[Barron/MGoBlog]

I asked coach Harbaugh about the final play in double overtime, the stop-and-go route, and he said that that was something you guys hadn’t repped [that week], wasn’t in the gameplan and wasn’t on the call sheet but was something coach Fisch saw from the box and added. How often does that kind of thing happen where the two coaches work something out that you don’t expect to run but you’ve worked on in the past?

“I don’t know. I’m not sure how often. It probably has been done but I don’t think very often, and I think that the protection was something that we’ve always worked. It was just a slide, you know. Just something very basic, very simple. I think it was just one of those things like if you see it why not take what they’re giving you. That’s just good coaching.”

We talked a little about it [this took place after the presser that ran this morning –A.] but Penn State has two great defensive tackles. What kind of challenge does that present to you when you’ve got a guy to the left who can do damage in the backfield and a guy to the right that can do the same?

“I mean, we’ve gone against them the past few years. Zettel’s a great defensive tackle and the other guy’s fantastic also. I literally always forget his name. I think it’s Hamilton.”

I think you’re right.

“I was gonna say, I’m positive because I went against him last year.”

I looked it up this morning and forgot, but I think you’re right. [Turns out we were wrong. It’s not Hamilton, it’s Johnson. Graham mentioned Hamilton in the media scrum earlier, and after I finished my interview a reporter asked whether Graham was still around; they wanted to tell him he got his presidents mixed up*. –A.]

“He’s also fantastic. He’s a good nose, but if we focus on what we need to improve on and what we need to do with good pads and good hands I think we’ll have a good day.”

What’s the key to that technique-wise? What’s most important when you know you’ve got a guy who can rush the passer as a nose tackle?

“Just not falling asleep on him. You want to make sure you’re always ready to go. A lot of times when you’re playing a nose you don’t expect him to really be able to rush the passer well so you’ll have bad technique or you’ll sort of just be lulled to sleep. He’ll rush the passer badly a few times, just like velcro up to you and then one time he’ll put a move on you, you know what I mean? You just have to make sure you’re ready for everything, and that just comes from studying film and looking at what he likes to do and being ready for it.”

[After THE JUMP: how to do the dead-ball pitch, and full-grown lion vs. bear vs. Houma]

Where do you feel you’ve made the biggest strides technique-wise this year working with coach Drevno?

“I would say with some pass-pro stuff, although I don’t think I..I think our offensive line as a whole has done much better in pass-pro with the stuff like his techniques and stuff that he wants us to do. And I think that the snapping the ball thing, his little snapping the ball deal has been a fantastic thing even though a lot of people don’t really think about that or analyze it that much, but it’s been a much better thing for us than in the past.”

We heard a little bit about that a couple of weeks ago. Can you go through that with me and how that works?

“The dead-ball pitch? You hold the back of the ball and you put it out in front of you and you just sort of throw it between your legs, but it makes it so you don’t need to put it into a spiral. It’s easier for the quarterback to catch because it comes up just like this [/demonstrates catching the ball]. It’s like a knuckle ball sort of. Speed is typically the same, typically doesn’t vary, and it comes up very easy for the quarterback to catch. The quarterback doesn’t need to catch it like a receiver. He can just sort of…it’s like you’re just tossing him the ball.”

This is a little off the wall, but yesterday Wyatt Shallman tweeted that he was having a debate with Kalis and wanted to know who would win: a full-grown bear or a full-grown lion, and Sione Houma weighed in with full-grown Houma. Who would you take between those three?

“Full-grown bear, full-grown lion, full-grown Houma? I would probably say I want to go with Houma, but I feel like Houma doesn’t have the sharp talons a bear has, and I mean like Lions have big mouths with sharp teeth. That’s…God!”

Yeah, Twitter went through this dilemma yesterday.

“Houma has tattoos. I don’t know who said bear, but I would have to say bear. I feel like bears are overall stronger, and I think that lions have, as I said, big mouths and lots of teeth and bears are sort of like…lions are like cats, you know? They don’t have long arms. They can’t get the distance. I think it’s the bear, and I think Houma comes in second with tattoos.”

*[or people who appear on currency]