Ravens vs. Browns Week 18 Postgame Press Conferences

SPEAKER_2 (0:03)

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. The Ravens are AFC North champs. They took down the Cleveland Browns 35 to 10 Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens have now won the division for two years in a row, and they will be hosting a playoff matchup next weekend in Baltimore for the wild card weekend. The Ravens had contributions from several guys on both sides of the ball. And after the game, we heard from head coach John Harbaugh.

John Harbaugh (0:31)

Everybody in here, appreciate you guys. Very, very exciting. Very, very big, very big deal to win the AFC North, to win the AFC North against the Browns. Browns are a tough football team, and they were out there competing and fighting like they always do. Have much respect for those guys. So I'm proud of our guys. I'm excited for our guys. It's a great accomplishment. We had said in the locker room after the Chiefs game, out in Kansas City, that we were going to fight. And everything was going to be for one another and for greater glory. And it was going to be, to God be the glory, whatever we accomplished this year. And I think now is a good time to kind of talk about that. And that's what you guys were talking about in the locker room. And I'm proud of the guys for that. And I think it's really important to mention. One other thing I got to mention here, and we'll get started with the questions, is we did a bunch of game balls. We closed out with Michael Pierce, obviously, the most amazing play. And the most crazy, amazing play in NFL history. That's what we said it was. So we got a game ball for that. That'll be on the game ball. But the game ball I didn't give out, and I want to give out right now, first team in the NFL with 4,000, more than 4,000 passing and 3,000 rushing yards in a season. So that's a great accomplishment. And it's a group accomplishment. But Todd Munkin's gonna get a game ball for that. I think he did a great job this year. All the coaches did, all the players did. And that's a really incredible accomplishment.

All right, what questions do you have?

SPEAKER_4 (1:55)

John, I mean, it looks like, I think it was four weeks ago, you trailed the Steelers by like a couple of games. And, you know, how impressive is it to go from that point to now celebrating being AFC No Jam?

John Harbaugh (2:06)

Yeah, it's awesome. It's an awesome thing. And, you know, it's a week-to-week league, you know. And you really just have to take it one week at a time, one day at a time, one play at a time. You know, our guys have done a really good job of holding on to that. That 1-0 t-shirt that we all wear around is real. And so four wins later, you know, we're the AFC North Champions. Now, that's going to be exciting, and we're going to enjoy it tonight, and we're going to watch games tomorrow and see who we play.

But we're moving into what we've been working for, because last year when we were in the locker room after the AFC Championship game, we knew we had a long road to go to get back to this very point. You get back in the playoffs with an opportunity to take the next step, and we're not there yet. We've still got the next game. We've got a wild card game to get ready for, so that will be our next challenge.

SPEAKER_5 (2:58)

Trying to have an update on Zay Flowers?

John Harbaugh (3:00)

I don't have an update. It's something that he has a chance to be okay with, but we'll probably have more details after an MRI tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_6 (3:11)

John, I've seen the expectations are very high when you brought Derrick Henry in to put him with Lamar, but the numbers they put up were pretty historic. Did they meet your expectations, exceed them? Where did that fall?

John Harbaugh (3:21)

You know, it's a great question. The numbers really weren't part of the conversation. I think we were just excited about what we had a chance to build because we try to build all of our offense, like our defense too. You've got Kyle Van Noy sitting right here. So what's the best way we can utilize this great talent? You know, and I think when Derrick became a part of it and he was going to be paired with Lamar, not just Lamar, Mark and Zay and Isaiah and all the guys, how can we try to create a vision for what we can accomplish with those guys and to see it come to fruition like that is really an awesome deal. Now we want to see it come to fruition in the playoffs.