Peyton Hillis' availability for Pittsburgh is uncertain after he aggravated a pulled quad against Atlanta.
A thigh injury is threatening Peyton Hillis' availability for Sunday's game against the Steelers. "There were a lot of guys that were either dinged up prior to the game or things happened during the game," Eric Mangini said about his injured Browns, "they really fought through those situations and contributed in a lot of different ways."BEREA, Ohio -- The status of Browns running back Peyton Hillis for the Steelers game is unknown after he aggravated his pulled quad muscle against the Falcons.
Hillis limped off the field after his spectacular one-handed 19-yard touchdown catch and spent time down on the sidelines grimacing after chasing down a third-quarter interception that was nullified by a penalty.
A number of players underwent MRIs, including Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace, but it was not announced whether Hillis did.
"There were a lot of guys that either came into the game with things that limited them or had it during the game," said Eric Mangini. "We'll see where they are on Wednesday; I'm not going to get into the specifics of any of their injuries. We'll see how it goes throughout the course of the week."
Mangini did praise the efforts of players who played through pain.
"I appreciated some of the real gutsy efforts that were out there yesterday," he said. "There were a lot of guys that were either dinged up prior to the game or things happened during the game -- they really fought through those situations and contributed in a lot of different ways."
With Hillis ailing and James Davis limited with a thigh injury, the Browns might also have to look for help at running back. One possibility might be Chris Jennings, who's available after being waived in the final cuts.
Way to go: Mangini congratulated Phil Dawson for tying Lou Groza's team career field goal record.
"That's not easy to do," he said. "He's been a good kicker here for a long time and I'd much rather be congratulating him after a win but we still need to recognize the incredible accomplishment that it is."
Harrison's struggles: Mangini didn't put all the blame on Jerome Harrison for Sunday's output of six yards on six carries.
"There were runs that he could have run better, but believe me, he wasn't alone," said Mangini. "We didn't block it very well, and that was across the board. Whether it was the O-line, whether it was the backs, whether it was the receivers, they did a better job than we did defending the run than we did running the ball.
"It was a group effort. He could have hit the hole better, but sometime there was no hole to be hit."
Thomas' long day: Mangini said the difficulties suffered by tackle Joe Thomas -- two sacks and one costly pressure that led to a interception – should be credited to his opponent.
"Well, one, he was going against John Abraham, who's had 100 sacks the last 10 years," he said. "There's some things he could've done better in terms of his technique, could've been more consistent with it, so I think it was a combination of those two things: a really good player and being more consistent with your technique play in and play out.
"When you face a guy like Abraham or any of those real elite pass rushers, one false step, one slow hand and it's not like some of the guys we've faced where you can recover. A small, small difference in technique equals a big play for them."
No challenge: Mangini said not challenging the Kroy Biermann interception was the right move.
"In looking at even on the coaches copy, it's hard to think that there'd be irrefutable evidence to overturn it," he said. "He kind of catches it and spins by, so it looks like he lands on his shoulder and I have a lot of faith in Dick McKenzie, who's with us each game, and his experience as a replay official and head of the replay officials. He doesn't miss that often."
Too fast a return? Mangini said Sheldon Brown didn't put himself back in the game too quickly after suffering a shoulder injury in tackling Tony Gonzalez.
Brown was down on the field for a few minutes and then came off for one play. When he went back in, the Falcons went after him and hit a 45-yard TD pass to Roddy White.
"No, I don't think it was a function of [the shoulder]," Mangini said. "[White] made a move to the outside that made [Brown] hesitate and then he looked back for the ball a little bit. That slowed him down. He missed the play by half a foot.
"Roddy White, Matt Ryan -- half a foot, it might as well be five yards."