John Harbaugh on avoiding distractions: 'We've been in that football cocoon'

With the Ray Rice saga loudly playing out around them, the Baltimore Ravens went out and dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Week 2 showdown on Thursday night.

Following the game, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said the team allowed themselves to be enveloped by a "football cocoon" in order to avoid distractions.

"We were really isolated from all that," Harbaugh said (via NFL.com). "As a football team, we go into our meeting rooms, our locker rooms, our offices and we go to work, especially on a short week like that. So we didn't have much to do with any of that. We were just working on football. We've been in that football cocoon and that carried us right into the game."

Veteran wide receiver Steve Smith echoed his coach's sentiments.

"You know at the end of the day we're football players," Smith said, "and we're also men and people go through things and you gotta kind of compartmentalize everything and it's tough and the situations are tough but you gotta come to work, feed your family but at the same time, you gotta put things aside. We'll address those things when the time comes but also it's also not all on us, you know?"