Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (11.13.23)
Opening statement:
“Okay. Injury front, I don’t really have updates just yet. Those are pending. On the film, just what you saw live – guys battled, knew it was going to be a 60 minute game and it was. Really some standout performances [on] offense, defense and special teams. Some big plays, plays that we needed to make, we made them. Wasn’t perfect. Plenty to clean up and that’s what today is about. And then we’ll turn the page and we’re on to Pittsburgh. Two 6-3 football teams, two AFC North teams, so excited about the opportunity. But with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Hey, the offensive line yesterday, being down two tackles and just the way they were able to pull together as a group. Can you just speak to that?
“You know, I thought they, by and large played really well. Again, there’s always things to clean up. We had four sacks. Really, one was on a quick, one was on an RPO, one was on a bad call by me on third and two. So, I just thought those guys battled like crazy. That’s a very good front. Leading the league in sacks. They run a ton of games. They run them well. So, I thought those guys were in tune in the pass game and then run game again, a very stout front. Wasn’t easy, wasn’t always pretty, but made some big plays in there.”
And I know you enjoyed the kind of the cluster play there around Jerome (Ford) at the end. Do you think, not to make too much of it, Kevin, but in some ways, does that kind of symbolize what this season’s been for you guys? Just kind of pushing forward?
“You can write it, Tom (Withers), but I like effort plays. We coach effort. We talk about effort. We talked about [how] that game was going to require a 60 minute effort and to see all those guys, especially Elijah (Moore) in the back. His teammates got a kick out of that one.”
Kevin, I know you don’t have results yet, but do you anticipate that Deshaun (Watson) will undergo an MRI today, further tests on the ankle? And how do you anticipate him being for Sunday?
“Yeah, I can’t get into Sunday just yet, Mary Kay (Cabot). Just…I don’t have those MRI results just yet on our guys, but we’ll see where we are when Wednesday rolls around.”
But he did undergo an MRI or he will undergo one today.?
“Yes.”
Kevin, you mentioned some of that effort and we saw it again on Sunday with David Njoku and his catches and the yards he gets afterwards. What can you say about the effort that he puts into those? And what does that do for his teammates around him when they see him push so hard for those extra yards?
“Yeah, Dave’s a great leader for this football team. He leads by action, he leads by words. He’s so positive on game day, in the huddle, on the sideline, he was very upset with himself early with a drop, but he made up for it. It’s no secret he’s a very, very good football player for us. We’re looking to find ways to get him the football.”
And again on that effort. What is it for you guys as coaches? What’s the reaction when a guy like Cedric Tillman or Wyatt Teller does it often – gets a guy down, lays a good block down and really shows that physicality in a game?
“Yeah, I mean, that’s the game. That’s the division we’re in. That’s kind of how we play. That’s one of our hallmarks. We knew yesterday it was going to be a very physical game and it was. But yeah, I thought Ced had some good moments in that regard, Cam (Justice). You mentioned Wyatt had knockdowns like Wyatt has knockdowns, but that’s what’s required, especially as you get into November, December football.”
Hey, Kevin, I wanted to ask you about the ability to bounce back from mistakes. Deshaun with that pick six on the second play, (James) Proche has the muffed punt, some inopportune penalties, but how have you been able to overcome mistakes to pull out wins like you did yesterday?
“Yeah, Daryl (Ruiter), I just think nobody’s perfect. Guys are going to make mistakes. I know I make them. You just can’t dwell on them. You have to move on. And I think that was very early on, we had to do that. We put ourselves in a hole. Credit to them, obviously. They’ve started fast in a bunch of games and certainly at home they’ve done that. That was not our intention to get behind early, and we did. But I never sensed from our players, I never sensed from our coaches really anything where they were concerned about what was coming next. They just knew that we had to just hunker down and do our job. But that’s what the team, I think that’s what the leaders on the football team kind of set forth. They set that leadership example.”
And the impact of Dustin Hopkins, he’s made a lot of big kicks for you in the first half of this season, obviously, when you guys acquired him, you were very confident and excited to bring him in, but could you just touch on just the tremendous impact he’s had? And then, of course, yesterday he misses that PAT but hits the game winner when you need it at most.
“Yeah, he’s been reliable. He’s a trustworthy guy. He works very hard at his craft. Nice having a veteran that — we trust him. He knows that we trust him. So really just trustworthy guy that you know is going to do his job.”
Kevin, Watson said after the game that the first half he thought the offense was pressing to make up that early deficit too much. And it just happened that in the second half you had a lot of longer drives, possession drives. So was there an acknowledgment at halftime that you guys needed to perhaps control the ball a little bit more to settle things down?
“Not from my perspective. I can certainly understand him feeling that way, but sometimes you take some shots early in the game and you don’t hit them, but you got to kind of do that throughout the game and make sure you’re making yourself hard to defend. You got to run by the corners every once in a while. And we didn’t come up with some big passes necessarily, but the focus was to stay on the field and come back with points. Now, we weren’t very good in the red zone, and I’ll take responsibility for that. We need to turn those field goals into sevens, but by and large, we settled in, guys did their job and were good on third downs and that was the ability to stay on the field.”
And do you know if you’ll be able to bring back Michael Dunn this week?
“I’m not exactly sure where we’ll go with the roster, but he’s getting better and better.”
Wanted to ask about Mike Ford and just the timeliness of that pick to get it when he does. Knowing like the Ravens in that situation, had a chance to double dip there.
“Yeah, that was huge. He played really well for us. He battled, played inside, played outside, played special teams, got that interception. Like you mentioned, they have a great kicker, so kept them out of getting to midfield and potentially trying a long one. So really pleased with the effort that Mike had.”
I mean, just looking at a guy like him, he’s a veteran. He seems like he stepped into a sort of leadership role on this team. What does a guy like that who makes plays on special teams, can step in on defense into a new role and still make plays? What does he do for the chemistry of the defense, the team, all that stuff?
“Yeah, Mike does a great job during the week, during the games. Brings great energy to the team, plays a style that really fits us. He’s relentless in everything he does. I think you see that on a bunch of his special teams reps and then certainly on defense, you saw he plays with physicality as well.”
Hey, Kevin, you and some of the guys mentioned who plays harder, longer, was going to be the team that won yesterday. Why was that a theme for you last week?
“Those division games, playing against a very good football team. We knew it was going to be a 60 minutes game. It just is when you’re playing in this division and playing at their place and the physicality that was going to be required. So just felt like that was our mindset for that week.”
And then with the play that Denzel got hurt on, should there have been a penalty there?
“I don’t know. We’ll turn in the league, see what they say.”
Coach, you started two relatively inexperienced tackles and it seems like they got their sea legs under them by the second half and they played a lot better. Talk about the performance of your young tackles in that game against.
“You know, James (Hudson III) is a young man like you mentioned, but he’s played a lot of football for us. He’s played on the left side, played on the right side. He’s played when he knows he’s going to be a starter. He’s played when he has to go in there in the second quarter due to injury. So a guy that we know what he’s about, we know the physicality that he brings to the game. And then to get Geron (Christian) out there, I thought he did a great job getting himself ready. I thought the coaches did a great job of getting him ready to understand our system, understand his role in our system. And along with all those guys, they all battled again. We mentioned how physical that football game was and I thought those guys battled throughout.”
And also when the extra point was missed, instead of the team getting down, it seemed like everybody from the defense went ahead and patted Hopkins on his back and told him, we’re going to give you a chance to win this game. Talk about that camaraderie ship that you have developed on this team.
“Yeah, that’s just, that’s the guys, that’s who we, you know, I’ve said it a bunch of times, we’re not perfect. We’re not going to be perfect, but we trust each other. We pull for each other, we’re there for our teammates. And I think every single person knew that Dustin was going to come through there when we needed him.”
You know, playing in this division and the physicality and the toughness you talked about, but how satisfying was it? Take the ball with five minutes to go and not turn it back and give Lamar Jackson or Justin Tucker a chance to win the game for them?
“Yeah, I mean, it was huge. And obviously, that ball was on the ground there after a strip sack and Wyatt made as big a play as there was in the game to get on it. We overcame a false start in that drive. We overcame that sack, fumble recovery to hit a big one to Amari (Cooper) the next play. So we got to a third and two and Jerome came squirting out of there. So I think just that drive was indicative of the game. You had to overcome some things and really had to just focus on the next play.”
Hey, Kevin, can you talk about how you and Stump (Mitchell), the way you guys use Jerome and Kareem (Hunt)? They just seem to blend so well together.
“Yeah, well, I think credit goes to Stump. Credit goes to the players. Stump does a great job of understanding their roles, understanding the game, understanding the plays and what’s required in those given plays. I really think keeping both those guys fresh and getting Pierre (Strong Jr.) back helps as well. It’s a 60 minute football game, it’s a long season, so we’re always trying to keep those guys fresh. But all the running backs have a great understanding of what we’re doing and I think Stump does a nice job on game day of going with the guy in the given moment.”
Now, obviously you have another one of these tough, physical AFC North games coming up again on Sunday. How do you feel that Deshaun is uniquely suited to handle these tough games that come down to the wire and it’s never say die? Why is he sort of built for this?
“You know, kind of talked about it yesterday, Mary Kay. He’s played in a lot of big games in his life, high school, college, pros. He knows what’s required of him. I think he looks forward to all these games on the schedule and we know what it means when you’re playing an AFC North opponent. We know what that entails. We know what’s required, how physical it’s going to be, those types of things. I think Deshaun, like all of our players, is excited about that opportunity.”
Kevin, are you optimistic that Dawand Jones can play this week?
“We’ll see. I think [we] got to get to Wednesday. Not sure.”
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