BROWNS HEAD COACH PAT SCHURMUR
On Browns injuries: “All right, this will be one day of the week when I talk about injuries. All right, so I’ll start with that. You saw Mo (Mohamed Massaquoi) left the game, first play of the game. Concussion. So, we are following league protocols, okay. Well you know, he came off, so we put him through the paces and we’re following protocol there, and we’ll just have to see. Scott Paxson got a right knee, and there all these injuries I don’t know the extent of them yet until you know, we have a few hours and we get back to Berea. Dimitri Patterson, it was his right ankle, you know, rolled up there on that long run and then Jordan Cameron caught that ball down the middle and just fell on his back so. You know, so I don’t know the severity of any of those injuries. They all could be back quickly, and then we’ll just have to see tomorrow. But in terms of the game, you know, I told the players I said, ‘Regardless of whether they count or not it’s fun to win.
That feeling that you get when you win a game, whether you win by a bunch or you win at the end like we did on a field goal it’s fun and so they should take something away from that. The young guys and a lot of the new guys that played at the end, they really kind of got us into the end zone and made some plays. There was a lot of good stuff out there for us to evaluate their ability to make the team, and so I think we got something out of that.
We got a chance to see Brandon Weeden play, and I felt for the most part all of the quarterbacks executed pretty well. On the downside in my opinion, too many penalties, too many penalties. You know it’s easy to say it’s expected this time of year but it isn’t. It isn’t. We coach against it. We need to get that cleaned up. Couple of first half turnovers that you know, you can’t have. Ball got squatted out Brandon’s hand once and then we had an interception. So, from that standpoint, there’s plenty to learn from.
As I was watching the game, I kept remarking to myself that this is going to be great tape to watch because there was a lot of situations and a lot of guys got an opportunity to play and that’s what you want. You know, guys having an opportunity to play and being able to evaluate what they can do for us as we move forward. So, we’ll get on the bus, go back home. Players will be off tomorrow and then we’ll get into pretty much a three day work week and get ready to go play Green Bay, which is our next preseason game within this training camp routine. With that, I’ll take your questions.”
On taking precautionary measures towards concussions: “We follow league protocols, he came off with the symptoms, so we followed protocol.”
On the young guys Weeden and RT Mitchell Schwartz: “I don’t know. I think you got rookies in there playing with a team that went 10-6 last year. So, I think it’s a great test for us to see where we’re at. And we made some plays against them. So I’m not down at all.”
On Travis Benjamin: “Yeah, I think Travis looked in this game like we’ve seen him look in practice, and I think that’s an encouraging thing because he’s been able to bring it to the game. He looked fast on the return. He caught the ball well. He caught the ball with his hands, he had to leap, so he did some of the things we’ve seen him do in practice here in the game and so that’s a credit to him.”
On Thomas coming out and moving Schwartz over: “We just felt like he was going to play the first half because we just want him to play as much as he can. So, there was no design other than he was going to play a half, even though the rest of the ones played a quarter.
BROWNS QB BRANDON WEEDEN
On playing in his first NFL game: “Walking on the field for the first time, just the anticipation, not many jitters, just anxious. I felt in complete control in the huddle. I felt in complete control of everything we did. I had a couple of miscommunications with a couple things that went on but that’s why it’s preseason. We’re going to continue to get better I think overall as the way we function. We had a couple too many penalties but the way we functioned, I think we did a pretty good job.”
On how much he needed to settle in: “Uh, I think I still need to settle in. I mean, I think, you know you can practice all you want but once you put a scoreboard on, and it means something, it’s just a little bit different. Playing this position in this league is difficult and so I think you’ve got to get used to what’s going on around you. Like I said, for a first time out, yeah, there’s some mistakes. I knew there were going to be mistakes but I mean, as far as the way I felt and the way I functioned, I felt really, really good and in complete control.”
On his deep pass completion: “Yeah, you know, we broke the huddle and I was hoping we’d get single out of safety and we did and I told him as we were breaking the huddle, I said ‘Hey man, run fast.’ I said ‘Run’ and I said ‘Get after it and I’ll give you a shot.’ It was a good one. Hopefully we’ll do a lot of that this year. I think he’s a guy that can really do that, really stretch the field. Great play on his part.”
On if he saw the end of the throw to WR Mohammad Masaquoi: “Yeah, I saw him make a good catch, try to turn upfield, and took one in the chin. I think it’s unfortunate. Guys are playing hard. But I think he’s fine. I think he’s running around fine, he’s doing well. There’s no reason to risk it being the preseason. He’s a guy we count on. He’s a guy we rely on. He’s going to be a huge asset for us.”
On his fumble: “Yeah, you know, I thought my arm was going forward. I didn’t really know. I couldn’t tell from where I was at. They replayed it so obviously it wasn’t. I was trying to dump the ball down to Jordan Cameron. They took away the route down the field so I was just trying to check it down and the next thing I know my arm’s getting hit. That’s unfortunate. Those are things that are not acceptable but they’re hard to stop. It’s kind of a bang-bang play.”
BROWNS QB COLT MCCOY
On what the team has to do to come together: “I think we just have to remember that we’re still only half way through training camp. It always feels good to win. I’m very proud of those guys and the third and fourth groups who came out there and really fought hard. But this is a good time to pop pads with somebody else. It was a good test for us and I think offensively, you see we got a lot of work to do still. But, you know, it’s good to see someone else besides your own defense and see kind of where we’re at.”
On tonight’s game being a good measuring stick: “Yeah, that’s kind of what I was mentioning earlier. You always like to win. I’m proud of those guys who came in at the end and finished this thing. That was awesome. Trey made a big kick there after he missed one earlier and, you know, I’m proud of those guys for sure. But this is the first preseason game, you know, kind of a good way to go out and run some of your base plays against them. Everything’s pretty vanilla and we’ll kind of see where we’re at.”
BROWNS DT BILLY WINN
On the team’s mindset tonight: “We’ve just got to go out there and work every day. That’s the bottom line. Go out there and work and earn everything.”
On the biggest surprises for him in his first NFL game: “Just, like I said, the speed of the game. I’ll definitely say that. The tempo’s a lot faster, you know. Guys are getting on you a lot faster than what I’m used to in college.”
On processing the new tempo on the fly during the game: “You’ve just got to react. I mean, that’s the biggest thing. You can’t go out there and do too much thinking. You’ve got to go out there and react to what you’re getting and just play fast.”
On the overall play of the defensive line: “You know, we have a great d-line coach. I feel like we were prepared for the game and we went out there and we executed for the most part.”
