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Browns Defensive Coordinator Dick Jauron 11-1-12

(On Phil Taylor coming back)- “It’s great to have Phil back practicing. As of now, he’ll certainly rotate into that game. We’ll see how much he can go. We don’t want to overdo it. He’s had two weeks of work and it’s been a long season. He’ll definitely work in, and we’re really excited about seeing him back. Wish we had Rube (Ahtyba Rubin) obviously, but we’ll see where that goes too.”

(On if it’s been a challenge with the two rookie defensive linemen John Hughes and Billy Winn as opposed to having the size of Taylor and Rubin)- “I would say no really. We’ve talked a lot all the way through this about John and Billy and what a nice job they have done. Phil is really a good player. We got John and Billy to kind of back up Rube and Phil, and losing Phil was a tough one. It’s given those two young guys a lot more experience, the loss of both Rube and Phil. It’s brought them along a lot quicker. Now, once Phil gets back into it and we can get Rube back, I think we’ll have a really good inside rotation. Phil is a giant man, and a good athlete, and at the end of last season he was playing at a high level. We do expect a lot of him, but it’s not an easy thing to come back at this point and play at that same level right away. I think it’s going take him some time to work back into it.”

(On if not having Rubin and Taylor’s size on the defensive line affects the run defense)- “I think any time you lose a player, certainly a starter, it impacts everything. It will impact you along the way.”

(On if the game against Baltimore was the best they have played against the run)- “I think we’ve played well at times on and off. What I remember about that game was we lost. It was a close game and we had a chance to win. We just needed to make more plays than we did obviously and we didn’t make them. They are very good. They do an outstanding job. They have terrific players, a lot of skilled players, and they prepare them well. They do a very nice job. Our hands will be full, and certainly both their running backs are really good, but Ray Rice is a unique player in this league. We’ll be challenged for sure.”

(On if having Joe Haden back will make a difference)- “I think anytime you’ve lost a starter - there’s a reason why he’s on your starting 11, and it’ll be nice to have them all back. Everybody in the league deals with injuries and plays through them. We’ve just got to play better. It’s good to have Joe back out there.”

(On if he ever saw Buster Skrine’s confidence waiver)- “No, I haven’t. I really have a lot of admiration and respect for Buster. He’s a very tough guy, very competitive guy. He doesn’t change from practice to game. He just prepares himself really well, works very hard all the time, and then plays. He plays hard. Buster, I believe is a good player now and he’s just going to get better. Everybody at any position is going to struggle sometimes. The best in the world go out there and have poor games. They will be some ups and downs, but Buster will take them and work through them.”

(On if he thinks Skrine has improved over the past two weeks)- “Yeah, I think he’s gotten better every snap. He’s a guy that I believe that he learns from his snaps. I think as his career moves along, I think he’ll be a player that has years of experience as opposed to one year of experience five times. I think Buster will be a guy that has five years of experience when he’s in the sixth year of his career. I think he’s just going to get better and better.”

(On the defensive performance against the Chargers)- “That was a really good day for us. There was no doubt about it. Any time, in any condition, it was bad conditions for an offense and a defense. But to try to throw the ball in those conditions, it was very difficult, no doubt about it. To come away with six points was just a terrific day for us, and the win. That’s the deal. You’ve got to find ways to win no matter what you do. It’s all about the W.”

(On what players specifically played well against San Diego)- “It won’t be anybody you don’t know. D’Qwell (Jackson) always performs well. Buster performed well. There were a lot of people in that game, everybody played really hard, and performed at a high enough level to keep a pretty good offensive football team off the board in terms of touchdowns. That was a good day.”

(On James-Michael Johnson’s progress)- “I think he is another young player that’s gotten better every start that he’s had. I really believe he’ll just continue to do that. He’s playing faster. He’s got a better feel for the game. He’s got a better understanding now being out in the field of what it takes to perform in this league. It’s certainly not like college for him. He’s a fast learner, and another guy that really cares about it. He really cares about he performs, he cares that he does his job and prepares. I think he cares about our football team.”

(On if he has any idea why the Ravens struggle statistically away from Baltimore)- “No, I don’t have any idea. I just hope the trend continues.”

(On the defense having 16 takeaways and if they put a point of emphasis on that)- “We do like to think, and we know that we do emphasize takeaways. That being said, I’ve never been anywhere that didn’t. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t. I don’t know what the answer is because we certainly stress it, and we stress it every year. I know that in terms of interceptions, you always preach that if you just catch your chances, the odds are you’ll have a pretty good year in terms of interceptions. The ball gets batted, and they’ll miss at times. It’s just hard because that ball gets on you fast and you’re focused on other things. It’s just hard to do those things. We would like to get more and more obviously because it really is one of the few statistics in our game that has meaning in terms of wins and losses.”

(On T.J. Ward being a sure tackler and playing well despite playing with an injured hand)- “He’s so aggressive. He’s so tough and he’s a willing tackler. He gets to the ball carrier. He has been good at getting the ball carrier on the ground. However he’s done it because as you’ve pointed out with that thumb and the surgery, he played the next week. I didn’t anticipate that he would do that. I admire his toughness, but he couldn’t really use that hand very well or at all really to grab.”

(On Ward playing with pain against New York)- “Again, you admire his toughness. Obviously, he was medically cleared to play so our medical staff didn’t feel like he could do anymore damage, but it was very painful. There’s no doubt about it. He’s done a nice job.”

(On characterizing Cam Cameron’s offense)- “I don’t know Cam personally. I think that he does a very good job though of preparing his offense to play to their strengths. He does a nice job of adjusting and using plays over until you make an adjustment to it. He’s a very good football coach and has a record to prove it.”

(On if the Browns are better than their 2-6 record)- “I don’t know. I think I’ve always felt that what should have happened did and you live with it. That’s where we are and we’ve got to change it. Somehow we got to find ways to put more W’s on the board.”

(On how they avoid Anquan Boldin having another big day against them)- “We’ll do our best. It’s not the first time in his career that’s happened to him. He’s a proven veteran over a long career. He’s big and strong, strong hands, physical receiver and we’ve just got to get closer to him. We played him tight. We’ve just got to make more plays at the end of the play when the ball arrives to him. The guy is a really good player. Unfortunately, they’ve got a bunch of them.”

(On if he has ever been around a corner that doesn’t have confidence)- “I guess I would say not for long. You have to have a very short memory out on the edge. You’re going to get beat, anywhere in this league at any position, you’re going to get beat and probably humbled and embarrassed at some point. You’ve got to just be able to come back the next play and wipe the slate clean and do it, challenge it. It’s just part of the deal.”

(On if corners are born with confidence)- “I think they are born with certain skills. I guess I doubt that that is one of them. I think they are born with physical gifts, and that’s one of them. I think you can develop mental toughness, and you can certainly develop your physical skills too up to a point. Some people are just more gifted athletically than others. I think mentally you can certainly apply yourself and make yourself more focused, more determined, understand the game better or understand yourself better and fight through a lot of things.”

(On if he had to change his game plan last week due to the weather conditions)- “Last week going in we certainly had an idea of what they did. Then we had a pretty good idea of what they do in that weather. I think you generally feel that way about an opponent. A good opponent is going to do what they do, that’s what makes them good. They may add a few wrinkles, but they are not changing. They are not going to change a lot of their stuff because they are beating everybody with it anyway. We didn’t have to change a whole lot, we just had to adjust some personnel things. Before we went into it, we talked about it, what’s it going to do today? What did we think they were going to change of what they had coming into the game? It was pretty close.”

(On if the weather factored into taking Antonio Gates out of the game)- “The weather was definitely a factor in that game. Our guys played hard and did a nice job. I don’t think there’s any way you couldn’t say that the weather had an effect on that football game, the ball in the air, the kicking game, that was a tough one. That’s one of those games you’re glad you’re in the box.”

(On what Usama Young did to take the starting job from Eric Hagg)- “Usama’s always been a very physical player. I think that was part of it. We needed to make a switch to give him a chance, to get him back out there to get him a starting chance, and see if he could take and hold that job. I think he has to this point. I always admired his toughness, his willingness to play the game, and it is a tough game. It’s a very rough game.”