Q. What did you learn about your team during last Sunday's game in Philadelphia and its immediate aftermath?
A. You know, it's interesting because sometimes when you don't play as well as you'd like, or you don't coach as well as you'd like. I don't know that you learn new lessons. I think sometimes it just fortifies some things that you already believe in, whether it's you as a coach or you as an individual player. It's the minutia. It always is. It's the fundamental things. It's tackling, it's ball possession or ball security. It's capitalizing on moments, on short fields and situational ball. And I think that when looking back at it through that sober lens, it is affirmation of what we already know about how significant situational play is and how significant fundamental football is.
Q. What about learning things about your players, your team, how they respond to a performance like that?
A. I think we're in the process of writing that story. I never look to the next practice. It's about the next opportunity, how you position yourself, how you rise up in those moments. And so, I don't know that I was looking for any "growth" in the process of preparing for this next one. I think those answers lie in the quality of our play and execution this time around.
Q. I'm not going to ask you to criticize the officiating, and I don't have enough money to help with the fine if you did, but do you address controversial calls with your players in-game if such things happen, if for no other reasons than to talk to them about overcoming things like that, to keep them focused on the game?
A. Actually, we do that in team development. That's one of the reasons why it's so important to have NFL officials in our training camp-like settings. To me, when you're teaching those lessons on site, you're late. It's my job to see around corners. It's my job to prepare our team for circumstances such as that. The lessons are easily learned in non-competitive situations, and so you put them in those situations in team development. Sometimes you wrong them and force them to overcome it. It's not about being fair all the time in team development, but you do so with the purpose to educate. And that's the general tenor that we take and approach that we take regarding those things. If I'm teaching those lessons on site, I'm late.
Q. In reviewing the game vs. the Eagles, you talked about missed tackles and how that impacted the flow of the game. You did live tackling every day during training camp, and you're not going to do that now, and so how can you work on being better at that?
A. The approach, the technique, the long stride/short stride to the point of confrontation, how square you are. The fundamental things. We do sled tackles, big pop-up dummy tackles. And so we do a lot of fundamental skill development around tackling that better positions us to be the functional tacklers that we need to be.
Q. In giving the injury report during your news conference, you said, "rest assured, the healthy people are going to play in this game." In December of a regular season, what does "healthy" mean?
A. The guys who got a clean bill of health and are ready to go. And a clean bill of health is a slippery slope. But the guys who are healthy enough and ready to go, that's the point I was making more than anything. This time of year, particularly when you're facing 60 or 60-plus minutes of really competitive football, you better start with the healthiest of people. You start compromising health, you end up a quarter or two quarters into the game playing a man short or two or three men short. I've got to feel good about the potential of guys that we suit up being able to play start-to-finish.
Q. When we were talking about Russell Wilson back when he had his calf situation, you said he had to be medically cleared, and then you wanted to see him on the practice field doing the things that he needs to do to be effective. For things like a hamstring injury or a sprained ankle, is there some medical test that can be done that says, OK, this guy is now healthy?
A. There are so many technological advancements that aid us in that decision-making. All of these guys have GPS monitors on them, and your ability to produce top speed, your ability to produce work output similar to what you produce when you were healthy is a great indicator of readiness. And so it's not only top speed, but it's speed endurance, it's workload. We have metrics now that really aid us and minimize some of the guesswork in terms of player health and availability around some of those things.
Q. So far this season, Calvin Austin III has 9 catches of 20-plus yards. What about him and his skill-set makes him effective as that kind of a wide receiver?
A. He's both quick and fast, and so his quickness allows him to get releases at the line of scrimmage, and he has the type of long speed that allows them to create separation, whether it's across the field or down the field. And when you're quick and fast, usually you position yourself to have the type of stats that you outlined.
Q. Dean Pees was a linebackers coach and a defensive coordinator with the Ravens before he retired, and he was brought out of retirement in October during this season to be a special advisor to coordinator Zach Orr. What is different about the Ravens defense since Coach John Harbaugh brought Pees back?
A. I just see some real fundamental Dean Pees things, like umbrella structure that minimizes the potential for big plays. Prior to our last game against Baltimore, the Ravens were 32nd in the league in pass defense, and they'd given up some big plays. And really it was outlined by some explosion plays, particularly in the Cincinnati Bengals games, with Ja'Marr Chase scoring 5 touchdowns in two games against them. When I look at their more recent tape, I really see the Dean Pees influence in terms of umbrella defense minimizing big plays. And I think the statistics since the last time we played them bear that out. Since the last time we played them, for example, they're No. 2 in the league in pass defense. You don't see it in totality, because it's tracked over the course of the full season, but since the last time we played them, they're second in the league, and what they've done is minimize big plays. And really, that's quintessential Dean Pees. Not only was he employed in Baltimore, as you mentioned, but more recently, he was a defensive coordinator for Arthur Smith in Atlanta as well. And I have a real familiarity with his work. Arthur has a real familiarity with his work, and what we're looking at more recently looks very similar to Dean Pees type work.
Q. I looked up the stats since the first Steelers-Ravens game. The Ravens have only given up one pass play of 20-or-more yards. You mentioned umbrella coverage. Can you detail what that means?
A. They play what is referred to globally as Tampa-2 in a variety of forms. They'll play bogus Tampa-2, they'll play traditional Tampa-2, they'll zone exchange and play Tampa. All is done to make the quarterback diagnose post-snap, and while also at the same time, rerouting the potential of vertical receivers outside. And when you do those things, you really position yourself to minimize big plays. I grew up in that school of thought from my time as a position coach years ago down in Tampa, and I understand it in great detail.
Q. Odafe Oweh had 2.5 sacks and 4 quarterback hits in the first Steelers-Ravens game. Is he now their primary pass rusher?
A. He's a talented young guy, but they've got a lot of guys who are really good in that area. They play a bunch of people. He's a guy who might be ascending or emerging from the group, certainly, but I think the strength of their pack from a pass rush standpoint is the pack itself. They play a lot of people and have all year.
Q. In the first meeting, Patrick Ricard played 22 snaps, and Derrick Henry had 13 carries. Do you expect those numbers to be higher today?
A. It depends on whether or not they're winning possession downs. The last time around, we were winning possession downs, and that minimizes the totality of a lot of discussions. I'm sure it'll be their agenda for those numbers to be higher, but oftentimes your agenda and reality are dictated by your ability to win possession downs and thus produce additional downs or not.
Q. Does the venue have any impact on how much a team might want to run the ball?
A. It does at times, particularly when you're working on a silent count the offense loses its ability to beat the defense to the punch. I believed and still do over the course of my career that legitimate dominant running games are weather proof or environment proof and defense proof. If you're really good at running the football, you run the football in all circumstances.
Q. What can your edge rush-men absolutely not do when putting pressure on Lamar Jackson?
A. We can't have multiple people behind them. Those vertical holes turn a four-man rush into a three-man rush, or a four-man rush into a two-man rush. When you get vertical holes where he can step up and run horizontal to get back vertical, the athletic guys – and make no mistake, Lamar is a quintessential athletic guy – rushers behind him are negative. You've got to work to contain him, and a major component of containing him is keeping him inside and in front, and that vertical rush component ending up with guys behind him has been catastrophic for a lot of defenses trying to minimize Lamar Jackson.
Q. Would you go so far as to tell your pass-rushers, "Don't try any spin moves?"
A. I don't put limits on our guys in that way, because then you quell their natural instincts and the skills that they have developed. But you do make them cognizant of certain major coaching points or bullet points, and so I talk more broadly. If we've got a four-man rush, we need to have four guys in front of him. If we have a five-man rush, we need to have five guys in front of him. Guys behind mobile quarterbacks really are the catalyst for a lot of issues for defenses. If a guy is immobile then you can circle him and end up behind him and retrace, but the mobile ones find those vertical escape lanes. And then it creates problems for you.
Q. What do you need to get from your team today, and specifically from starting quarterback Russell Wilson?
A. From our team, we need to play hard and smart, and I can say the same thing about Russell Wilson. All the marbles are on the table, if you will. We're competing for the AFC North Championship, and that requires a certain mindset while at the same time we've got to be sharp. We've got to display awareness. We've got to play within the rules of the game. We can't allow emotions to get away from us. You know, the Baltimore Ravens are the most penalized team in the National Football League this season, and if that is them, we need to let that be them and not us. A component of us positioning ourselves to win is staying on schedule, not giving them free real estate. And whatever side of the ball you're on, that's what penalties do. You get offensive penalties that push you behind the chains, you're not going to win possession downs. You give them free real estate and chunks of ground, you're going to produce scoring drives on the other side. And that cannot be us.
