Transcript of news conference with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll
Transcript of Friday news conference with Cleveland Browns Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll
Browns offensive coordinator Brian Daboll says it is important to avoid third and long situations when playing against Baltimore's defense.(On if there is a chance Jake Delhomme will play Sunday)- "Did Eric (Mangini) rule him out? Then there's a chance."
(On Seneca Wallace's first game as the starter)- "I think he did a lot of nice things. The one thing is I would have liked to hit a few more. We threw up a bunch of shots, seven go routes, actually we threw, and we just couldn't connect. Two of them were in our hands, one Mo (Mohamed Massaquoi) was out of bounds and then the last one at the end of the game there, he caught it and couldn't come down with it. Some of the intermediate things were good. We would like to keep on working on hitting those shots down the field."
(On the reason was for missing some of those go routes)- "I think there was a combination of them. Some of them were a result of pressure. They were bringing some extra guys on the open side to where Mohamed was, so we had to go ahead and convert a play. The pressure was coming, he had to get rid of it and a couple of them we could have ran a little bit of a better route. A couple of them he could have made a nicer throw. It was a combination, but they were giving us some press man, single high, so we were going to take some shots on it."
(On if he expects better passes from Wallace on deep routes Sunday)- "Yes, because he is a pretty good deep pall thrower. We were hitting them all week in practice. Again, it was a combination of things. (Eric) Berry was blitzing a few times off that edge and you don't have a guy accounting for him in certain protections, so he was getting there. He is a pretty good deep ball thrower."
(On if he saw deep routes would be an advantage versus Kansa City going into the game)- "They played quite a bit of press man against San Diego, so we thought we'd have a couple of chances to throw it up there down the field against them and we were going to try it. If they were going to give us those looks, we were going to go ahead and go after it."
(On if the defense from Kansas City is what he thought Romeo Crennel would give them)- "He stayed pretty consistent with what he did against San Diego. They got up and they played some man to man, they played a little bit of zone and they pressured. Pretty much what you were ready for during the week of practice."
(On not using the Wildcat as much as they wanted to last game)- "You get into kind of a little bit of a rhythm going in the first half. We had 240 (yards) or something in the first half, so it was going pretty good. The second half, we came out and when you get into those little ruts, sometimes you'd like to use it and I just didn't get to it. We didn't score any points, we had a three and out the last series on that last play to Mo. When things are kind of getting stale, it's usually a good thing to go to 16 (Joshua Cribbs) and give him the ball a few times, hopefully get you into a little bit of a rhythm."
(On if it was a conscious decision to not run Wildcat as much or he just didn't get around to it)- "In between series, you sit there and you talk. You talk to the other coaches, you talk to the guys up in the box. You get a little game plan of what you want to try to do with that following series, give the players a heads-up and I just never got to it. That's basically it."
(On if the sideline pass to Cribbs was a pass interference that didn't get called and the touchdown play to Cribbs)- "You're running those deep balls and there's always some pushing and holding. They just call it the way they see it. The touchdown, it was a big person play, 22 (personnel). I think we gained seven on first down if I'm not mistaken, seven or eight. Then I told Eric (Mangini) on second down when I called a run, "If we only get a yard or two here and it's third and short, I'm going to call the b line." He said, "Go for it." The series before, we were playing the same personnel group and we were looking at the pictures and we were talking about it on the sideline, Josh and I, and we were saying, "Dang, those safeties are pretty tight. They are getting nosy." I said, "Okay, if we get to that situation, we will dial it up." He's like, "I can get by them." That's kind of how it went."
(On if a big play receiving touchdown to Cribbs changes how he views his development as a receiver)- "I think it reaffirms it. He's come a ways. He did a nice job with the route. He had to read it and go to the right spot and Seneca had to make a nice throw. We have been practicing on it for a few weeks, we just needed the right time to call it. He did a nice job with it."
(On if the possibility of Brian Robiskie not playing Sunday opens up more reps for Cribbs)- "Sure. I think Josh, he just rolls in there. It's not to the point, Mary Kay (Cabot), where we have a bunch of plays now where we say, "Hey, make sure that these guys are in here or not." I think the four guys that are out there, George McDonald does a nice job of rolling them in. If there's a certain play that we might want them in, then great. If not, he just plays all of the normal reps. He will get plenty of them."
(On Jerome Harrison averaging 1.9 yards per carry excluding his 39-yard run in the first game)- "It's like I always say, it's a combination of things. It's maybe breaking a tackle that he could have broke, a run being blocked the right way, the receivers getting the right guys. It's just a combination of things. A couple of them, he had a chance to squirt out of there and they just got him, just barely. Last year when he had the San Diego play, it was the same type of deal. He just squeaked through there and got his leg up and broke it. It's a matter of inches."
(On if Harrison getting more yards is correctable)- "Yes, it's correctable. You keep running the plays in practice, hitting it and he's got to do a good job of breaking some of the tackles that are there. He did it at the end of the year, he broke some good tackles for some of those long gains. The line did a good job of blocking, Vick (Lawrence Vickers) did a good job of blocking, but a couple of them, he squirted through there. They had him on the legs and he broke through it. A couple of them last game, he got tackled on."
(On what he has seen from James Davis in practice this week and how effective he can be if he gets the chance to play Sunday)- "I hope he can be effective, he's going against one (heck) of a defense for his first game. We had a talk this week about performing well in practice and just going out there and doing the things that Gary Brown is going to ask him to do. He's a quiet kid. I think his is eager for the opportunity, but now he has got to go against this Baltimore Ravens defense and show he can do it."
(On what he has seen from Carlton Mitchell)- "He was a late-round pick. He's kind of a size/speed prospect. He's just learning the system, pretty raw. He was a junior coming out so he is pretty raw coming out. He took steps every day in order to make the roster in terms of knowing where he was supposed to be, learning multiple positions, being a guy you can plug in. He's a guy that's just a tireless worker. He's been out there doing a good job on the show teams, so if we need him, he will be ready to go."
(On if Mitchell is one of the faster guys on the offense)- "I don't know. I'm sure, he's a skill guy. I don't know how fast relative to the other guys. If they go ahead and race in a 40, I'm not sure exactly."
(On if speed was one reason why they drafted Mitchell)- "He's a size/speed guy and again, playing out there, running the routes, the full speed of the game, that's a little bit different than just running straight down the line on a 40-yard dash. He's been working at it."
(On if Baltimore's defense is vulnerable anywhere)- "They're pretty good all the way around and they've been that way for a long time, every time that I've played them. I haven't been in the division, but when I was in New England or the Jets, they're a dominant group. I think the one consistent thing there is Ray Lewis. They have pretty good players all the way around. There's really not a weak point, in terms of the players on the team. They run a good system, but he's the ringleader. He's a Hall of Fame player that it doesn't seem like he slows down with age, it seems like he gets better. They're physical, aggressive, hard-hitting. They haven't allowed a touchdown. I could give you a million stats. Teams have converted four third downs out of 29 against them so far."
(On if there is extra pressure put on him as a play caller because of how good Baltimore's defense is)- "I think the important thing when you play these guys is to stay on track. You take a look at some of the first games they had, I thought the Jets did a pretty good job of it. I know they didn't get a lot of yards, but in third and six and third and three and third and four, they were kind of keeping it going the right way. Then they got in situations where they fell back. You get into a third and long situation against this team and it's really, really hard to pick up. You have got to stay on track and get some positive plays. You have got to understand that you're going in there and you're going to get some negative plays, but you've got to try to stay on track with this team and keep pounding it, keep hitting the completions and keep moving. When you get a chance to hit your shot, you hit it. They're tough."
(On if it feels like playing against a Rex Ryan defense when you play Baltimore still)- "No, it doesn't feel like Rex. It feels like their defense in Baltimore and they have got a lot of the same players. Their mindset on defense, I think, has always been that they're going to go out there any try to whoop up on people. That's the mindset you put on the tape and you see them play. That's always consistent with Baltimore."
(On someone saying that the way to beat Baltimore's defense is to run straight at them)- "I'm sure a lot of people have tried that. They're good. You've got to try to run straight at them, run sideways, you have got to do a lot of different things just to stay on track with them. Obviously, last year we didn't do crap against them. They kind of beat us up. What you have got to do, you have got to stay on track with them. You have to. You have got to understand that they're going to make some plays, but you have just got to keep on pushing, keep on getting positive plays and then when you get a chance to hit a big one, and they do a good job with that too, you have got to hit it. This year, the longest pass play that they have given up is 29 yards. That was on an eight yard completion."
(On if Jamal Lewis missed the game in Baltimore last year)- "Yes. J.C. (Harrison) was playing and actually James Davis got a couple reps in that game if I'm not mistaken."
(On if the little experience that Davis had versus Baltimore last year would be helpful)- "He got his feet wet, that's what I'll say. He's going to have an opportunity this week to play against them and help us try to win."
(On what Davis" speed adds to the offense)- "I think he's got some good speed. He's got some good vision. He's run well in the games that he has played in the preseason. Now for him, it's a regular season game against a really good opponent. He's done okay this week, he's done pretty good."
(On not scoring in the second half in either game)- "I've studied it, obviously, and we haven't scored, which is terribly disappointing. We come out in the first half against Tampa, we have a nice drive and we fumble it that play. We get backed up and we couldn't get anything going on first down. The thing that I noticed is in the first half, we are over 55 percent on third downs. In the second half, we are 20 percent, right around 20 percent. The third downs that we have in the first half are pretty manageable third downs. That all correlates back to first down. Our first down success in the second half has went down. The other thing that I've noticed is we have more penalties in the second half than we do the first half. We get a seven-yard run, we give a power play to Peyton (Hillis). We come back on a second and short-type play and try a shot and we get a holding penalty, make it second and 13. We are third and 12, we get a false start, it's third and 18. The play we threw the underneath route to Stuck (Chansi Stuckey), Stuck got it to the 44 yard line in the fourth quarter. We tried to get something going, we come back, we get a 10-yard holding penalty. Those are pretty tough to overcome. I'd say our first down production needs to improve, which will help us in the third down, and our penalties are too high."
(On if they are running the ball more in the second half or if the defense is doing something different)- "It's been pretty consistent. I think in the first half, 16 and 16 run and pass on first down. Then in the second half, 10 run and nine pass."
(On if Cribbs needs to have more touches for the offense to be successful)- "I think more touches for Josh would be a good thing. Yes, I think more touches for him would be good."
(On how the protection has been by the offensive line and extra blockers)- "It's going okay. I think we have given up one sack. If I'm not mistaken, that was at the end there on the last drive, backed up, the one we threw to Mo. I think the play before that, we got a little push and it was one sack. Do we get some pressure sometimes? Sure. I think that happens to any group. Overall, they have done a pretty decent job of protecting the passer."
(On Joe Thomas being called for holding)- "It was a rush. He was coming around the end and Seneca stood up. He felt a little bit over here, so he escaped out of the pocket over there to the left. Joe was kind of blocking him and sometimes when that happens and you have a mobile quarterback that moves a little bit, the guy just pulled and Joe kind of just moved him a little bit and they got us on one. He escaped out to the left and then we had a little bit of pressure to the right. That's how they got it."
Transcript courtesy of the Cleveland Browns