Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz (11.9.23)
What was your biggest takeaway and lesson learned from the first time you guys faced Lamar (Jackson)?
“I don’t know. I think I’ll just leave that. I’ll leave that for the Ravens to figure out. There’s no sense in me talking about what we did well, what we did poorly and what we’re changing.”
What kind of a challenge is he, you know, obviously, with his ability to take the smallest play and turn it into a big one?
“Yeah, he made some scramble plays and some quarterback run plays in the first game that we played, and we’ll have to do better on those. We did a lot of good things in the first game, too. Didn’t play a consistent game, didn’t finish the game well, but there’s a lot to build on from that game.”
What does a dynamic tight end like Mark Andrews do to stress a defense specifically?
“He’s really good at uncovering when the quarterback’s scrambling. The quarterback has confidence in him, and they seem to really have some sort of mental telepathy. They always seem to be moving in the same direction when the quarterback scrambles. So he’s a big target, he’s got really good hands, and he’s just really instinctive to try to break open and make himself friendly to the quarterback.”
Having Odell (Beckham), obviously, he didn’t play that first match. How does having him affect the rest of their passing game?
“Well, I mean, obviously it adds another weapon. They have a full arsenal of guys, you mentioned tight ends. They got a couple tight ends that are tough outs, particularly in the passing game. But veteran player like (Nelson) Agholor, veteran player like Odell, young player like (Zay) Flowers and a good running attack, the best running attack in the NFL. So, you know, they have weapons at a lot of different places, and we have to play our best on defense.”
I know you go against the Ravens offense, but you consider this like a battle between you and Mike Macdonald with their defense. Both of you guys are rated high in many categories.
“Yeah, ratings don’t mean anything to this game. We have to go out and perform our best and not worry about what the other side of the ball is doing or what they’re doing on defense. We have our own challenges. We have things that we need to accomplish, and worrying about comparing ourselves to somebody else is not going to fulfill any of those objectives that we have.”
What is Keaton Mitchell adding to already a really good run game for them?
“Oh, yeah. Made some big plays last week. They got a lot of different kind of backs between (Justice) Hill and (Gus) Edwards and Mitchell. Different sizes, different strengths. I think when they lost their starter at the beginning of the year, they were sort of finding it – well, they didn’t replace them with just one guy, they replaced them with a bunch of different guys. And that’s sort of the way this league goes. You get different players that have different strengths. The one thing about playing offense is you’re the one that can decide what personnel packages you’re going to be in. You can decide how you’re going to use a guy, whatever. If you don’t like him in pass protection, well, free release him. If you don’t like him in the pass game, well run the ball. I think there’s ways that offensive coordinators can make use of guys that have very distinctive skill sets and we’ll know which running backs in the game and we’ll have a plan for each of them.”
I asked Grant (Delpit) about whether he thought the change in scheme or different attitude was a little more impactful for them this year, and he said he really couldn’t answer between the two because he felt like they were both equally impactful. How do you feel about what you learned about this team through the first couple of months here and the attitude in particular?
“I know we’re a work in progress. We’re only halfway through the season. We got a long way to go. When the season is over, we can talk about what made a difference for us or different things like that. Our total focus is on the Ravens and we’re worried about that right now as opposed to what’s transpired over the last eight months or whatever it’s been.”
How do you think this defense is catching up to other offenses across the league this year?
“I don’t pay attention to much around the league other than the opponents that we’re playing, so we got our hands full every week and that’s what our focus is on is trying to figure that stuff out as opposed to trying to figure out greater trends.”
Myles (Garrett) said he’s always thinking about a shutout. Are you the same way? And how special was it to get that.
“What was the first part of your question?”
Myles is always thinking about a shutout…
“Yeah, I’m – we’re just trying to win the next series. I think I’ve been on the record of saying the defensive job is to limit scoring and then try to set the offensive up in good field position, which you can do a lot of different ways. You can do it like a backed up stop like we did, or a turnover or even just a punt with a good return. There’s a lot of different ways to do that, but every drive we’re trying to limit scoring, and if you do that well over the course of the game, obviously you’re going to keep the score down and potentially have a shutout. We’re trying to win the game. Not a lot of style points. I’ve said before, how we’re doing on defense is 5-3. How the individual players are doing on defense is 5-3. It’s hard in this league. It’s hard to stop offenses. We have to play our very best every series, every down. And if we do that over the course of the game, then we’ll get good results. I think the result last week was an indicator of good, consistent defense, and that’s something that we’ve been struggling the previous two weeks to find.”
Takeaways, what’s been the difference there and how do you sustain that now through the meat of the schedule here?
“Yeah, well, you guys brought it to our attention, so we decided that we were going to try to get takeaways. Yeah, again, if you concentrate on doing your job, being physical, when you do it, turnovers come. And if you spend your time fretting about turnovers or trying to create turnovers, a lot of times you can go down the wrong path and you look at the ones in the game, they came from guys doing their job, guys playing physical. Sione’s (Takitaki) interception was a direct result of Isaiah McGuire’s first, you know, time playing in the NFL. He didn’t play great all the time, but he played really good on that play and pushed that guy right into the quarterback and had a lot to do with creating that turnover. So it’s where your physicality and your pursuit and your effort sort of meets opportunity and we have to take advantage of them when they come. And I think you saw that in this game. But we’re trying to do our job, trying to play good defense, trying to play together, trying to be physical, have some passion for the game and play with good effort. When we do all those things, the end of that equation is turnovers will come.”
And when we just talked to Al (Alex Van Pelt), he said they celebrated no turnover game of the party, complete with confetti. So my question is, how did you celebrate 58 yards of total offense?
“Yeah, I mean, the same as any other win. We generally don’t look at stats for self worth or anything like that. Even in that game, there are still little things that we can clean up and we’re trying to do whatever we can to get the win, and we’re going to celebrate that. Whether it’s a high scoring game like the Colts or a game like we just played, we’ll keep our eyes on those things. Obviously, the whole team plays better when you get turnovers and don’t turn it over. There’s no offense that goes into a game saying, ‘yeah, we’re probably going to turn it over two, three times in this game’. It’s just the way things happen. You can’t really plan that stuff. But that’s a good formula for us. Good formula. Not turning the ball over and getting turnovers and getting stops on third down. I mean, they didn’t get a first down on third down until late in that game when our backups were in the game. So those things all add into coming out with a victory and that’s the most important thing. How many yards you give up and points and everything else. When you get the win, you feel good and we’ll have confetti for that.”
The Ravens now have Odell back in this game and Rashod (Bateman) and now Keaton Mitchell in there. Is it almost like you’re preparing for a different opponent in some ways than in that first meeting?
“Not really. No, not really. I mean, they have quality players. They put in with backup players and we’re going to have guys potentially missing, too. So their scheme has stayed the same. They’ve evolved a little bit over the course of the season. Every team does. We’ve evolved and do things just a little bit different here and there. So when it’s all said and done, they have a pretty good idea who we are. We have pretty good idea who they are. Maybe there’ll be a couple of different faces in there but it will be a…it’ll be a good AFC north battle.”
There’s a limited number of extra special athletes in the NFL, they’re all great. But extra special, Lamar, they have one. You have one, Myles. Does he need to match in the framework of his assignments? Does he need to show up big for you guys?
“Yeah, I mean, he shows up big all the time. I would say he just has to concentrate on being the best version of himself. And again, this game isn’t going to be our defense versus their defense or one player versus another player. It’s going to be the Ravens versus the Browns. And we all have our part to play in that. In big games like this, you need your big players to come up big and Myles will be ready for that.”
What did you think about Shelby (Harris) and Dalvin (Tomlinson)?
“All of our tackles played well. Those guys stood out a little bit more on the stat sheet, but Jordan (Elliott) played very well and as did Mo (Maurice Hurst). You know, we’re at our best when we stop the run. Those guys have a lot to do with that. Being physical, knocking blockers back, being able to turn a game one dimensional is big for us. And I just go back and you watch all the games that we’ve been able to control the first and second down run game. We’ve played well on defense and we’ve been able to get sacks. If you don’t control the first and second down pass game, you’re not going to be able to get after the passer the way that we want it. Those guys have a lot to do with it, it’s hard. But Dalvin, defensive tackles generally don’t get – Aaron Donald’s aside, generally don’t get a lot of sacks. But to get two and a half in that game and be around the quarterback and make the plays that he did, you guys understand how respected and how valuable a guy Dalvin is, not just on the field but in the locker room. And it was really fun to watch him have success in that game and lead us to a win and sort of the unsung heroes of our team. I think a couple of weeks ago I might have said something to the effect of like, Dalvin didn’t fill up the stat sheet, but he had a lot to do with us having a good game. Well, this game he was able to fill up the stat sheet still. So he’s a valuable player for us as all those tackles, we’re getting really good contributions out of all those guys. They’re not selfish, they split reps, but it keeps them fresh and production is the only thing that we really worry about.”
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