Harbaugh Expects Ravens to Feed Off Roquan Smith's Energy
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens coach John Harbaugh was thrilled when the team acquired Roquan Smith.
Smith is not only a game-wrecker, he helps the players around him perform at an even higher level.
“I think good players and great players make everybody around them better; would you agree with that?" Harbaugh asked. "We have a number of guys on our defense who do that, and you add another guy like that into the mix. He’s a really good player, everybody knows it. What a great job he did to come in and learn the defense so quickly.
"He had no issues out there at all, as far as knowing what to do. Then all of sudden, he’s flying around, and he makes a couple of plays, and other guys kind of feed off of that just a little bit and your defense is that much better."
Smith almost immediately made his presence felt in his debut for the Ravens in Week 9 against New Orleans. Early in the first quarter, Smith thumped Saints running back Alvin Kamara on consecutive plays, including no gain on a 3rd-and-one.
That helped set the tone for the Ravens defense that held Kamara to just 30 yards rushing ‚— his lowest output of the season — in the 27-13 victory.
Smith finished with five tackles.
Baltimore limited New Orleans to 3-of-11 (27%) on third down and to a season-low 13 total first downs.
"When you have one guy playing well, it has an exponential effect kind of to everyone else," Harbaugh said. "So, that’s kind of how it goes. I was looking forward to seeing how we looked out there with Roquan out there, and I’m pretty fired up the way it looked.”
