football is a metaphor for life. And that's the way a football game goes. And sometimes it doesn't go your way, but the last two times it did go our way. And they were rewarded for that.

SPEAKER_3 (1:40)

What kind of character build is a game like this?

John Harbaugh (1:43)

I think it's kind of character reflecting probably more than anything. You see, it comes through in those situations. And those are tough situations to face, and there are a lot of pressure.

And guys just kind of took a deep breath and locked in and played the next play. That's hard to do. That's really hard to do.

SPEAKER_4 (1:58)

Two weeks in a row.

John Harbaugh (1:59)

Two weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_4 (2:00)

Coach, the team started off offensively and defensively slow. How were you guys able to turn it around so quickly?

John Harbaugh (2:07)

I think offensively, we just kind of took a deep breath and just started executing better generally.

Defensively, we made a couple of adjustments. They came out with a run game. It wasn't runs we haven't seen before, not runs they had been running. And we weren't really set up as well as we could have been for those runs. And I thought the defensive coaches did make a couple of nice adjustments and took some of those outside runs away. And our guys kind of bowed up and just played better. But we did a couple of things to get the edge protected a little better.

SPEAKER_5 (2:34)

John, did you take anything from that or was it too early?

John Harbaugh (2:41)

That's an opportunity. I mean, the idea is to get the lead, extend the lead. That's the idea in a game and during the season.

So, we're in good position for four games in, but it's only four games in. We have an opportunity, it gives us a great opportunity to go down there to Washington and try to play our best football game. And we can play so much better. We can play so much better. And that's what we'll be chasing.

SPEAKER_6 (3:01)

Do you see a team, John? John, do you see a team learning how to win here?

John Harbaugh (3:06)

I think they showed us how to win more than that.

SPEAKER_5 (3:09)

I realize you want to win under any circumstances, but when you have the 86 Giants here, is that an extra source of motivation to perform in front of them?

John Harbaugh (3:17)

I don't know. That'd be a good question for the guys. I don't think anybody was thinking about that because you're so locked in on the football. But the fact that now that you mentioned it, Ian, that they were here, it makes me really proud.