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Jim Fassel
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Your two coordinators, Sean Payton and John Fox, have a very unique
relationship, they critique one another’s game plans and go out to dinner together.
How unique is that relationship and how does the team benefit from it?
"I’m not sure – I heard that about going out to dinner and stuff
together. As coaches, I know those two guys and the rest of us, I don’t know how we
have time to go out to dinner; we work all week long. And I know both of them spend a
tremendous amount of time. It’s important to me, when I put this whole thing
together, everything together, that one thing I kept in mind was the team and the coaching
staff, we don’t need a collection of a bunch of individuals that are super talented
in their own areas that can’t work in the framework of everything else.
"Our staff has gotten along. We’ve talked about it as a staff. We enjoy
working. I took the whole staff down for a three-day weekend and the guys enjoy each
other. The wives enjoy each other. … My two coordinators, Foxie and Sean Payton, they
share thoughts. You have to. When I was a coordinator, you get some ideas, ‘Hey
listen, if I came out to you with this, how would you defense it? How would you block this
up? What would your adjustment be?’
"That’s the interaction you need on a staff to grow. Because we all grew up
in college football, where you went to clinics and talked to other people about this, you
grew and learned. In pro football, it’s secrecy. And it’s the Sergeant Shultz
– ‘I know nothing.’ We don’t mention anything. So you have to draw
upon one another within the framework of your staff, and you can’t do that unless you
get along."
Special teams question for you. In both playoff games in the fourth quarter
with sizeable leads, you got a kick blocked, and then you get a punt for about 30 yards.
Is there are lack of concentration that you’re concerned about?
"I don’t really believe so. I think the Minnesota game I was concerned
because of where the score was. The biggest thing I was managing at that time was
obviously a letdown. I didn’t figure that they were going to catch us. But I
didn’t want to play in that game sloppy. I didn’t want to get anybody hurt. We
were getting people out of the game, substituting people to do that. I don’t have a
concern about that. The least of my worries is something like that in this game; that we
get an individual broke down or something like that."
A lot has been made of the Ravens’ arrogance, nastiness and trash-talking.
Could you talk about your team’s on-field persona, and has that developed over the
last few weeks?
"I think so. We play tough. I’ve gotten calls from some guys in the league
that maybe it’s a good compliment about the team, not about me, about the team:
‘Your guys – you don’t hear a lot about them, they don’t say a lot,
they don’t talk about it a lot, you go out and play the football game. They show up
to play.’ And that’s what’s happened. We have answered the question so many
times, well what about this, maybe we take a little bit more of a milder, not a mild, but
a level approach to the game, and we go out and play like we did a couple of weeks ago
with Minnesota. They’ve showed competitiveness and toughness and everything. To me, I
said to them a while ago, when it’s all said and done, I want more done than said.
And they have followed that right on down the line."
The Ravens’ defense has set records this year. Would you compare your run
defense to theirs?
"Yes I would. Our run defense is – we’ve gone up against some real good
running football teams that have tried to run the football on us, and we’ve held up
very, very well. And a lot of times, how well you play against the run is predicated upon
how the game has evolved. If you’re beating them badly, they give up on the run. But
that hasn’t been the case. People have tried to run the ball on us. And you’ve
got the two teams (in the Super Bowl) I think that play the best run defense in the
National Football League, and it’s tough. We know it’s going to be tough to run
the ball on them. I’m sure Brian (Billick) feels the same way. Somehow you have to
figure out a way to have some success running the football. I don’t think either team
expects to go out there and just four or five, six yards a crack. But I think you’re
seeing two of the better run defenses we’ve seen for a while in this league."
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