Transcript: Rob Ryan, 12/18 - Fri, Dec 18 2009 at 4:08 pm
(On Jamaal Charles)- “Jamaal Charles, he is really coming into his own. He looks a little bit like the (Chris) Johnson kid from Tennessee, where he has that home run ability. They are using him all over the place. They flex him out as a receiver and he is doing some great things out there, beating corners and things like that. I see a lot of growth in that guy from his first year playing. We played him when I was in Oakland, he was a good player then, but he is becoming a real dynamic guy.”
(On how the coaches are supporting Eric Mangini through the general manager search and if they tell him anything to tell Randy Lerner)- “To be honest I never tell Eric, ‘Hey, tell Randy I said hello.’ We are just going to coach and kick ass, that’s all we’re going to do. That’s what we are looking to do on defense every week. I’ve told you before, I am not worried about my job security. I am not bragging but please, I know I can coach in this league. I’ll continue to coach in this league, whether it’s here or somewhere else. I want to be here. When you are in that room with those guys on defense, you really want to be here, at least I do. They are good tough guys. They are people that I want to be around for a long time and win with. Eric brought me here to Cleveland, a place that I wanted to be, and I am a loyal person. Obviously, we are fighting hard together to get this thing turned around and we are. I told you before, you guys have seen improvement every week both sides of the ball, offense, defense. Special teams doesn’t improve much because (Brad) Seely is running it. They’re always number one no matter what team he is with. You see improvement and you would have to be blind not to see it. You would have to be blind not to see that this team is coming together. We have a lot of good solid people on our team and improvement is inevitable.”
(On what he would say to someone to convince them to keep the coaching staff in place)- “I don’t know what I’d say. If it comes to that, me talking about us staying or whatever, I’ll be packing probably because I’ll get pissed, because I know how hard we are working. It’s going to pay off. It will. We have three games left that we are going to prove it. Last week was our first step into doing it. We’ve looked at it as a four game series. We are going to go hard for these weeks and continue to improve. We won last time in a big game and each week they keep getting bigger. Bottom line is we’ve got some guys that are willing to fight because we know what we are fighting for. I don’t know if it’s inevitable that Randy makes changes, I don’t think he will, but I don’t know. I can’t tell the future. All I can do is predict it with my players and that’s going to be a bright future.”
(On if the Mike Holmgren talk has been distracting)- “I’m not supposed to read the papers or anything but [heck], I’m stupid enough to do it. I’m always a competitive guy, but if you back me up, I’ll come out swinging. Am I digging my heels in a little bit more? Probably and that’s no offense to Mike Holmgren who’s had ton of success in this league. When there’s uncertainty in everything you do, it could be a distraction. I know one thing, I haven’t worked any harder this week because [shoot] that’s impossible. I am working as hard as I can and our players are. These guys come from all walks of life. They’ve come from everybody else’s rosters and they are fighting like [heck] and if you don’t see it on defense, [heck] go get that corrective surgery, because [shoot] you need it.”
(On if the defense has taken a leadership role)- “I can’t say that we are taking any more leadership than they [the offense] are. I think offensively we have improved on every category there is. I think that Brady Quinn is doing a nice job. Every time I look up somebody is doing a good job catching the ball. (Evan) Moore, the big tight end, he is catching the ball. You see the running backs running their [butts] off. That Joe Thomas [shoot] he could block out the [darn] world. I see improvement there. (Eric) Steinbach pulling around. Those are good hardworking guys, so I don’t know how it’s getting done, you’ll have to ask the head coach, Mangini who is doing a [heck] of a job.”
(On not having to play on a short field)- “That’s awesome. When you make people go the long hard way in the National Football League it’s hard to do. We are definitely having a lot of benefits from our outstanding play by our offense and special teams.”
(On what the defense can do to follow up their play against Pittsburgh)- “This is a real fine opponent. They have an excellent coach who was in the Super Bowl last year, scores millions of points. They are not scoring quite as many as the Cardinals did, but they are getting (Dwayne) Bowe back, who is a great receiver. We know a lot of him. He’s had great battles with Nnamdi Asomugha before. We’ve got Eric Wright so it will be a [heck] of a battle between those guys. We are just looking forward to the challenge of playing a fine opponent. We are anxious. Look guys, we have been working hard to be good and we want to keep being good. We had an outstanding week against Pittsburgh, who is a great opponent, who had their way with us the first time. If you look at that in our division, there was three teams that we played, that when we came back and played them again we got after [them] even more. I think we’re on the right track. We are playing this opponent, they are not as familiar with us and we are not as familiar with them so it ought to be a great chess match. I know they are playing hard and we are too.”
(On Matt Roth being more excited about the run defense than the eight sacks)- “Yes, that’s Roth. He’s a tough throwback guy that I know Cleveland loves. We’ve appreciated the guy since he’s been here and hopefully we are all back here together because that sucker is a fine player. It’s hard to run when the tight end is about six yards deep in the backfield or an offensive tackle and Roth does that to people. He’s been an outstanding pick up along with a lot of these other guys that are coming in and making contributions to our defense.”
(On Matt Cassel)- “I do like him. I think he’s a good quarterback. Every week you play somebody great. He had great success against us in Oakland, in a torrential downpour. I think he’s a fine quarterback. He’s getting his great weapon back. He’s getting his best weapon back this week in that Bowe kid. We have to be up for the challenge.”
(On Cassel’s four interceptions against Buffalo and the Browns not having many interceptions)- “Thanks for bringing that up, Scott (Petrak). I appreciate that. (joking) No, we haven’t had any picks. I mean [dang], we need some. Sometimes a ball bounces off a guy’s shoulder pads and everybody blames the quarterback when you look at the final numbers. We have to keep the heat on this guy and we have to get some turnovers, no question.”
(On if the Pittsburgh game helped the team turn a corner)- “I hope so. I hope that’s the game that does turn the corner for us. We were a lot more consistent on our calls. We weren’t making mistakes. We were doing a lot of multiple things and our communication was on point. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come. It was an outstanding effort. The guys that deserve all the credit are those guys in those uniforms that have been working their [butts] off. They’re the ones that deserve the credit. They’re the ones whose abilities came through for us on Thursday night.”
(On if it is fair to say Brandon McDonald has had an up and down season)- “I don’t think he’s any different than most of our guys. We haven’t been that consistent really throughout the year as good as we need to be. That’s why we’re probably 2-11. I know he has good effort. He’s had some slips in there, along with a lot of other guys. When you’re struggling like this and guys try to make plays and then they don’t, you just can’t fault one guy and things like that. It’s really all of us. I haven’t called the greatest games ever sometimes and sometimes he’s not always playing the best.”
(On if halftime adjustments have been a concern for him)- “No. I think we’re one of the top two or three to start games. All of that is also us adjusting to their plan. I’ll be curious to see how we do the first drive. I don’t think we’re being outcoached, but [heck] maybe we are. I don’t think so. I haven’t noticed a glaring weakness there. I know we’re finishing pretty [darn] strong and a lot of teams don’t do that for [anything].”
(On if there is anyone who reminds him of Mike Vrabel)- “First of all, Vrabel is one of the best players I’ve ever been around. He’s clearly the smartest guy. He really is. He’s [dang] sure one of the toughest. He has long arms. He’s an unbelievable team player. One year I think he had like nine and a half sacks and he was playing on the other side to let his teammate play on the side that he had all his counters. If he had played in his prime on the other side he would have been one of them 20 sack guys. He’s an unbelievable talent, a better, tougher guy than you’ve ever seen. It’s hard to compare anybody to someone that special. As far as overall, with the smarts and the toughness, that part we have Jason Trusnik [who] is real similar to him. Trusnik’s a good rusher. To me, Vrabel has always been one of those elite rushers that come along once in every 20 years.”
(On Pittsburgh letting Vrabel go so cheap)- “I think his career got turned around when he started playing for me pretty much. (joking) No, I don’t know what happened. The guy is awesome.”
(On Vrabel being a tweener guy who didn’t find his spot right away)- “That’s a great point there. He was a tweener guy, but he’s a tweener that was great at a lot of spots, not just, ‘Well he sucks at this spot. He’s okay here. He’s fair over here.’ This guy was excellent at all the spots. In New England we took advantage of that. I know they put him on the goal line some in Kansas City. They guy’s got great hands. I don’t think he’s ever dropped a ball in his life. That guy is phenomenal. [He is a] great player, great person.”
(On if they looked at bringing Vrabel in as a tone setter)- “More than a tone setter, [he is] a player. The guy is a phenomenal football player. He is tough. He does represent everything we believe in here in Cleveland. I know we did. They (Kansas City) traded for him. We were looking but then they made a trade so we were pissed. [Heck], I would have paid him some of my own money, not much, because I don’t have that. I have a lot but [shoot], it doesn’t seem that way.”
(On Brian Schaefering’s play against Pittsburgh)- “Now Schaefering, to me, I thought he played better against the run. I think he did a real good job there. He did a nice job on the pass as well. A lot of his teammates were circling that quarterback like a bunch of buzzards and then he would step up and then Schaefering would knock the crap out of him. He’s doing a good job. He’s a tough guy. I was anticipating a game like that for him. Hopefully good things can keep coming because he’s a hard worker and he’s really a smart kid. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, he’s very intelligent.”
(On Marcus Benard’s potential)- “Same thing I saw on him on tape in college. I’m not going to say anything, but [heck] I know talent. I saw him in college and [shoot] I knew he’d be good and he’s been very good. He’s a hard working kid. That’s the thing you don’t see when you’re watching college tape, is his work ethic and what type of kid he is. Well, he’s a super kid and he’s a hard worker, one of the hardest workers on our team. This guy is going to get better and better. I think we knew what we had, I know we knew what we had and it was just a chance to get him out there and unleash him on somebody.”
(On how much the success of rookies is due to core veterans like Kamerion Wimbley and David Bowens taking leadership roles)- “That’s a good question, because I think in all defenses you’re going to have those core leaders. We have some outstanding guys like you mentioned. I think their biggest thing is, as a leader, when you get a young guy like that, who’s got a lot of talent but it’s raw, I think their job as leaders is to help calm them down a little bit. I don’t think it’s necessarily how many amount of blockers the other guys take. I think it’s just getting that guy to relax, get in there and play his style of football and these young guys have done that. Maybe it’s not always perfect, but I think they relaxed. They’re playing as hard as they can, as hard as the names on their backs will allow them to play.”
(On the run defense at Cincinnati)- “The Cincinnati game was played completely the way we wanted to play it. We were going to make them run the ball and they did, but the points weren’t bouncing off the scoreboard like they’ve done before. It wasn’t perfect. We weren’t 2.5 [yards] a carry, or whatever, but you’re not going to be when you’re playing some form of two-deep man coverage back there. Obviously the unbalance we could have played better, the tackle over stuff. Norv (Turner) opened up the game in it and we stuffed the run a couple times there, so we think we have that fixed. Again, we could have fixed it quicker, but I didn’t want to do that to disrupt the flow of the game. We were still making them punt. We were getting off the field on third down, so I let them run the ball a little bit more than I could have scheme-wise.”
(On how he explains Pittsburgh only having 77 rush yards)- “I’m not sure how many times they ran it at us. I know one thing, our guys in our jerseys were playing hard as hell. When you’re all focused and you’re playing hard and you know what you’re doing, you know your assignments, you have a [heck] of a better chance to slowing down anybodies game. It’s just a tribute to all the players that we have on defense.”
(On if he enjoys talking to the media)- “I do, because I know you guys are good people. You’re working hard. You’re educated. You know our team. You’re going to know our team a [heck] of a lot better than most people do, so I don’t mind coming up to see you guys. Why would I? You guys are all educated and know what you’re doing.”
