Ravens vs. Steelers Week 16 Postgame Press Conferences

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. The Ravens took down the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-17 on Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium. After the game, we had a chance to hear from head coach, John Harbaugh.

John Harbaugh (0:13)

Okay, appreciate everybody being here. I just want to start with this, because this is important to me, and to a lot of people. This week, Christmas, Christmas is a couple, what? Four days? Which we happen to play in four days, right? So it's right around the corner, and we'll be together on Christmas. So I read this to the team in our post-game prayer, and it's this. This is Mary, Mary, the mother of God, said this when she was with Elizabeth. She said this, she said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. So I just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday Season, and rejoice, man, rejoice. Rejoice in life, rejoice in your circumstances, rejoice in the tough games, rejoice in the losses, rejoice in the wins like we get, like we're blessed to do today as a football team, and just rejoice in the people that you love, the people that are close to you, rejoice. We aren't here on this earth to worry about every little thing and spar with one another. We're here to rejoice in one another and with one another, love one another. So, let's try to remember that this week. It's a big football week, all right? It's also a big life week, you know?

It's a big spiritual week, okay? All right, so what questions do you have?

SPEAKER_3 (1:35)

John, you officially convinced the playoff first. What do you think that means for the team, or is it kind of focused on bigger goals?

John Harbaugh (1:43)

Oh, it's huge. It's huge. We rejoice. I rejoice in the fact that we made the playoffs, because it's tough to do. It's really hard to do. Look around the league how hard it is to do.

I'm so proud of these guys, and we have goals. The first goal is to win the next game, we say. So everything we do all year is to win the next game. The second goal is to make the playoffs. The third goal is to win the division, the AFC North. And the final goal is to win the championship, the Super Bowl World Championship. So we won. We got two of them tonight. We won the next game, and we made the playoffs.

SPEAKER_4 (2:16)

John, we know how crazy Ravens Steelers can be with the Swains big plays after Lamar throws the interception there. For Marlon Humphrey to get to pick six there, I mean, just how massive was that?

John Harbaugh (2:24)

It was massive. You know, just the things that we had talked about, the things that the guys were talking about, the idea that, you know, it's just good. It's good. Something happens, a good circumstance, good. A tough circumstance, good. It gives us an opportunity to come back and make the next play and take the next opportunity to turn things around. And for Marlon to do that, you know, we got pressure on that, all those kind of things, it just means so much. Marlon also had a baby this week.

So he got the game ball, he didn't get the game ball, his son got the game ball.

SPEAKER_5 (2:52)

John, on that same play, how big was it to see David DeJobo at that moment after all the ups and downs that he's had?

John Harbaugh (2:59)

Yeah, so good. He had a couple big pressures and a couple big plays there. You know, David's been, he's been practicing really well. And to see him get his opportunity and step up like that, really the whole game was great to see. Proud of him.

SPEAKER_6 (3:10)

John, we know how physical this matchup can be. What does it mean to see you guys rush for 220 yards on the ground today?

John Harbaugh (3:16)

Big, big, starts right there with number 22 That's who it starts with. But it also, it also starts with the offensive line. So our offensive line played really great tonight. I thought our coaches did a great job scheming up the run game. Lamar had a lot of checks involved with that. So it was just really well executed run game and a hard runner, the best in the business right there.

SPEAKER_7 (3:35)

John, this is a Steelers defense that was really, really good against under center runs. You guys didn't seem to go away too much from that. I guess what gave you the confidence that you guys could do that?