Q. Teryl, do you look at what happened to Joey on Sunday as kind of -- I think 9 of his 10 penalties called against him this year have come in two games. Is that kind of popcorn-ish or is that --
TERYL AUSTIN: I think that was -- he's gotten better at that. Last week was just not a good week for it. I anticipate that he'll bounce back and play clean football because he's been doing a pretty good job of that.
Earlier in the year he had a few, and last week it popped up again. I think he'll be fine. He works at it, so I'm not overly concerned right now.
Q. Is Lamar the most dangerous player in the league and even more so with all the different weapons they've given him now?
TERYL AUSTIN: I think we've always known how dangerous he is. He can beat you running. He can beat you throwing. They've really done a good job of surrounding him with really good people. Obviously the big running back makes a huge difference because of his home running ability. There's a reason why they're No. 1 in quite a few categories in terms of offensive production.
So it's going to be a really good test in terms of how we hold up versus this.
Q. How can Derrick Henry, a 250-pound back, hit so many home runs?
TERYL AUSTIN: You've got to talk to his mom and dad. They did a great job. He is a unique player. He is a big man. When he gets to speed and he gets rolling, it looks like a track meet out there.
When you're not playing him, he's fun to watch. When you're playing him, he's probably not so fun.
Q. They're No. 1 in a lot of categories. One of those is in the red zone. You guys have done pretty good in that area. What have you guys done well, and what unique challenges do the Ravens present in the red zone?
TERYL AUSTIN: I would say we keep people out, and we've also caused some turnovers in the red zone. That's an important thing that our guys do, they rise up to the moment.
What these guys do well is a little bit of everything. He can throw it in. They've got the tight end. They've got the receiver. They've got the quarterback that can run. They've got the running back that can run. They have a lot of weapons down there, which again makes a unique challenge.
Some teams you'll play, and you have a few guys you know you need to stop here, and there's quite a few guys you need to stop. That's why they're so successful in the red zone. A lot of variation in their packages and a lot of things they do that put stress on the things people try to do.
You can't just say, hey, I'm going to try to put this guy away and be successful.
Q. Is there anything you can put your finger on that wouldn't be a strategic reveal that accounts for Pittsburgh's success against Jackson?
TERYL AUSTIN: No, I think our guys, the series is tough, and I think the teams are mirror images, and it's really -- not schematic, but I think we're built really similar on both sides of the ball. A lot of times styles make for the fight, and that's why it's been really tight and really close games. A lot of these games that I've been involved in can go either way. I don't think there's any secret.
Q. Is there any advantage to playing Jayden Daniels and Lamar back to back? Obviously Jayden is not Lamar, but there's similarities?
TERYL AUSTIN: No, there's no advantage. Obviously the guy we're playing, Lamar, is a two-time MVP. He's had three perfect passer ratings this year in addition to all the other things he does.
It's, again, not a slight to Jayden Daniels. I think he's going to be a fine player. This guy is proven in the NFL, and what you see with Lamar is the fact that, as he gets a little bit older and a little more seasoned in the league, he gets better, and that's what the great players do. It's going to be a real challenge.
Q. When you're evaluating a game like last week and you're talking to your guys afterwards and you're breaking down the tape and that sort of thing, do you focus on what went right, like the two three and outs to start, the two big stops at the end of the game? Or are you more drilling down on what happened reaching halftime?
TERYL AUSTIN: I think there's a fine line between acknowledging the things you've done well and what you have to fix. I think our guys understand that. I don't say I'm going to drill down on anybody. I think that's part of our coaching thing. You've got to acknowledge what you do well without making your guys feel overconfident in those type of things and know there's work to do, and also correcting the things that go bad without beating them up too bad, and they lose confidence in all the good things they do.
There's a fine line there. We discuss it. Our guys are fine with it. We've got grown men in the locker room, and they can handle the hard truths. We know the things we do well and the things that we have to improve, and that's how we're attacking this week.
Q. When you get off rutter there right around halftime, where did things go askew for you when you're right in a lot of other places Sunday?
TERYL AUSTIN: When you look at the drive right before halftime, we had three penalties and a big play. You give up scores in the NFL when you have three penalties in a big drive. There's really no other way to say it. You can sugarcoat it and anything you want. You go back and look at the history in the NFL, if that happens, there's probably a lot of scoring drives.
Obviously the big play, the first and second play in the second half, other than that, we settled down and got our stuff together. But our goal was to try to not commit penalties and give up big plays because those lead to scores.
Q. (Indiscernible) bounced around a little bit. Obviously he's been a really good fit with you guys. Is there something about him that you saw, oh, this is going to be perfect for us? Or has it maybe been since you got him that you realized this was going to be a really successful thing?
TERYL AUSTIN: We thought, when we were looking to acquire him and get him is the fact that he played a lot of stuff closer to the box. We liked the way his run trigger and we liked his physicality and his mindset. Those are things that really attracted us to him.
He's been just what we thought, and so he's fit in the locker room. He's been a good addition. That's really what we saw.
Q. Teryl, Preston has experience in the 3-4. It seemed pretty seamless how he worked in. Was it that? And do you feel comfortable leaning on him? I guess you're going to have to this week.
TERYL AUSTIN: Absolutely. It was pretty -- I think Denzel and Dunbar did a really good job in terms of getting him ready and the things that he could do for us when we had to have him out there. I think he'll expand.
One thing I found out in a week's time is obviously he's a veteran, but he's not a veteran that needs a lot of reps. He understands the type of system and the things that we're trying to get done. For a lot of guys like that, it's just terminology and getting all that stuff together in their mind so it makes sense so they can play fast.
I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to handle a bigger role this weekend.
Q. You guys gave up some big runs on the run game against the Giants when they were using QB option but giving it to the running back, and then since then it seems like you've done a better job against that. How have you improved against that? How do you need to do more when it's Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry doing that?
TERYL AUSTIN: I think it's you look at the things you've done well and things you haven't done well, and you'd better fix those things and better fix them pretty fast because, if not, you're going to get them again.
That's going to be the cycle for the rest of the year. We're going to do some really good things and then some things we don't do so well, and we'll have to go in on that Monday and get them fixed.
I don't think the run game was any different. We gave up some against the Giants. We said, hey, we need to fix that. What do we need to do? We tried to fix that problem, and then like will always happen, there will be new problems after this one.
Q. Not that you can simulate Lamar Jackson, but how much does Justin Fields and his speed and his talent kind of help your preparation this week?
TERYL AUSTIN: It does. I think, when you're dealing with a mobile quarterback and a guy that can run and throw, if you have somebody in your program -- I think where it really comes in is when you don't have anybody in your program like that, when you want to run the ball a lot of times, you put a receiver in there to play quarterback, and everybody knows, hey, they're going to run the ball.
This time if you keep the quarterback in, you can run all the offense and do all the different things that they do without giving it away, and I think that helps our defense. That's where Justin will come in in that regard.
Q. With Preston Smith and Nick Herbig, you have different body types, maybe different strengths and weaknesses. How will the situation maybe dictate which guy you'll turn to in that area?
TERYL AUSTIN: You'll have to come in Sunday and see how it works out.
Q. Obviously not ideal to lose Alex Highsmith. What does the return of Nick do from a game planning perspective to maybe keep some of thoser similar schemes?
TERYL AUSTIN: Losing Alex, we hate to lose Alex, but it's always, we think, next man up. Our scheme and our thing is pretty flexible, and the guys that we bring in here, we think they fit what we do. We're just going to move forward with how we play and how we plan and prepare and do all those things. We're not going to change a whole bunch, I don't think, in terms of saying, hey, we can only do this with Nick, and we can only do this with Preston.
Q. When Donte went down, Cam Sutton was back of course and James played instead in his spot. Was that more of a function of Cam just getting back or keep Cam as a Swiss Army knife to do other things or?
TERYL AUSTIN: I just think we at the time, JP has been here. He's garnered more reps outside right now, and so we felt more comfortable with him being the guy playing outside at that particular time.
Q. What do you think about Cam Sutton's playing on Sunday based on his return?
TERYL AUSTIN: I think he's -- I think it wasn't probably as clean as he would like in terms of getting everything done, but it's like anything. You get your first live action against a really good offensive team. But I thought, as the game wore on and the things we asked him to do, he was better.
We put him in some stressful situations, there's no doubt. We did not put those guys in easy situations last week. We depended on our guys to do a lot of running, a lot of covering, and for the most part, they held up pretty well.
Q. Is Derrick kind of such a unique -- like do we even have to -- he's so big and so fast in terms of how you approach even tackling him or something like that, or is it the same fundamentals no matter who?
TERYL AUSTIN: There's a fundamental way to tackle, and when you have him, a big guy, you have to make sure you get body on him. But he does a great job, as everybody knows, with the stiff-arm. So you've got to be alert to how you get close enough to get on him, to tackle him, to wrap him, to get him on the ground.
It's not going to be one person. One person does not bring this guy down. Arm tackles do not bring him down. So we have to have multiple people there. We have to make sure that we do as good a job as we can not letting him get started and getting into the secondary untouched.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports