Everything Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after Ravens beat the Dallas Cowboys

After Baltimore beat Dallas, 28-25, at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, here are head coach John Harbaugh’s postgame comments, courtesy of the Baltimore and Dallas media relations staffs:

Opening Statement:

“I appreciate you guys making the trip down and being here. It was a really good win. It was a tough win, a hard-fought win in the fourth quarter. [There are] a lot of things in the game to look at, a lot of things to be very proud of and a lot of things to work on. But, I’m proud of the guys. We got the victory, and we’ll start getting ready for Buffalo.”

How was the atmosphere in the fourth quarter, when you had that big lead, and then things started dwindling a little bit?

“I thought everybody really got locked in on trying to get the job done. Everybody understood what needed to be done. We were trying to get stops, and we were focusing on that. And then when we got back out there, we were trying to end the game with the offense on the field.”

What did you see from QB Lamar Jackson on that final drive? [He had] that big throw and then the run obviously?

“I thought Lamar [Jackson] was just phenomenal throughout the game and then took over the last drive. I thought the big throw at the end, the big catches at the end; Zay [Flowers] made that huge catch, [and] ‘Bate’ [Rashod Bateman] had a big catch. We had some big runs at the end, too. We ran the ball well at the end, and to finish out that way was really important to win the game on offense at the end, and that’s what they got done. You want to do that in that situation. [I] didn’t really want it to get to that situation, but it did, and they came through.”

A lot of the talk all week was about the offensive line. You never said definitively there would be changes, but it was brought up a couple of times. What made you stick with that group? And how pleased were you with how they performed today?

“I was pleased. What made me stick with it was they were doing so well. Running the ball, pass protection – they were doing a really good job of blocking. They took care of their pass rushers, especially Micah [Parsons] – they did a great job there. So, I just felt like there was no reason to make a change there. I just felt like there was no reason to make a change there. We had the possibility of rotating some guys in, but [the starting offensive linemen] were playing too well to do that.”

Did you view this as a must-win type [of] game?

“We consider every game a must-win, but if you don’t win a game, your season is not over. There’s a lot of football to be played. [The Dallas Cowboys] are a very good football team. You saw it out there – they’re very capable, they’re a very tough team, [and] it’s a tough environment to play in. And I’m just proud of the way our guys handled it. We’re trying to get a win every week. We’re trying to be 1-0. Last week doesn’t matter, the next week doesn’t matter, it’s this week that we’re focused on. Lamar [Jackson] preaches it to the guys all the time; I’m proud of those guys. But to get the running game going that we did with Derrick Henry and Justice [Hill], and the offensive line playing as well as they did – they had 274 yards rushing – and to have Lamar take over the game the way he did, to me, that’s our identity. That’s our personality. We just have to keep building on that and keep doing everything better. The penalties are a problem. [There were] too many penalties.”

You said from week to week, it’s going to look different as far as who steps up. Today TE Charlie Kolar had a big play, so did WR Nelson Agholor and G/T Daniel Faalele. Is that what you envisioned offensively for the team?

“It is. You see Nelson [Agholor] made the play down the sideline and ran it all the way down to the two-yard line. You see that Charlie [Kolar] made the play on the boot right out of the gates that Lamar [Jackson] hit him on. We want to use all of our guys. We want to spread the ball around; we want to make it tough. We don’t want them zeroing in on anybody. We want everybody to take part.”

You mentioned the penalties. Why do you think they keep happening?

“We need to eliminate the penalties. That’s what we need to do. They’re hurting us, [and] they’re costly. Whether you think they should be called or not – I’m sure we’ll look at the tape, [and] I’m sure there’s some questionable ones; you guys might know more than I do. It doesn’t matter. We just have to eliminate the penalties.”

What do you think clicked to help set up RB Derrick Henry’s breakout game?

“I think we blocked really well, and I think Derrick [Henry] ran really well, and I think Lamar [Jackson] caused a problem for [the Cowboys] too, because they had to defend Lamar as well. You saw Lamar getting out and going the other way. He read all of those plays really well. Some of those plays are read, some of them aren’t. So, this combination [of Lamar Jackson & Derrick Henry] that’s sitting right here in this room, is a tough one to defend.”

It seemed like RB Derrick Henry had some zone run plays where he could bounce and bang. Do you feel like you wanted to give him more of those kinds of runs today?

“We’ve been running those all year so far, but we had an opportunity to run more because we were having success. We kept them off balance from a run defense standpoint for sure. Lamar [Jackson] hit some timely passes, play-action passes. Lamar kept them off balance, [and] Derrick [Henry] broke tackles. A couple of times, we had inside runs that bounced outside because of [Derrick Henry’s] vision and speed. That’s what we want to do.”

There’s going to be a lot of attention on the fourth quarter. Do you think about maybe being more aggressive at times late in the fourth quarter?

“Well, we did call blitzes in the fourth quarter. Just to kind of define it, we did call blitzes in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t that we were just playing coverage the whole fourth quarter. I bet we called four or five blitzes.”

What about offensively?

“You can look at that, but we were running the ball pretty darn good. We did throw some play-action passes, [and] we had a boot in there. You get away from something that’s clicking, and it’s like, ‘Why are you getting away from something that’s working for you, too.’ Lamar [Jackson] can beat you in all kinds of different ways. He did that today in the fourth quarter. I understand what you’re saying, but you can always look back and say, ‘There is maybe a play call here or there you want to have back based on the outcome of the play,’ but I don’t feel too bad about it. We probably got a little conservative, I’ll agree with that. I think it was for a reason with a big lead like that, and we were burning the clock. I didn’t go for a fourth-and-1-and-a-half. I could’ve gone for it; I know Lamar [Jackson] wanted me to do it, but we punted it down in there, we stopped them, they punted it back to us, [and] we went down and scored a touchdown. We [chose to] kick a field goal. We could’ve gone for the fourth-and-3, but we wanted to go up four scores, and we missed [the field goal]. That’s not going to happen too often. Sometimes you have to play that kind of game as well.”

On the last touchdown, it looked like ILB Roquan Smith and CB Marlon Humphrey were talking. Was that like a coverage situation? What happened there?

“I’ll see the tape. I’ll have a better answer for you on Monday.”

Is it concerning for you that two straight weeks now you’ve basically forced the opposing offenses into scripts where they only have to pass? And you haven’t had a lot of luck in actually stopping them in the third quarter and the fourth quarter?

“We want to get those stops. We definitely want to get those stops.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2024 at 8:51 PM.