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POSTGAME QUOTES
NOVEMBER 20, 2011
Opening statement:
“Disappointing finish there to the football game. We got off to a good start today, driving the ball down the field, did some good things, but we’ve got to play smarter. We didn’t play smart enough today to win the football game. We had too many critical errors at critical times. They took advantage of it, and we didn’t. Those errors and the field position battle ended up being the big differences in the football game today. We can’t turn the football over, we know that. That’s been part of the thing. When you turn the ball over in our games versus the Ravens, the team that turns it over is going to get beat, and we turned it over more than they did today, and we lost. We need to do a better job, and get our guys to play smart, play through the situations, understand the situations and make the critical plays.”
On CB 
“Defend the offense.”
On did we see the best and worst of QB
“I thought the play before [the end of the first] half was probably a play we don’t need to have, the throw down the middle before the half. Give me a chance to make a decision of what to do. Don’t force my hand and let them kneel on it. That’s the only thing. I think, otherwise he shows a lot of poise and he does a lot. They made a nice play and intercepted the ball on the outside, and we can’t have that. I don’t remember the other ones, but I do remember that interception there. On the outside, diving on the sidelines, he missed that one a little bit, but a hell of a play by their kid.”
On was it hard for the pass protection to hear in the last minute of the game:
“I don’t know that. I’m not going to sit here and speculate.”
On his thoughts on the overturned touchdown:
“I was told because he went to the ground, once he had the ball that he had to maintain it through the catch. But he broke the plane with the ball outside the end zone and then crossed the end zone with the ball and possession, so I would think it would be a touchdown. But obviously [referee] Ron [Winter] called what he called.”
On big plays against the secondary:
“Big time, big time. Can’t allow big plays, big passes down the middle. They got the bootleg on the back side and fell into a lucky play there for the first touchdown. And we came back and made a big play, same thing. They lost our guy, we lost their guy, when Brian [Leonard, FB] caught it. The play down the sideline, the play down the middle of the field. Those are plays you can’t have.”
On big back to back division losses:
“We don’t have to worry about that, we have to go play and win. If we win, it takes care of itself. If we win the rest of the games in the division and everything we need to do, it’ll take care of itself.”
On his 'this team can play with anyone' comment:
“Yeah, I made a statement that way, and then you guys take it and make it more than it is. My point is, I’m tired of hearing, ‘Oh, you’re not gonna do this.’ Well, we’ll do it, just stay with me. We’ll do it, don’t worry.”
On whether it’s hard to take the next step:
“No, it’s not hard. We’ve won six games up to this point, and we’ll win some more after we keep going. Starting next week against Cleveland, we’ll be back and ready to go. We’ve just got to circle the wagons, lick our wounds, and go. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve got to prepare for another one coming up this Sunday.”
On the back-to-back losses against Pittsburgh and Baltimore:
“The games were similar, both of them came down to the fourth quarter. We need to start faster in games, and that’s something we need to work on. We can’t let it come down to the fourth quarter. We didn’t play well enough to win these two games, but there are a lot of games left. We still have a shot but we need to improve and get better.”
On the Bengals comeback:
“We went to playing up-tempo, it definitely helped us. We have a lot of heart, and we will keep on fighting. We’ve been in every game, we just need to play better early so we don’t have to come back from behind at the end.”
On the touchdown pass that was overturned to Gresham:
“It has happened before in this league. This is a game of inches sometimes, but you can’t complain because it’s in the rule book.”
On his three interceptions:
“I’m not sure what happened on those throws. I will have to look at the film and make corrections.”
On the crowd noise affecting the Bengals on the last drive:
“I’m not sure about that. We did have some miscommunication, but we can’t use that as an excuse. We just need to make to plays and keep ourselves from being in that position.”
On the comeback:
“I think we still had a chance, we believe in ourselves, and we just kept fighting. We just kept fighting.”
On crossing the plane and losing possession:
“It didn’t feel like it at the time, but I guess in the replay, I lost possession of it. I caught it clean, I know I caught the ball clean, possessed it when I went in, I crossed the plane.”
On the Steelers and Ravens games:
“In my mind, we’re better than those teams. They’re great teams and everything, but I think big mistakes killed ourselves in some areas, and we just have to get better.”
On being down 17 and the mood in the huddle:
“That we were gonna win the game. We always knew we were going to win the game, so we didn’t hang our heads or anything. We just kept fighting.”
On QB Andy Dalton with 40 seconds left:
“He felt we were going to win the game, and we believed him. We knew what we were going to do, and we fell short.”
On the call at the end of the game:
“I thought I caught the ball outside, going in, I see runners all the time going in, drop the ball, so I thought that would be the call. But I’ve got to catch it the first time.”
On the comeback:
“We’ve got heart, that’s with everybody, that’s from the coaching staff all the way down. We should win some games, we’ll go back to Cincinnati, and we’ll work on these things and we’ll beat these teams.”
On the game:
“It’s the little things, here and there. You make mistakes in football, but you just have to eliminate them, minimize them, so we’ll fix that and get it right.”
On QB Andy Dalton:
“He’s playing beyond his years. He’s one year in anyway, he’s a great leader, he plays solid, knows the playbook very well, knows defenses and he’s doing the job.”
On being so close to winning:
“It’s very disappointing. We expected to come in, and come out with a victory. We just hurt ourselves with some mistakes, we just couldn’t pull it out.”
On the mistakes:
“Mistakes killed us. We can play better, we can play smarter. You know, that’s part of the game, we’ve got to learn from it and watch the tape, and hopefully, get better next week.”
On the comeback:
“They’ve got a good defense, and to get down like that, it’s tough to climb out. I made some mistakes out there, I caused an interception, I take blame for that. I’m a man, you know. We kept fighting and kept going.”
On having leads against both the Ravens and the Steelers:
“It’s very tough. You go in to every game expecting to win, and we were right there to win the game, or tie the game, we just didn’t come through. We just hurt ourselves throughout the whole game, and you can’t do that and win big games like that.”
On losing both games:
“I don’t think it hurt us at all. We’re going to keep fighting. We fight for every play, we aren’t going to give up. We still believe in each other and we’re going to go out and get the next one.”
On his touchdown catch:
“They were playing for the short pass, and I just went down the field and beat them deep, and it was a touchdown.”
On being down 17 points:
“There’s no quit in us. We’re out there as a team. We put ourselves in a tough position, and I made some key mistakes that hurt the team, and I take full blame for that. I just have to get better and do better next week.”
On the last drive:
“It was very exciting. We knew we were going to win the game, we saw no other options but to win the game. We just couldn’t pull it out.”
On the defense:
“We made too many mistakes on simple things. They had that big run up the middle, that was on us. We got out of our gap and that play action deep ball, I think other than those big plays right there, we did okay, but you’re not going to win games when you do okay. You have to play great, and we didn’t do that. You have to finish the game off, even though we made mistakes, we still had a chance to win and that shows our team can make some mistakes and still be in the game. But we don’t want to do that, we want to play the game full, the whole game, and we didn’t do that today, and they were the better team today. But we’ll be ready next time.”
On losing to the Steelers and Ravens:
“We had a five-game winning streak and now we’ve lost two. But we’ve got to bounce back from this, and next week we have another division game and that’s huge for us. We’re at home next week, I wish we could have pulled this one off, it was a big, big game for first place. We didn’t win today, so, it’s disappointing for us.”
On coming back from being 17 down:
“That was our focus in the fourth quarter. Get some stops and get the ball back for the offense.”
On stopping the Ravens running game:
“That one run was a little too much, but our goal was to stop No. 27 [Ray Rice]. We knew they were going to feed him the ball the whole game, and we had to stop him.”
On the physical nature of the football game:
“We knew coming into Baltimore that it was going to be a slugfest. It was a division game, they were trying to stay in first place, and we were trying to win the division so you knew it was going to be a slugfest.”
On the defense:
“We’re disappointed. We know we could have played a lot better today. We’ve got to go back to the drawing board, look at the things that didn’t go so well, the things that worked for us, and try to continue to build, correct the mistakes, and grow from that and move forward.”
On WR Torrey Smith:
“He had a big game, coming in to the game, we knew he was a guy who could stretch the field. We just have to make plays and take away his strength and make him go elsewhere, and we didn’t do that today, and he made us pay for that.”
On his two touchdowns:
“We talked about getting the running game going all week. I don’t what happened to it when the game got a little out of hand, but we managed to find a little bit of room in there and get a couple of scores up on the board. The running game was able to contribute a little bit to what the offense was able to do.”
On turnovers:
“We’re a good team, and we’ve had some success with what we’re doing lately, but we’ve let teams stick around and find ways to beat us. Baltimore is a good team, and when we have a chance to put them away, we need to put them away.”
On coming back from being 17 down with a chance to tie:
“The neatest part about it is that this is a young team. We have a lot of growing to do. It’s great that we can do those types of things with the young team we have. It speaks volumes for what’s ahead for us.”
On QB Andy Dalton:
“He played great. Smart guy. He made a lot of great decisions, and he was really accurate today. I can’t say enough about him, he had a stellar game today.”
On playing the Ravens without Ray Lewis:
“It was a little disappointing when I found out he wasn’t going to play, but they have a great roster over there, and they had guys step in a play well.”
On coming back:
“It’s the NFL, our offense did a great job of coming back and the defense came together at the end and played great ball. The one thing we have to do is to stay disciplined and stop the run.”
On overcoming big plays:
“That’s the type of team we have. We never give up. We play young guys and that says a lot about our team. We never give up no matter how far we are down.”
On stopping Ray Rice:
“Ray is a great running back. We knew coming into this game that stopping Ray is what we had to do. We just have to do a better job of doing it.”
On the offense coming back from a big deficit:
“We have to start fast. I can’t speak for the offense, but the defense just has to continue to play hard from the beginning to the end for sixty minutes.”
On the physical nature of the game:
“That’s what we expect from our division opponent. It takes all four quarters. A lot of things can happen in the first, second and third quarters, but wins and losses come down to the fourth quarter. We needed to stay poised and get the job done. We fought back and did what we could, but we still have this sour taste in our mouths because we felt that we were the better team. We gave them some plays out there that we could have done a better job on. The one touchdown in the middle of the field that was wide open, fumbling on the goal line, and the play where No. 82 [Torrey Smith] caught that ball in the back of the end zone. We came and did our job but it wasn’t enough. We felt though that we should have been the team that won the game.”
On back-to-back division losses:
“We just have to go forward and learn from our mistakes. We’re going to focus on our next opponent, it’s another division game against Cleveland, and then we go to Pittsburgh. Those are two games that if we do what we’re supposed to do, stay poised, control what we can control and stay together as a team, then we can take care of business.”
On second half turnovers:
“It’s all about staying calm and knowing that there is still a quarter left in the game. You’ve got to come back out and fight. We did a good job of going down the field and scoring two touchdowns. It’s just unfortunate that they overturned that call [the
On the heart in the locker room:
“We have a lot of heart in here, we’ve been through a lot this season with coaches and the quarterback, and we’ve held our own. We came together as a team and we’re just playing ball right now, but what we’re doing is not enough.”
On the team’s mindset when they were down 17 points:
“We still thought we could win this game. The bottom line is we didn’t play as well as we thought we could. There are no moral victories in this league, we just didn’t capitalize. We could have taken control of this game.”
On quarterback Andy Dalton:
“He is tough. Having been around him, I can tell he is a special football player, and he is a competitor. We have to play better around him. He’s going to have a nice career.”
On the difference in the game:
“We made a couple of mistakes early that cost us late in the game. The idea is to play well enough early so that it doesn’t come down to the end like it did today. It’s hard when you’re on the road and you’re trying to come from behind.”
Opening statement:
“It was just a great football game. I don’t think anybody that saw that football game would leave that stadium feeling like it wasn’t worth spending the day at M&T [Bank Stadium]. Obviously, I think that at the end, we would have liked to have made it a little less exciting, if we could have. But, give credit to the Bengals. The Bengals are a very good football team. It has been a rivalry since 2008, that I know, since I’ve been here. This team is big and physical. The quarterback is playing really well. They have playmakers everywhere on offense. They have one of the top defenses in the National Football League, and you saw it out here today. Every game we play against these guys is going to be like this, just like the Pittsburgh game. That’s the way it’s going to go in the AFC North for a long time. “
On how the team rebounded from the loss:
“I think you learn from everything. It’s a situation where there’s always going to be trends. There’s always going to be challenges and obstacles that you have to overcome, and we understand that. It can be taken as criticisms, and that’s kind of what you look at. There’s always going to be something that’s an issue that you have to deal with, and you have to find a way to overcome it. Sometimes you can do that in one week. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, and it’s like ‘Why can’t we get past this thing?’ But, then you work to improve in that area, and something else pops up. You know, the other teams are getting better too, and they’re attacking you. That’s the beauty. It’s the ebb and flow of the National Football League. Really, in the end, you just have to find a way to win on Sunday. Most weeks we have, but some weeks we have not. Now, we have to go to the next one and try to figure out a way to win the next one. That’s really the best you can do, and that’s what you shoot for.”
On what is the biggest challenge facing a four-day week:
“That it’s a four-day week. It’s going to come fast. Our coaches will be back in the office tonight. We’ll be going to work on San Francisco, and we’ll do the best we can to put the best game plan together. We’ll have our guys tomorrow afternoon. There won’t be much physical practice. We won’t be able to do that. We’ll have to be getting ready physically, as far as healing and stuff, for Thursday night.”
On if Andy Dalton did not look like a rookie quarterback:
“He’s a rookie, but he’s a very good football player. He’s a good quarterback, and he proved it. He’s very accurate, obviously, he does a nice job. He’s a guy we are going to have to learn to deal with.”
On how big converting the two turnovers into scores was:
“That was big. To be able to capitalize like that on those two turnovers and turn them into 14 points, was obviously the difference in the game. Joe [Flacco] made great throws. We can go through every player here, and we probably should. The plays that were made by guys in critical situations – even in the last drive, the coverage that we got from our guys was a three-man rush, eight-man coverage, and they had the third and fourth down at the 17-yard line. The plays that were made within those plays, that you’ll never even know about, is the difference between winning and losing games. As a coach, that’s what excites you. But, there are a lot of things we have to get better at, and that’s what we’re working on.”
On if the game plan for this week is to beat his brother:
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to think about it like that. I’m sure, in the back of my mind, maybe that’ll be a consideration. But, it’s two really good football teams going at it. That’s what it’s really about. I think, for our parents, it’s good. But, it’s going to be the Ravens against the 49ers. It’s going to be two very good football teams. You look at these players and what these players are going to have to do in a four day period to get past this game. [They are going to have to] heal up and get prepared for a football game and then play another physical game. Really, it’s going to be a very physical game in here on Thursday night. It speaks a lot to the National Football League players and what these guys do. To me, that’s the story.”
On Torrey Smith’s performance:
“Torrey Smith played really well. He came up with plays. He made some big catches. I think the catch on the five route, on the sideline where he got underneath the ball and got the third-down conversion for us, might have been his best play. The catch in the back of the end zone was fantastic.”
On how it felt to have Ray Lewis on the sideline:
“I like Ray better out there [on the field]. But, he was good on the sideline. He was coaching them up.”
On if it was strange, for the first time, to not have Ray Lewis on the field:
“Once the game got started, I would say no. I thought our guys did a nice job. You’re really not thinking along those lines. You play with the guys you have. I looked down there and saw him in his sweatsuit, and he’s down there [in his coaching posture]. But, we like him out there better.”
On what was going through his mind in the first quarter, with the team’s sluggish start:
“I think, what goes through your mind, as a coach is ‘Let’s weather this. Let’s be poised. Let’s not overreact. Let’s not panic, and we can work through it.’ If you do that, I think your players have a chance to respond the same way. They did a good job with it.”
On the development of Torrey Smith:
“I don’t if I’ve really looked at the arc of it. But, I think he’s making more and more catches when he has opportunities to make them. He’s been a guy that we thought could go get a deep ball, and he can kind of put in another gear at the end, and go chase down a ball. [He can] extend and make a catch. That’s what we saw of him in college, and he’s been able to transfer that. I like all of the other little things too – the out routes, the inside breaking routes he’s making some plays on. That’s part of becoming a complete receiver.”
On if he is surprised by Torrey Smith’s significant contributions at this point:
“You hope so. I think we did envision the type of player he was going to be. That’s why we drafted him. I think we did a good job of evaluating him. He’s a really good person. He’s a real hard worker. He’s not a guy you get down on easily, because he’s hard on himself. He comes back and tries to improve every single week.”
On if he is installing a new grooming rule:
“We had that conversation on the sideline. He said he was considering that. He just has to run faster, to outrun the dreads.”
On if he thought the Bengals touchdown call would be overturned:
“Yes we did. I thought that Ron [Winter] did a really good job on that. Obviously, I’m a little bit biased by the way it went. But, you have to complete a catch going to the ground. When the ball hit the ground, when he took the ball to the ground and it wobbled in his hand, and it came out – that’s not completing the catch going to the ground. I thought that Ron Winter did a really good job with that.”
On if he is in favor of the rule regarding completing the catch and going to the ground:
“Well, I am. I think it draws a bright line. I think what you want to do with the officials, is you want to draw a bright line, catch or no catch. All the players know now, when you go to the ground, you have to come up with the ball in both hands. Basically, you have to hand the ball to the official. I think it draws a bright line [for] what may look like a catch. I think we’ll all learn the rule, but I am in favor of the rule.”
On the keys to the offensive success:
“We stumbled a little early but we kind of hit our stride by making big plays. Torrey [Smith] came up huge, and we were able to capitalize on a couple of those turnovers and make a couple of those big plays, and shorten the field, and that helped out a lot.”
On his connection with Torrey Smith today:
“He did a good job really getting up on guys. The one go-route I hit him on, they were playing pretty far off and that gave it a little extra time to develop. Like I’ve always said, when the ball is in the air he can separate. So, I put a lot of air under the ball, and he was able to go get it.”
On the run, pass ratio:
“It was good. You want everyone to get involved whether it’s run or pass. The good thing was we were able to break a couple long ones. We struggled a little bit there in the end, but we were able to hit some long ones in the passing game to shorten the field up for us.”
On this being a bounce back game:
“It’s huge. These guys are a good football team. And to beat these guys here, today, in a big game like today is a huge win for us. We’re going to have to meet them a couple weeks down the road at their place, and we’re going to have to do the same thing.”
On the shortened week:
“We’re going to enjoy it tonight. You have to enjoy every win you get in the NFL for a little bit, because they’re so tough to come by. So we’ll enjoy this one, and at the same time move on quickly. We’re sure our head coach had this one circled as soon as it came out, so he’s looking forward to it, and we’re looking forward to it.”
On Torrey Smith’s performance:
“Torrey is getting better each week as a wide receiver. He did a great job, and he is a real difference for this offense against that team. They’ve been able to put some pressure on us with their coverage, lock us up pretty tightly, and get some pressure with their front four in past years. But with Torrey out there, he definitely has some speed and can hurt them in man-to-man coverage. That helped us out today.”
On the 35-yard touchdown to Anquan Boldin:
“We ran naked, meaning we ran a naked-boot. Torrey was running a corner-and-up, a pump-route on the outside. And they kind of all flew over that way. Anquan was just running a crossing route across the field and he decided to stop. I was on the same page with him and the defense just kind of over-pursued everything. There was no one left over there.”
On the offense being more balanced:
“What I found out, it was 28 [runs], 28 [passes], and we played a very balanced game today. It was a total team effort. You’ve got to win your divisional games. You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win. This one felt special. [We know] that it’s a short week, but right now, I think we’re sitting at No. 1 in AFC North. It’s no time to get complacent. You’ve got to stay humble and stay hungry.”
On how quickly they have to turn things around since there’s a game Thursday:
“Yes, it’s going to be quick. Coach Harbaugh does a great job. I’m sure it’s going to be a different week for us. We’ll take care of our bodies. Not to look past this game, but I’m sure this film, you know, I’m probably going to have look at it tonight. We’re on to San Fran. It’s so fast that you’re on to San Fran right now. I’m going to have my book loaded up and will try to watch some film on San Fran tonight to get the jump start.”
On if he knew he’d be a big part of the game plan:
“Every week, I expect to be a big part of the game plan. It’s no surprise. I think this week we see when it’s in a tough game, you see the balance. The run sets up the pass. The pass sets up the run. On Torrey’s touchdown, you know, nice play fake, the ball goes in the air. As long as we play balanced football going forward, and the running game being a big part of it, I think we’ll be pretty successful.”
On his thoughts on watching the late comeback:
“I look at our guys. You know, on third-and-1; we didn’t get it. So I looked at the time on the clock, and I said our defense will get it done. That’s the faith that I have in our guys. Just look, look at the guy who made the play at the end of the game – Pernell McPhee. You expect that would be a [Terrell] Suggs or somebody, but we’ve got young guys stepping up making plays. That’s what’s going to carry us going forward. Three rookies who made big plays in the game today: Jimmy Smith, Torrey Smith and Pernell McPhee, basically finishing the game. These [are] three rookies that finished the game for us.”
On capitalizing on the Cincinnati turnovers:
“It’s big. We had to get points today. I’m sure our defense appreciates that when they get us the ball back, and we put up points. We get there, get down to the one, I’m sure they would have wanted to score to get that [defensive TD], but I don’t mind taking those stats.”
On what Torrey Smith means to the offense:
“He stretches the field for us. You’ve got to play us honest. For a guy like Anquan Boldin and Lee Evans getting back healthy, our receiving corps is only going to get better. He’s a stretcher. He’s going to stretch the field, and the thing that he’s added to his game is he’s catching underneath routes now. And that’s big for us. Teams are going to notice that. Now he’s starting to come up, catch underneath, and that’s going to be big for us going forward.”
On Torrey Smith’s penalty on the crack-back block:
“I told Torrey, ‘You’re going to cost me about 150 yards on the ground this year.’ (laughing) He made up for it with the touchdown. He’s a rookie. He’s learning. As long as we’re winning, that’s the overall stat.”
On a big home win:
“We’re back where we want to be. First of all, we’d say that this was for 52 [Ray Lewis]. We know how big his heart is and how badly he wanted to be out there. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be out there today, but you know the defense played for him today.”
On whether they could hear Lewis on the sidelines throughout the game:
“Oh, we heard him the whole game. That’s the kind of person he is. He isn’t going to quit, it’s like he was out there anyway. Maybe he wasn’t there physically, but he was there vocally, leading, just with us the whole game.”
On the quick turnaround playing San Francisco in a few days:
“It’s going to be a mental week. You’ve got to know these guys by Thursday, you’ve got to study hard this week and be ready, physically, to play on Thursday. This is a great team coming in, and they’re playing at an extremely high level right now, and it would be good to get a victory in our house. We’ve got to protect our house.”
On whether the team feels good about where they are at 7-3 right now:
“We control our own destiny. That’s all we can do, is win one game at a time. We’ll celebrate this victory tonight and move onto the next game quickly. We’re thinking about San Francisco now, and it would be great to get that victory.”
On the chemistry developing between him and QB Joe Flacco:
“We talked about it at the beginning of the season. With the offseason that we had, we just tried to continue to learn each week, develop more and more chemistry as we go. It’s not quite there where him and Todd Heap, or him and Derrick Mason were, but we’re going to get there, because we’re going to keep working on it."
On what the takeaways meant:
“I mean, it’s huge. To get things going and stop them when they were driving, those plays are always huge. Those are plays that [can help] you win the game. We know that. It’s not always the case like today was, and hats off to Cincinnati, they played a hard-fought game. They always do. You know, that’s AFC North football for you.”
On his thoughts about rookie QB Andy Dalton:
“I said it during the week, the guy throws good balls. He has the poise. He completed passes and moved the ball when they needed to. They gave themselves a chance at the end of the game to win the game [or] tie the game up. That’s what you want from a quarterback. You’ve got to like what you see. He had poise.”
On what it was like playing without Ray Lewis for the first time in awhile:
“I talked to him the whole time. He kept me motivated. It’s always tough playing without your leader. But like I told the guys, there’s 53 leaders on this team, and the guys know it. Ray wanted to give everything to be out there. We told him, “Just stay focused and do what you need to to get yourself back.’ We knew we had to win this game to give him some time to get back, get healthy. Ray had a chance to play today, but the smart thing to do was not to rush it, and we knew that. We knew that coming into the game, and we held it down for him.”
On the leadership during the game on defense:
“It’s 11 guys. It’s the whole defense, making sure we communicate. We didn’t have … the perfect game. The communication wasn’t there all the time … with Ray not being out there. We missed it, But guys made plays. They made plays.”
On being 3-0 in the AFC North division and what that means:
“There’s only one game, and that’s today. We don’t look at the past. We embrace it. We know what it is … the best thing about it that you can do is not make those same mistakes. I thought we kind of got back to that a little bit calling plays and stuff like that, giving them a chance. We’ve got to learn that to be a championship-caliber type of team, what we want to be. This is the NFL. You’ve got to know how a team is going to play. You’ve got to come out and play week in and week out.”
On playing in four days:
“The challenge is going to be being healthy. Short week; guys got banged up. I got banged up. We’ve got to make sure we’re taking the time and being smart with it. You’ve got to be very smart with what you’re doing. We’ll be ready. This game was on the schedule a long time ago, and guys will be ready.”
On his interception and his impressions of Jimmy Smith and Lardarius Webb:
“So long as we hold them, I couldn’t care less. Every team is not going to throw the ball my way. I’ve earned that respect. I’m [not trying] to pat myself on the back. I know it’s going to be like that. My thing is just to do my job and be where I’m supposed to be. Lardarius [Webb], the guy is awesome. He’s a football player. Same thing with Jimmy [Smith]. I’ve been talking to Jimmy the whole time just to be smart, understand that you have time. You have a career out of this. It’s not one year. It’s not a one-year career. Don’t rush back [after your injury in Week One]. Don’t rush back at all.”
On the Bengals comeback:
“31-14, I thought [Andy Dalton] was going to tuck it in and throw the ball everywhere, and we were going to get a few picks and a few sacks. But he kept his composure. I tip my hat off to him. We’re going to see him again at the end of the year, and we expect the same thing, a dog fight until the end. But, 7-3, No. 1 in the division, that’s huge. And now we’re the master of our destiny. We can’t take any steps back anymore. November and December are crucial for us. So, if we want a chance to make a run at this thing we need to take care of business.”
On playing without Ray Lewis:
“He was there. We didn’t want to make a mental error because when we came to the sideline we were still going to hear from our general. He was very much out there, as he always is. Great win for our team offense, defense and special teams.”
On the grounding call:
“I’m grateful for the grounding, but I would have rather had a strip-sack, to be totally honest with you. But I’m going to get back to doing what I do best. My legs felt the best they ever have since the season started. So, second half of the season, we have six left, here we go.”
On playing without Ray Lewis:
“We’re a great unit because he has led us. I think the man personally mentored every man on this defense. So, he’ll be back next week and we’re going to be 10 times better. But it was a great win for our team today.”
On the referees overturning
“That was huge. Because, as you can clearly see, after they got the deep ball all they would have needed was three [points]. Cary [Williams] did a great job. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t pretty. But Cary got them down. He didn’t keep control of the ball all the way to the ground, and that turned out to be the game changer.”
On bouncing back from a loss:
“We are professionals. We have a great coaching staff. We have a great team. It’s good to bounce back, but lets not take anymore steps back.”
On his interception:
“I saw the ball, and it was just an opportunity for me to make a play for the defense. We needed it. Jimmy [Smith] came in and made a great play. He really grew up today. He started it all off by getting a pick at the perfect time. So big ups for Jimmy, and always, to the defensive line. They get to the ball, which makes it easier on us. So we need to keep taking advantage of our great defensive line.”
On the secondary giving up a lot of yards to Andy Dalton:
“We played ok. There were some communication issues, not communicating as well, and we gave them some plays. But they’re a great team. Dalton made some great passes, and he was better than we expected. We knew he was good, but not that good. We’re going to have to see him again. We just have to get on the same page in the backfield; I don’t think we were all the way there today.”
On how they can develop better communication:
“It’s easily correctible. When you have Ed Reed and Bernard Pollard, they’re just going to go in and say, ‘You be here next time.’ They’re our safeties and they know what they’re doing. We have a short week coming up, so we really need to get it corrected tomorrow. But with those guys, it’ll be easy.”
On playing without Ray Lewis today:
“Jameel, Jameel McClain. We all knew Jameel had it in him. We knew Jameel is that guy. But we didn’t want to tell Cincinnati that Jameel was that good. He does a great job. Trying to play behind Ray Lewis is a big, big job. I think he did great. He has a lot of room for improvement, and that’s a good thing because we can have him here for a long time. It’s going to be 5-3 later on, not 5-2. So, he did a great job.”
On what was said in the huddle before his TD catch:
“We all knew it was time for us to get seven. We knew what type of play it was. We had an opportunity to get seven. The offensive line, Michael Oher, all those guys were excited. Joe [Flacco] was like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ It was great timing on our part, great protection by the offensive line and a great throw by Joe.”
On being tackled by his hair:
“That was my first time having it happen. I was in shock. I straightened up my back thinking he was going to try to grab my jersey. Next thing I know, I’m getting pulled by my dreads. I started to pull away; I thought I was going to score, and next thing I know, I was getting dragged down by my dreads. I was kind of confused. That was my first time having it happen. I thought it was going to hurt. That’s why I thought it was my jersey at first. Then, I was like, ‘He got me by my hair.’”
On if being tackled by his hair hurt:
“It didn’t hurt at all. I was surprised by it. I thought that … I was looking at the other guys. I guess their running back, he lost a few dreads on the field, and I knew it wasn’t my dreads. It was actually a few drives before, we were in the huddle. We were actually standing by it, and they were like, ‘Torrey, did you lose a few dreads?’ No, I didn’t lose anything. So, to have it happen, he grabbed a whole lot of it, so it actually felt like I was getting pulled down by my jersey.”
On his ability to get behind on defensive backs:
“I think they definitely prepared themselves by the way their DBs were backing up. I was just able, when they squat, to try and stack them, try to use great technique. They have a great group of corners. We knew coming in, it was going to be a great challenge for us, and we had to take advantage of our opportunities when we get those shots. We get those shots a lot, which is kind of surprising. My receivers coach, Coach [Jim] Hostler is always like, ‘You don’t understand how rare it is to get behind someone.’ So when it happens, you have to take advantage of it. I was focusing this week on my eyes, just focusing on the ball, looking it all the way in. Mr. [Ozzie] Newsome is always talking to me about that, my receivers coach as well. It paid off, just running, trusting Joe’s arm, knowing he’s going to put it there.”
On if he’s considering getting a haircut:
“I honestly thought about it, but my grandma likes it a little too much. I’m a momma and grandmamma’s boy, at least for now.”
On making big plays against AFC North opponents:
“To me now, it’s just football, understanding the game plan, understanding my role, and basically understanding that every little thing you do is important. Every catch, every missed block, every penalty – everything is important. Those are things you can’t afford, playing in this division. Week in and week out, you go against great defenses and great defensive backs. You really have to capitalize and take advantage of the opportunity when it does happen, because you really never know when it’ll come about again.”
On his development of the underneath routes:
“Looking at film from when I first came into camp to now, it’s a big difference. Coach ‘Hos’ and Anquan [Boldin], they would talk to me a lot about technique and just preaching that I can run, so the fact that the technique that Coach ‘Hos’ has been talking to me about, just getting in and out of breaks quicker, and everything just focusing on the ball … my routes, I can run the whole route tree with confidence. I am able to get open fast and separate, and that’s pretty much credit to Coach Hostler. He has been on me a lot, and I can see a development in myself, which gives me confidence.”
On how his routes early in training camp looked:
“Maybe a little off-balanced, not getting out as quick as I should. I can get out, I am pretty explosive. If I can show that quickness so I can get in and out of breaks fine, it’s just trying to translate my speed and trying to get out. I was going 100 miles per hour, and then having those rough turns, but now that I understand the technique and things like that, everything is a whole lot smoother.”
On the quick transition to Thursday’s game:
“We know it’s going to be a big game on Thursday, another important one. They mentioned it right at the end. We’ve got to come in tomorrow and get prepared for another great team. After we walk out these doors, I’m sure our iPads will be ready by tomorrow morning, and it will be on to the next one.”
