CLEVELAND — On Sunday, the Cleveland Browns moved to 6-5 on the season with a 13-10 victory over the Detroit Lions.
After the game, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski met with reporters to discuss the fallout from the game. What follows is a full transcript of Stefanski's comments, courtesy of the Browns' media relations department.
Opening statement:
“Good to get a win there. Good to close it out. In that game, it was sloppy at times on all sides, but good to come away with a victory. Defensively, holding them to 10 points, I thought they were particularly great after two turnovers. They stood up. Holding them to 77 yards passing. Had a couple of takeaways. Offensively, (RB) Nick (Chubb) did a great job there, especially late – 130 yards rushing. Anytime you rush for 186 – Nick is a great, great player – the offensive line, the tight ends, the fullback, the receivers and the quarterback No. 1 getting us into all of those runs and then booting away, it just takes all of those guys so I was really pleased with that.”
On if the Browns considered taking QB Baker Mayfield out of the game after seen limping:
“He was cleared to go in there. I think you guys know, he is toughing it out, and he is battling.”
On how much of a say Mayfield has in the decision to stay in the game:
“Ultimately, we organizationally try to make the best decision we can with all of the information we have available to us with all of our guys. Certainly with each player, you talk to them, as well, and see where they are.”
On if the Browns considered throwing the ball on third-and-three late in the fourth quarter when looking to kill the clock:
“With all of those decisions, you talk about a lot of things. You talk about different plays, different run schemes and different pass schemes. It just felt like the right scheme based on how they were playing us on defense.”
On if WR Jarvis Landry injured the same knee from earlier in the season:
“I think it is probably the same one, but I do not know how [significant]. We will find out tomorrow what that means.”
On Landry having key blocks on runs during the game, including on the final series to kill the clock after injuring the knee:
“Jarvis, he is banged up and then he wants to go back in there and wants to fight. He had a great, great play for a touchdown early – exactly how we drew it up, just kidding (laughter). He made a great play.”
On frustration with the Browns committing 10 penalties for the second time in the past three games:
“Very, very frustrating. It is not good. It hurts you as a team. The pre-snap penalties where we are jumping offside are unacceptable. We have to get it cleaned up, and we will. The players know it is just unacceptable and on the offensive side of the ball, as well. I will look at some of the other ones, as well. We will see on the other ones, but we have to play clean football, and we did not at times today.”
On explaining the number of pre-snap penalties:
“I do not know if I have a great explanation. I am as frustrated as anybody. It is something that we have to get fixed.”
On needing to jump start the Browns offense moving forward:
“We have to score more points obviously. We have to find ways to be explosive in the run and the pass. We have to stay on the field on third down to give ourselves another set of downs and then we have to score when we get in the red zone. I think it is a combination of things, but we absolutely have to score more points.”
On if the Browns can gain any confidence after this win:
“Yeah, sure. I think anytime you win is a big boost to what you are doing. It does not mean that you do not make adjustments or fix some things you are not doing great. That is what we try to do with a win is not ignore some of those things. We will do that, but we also know what is in front of us. We have a two-game series versus Baltimore with a bye in the middle of that so we have to be at our best moving forward.”
On if Browns defensive players were told they would come out for at least one play if they jumped offside:
“We have done that the last couple of years.”
On Mayfield’s two interceptions:
“I would have to look at them to give you a real good insight, but I think the ball just missed. Again, conditions were not great. Baker has done a really, really good job at taking care of the football in terms of interceptions, and he knows that we do not want to give them anything. I am sure he is frustrated with those, but he has done a nice job this season.”
On how much the weather conditions affected the QBs today and how he called the game:
“It was sloppy. It was wet. It was not pristine for the pass game.”
On if the Browns turned away from the run too early during the middle of the game:
“We felt like there were some opportunities there in the pass game to get some big plays. We did not come away with as many big plays as we would have liked, but we just have to continue to find ways to move the ball down the field.”
On how much Mayfield’s accuracy was affected by injuries today compared to the weather conditions:
“You could ask Baker, but as he has talked about and we have talked about, he is fighting through those things in what was not the greatest conditions to throw the ball.”
On QB Case Keenum warming up on the sideline at one point of the second half and if that was an indication the team was considering playing Keenum to rest Mayfield with an injury:
“I did not even know. I was not aware.”
On when the Browns knew WR Donovan Peoples-Jones would be unavailable today and how that impacted the gameplan:
“I think as the week went on and got to Friday, it was looking less likely just based on how he was feeling, but we wanted to give him a chance to see how he responded the next couple of days. Ultimately, was not ready to go. We brought (WR Lawrence) Cager up, and (WR) Ja’Marcus Bradley played a bigger role. That is the guys we had.”
On the Browns getting more opportunities with the ball in WR Jarvis Landry’s hands, including early in the game:
“Every game, we are trying to get him involved – running it, throwing it, catching it and all of the above.”
On Landry running for a 16-yard TD on a direct snap:
“It was not designed to do that. I wish we did design it to do that so we could take credit for it (laughter). That is just a great player making a great play.”
On what was supposed to occur on Landry’s TD run:
“I can’t tell you that. That is trade secrets (laughter).”
On LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah’s status:
“We will see. He had an ankle injury. We will have more information tomorrow.”
On if Owusu-Koramoah’s ankle injury is to the same one as earlier this season:
“Yes.”
On heading into back-to-back games against the Baltimore Ravens and the significance of those matchups:
“They are a great team. You have two games against the team at the top of the division. Obviously, you have to worry about the first game first – you have the bye in between – but it is going to be a great challenge – great players and great coaches. We have to be at our best.”