Postgame Press Conference: Coach John Harbaugh on loss to Commanders

John Harbaugh (0:00)

I appreciate you guys all being here.

Tough loss, obviously, credit the commanders. Played a very good football game. And we played a pretty good football game, too, just not good enough to win the game. So we pointed toward our next opportunity. I think our guys are tough. There's no, we have a good spirit. It's not one of fear.

It's one of power and courage. And we will continue fighting. So what questions you have?

SPEAKER_2 (0:24)

Can you explain the last two throws?

John Harbaugh (0:27)

Zero blitzes, zero blitzes, and those are the routes that ended up getting run.

SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_3 (0:32)

Did you, how seriously did you think about going further line?

John Harbaugh (0:35)

I thought about it, but, you know, if we had been four or less, I think I'd have gone for it.

You know, losing the two yards was disappointing on that one. So, I mean, you know, Stiles made a great play and ran through. You talking about the fourth down at the end there?

SPEAKER_3 (0:50)

Where you're in your own, like, ten yard line.

John Harbaugh (0:53)

No, I wasn't seriously thinking about going for it there. I thought maybe we could draw them off sides and try to get them to jump, you know, take a shot at it, but they played, you know, they didn't do it. They played with good discipline there.

SPEAKER_3 (1:03)

Did you happen to hear that J. Misch said who let the dogs out? That's what he was saying at the line of scrimmage.

John Harbaugh (1:08)

Yeah, I knew that.

SPEAKER_3 (1:09)

Is that like a thing you guys practice?

John Harbaugh (1:10)

It's part of the cadence. Yeah, it's part of the cadence. They, you know, the teams do jump in those situations sometimes, so that was the idea.

SPEAKER_3 (1:17)

On the play you were talking about, what's the thinking there?

John Harbaugh (1:19)

You can end each play.

SPEAKER_3 (1:21)

JJ.

Power there, the throw in the backfield. I was curious what the thought was on that play call.

John Harbaugh (1:26)

A quarter, it's a crack, it's a quarterback crack sweep. So you usually have an extra blocker on that. That's the idea.

You pick up an extra block with the quarterback running on that. So, I mean, I thought I had a chance, but I have to see the tape to see how Stiles got through there. I like to think he might get blocked, but I'm not exactly sure what the front was. We'll have to watch the tape.

SPEAKER_3 (1:46)

How much of a missed opportunity do you view this of grabbing sort of a stranglehold on the division?

John Harbaugh (1:51)

It's a missed opportunity, but like I told the guys, it would have been great to win the game, but it doesn't change our goals or our opportunity going forward, so it's a tough loss. It's a national football league. You're going to lose some games.

And everybody in this league is good. The commanders are good, everybody's good. So, and we had a really good team coming in here next Sunday, so a team that we can beat. So we just got to get back to work.

SPEAKER_3 (2:15)

What did you think of the way JJ played in this game in general?

John Harbaugh (2:18)

I thought he played very well. I mean, there were some plays made, made some throws, scrambled.

I thought JJ played very well. I thought everybody played well. We just didn't play quite well enough.

We had a start in a critical situation. We didn't finish some plays. We didn't always tackle. There were some leaky yards in tackling. Although there was good tackles too. There was a couple runs that got a little more than they needed to. They got in the third and short too often. We weren't in third and long enough. So credit them for that and things that we have to get better at.

SPEAKER_2 (2:48)

There was another missed kick, John.

John Harbaugh (2:50)

There was another missed kick.

SPEAKER_3 (2:51)

Can you just talk about that? I feel like the confidence level in the kicker has been a topic for a while. Not in the last couple of weeks. Just where you stand there. I can't even hear you.

John Harbaugh (2:59)

Sorry.

SPEAKER_2 (2:59)

There was another missed kick.

SPEAKER_3 (3:00)

Right. Another missed kick. There was.

John Harbaugh (3:02)

That's correct.

SPEAKER_3 (3:02)

Just the confidence level, obviously, in the kicker at the moment.

John Harbaugh (3:04)

Yeah, we're confident.

You can't, as soon as a guy doesn't make a play, start firing people left and right, especially your kicker who's a rookie. So I'm confident that he's going to become a good kicker. I mean, if at some point in time it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But we're not going to panic halfway through the season with a guy who's made a bunch of kicks. If that's what you're inferring, we should be doing. So, you know, I mean, we're just not going to knee-jerk it like that. He's going to make kicks. He's going to make a lot of kicks. I believe in him. I think he's really good and really talented. And we're going to give him an opportunity to do it, and it's up to him to do it.