Ravens reaction: 'They are physical, they are tough, and you have to stay after them every single play'

BALTIMORE — Some of the reaction out of the Ravens' locker room:

Coach John Harbaugh

"It was a great win. I’m very proud and excited for our players. That’s a players’ win. I thought our players went out there and did what they had to do to win the game against a very, very good opponent. The Patriots are a great football team. They’re a very, very well-coached football team. [They] always are, and they are again this year. I thought they played really well. They had a great plan, and it’s just a really good accomplishment to beat a team of that caliber. We’re proud to do it. We know it’s just one game. Just half the season is over. That’s it. We have half the season still to go."

On the Patriots' defense: "They did a good job. They were mixing it up pretty good there. They were mixing coverages. They were mixing fronts. They were stemming fronts. They brought some pressure, not as much as they normally do, but they did bring pressure. We were fortunate enough to hit one of them with a big run early in the game. That really helped us. It slowed the pressure down just a little bit. That was a break for us there. They were mixing it up pretty good. Nobody does it better than they do. They did a great job with all that, and our guys handled it really well starting with the quarterback. The quarterback is the one that has to deal with all of that, and he did just a tremendous job of making the changes at the line that he needed to make and then making the plays he needed to make once the ball was snapped.”

On the first game against the Patriots for a lot of players: “Here they come roaring back, and we make a couple mistakes. We put the ball on the ground a couple of times, and it happens sometimes. They made some mistakes, too. It was that kind of a football game. It was a hard-fought game back and forth, and our guys never lost their composure, even with the no-huddle stuff. They did a really good job with the no-huddle stuff. It’s tough. Nobody operates that better than Tom Brady. They’re a force and get you tired a little bit and all of that sort of stuff. I just felt like our guys kept their composure. We got a couple stops, forced a couple field goals through all of that, was big, too. So, the composure of a young football team in this setting in that situation against that team was pretty impressive.”

On running the ball to put the game away: “It’s been huge. It’s a testament to the offensive line. They got the other game ball after the game. The offensive line has just been tremendous. The running backs, all of them – the wide receivers have to block. Lamar [Jackson] makes plays in that situation as well. To me, that’s what winning football does. We’ve done that before. We looked like that in ‘08, ‘09, ‘10, ‘11, a number of times, too, but it’s a different offense now. So, we’re doing it at an even higher level than we did then. So, that’s a big part of our formula, and the guys have done a great job with it.”

QB Lamar Jackson

On what he saw from the defense on the third-down conversion to TE Mark Andrews: They went ‘Cover Zero.’ We’ve been studying it all week, throughout the bye week. Coach has been drilling it in my head. We get it from our ‘Look Team.’ Those guys do a great job of showing us great defensive looks, and I knew where I was going all the way. I just had to buy a little time, because there was one guy free off the edge, and we made it happen. The offensive line did a great job, and so did Mark [Andrews].”

On the Patriots defense: “I prepared for it. The coaches did a great job giving me great looks. Like I said before, the ‘Look Team’ did a great job. And like I said before, I’m just going to play my game. I’m not really worried about what they do on the opposite side of the ball.”

On the significance of beating QB Tom Brady and his team: “I’m trying to win versus anybody I play. I don’t really dwell on one player, or it’s just this guy I want to beat. Like I said before, that’s still the ‘G.O.A.T.’ Nothing changes that. I’m happy to get the win, of course, and especially at M&T Bank Stadium. It’s pretty cool, but I don’t really care because it’s against Tom Brady. I just want to win.”

On why these big games and big pressure moments don’t faze him: “Because I feel like if you put that in your mind, like, ‘OK, this is a big game for me,’ you’ll mess up. You’ll go out there and do the total opposite of what you thought you would be doing. So, I just go out there level-headed and play ball - play how I’ve been playing. Don’t get into the hype, don’t let people tag me in stuff and look at that and just get all hype like, ‘Oh, man, I’m going against [Tom] Brady.’ I’m playing ball, no matter who we’re playing.”

On scoring 37 points on the Patriots: “We work. Week-in, week-out, we’re working. We’re trying to get better each and every week, and it starts on the practice field and in the film study. And that’s what we do. We get with each other, we talk about stuff throughout practice, just like it’s a game. We’ll be really mad when we don’t complete a pass, or if we make a mistake. We just treat each and every day like it’s a game day. That's how we’re going to build from there.”

RB Mark Ingram II

On if he felt the offense was wearing the Patriots down in the third quarter: “Yes, I felt that, but they are tough, man. They are physical, they are tough, and you have to stay after them every single play. You have to make them earn it. They are a great team, all three phases, great coach, Super Bowl Champion. You’ve got to stay on them 60 minutes because Tom Brady can get it going at any time. Points are important. Keeping it away from them is important, and I think we did a good job of that today.”

On the four long scoring drives: “I think that’s who we are. If you go back and look throughout the season, we have lots of drives over 15 plays, eating up time, and chewing up clock. In the third quarter, our defense was out there and got a big turnover and returned it for a touchdown. They came back and got the touchdown, and then our mindset was to chew up clock, give our defense a rest, and keep their offense off the field. This was a great time win.”

On if he felt the Ravens had the Patriots off balance in the first quarter: “I really don’t think so. They gave us a lot of different looks, but we prepared all week for all of their looks. If they gave us something we didn’t see, we knew we would have to adjust on the fly, and we did that. Our offensive line did a great job. You have to block those guys, but we watched the film and saw how they got pressure on top of pressure, on top of pressure, but we were able to block up and hit some seems in the run game and make some crucial throws in the pass game. Now we are looking forward to keeping the momentum going.”

On how Lamar handled Belichick’s defense: “Man, Lamar is the dude. He is that man. There is no moment that is too big for him. He is super competitive, super driven. We have all the confidence in him. He thrives on not letting his teammates down, he makes the plays that are necessary to win. I feel like he is going to continue to improve and eventually be the best. It is up to us to continue to make his job easier.”

On how Lamar affects Ingram’s ability to run the ball: “Defenses are worried about Lamar. If you are trying to take our QB away, there are some eyes that are him that aren’t on me. That might help me have some runs that I am able to break because they are overplaying on him. He continues to pull people out on his fakes, and I think that goes hand in hand. Coach [Greg] Roman does a great job of scheming us up and putting us into success. Let’s just keep it going.”

CB Marlon Humphrey

On how his fumble return changed the momentum of the game: “It definitely did. We really needed something at that time, and it changed the game for us. Peanut [Patrick Onwuasor] made the strip and allowed me to make the play.”

On his matchup with WR Julian Edelman: “I’ve covered some great receivers. But you look at Edelman – he’s not the tallest, he’s not the fastest, he’s not the quickest, but I've seen very few receivers as good as him in the slot. He’s a Super Bowl MVP, so that speaks for itself. I really enjoyed that matchup, and I know he got some catches on me, but good players are going to make plays. My job is just to try and make more, and I think we as a defense did a good job of containing him tonight.”

CB Marcus Peters

On the defensive effort: “We knew it was going to be a long fight. When you’re going against Tom Brady, and you’re up by 17, you never know. Tom’s pulled off some miracle games, so we just stuck together. We told everybody, ‘We’re going to make them drive. Make them drive, make them drive, make them drive.’ We kind of did that. When they were passing the ball, we got them down a lot of times, and our mistakes were limited today. We have to clean some things up on the film, but I think we played a good game.”

OLB Matthew Judon

On limiting the Patriots’ offense: “We believed in ourselves, and we went out there and got the job done. Obviously, they have a great track record. We all know who the Patriots are. That’s a great organization, and they have a great team. But we believed in us. We believed in the product and the process, and we went out there and got the job done. It’s fun. It’s fun when you know that it pays off like that.”

On his quarterback hit on QB Tom Brady’s interception: “I really didn’t see what happened. I asked him what happened. He said, ‘I threw a pick.’ You have to block somebody, so I decided to block Tom [Brady]. I helped him up. He’s probably one of the greatest to ever do it. I was just out there doing my job. It was a great play by Earl [Thomas III]. That’s what we needed at that time.”