After the 34 to 31 win, Jim Caldwell, who was installed as Offensive Coordinator to replace the fired Cam Cameron in late season, sat down to talk with the media. Caldwell’s one of only two black active offensive coordinators in the NFL, the other being Pep Hamilton, who was just hired by the Indianapolis Colts.
Here’s Caldwell:
RAVENS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JIM CALDWELL
(on how he is feeling right now) “Obviously, pretty excited. I really feel good for the guys and being able to share a moment with a great group of men that are very talented and dedicated. We’ve been through a lot this season so it’s always a real pleasure when you can finish off as the best in the world.”
(on the impact of the light delay) “Honestly that kind of slowed things down just a little bit. It’s a first right? We’re certainly glad that it turned out the way it did. That was just a slight interruption and we’ve had a lot of adversity all through this season, and that was just another blip on the radar screen.”
(on whether he thought the lights impacted the offense) “The guys obviously had to stay loose and they didn’t know quite how long it was going to take. Like I said, John (Harbaugh) does a great job of preparing these guys mentally. They did a great job of adjusting to the slight delay and as long as we came out on top – we didn’t expect this game to be easy. This is a hard, tough game because they’re two very good football teams. You’ve got to give San Francisco a lot of credit.”
(on how far Joe Flacco has come this season) “I think he’s grown by leaps and bounds week after week after week. But I think you would certainly be the first to say as well as you look at him, he’s been winning a lot of games obviously throughout his five years. This is a great culmination and the start of a great career.”
(on Anquan Boldin) “He’s just a huge play maker. He’s one of those guys that without question you have to find a way to get the ball to him because he’s going to make some things happen even in an extremely tough situation. Boy he plays big. He may be 6’2 but he plays like he’s 6’6.”
(on being less conservative with the play calling in this game) “We’ve been practicing that play for the last week or so, practicing the timing on it. We called the one play and then (WR coach) Jim Hostler said, ‘Hey, how about putting the pump on it?’ which is the second phase of that. I thought that’s a pretty good idea. Then we ended up running it and Joe (Flacco) ended up buying enough time to get the ball out there to Jacoby (Jones).”
(on Joe Flacco rising to the occasion of the big game) “One of the things that without question he’s a big game performer. In big games, postseason play, we just see him rise to the occasion. My old high school basketball coach used to always say cream will always rise to the top and that’s Joe. Joe is one of those guys that the bigger the game the better he plays and I think that you’re going to see that continue throughout his career.”
(on his relationship with Joe Flacco and whether he thinks he is going to continue to be a Raven) “I don’t think there’s going to be debate in that area. We do have a great relationship and obviously I think you probably read the comments of our owner where he said he’s going to be a Raven for a long time.”
(on the impact of the blackout on the offense) “We went into a bit of a lull afterwards but I don’t think it had anything to do with the blackout, just the amount of execution. We just didn’t execute as well. Also, we’re playing a good football team now. Obviously you’ve got to give credit to San Francisco they did a nice job of giving us some problems and a couple issues and slowed us down.”
(on how much he tries to spread the ball around) “You know we try to spread it around quite a bit. It’s just how we’ve been functioning. We certainly want to get the ball to our playmakers, and we have a lot of them. So we have to try to spread it around as much as we can.”
(on Joe Flacco) “I think, often times, this game highlights your abilities. But if you look at him through the years, Joe has done similar things from time to time. He’s certainly been able to move around. He’s a big guy but he’s also mobile. He’s a lot more mobile than people think. He’s also accurate on the run. He did a nice job of moving around in that pocket and buying time and did a great job of delivering the ball accurately so guys could make some big plays for him.”
(on the long play to Jacoby Jones ) “That one, it was a little bit different in terms of that play. The great thing about it, if you run plays that they’re familiar with, sometimes they have to improvise a little bit to make it work.”
(on the offensive line ) “You can’t say anything but good things about them. They’ve done a tremendous job of coming together and they ended up being just an outstanding group of guys, they worked extremely well. The five worked well together and they made some great adjustments.”
(on the big playmakers on the team ) “We just have a lot of big play guys, guys that show up big in key situations, and make tough catches for us. Joe’s (Flacco) got a big arm. He’s able to get the ball down field and he’s a very very good deep ball thrower. But he’s also a good read passer as well. He does a nice job of getting the ball those guys.”
(on the transition from coaching the worst team in the league to coaching the world champion) “Obviously, it’s not about me. I’m just happy to have an opportunity to coach with and coach around great people like Ray Lewis and Ray Rice and Joe Flacco and obviously work for John Harbaugh. That’s really been a pleasure for me. I’ve had a lot of fun this year. So it’s been a long year, but it’s been a great year.”
(on the connection he has with Joe Flacco) “He and I, we get along well because of the fact that both of us have some common ground. We’re both very direct and both very open. I like exchanging information, I listen to him, and we try to make sure we’re put in a position where we can do things as well as he possibly can. We’ve had a good open relationship from the first day that we met.”
(on his philosophy regarding the run game and the pass game) “Obviously we tried to make certain we had a good balance. That was the one thing we always wanted to make sure. We tried to be as balanced in the run as we were in the pass. We tried to blend our offense, our running game and our passing game, together. That’s basically it. We really haven’t changed a whole lot, the system is still the same and these guys have just done a great job growing within this system. This is probably a five-year process for some; developing growing getting a better understanding. We’re all just here at the right time; we’re really starting to explode, so I’m glad to be a part of it.”
(on what Joe Flacco has learned from him) “I’m not sure. That would be a great question for you to ask him. I think we worked well together. We collaborated and I think that what I was maybe able to do is let him blossom and let him come forward and express himself a little but more and show the true essence of Joe Flacco.”
(on what Joe Flacco can do better) “One of the things that’s great about him is that he’s a coachable guy and all he wants to do is get better. So he’ll try to get better in every single phase and that will be our challenge.”
(on the turning point of the game ) “Obviously because of the fact they had us sort of backed up in that area, we weren’t able to punch our way out of it and then finally obviously we got a little space there when Anquan (Boldin) caught the ball and went up the sideline for just a heck of a run. Yeah, that was a real turning point again.”
Stay tuned.