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Ted Karras – November 30, 2020 Download PDF version

Monday, November 30, 2020

C Ted Karras

(I wanted to ask you a general league question if I could. We saw what happened yesterday with the Broncos having to play without a quarterback. Now the Ravens are looking at potentially playing a game without practicing for 10 days now. As a player, how difficult would it be to be in any kind of position like that and how worried are you about where the season might be headed from a league standpoint?) – “Playing the game without a quarterback has got to be a nightmare as far as getting everything organized, but we have a responsibility to try and remain COVID-free and they have protocols in place. We’re trying to follow them the best we can, but you never know with these things so we’re not trying to take any chances with having things be traced. If you get contact traced, you’d be out. We have to maintain social distance. But we’re doing the best we can. We’ve been solid so far down here – knock on wood – but December here is going to be big.”

(I wanted to gauge your assessment of the offensive line. I know you guys had a lot of shuffling pieces over the past few weeks so it’s hard to mix together, but after QB Tua Tagovailoa taking those six sacks then QB Ryan Fitzpatrick with 10 hits yesterday, just how much farther do you guys have to go in terms of pass protection?) – “We definitely have to keep working to improve. The last two weeks certainly weren’t our best efforts as far as that; and the third quarter was tough for us. We’ve got to be better and we work hard every day to make sure we are, but neither of those games we want to put our names on as our best performance, so we’re going to keep working to improve.”

(How much of a handful was Jets DT Quinnen Williams yesterday?) – “He’s a good player. He came into the league – high draft pick – and we let him make a play or two, which I never like. He’s a good player and I’m glad we did enough to win the game.”

(I wanted to ask you about I guess the “p-word.” I know Head Coach Brian Flores wants you guys to take it one day, one practice, one week at a time … looking at the landscape?) – “I think I know what he was saying. We put ourselves in a position here to make a run. We have a lot of big games coming up starting with Cincinnati this weekend; but we’ve got division games coming up – one of them on the road – and a five-game season now. We put ourselves in a chance and it’s going to come down to how we work every day and how we execute and perform on Sundays moving forward.”

(There’s a consistent message among the players and coaches for daily improvement and you guys have kind of shown that with your month-to-month record – 1-2 in September, 2-1 in October and now 4-1 in November. And since you’re a captain, I was hoping to get your take on how this team has accepted that message of daily improvement and how can you take it to another level here in the final month of the season?) – “I think we have a lot of great guys on this team – guys that work hard every day and want to be the best football players they can be, the best teammates. We have a lot of really just guys that work really hard and are getting some opportunities and as we’ve been improving and putting ourselves in a chance here with a 7-4 record, games in December are what decide the season. So we’re going to have to be at our best and hopefully reach the peak of our performance for the 2020 season moving into December and January.”

(Obviously you guys have played with both QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and QB Tua Tagovailoa this year. I’m curious from the player perspective what you see as maybe the differences when Fitzpatrick is out there compared to Tagovailoa with how you see the offense?) – “How I see the offense, I just want to execute the game plan that Coach Gailey (Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey) puts forward and Coach Marshall (Offensive Line Coach Steve Marshall) puts us in good position; but we’ve got to go out there and play no matter who the quarterback is. That was an adjustment we had to make going into this game. We did enough to win and as an o-lineman, I have a pretty specific assignment every play and no matter who’s back there, we’re going to work our best to get our job done.”

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