Q: When you looked back at the tape yesterday, did anything kind of just stand out that caught your eye?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, lots of things. I mean, talking about 150, 200 plays, there's a lot of good things, a lot of things to correct. All across the board, it would be hard to pinpoint any one thing for sure, but I would say the effort, just generally speaking. If there's one thing that would be more general, it would be just the effort, the attitude, the determination to try to do well. That was out there for sure, so I was happy with that. It was a good first step. We learned a lot, and we'll have a lot of corrections, a lot of encouragement to make tomorrow through the week for sure, and hopefully we can make a lot of progress to next week.
Q: And then last thing for me, did you – with the way the game was called with the first team offense, you guys obviously wanted to establish the run, run the ball more. I mean, you guys had, I think, nine runs to five passes. Were you pleased with just kind of how that first team offense, how the plays were executed, and the way that game was called, at least for them, trying to run the ball?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Some of it. It wasn't anything to really evaluate as far as the way it was called. It wasn't really part of our plan to game plan it in any way. We just wanted to come out and see how we blocked, see if we could execute it. I thought we did a good job of getting subs on and off the field. The sideline communication with the players, coaches, coaches to the box, all those kinds of things. Operation was really good. We didn't have really any issues with subs. We didn't have any issues with clock. Didn't have any, really, issues with formation, wrong formations, things like that, or motions. All that stuff was good. That's underestimated. It's easy to say, "Oh, that should be expected," but look around the league. It's not. So, I thought all that was really good. The things that we've got to continue to improve on and why we just called so many basic plays was because you've got to be able to block your plays against whatever look they give you. We had a lot of different looks from the Vikings. We had a lot of run pressures they gave us, a lot of run blitzes they gave us and things like that. We would be schemed up for those things in a real game, but let's just try to block that stuff and see how we do. That way we can kind of see how our rules are and see how our guys understand it. We learned a lot. Probably three or four or five even of the plays that weren't good in the run game were things that we can easily correct, but it'll be great to see. And then when game plan time comes around, we'll game plan a little bit more. So, not really looking at the play calling or the game planning as much as we are kind of how we operated and learn where we're at execution-wise.
Q: I'm curious, how important is running backs pass blocking for you? I know some coaches are like, we work with our players' strengths. Is it a non-negotiable for you? Are you able to work around that? If that's something with a running back, where do you stand on that?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, it's always just give and take. It's always upside downside. If you're going to be a passing down back, you've got to be great at it. If you're going to be on the field on third down or second-and-long, so-called pass downs, you have to be a great pass protection guy because you're going to be throwing the ball a lot. So, that'll be a requirement. If you're not that, if you're going to be more of a first down or run down type of guy, play action type guy, in that offense you don't have to be as much of a pass protector because you're not in those drop back passing protection modes as much. So, that's it. And that's where roles come in. That's where you find guys who are role players that are in the game, say, on maybe third down more than they are on first and second down, things like that. So, that's kind of how that works.
Q: And I don't know if you heard, you saw (quarterback) Jaxson (Dart) said afterwards (that) he was puzzled by the idea that he keeps getting called back to the blue tent. I'm curious, what do you think of that and what did you think when you went back and looked at that?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I'm sure it's frustrating. I guess he maybe got the wind knocked out of him a little bit, but I'm not going to be critical of the league or whoever's doing that upstairs. They do their job and they want to protect the players. I'm sure history or whatever they might remember, maybe that comes into play. I don't know if there is a similar situation, another quarterback would have been called in the tent or not. There's no way for us to know that. So, nothing we can worry about. I saw Jaxson's comments. It doesn't sound like he's too worried about it. So, we just keep playing football and we'll just try to do a better job of protecting him. There's no way he should have been hit there. I mean, it just shouldn't have happened. That was a basic protection. Should have been protected and we expect in that situation to be protected in the future. I mean, it's not like he's going to be never hit, never tackled, never sacked. But it shouldn't have been in that one, and it shouldn't have been that easy to get to him.
Q: Hey, John. I'm curious, at the end of the game, why not attempt the 62-yard field goal?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Was it 62? Is that what it would have been? Where was the ball at? What yard line?
Q: 44, wasn't it?
JOHN HARBAUGH: 44, was it? I don't know. I can't remember exactly. No, we thought it was too far into the wind there a little bit. So, that's why.
Q: And then just on those types of decisions, challenge, this is your first game here. Who's in the headset with you? Who's advising you on game management?
JOHN HARBAUGH: (Director of Football Data & Innovation) Ty Siam, the guy that did it here last year. He did a good job. I was happy with it. Yeah, I thought we did well. I thought the challenge earlier was the right challenge. I mean, the ball – I thought the ball moved. His hands were on the side, it hit the ground. Ball moved out of his control. To me, they didn't turn it over probably because of the shadowing on the replay. Couldn't really see it, probably, that clearly. He looked at it for a long time. But I thought the ball moved. Good challenge on a long third down like that. Would have gotten us off the field. What other ones do you want to talk about?
Q: No, I just meant operationally. It's your first game here. I didn't know if it was Ty, or if there's more people on there, or if it's just Ty. I just didn't know how you operated.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I'm talking to (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator) Chris Horton about the field goal and all that. We both felt like that was just a little long to be realistic on. But we wanted to kick it. I mean, I promise you, we wanted to get him out there to try one. So, it just seemed a little too far. But maybe we would have knocked it through. And then the other thing is, we've got a really good chance to get the ball back there. I mean, there's over two minutes left. We've got three timeouts, I think we had. If we basically make a tackle, we're getting the ball back there to go kick the same field goal. I don't think it was the wrong thing to do at all. But you miss it, now they're in range. They get 10 yards, and they kick the field goal to put it out of reach, you know? So, it wasn't the wrong thing to do.
Q: I know a lot was made, obviously, rightfully so, about (wide receiver) Malachi (Fields) and the touchdown and what he was able to do on that play with Jaxson. We knew he was going to be able to be a part of your run game with his blocking ability. I'm just curious, he kind of enjoyed talking about the one play he had on punt coverage running down the field late in the third quarter. I know it got nullified by a penalty, but making a tackle. I guess if you look up what a wide receiver as a rookie needs to do to impress John Harbaugh, I would imagine he checked those boxes last night.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I thought he played all around really well. He did some things on special teams, which was cool to see. He practices that every day really well. He blocked exceptionally well in the run game as a wide receiver in some of those insert blocks and going to get to safeties and things like that, tremendously. Thought he ran his routes really well. Even when he didn't get the ball, the routes were run correctly. Right depths, right amount of steps, right splits. All those things that make so much (of a) difference that, really honestly, we need to clean up across the board to present better pictures for our quarterback. He did all those things really well. He didn't play like a rookie out there. It was really fun to see. Now, hey, keep getting better.
Q: I know you've talked about your 90-10 rule, the idea of talk about the 10% that you didn't do well, but the 90% that you did do well and kind of that balance. For a rookie to have such a good game in the preseason, what is the next step now for Malachi (Fields) to make sure that he builds on something like this rather than gets comfortable in terms of what he was able to do?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, I'm not going to make the assumption that he's going to get comfortable. I don't think that's his personality at all. His personality is kind of exactly what you would want it to be. He's going to be even more determined to continue to improve. That's just who he is. There's no way he's going to get the big head. That's not what he's about so I expect him to keep improving. I know he will. And if you ask him, he'll probably tell you the three, four, five things he didn't do well. That's what he'll be thinking about.
Q: I know preseason, sometimes the stats, you can't look at the box (score). There's so few opportunities and things. When you grade players, right? When you look back at (wide receiver) Odell (Beckham Jr.) and the route that he had, the ball did not come his way. The ball was thrown underneath. Do you look at that? I know he was kind of, 'Wow, I was open.' Do you look at that and say that's a total win for the receiver and that he didn't get the ball? That's irrelevant in a preseason game? How do you view that? Was that play something that, 'Wow, he can still do that?'
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, I think that's much to do about not much. It was a seam route. They were in zero. They basically flat-footed and just let it go. He ran a nice seam route. The ball went to a hot read quick and was completed, so that was fine. I think it was (quarterback) Jameis (Winston), I think it was the quarterback if I remember right. If he'd been looking over there, he would have thrown it, I'm sure, hot to Odell but he wasn't. He's got two rushers coming right in his face. He didn't have a chance to scan the field and see all the receivers. He was looking to his left. If we're talking about the same play, the right seam. Jameis would have to have five eyes all the way around his head to be able to see all those routes. If you're a receiver, you really can't get upset about that because you understand that he wasn't looking at me. If he'd have been looking at me with a blitz, he'd have thrown it to me. It's great that he ran a good seam route and he was open. I wish he would have thrown it. Another time we had (wide receiver) Braxton (Berrios) came open in a similar way against a quarters-type coverage that the eyes were another place. There will be times definitely where the quarterback will be there and we'll hit those when they pop open. I think the bigger thing is we can push the ball down the field more. We can throw the ball, challenge people a little more in intermediate and deep areas. We'll be looking to do that going forward.
Q: You mentioned you came out clean, no injuries. The next day, there's nothing of interest?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I don't bring a list in. I'm not like (Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach) Andy (Reid). I don't bring my injury list in and give it to you. That's probably convenient for me because that way I don't have to announce anything that you guys don't think to ask about. Maybe there's a little reason behind that. When I think about it, we might have a situation with the Turbo (running back Dante Miller). We'll see with a soft-tissue going type thing, we'll see how that turns out today. That's about the only thing right now.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the young players? Did you learn anything about them? I'm not just talking about the draft class. I'm talking about just in general. What did they show you? Did anybody in particular stand out?
JOHN HARBAUGH: A lot of guys stood out. In the draft class, we go through those guys. I think all the draft players played well, but they all had their ups and downs. Young players, there's so many of them to try to pick out. I would say this, things start to shake themselves out with the first game. You do start to see some things, different kinds of directions that either confirm or reinforce or start to change your mind or whatever and the picture starts to clear up a little more after the first game. Not completely, but definitely with those young guys that you're asking about. The picture starts to clear up with those guys a little more and we start honing in on what the roles are going to be possibly going forward.
Q: What about in terms of keeping them from getting too overhyped? Sometimes they do get a little overhyped trying to impress and whatnot, and it didn't look like that was necessarily the case.
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, that's a really interesting question because that's something we had talked to the guys about before the game. You want to slow your mind to free your body, we told them. My dad used to tell me this when I was in high school, take a deep breath. Take a deep breath before you shoot a free throw. Take a deep breath before the play starts. Just take a deep breath and slow your brain down a little bit. I really do think our guys played, for the most part, with poise. I don't think that they got crazy. We got confused a couple times on some fronts, who we were blocking because of the varied looks we got but I didn't see anybody panic out there, to your point, which was good to see.
Q: Just curious how you plan to handle this week with pads, two practices, joint practice game. What do we look for this week?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, we'll be on our alternate schedule, and the practice down there against the Dolphins will be a padded practice. That's on Thursday. So, we'll go shells, pads, shells, pads, and then we'll play the game on Saturday.
