INDIANAPOLIS -- One week after the Cleveland Browns earned a 34-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, the team suffered a 17-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Following the setback, which dropped the Browns to 1-6, coach Pat Shurmur talked about learning from the loss and using the lessons from the game in preparation for Sunday’s contest against the San Diego Chargers at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
“I think that this is isolated, we lost the game,” Shurmur said. “I don’t think it talks about any trends. We’ll go back tomorrow and get ready to win the next one. I told the players last week, we made enough plays to win the game; this week, we didn’t. There were a lot of contributing factors.
“(I) told the players what’s most important is that we get back on the stick, we get back to work tomorrow and just like we did this week getting ready to play the Colts after a victory. This week, we go back to work and get ready to play the Chargers after a loss and half of the teams in the league will be doing that. That’s the message. That’s where they’re at and we need to get back and get to work.”
In the loss to the Colts, the Browns committed nine penalties for 75 yards and three were on special teams plays.
On the kickoff following Indianapolis’ touchdown on the opening drive of the game, ![]()
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The second time Indianapolis kicked off, Ventrone was again whistled for a holding call that put the Browns at their 14-yard line. The drive stalled at the 35-yard line when running back ![]()
The Browns were later penalized for an illegal block on a return.
Earlier in the game, the Browns lined up for an extra point following Little’s touchdown reception, but punter ![]()
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“I thought for the past month, the special teams has contributed in the victories," Shurmur said. “When you have three penalties in the return game, I don’t know how much field position you give up there. It does make it harder when you’re backed up, and, of course, you can’t drop the snap. From what I could tell -- and I’ll have to watch the tape -- snap, hold, kick has to be automatic and I understand that and you can’t do that and expect that that’s going to help us there.
“When you have penalties, I think it’s important you’re fighting for ground and the return game. That’s the first offensive play of the series and so, when you set yourself back with penalties, you negate the yardage of the return and get backed up. Of course that’s not good. That’s not acceptable.”
RUNNING THE BALL
The Browns gained 319 yards of total offense in their loss to the Colts, but rushed for 55 yards on 17 carries. They averaged 3.2 yards per rush.
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“We tried to carve out some runs there in the second half after we were throwing a little bit more and they tended to be more effective,” Shurmur said. “We didn’t make enough plays in the passing game to get it done. We didn’t run the ball here well enough. They didn’t sack us. We didn’t really have any turnovers to speak of; we’ve got to score more points than we did.”
MOVING FORWARD
Weeden completed 25 of 41 attempts for 264 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers in the setback to the Colts. Much like Shurmur, Weeden wants to learn from Sunday’s loss and is looking forward to getting back to work on Monday.
“You take it,” Weeden said. “Obviously, the wins feel a lot better. Tomorrow, a win would feel a lot better, but once Tuesday comes, you move on to the next week and you try to use the positives. I don’t think we took a step backwards. We didn’t take a step back this week. I think there’s a lot of good things today we can build on and that’s what we need to focus on and we can’t dwell on the negatives.”
INJURY UPDATE
Following the game, Shurmur updated the media on several injured players, including defensive lineman ![]()
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“Rubin, the calf -- the same calf -- affected him,” Shurmur said. “We’ll see how we go from there. Sheldon Brown had his ankle, but he had it taped up and went back in. Trent started the game. We didn’t feel like he was effective as he’s been and he was battling through it. He wanted to play, all that business. There’s no new injury, none of that, so we’ll just see how we go.”