Ravens vs. Vikings, Week 10 Postgame Press Conferences

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Welcome to the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. Ravens took down the Minnesota Vikings 27-19 on Sunday. After the game, we heard from head coach John Harbaugh.

John Harbaugh (0:10)

First of all, just our condolences to Commissioner Tagliabue's family and to the amazing, amazing leader he was in the National Football League all those years, as I think back, even as a kid, Pete Rosell and then Paul Tagliabue, that was the National Football League. So he's legendary and the league would not be what it is without Paul Tagliabue, for sure. And then also to Marsha and Neelan's family. I mean, just what a tragic thing, but what a good young man he was. And when I think back in Western Michigan, that's where I met my wife in Western Michigan, Ingrid, she was sitting right there and he and I had that conversation about that in the draft and just what a good person he was and to his family, he raised a good boy there. He's a good young man. We had two birthdays, Daniel Felleli, happy birthday, which I neglected to mention in the pregame celebration, and Dr. Tucker. So happy birthday, Dr. Tucker. And then what a great win, a win based on faith and guts and faith. So the passage you're going to get this one was, it was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them the victory. It was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you love them. That was the verse for this week, and we leaned on that. At least I did, for sure. But what questions you have? I'm just proud of the guys. What questions you have?

SPEAKER_3 (1:32)

The defense of the fourth-bound stands that they made to interception. How would you describe that defense?

John Harbaugh (1:40)

You know, I thought, first of all, Zach called a magnificent game, and the coaches and Zach put together a fantastic game plan.

And that was a really well... Minnesota is a really good team. Minnesota is a very well coached on both sides of the ball. Their schemes are incredibly challenging on both sides of the ball. And then you saw them came out. They had a really good game plan. They were doing things that were making it challenging for us in terms of, hey, you want to blitz them? You know, we've got some answers for that. You know, you want to play the pass? We got some answers in running, running and passing situations. And just a lot of different good plays that they had. I think Coach O'Connell and the whole staff does a great job. And the same thing on defense with Coach Flores. And they just, they made it tough on you. So it was going to be a grinder type of a game, especially in this environment. So I think both sides of the ball did a great job of handling the grind of the schemes and the good players that they have, and also the environment of the sound and all that. So I'm proud of that. But defensively, with the three turnovers, I mean, we had three turnovers total, but they had the two turnovers. The fourth down stops, the two point plays stop, and even overcoming some crazy stuff. I mean, they made a couple of fourth down plays we could have been off the field earlier, and our guys didn't crack. So many times, when you see situations where that happens in the very next play, it becomes a touchdown. Our guys didn't let that happen. I mean, they left it out. You talk about a guy like Kyle VanNoy again. I mean, he's in there, he's completely exhausted. He left everything out on that field. He's an example, and everybody is in that same place. So that's the kind of win that it was.

SPEAKER_4 (3:06)

You got those turnovers, you got eight in the last four games, which is a lot more than you had in the first five. What has been the difference in creating those turnovers?

John Harbaugh (3:16)

Sometimes, you know, sometimes you get opportunities, so I'm not going to say it's not just sometimes, it just kind of goes that way. I don't think we had too many opportunities in the first few games. But I also think you create your opportunities, you create your opportunity by being in the right spots. We could have had a couple more if we were, the ball carried a foot further or something like that. But we had 11 quarterback hits, so a lot of talk about the lack of pressure, but we had 11 quarterback hits and four batted balls. Those are passes defended by the D-line and the pass rushers. I mean, that's pretty darn great. So those guys I thought had a phenomenal game.