Baltimore Ravens - RB Ray Rice - Ingles

September 14, 2011

On whether he expects more from the team as the season progresses:
“You know, I like to say our training camp alone helped us out for this game. No disregard for our fans, but being here, in Owings Mills, and being at our facility really focused us because of the shorter offseason. From the three-hour practices and then going into a grueling preseason, it kind of got us ready for what Week 1 was going to be about. We couldn’t… You can’t take away the live reps that we’ve had. We’re one of the few teams that go live during camp. Those reps – they call them game reps – it might have looked like we were feeling our way, but we actually went out there and really executed. That’s one of the things I preached going into that week. We knew it was going to be physical – the score didn’t show how physical the game was – but, we went out there and we out-executed them. [We are] just looking forward to an opportunity this week to execute, you know, not even better than we did last week, [but] every week we’re trying to get better.”

On whether he thinks the offense was more aggressive than in previous seasons:
“As much as it was aggressive, it was a pretty vanilla game plan. I’m not saying that to downplay our opponent, but we didn’t do a lot of trick stuff. It was stuff that we practiced in camp. But one thing we did was with tempo. The tempo of our offense was a fast tempo – moving guys in and out – because we figured, you know, we had to tempo them being it was the first game of the year. They like to play base defense, and the tempo was really high. I caught myself coming in and out at times. So, everything else worked out really well.”

On whether he likes the faster tempo of the offense:
“I like it. I like the way our offense is moving. I like that Joe [Flacco] has the go ahead to do many things. And I think the combination of me and Ricky [Williams] is going really well. I just couldn’t have asked for a better start. But obviously, it goes week by week, and every team is different. I’m looking forward to executing at a high level this week.”

On whether he was surprised with how well the offensive line played together:
“As much as I want to say surprised, I was actually confident that they would play well. Our offensive line… It wasn’t like we threw an inexperienced rookie group out there. When you’ve got a guy like Bryant McKinnie who’s played with Matt Birk, and a guy like [Marshal] Yanda who’s played guard, and Mike [Oher] played the right tackle, and Ben Grubbs has been where he’s at… They didn’t need to play together to go out there and execute the way they did. They’re a veteran group. The way they play is… I like to say they’re only going to get better. We all know… I mean, the sky is the limit for that offensive line. It’s been something that Ozzie [Newsome] and everyone else around here felt like we needed to patch up and do a few things with. We definitely got it done.”

Whether he sensed that he was going to make a touchdown catch when he lined up for that specific play:
“Well, yeah. Once the linebacker comes out on me, it’s typically man-to-man coverage; it might be a two-shell, cover five, whatever it was. Once I saw Joe scrambling out of the pocket, I figured that was my sign to scramble. It may have looked like a designed route, but it was actually me and Joe’s ‘me-to-you’ combination. I could have took it inside, I could have took it outside, but I knew the route behind me. I saw that no one was there; I took that quick peak. But once you see Joe scramble outside the pocket, we all know that it’s our job to get open. He made a hell of a throw. He got it where no one else could get it, and he actually gave me enough room to get turned and get to the pylon. It was great execution on both of our ends.”

On whether he and QB Joe Flacco have an unspoken understanding after playing together for three years:
“Yeah, I don’t know what I would do without Joe, I’m telling you. A lot of the catches I catch from Joe are like long handoffs; that’s what they’ve become. I told you, I like to have my yards in all-purpose. I don’t want to be a guy that’s just plunging inside and out. The reception yards get underscored at times. But, I think that me and Joe have a great chemistry going on, and it’s something we look to carry out through the rest of the year.”

On whether he played with Titans WR Kenny Britt in college:
“Me and Kenny Britt did play in college together. Tennessee also has a starting cornerback, we played college ball together, too, in Jason McCourty. They’re both great players, and it’s going to be funny seeing those guys. I’m not going to bother them for tickets this week. I don’t want any distractions.” (laughter)

On his thoughts on the physicality of Tennessee:
“I think every team is physical in the NFL. But, their scheme is different than Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is 3-4 and they’re a 4-3 team, and you have to attack them different. When you look at them… On defense you look at everyone’s first week, and there’s always guys feeling it out. I’m sure they’re going to put an emphasis on stopping the run. They’re going to do a great job out there. And it’s their home opener. Who wouldn’t want to be fired up for their home opener? Regardless of what happened last week, we know we’re going into hostile territory, and we know we have to be prepared to play.”

On the importance of having a fast start against Tennessee:
“Absolutely, we’ve got to start fast every game. We’ve hit adversity in the preseason when we had to play from behind a little bit. But, no one wants to play from behind. They did it last week and almost came back and won the game. Their talent… They’ve got one of the most talented teams in the League. Look at what they’ve just signed with Chris Johnson. I’m talking from an offensive standpoint, but you have to know where he is at all times. You have to know where Kenny Britt is. They can take a play and, next thing you know, it’s six points. We have to be on our best. I know defense will do their part and offense will continue to put points on the board for our defense. And, if our defense gets us turnovers… You know, it’s better to have threes than... It’s better to have seven than to score three points.”

On what it’s like facing a team with a new schemes and personnel as opposed to facing a team that is more familiar:
“The thing is, the adjustments aren’t really on the fly. We take our same principles and just apply it to the defense. Pittsburgh just happened to be a team that we were very familiar with. In the NFL, guys are in a copycat system. So, some of the things that we may see in the sub pressures with Tennessee are the same thing that Pittsburgh might run. It’s just their base fronts are different. Every play that we have designed in our offense is for a 4-3 team and a 3-4 team. So, the adjustments that we’re talking about are adjustments that we went over in training camp because you got to face both looks. You know, our defense runs multiple schemes. Having to face that kind of defense that we see every day prepares us for these adjustments to face teams like Tennessee that run a 4-3 and many other teams.”