Ravens vs. Patriots Week 16 Postgame Press Conferences

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Welcome back to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. The Ravens fell to the New England Patriots on Sunday, losing 28 to 24 at M&T Bay Stadium. Afterwards, we heard from Head Coach John Harbaugh.

John Harbaugh (0:15)

All right, appreciate you being here. Tough loss, guys fought and battled, but didn't enough to win the game. Didn't do the winning things that we needed to do to win the game. Made plays, but not enough, and made some mistakes it cost us. What questions do you have?

It's a bruise of some kind, I think. I don't know how serious he'll be. We'll have to find out in the next couple of days. He got need in the back, on the ground there.

SPEAKER_3 (0:49)

John, why wasn't Derrick Henry in the game? It was, I know that it lasts two minutes, but the second to last drive.

John Harbaugh (0:55)

The second to last drive, yeah. He was coming back in the game. I think we had Keaton start the game, Derrick and Keaton had talked about that. Keaton had started the other drive, and Derrick came in and finished it off, so it was part of that rotation. He was going back in the game, then we got stopped. I think we had two carries on that out of the four plays, maybe. Five or six plays.

SPEAKER_4 (1:16)

I'm really happy with the play call. First down pass there, you mentioned Keaton getting a couple of carries, but don't you want Derrick Henry in the game at that point? It's kind of how he is.

John Harbaugh (1:24)

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I look back and I say, yeah, you know, play call is the play call, you know. If it works, we're thrilled about it. If it doesn't work, we're not happy about it.

We try to first down run the second part of that drive and got nothing. So, you know, those get stopped too, especially when they're all up there in the line of scrimmage. So we had an RPO call that ended up being, you know, it could have been thrown actually, and it was given, you know, and they end up stopping that, three yards on that one. So I don't like to drive at all. Looking back, would I rather have Derrick starting to drive? Yeah, but, you know, Derrick was kind of ready for Keaton to start that drive, and then he was planning on coming in next, so they were working that rotation. You look back on it, I think it's pretty easy to say he should have been in there or shouldn't have been in there, but we're rotating those guys throughout the game as two backs, you know, and, but yeah, game-winning drive. Do I want Derrick Henry on the field? Sure, I do want him on the field.

SPEAKER_5 (2:21)

John, at halftime, did you see if Lamar could go, and did he just, at that point, did you know he couldn't, or was he, did he want to try to get that?

John Harbaugh (2:29)

No, he couldn't go. Yeah, if he could have gone, he would have gone, right?

SPEAKER_6 (2:33)

John, with Zay, this is his third lost fumble this year. What, as a coach, what can you say to him about that?

John Harbaugh (2:41)

Well, you know, I just, I continue to coach it, you know? That's all you really can do.

It's gonna be important. I mean, that's the most important thing for all the guys, and, you know, nobody knows that. I mean, Zane knows it, so, you know, he'll be the most distraught guy about it. But, with that being said, you gotta protect the football. We all gotta protect the football. That's a lesson that has to be understood. If you want to play winning football, it's been that way, you know, it's been that way for a long time in football. It's been that way for a long time here. And we have not done a good enough job of that on offense this year.

SPEAKER_7 (3:12)

John, to follow up on that, I mean, you guys are tied for the lead in fumbles lost in the NFL this season. What's, I mean, you've addressed it and you've talked about Coach Nitt. Is there a common thread there that you feel like this is, why this is continuing to be a problem for your team?

John Harbaugh (3:28)

No, I mean, it's, you can't fumble the ball. You got to protect the football. You know, it's different, different circumstances, the ball's too loose. You don't see it coming. The ball's got to be protected all the time. And that's what's coached. So as a player, you know, you just got to do it. You just got to get it done. And if you don't get it done, then you become known as a fumbler. And that's what the defenses point to, you know, and they come after it. So we do the same thing on defense. So it's just a fact, a fact of football.