Ravens 32 - Texans 2
JOHN HARBAUGH: Great win. Proud of our guys. These guys took this three games in 11 days and smashed it, obliterated it, and tore it up, made it into a bunch of smithereens laying around everywhere. I'm proud of the guys how they did it; they did a great job.
Q. Big picture, to come out of the stretch, you were two back in AFC North. To come out of this now game up, with a chance to clinch it on your home field and to win all these games double digits, what does it say about the group as a whole?
JOHN HARBAUGH: It says so much. It says we're not done yet. It's been done and next game is the next game. We need to be 1-0 to win the AFC North. That will be our focus after we get some rest. We'll have some rest, get the guys out, bring them back on Monday. We'll get started for the Browns, which is always tough team, tough opponent, division game. But it will be for the AFC North crown. We need to be locked in for that.
The fact they did it and did it in the short stretch, I think our team handled it the best, arguably. I guess the Chiefs did a good job, too. Give them credit where credit is due.
I'm proud of our guys. I'm really proud of our guys, what they accomplished, our coaches, our strength and conditioning coaches, our nutritionists, our trainer, our performance coach.
Q. Did you come into this game thinking you were going to be able to control the game by running the ball?
JOHN HARBAUGH: We thought we had a chance. We thought we had a chance to run the ball. It's a real tough defense. They play super hard. Their DBs show up. They play downhill, and I don't know if we anticipated they'd come out of the gate so quickly running the ball well. I was really happy with what we did. Happy with the guys.
Q. What can you say about Lamar's performance?
JOHN HARBAUGH: What could you say that would maybe parallel what he did. Just another phenomenal performance. I think he set the all-time NFL record for rushing yards in the National Football League and pro football and it kind of speaks for itself. Just kind of what he does every week.
Made some plays on the run. These guys -- we had some tight covers. They covered us well, but he was able to extend those plays, make those big plays in the passing game, which is what he does a lot of times, and it was great to see.
Q. Sounds like he always amazes you, but does he ever surprise you at this point?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Sometimes I just shake my head and say that was a really great play; that was a great play. See a lot of great plays from Lamar Jackson. I told him I was proud of him.
I'm not just proud of him just because he made the great plays. But I'm proud for all the things he did in making the great plays and also for all the things he's overcome along the way. And I would place his mom in the same category.
I think they've both come together and all the narratives and all kind of that stuff, it's quite a remarkable story. I think it's a story that's still being written, a lot more to accomplish.
Q. All early in the season when people were, I guess, slinging arrows or criticizing the defense, how pleased are you how that group has turned around this season?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I'm very pleased. The guys went to work. We knew that it was all correctible. You've got to get to work and do it. And I think I said numerous time, it's a week-to-week league. And it's important to keep things in perspective. It's a good lesson, I think, for everything else besides football too.
I think in perspective, can improve, can get better. Proud of those guys. Zach obviously spearheading it and Dean Pees helping us, of course, but look at all the players and all the coaches, what a great job they've done. But we are just getting started. It's a January season now. December season is behind us. It's a January season now.
Q. Were you asked about Lamar breaking the record?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I mentioned it.
Q. The goal line stop that you had, fourth down, Ar'Darius coming in.
JOHN HARBAUGH: What a massive play. The ball got down, pass interference, want to look at it. To get that stop -- we've been good on the goal line all year and we've given them some extra chances sometimes, got stops, some grabbiness, we didn't do that in the passing game today. I like that. Ar'Darius made two weeks in a row, probably what you're alluding to, two huge stops in a row on the goal line for us. Just big plays. That's who he is.
Q. How would you characterize the significance of the turnaround of this defense, especially early on all these questions and now you guys seem to be assembled.
JOHN HARBAUGH: I can't say it's surprising. We're not surprised by it. We knew and believed that we were going to start playing better, and we knew we were going to play a lot better. Like I said, the good news is that we can play so much better and we're good enough to do it.
We were healthy, we had our players, did have to move the pieces around. That was good. Moved some scheme pieces around and that was good. And the guys kept working on fundamentals, trying to get better. But we appreciate that, and we'll be thinking about the next game, trying to play great defense the next game.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports