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CLEVELAND BROWNS COACH PAT SHURMUR

(Opening statement)- “Let me start with injuries like I normally do. Emmanuel Stephens, left the game with a neck injury. He’s fine, and we’ll just see how that progresses. I’m proud of the team. I’ll tell you what, that was a team victory. If you like watching defensive football, it was great. For those of you that weren’t on the field, those conditions were less than perfect for throwing and kicking. At least, in my short time here in Cleveland, that wasn’t ideal weather to do either one of those two things. It was kind of steady throughout. The guys battled. I’ll tell you what, to keep an explosive team like that out of the end zone, that’s a terrific job by our defense. You can talk about a play or two here or there, but generally speaking that’s a very, very fine football team. I’ve always been a big fan of Norv Turner. I think he gets it. I think he does an outstanding job. I remember him back when I was in Philly and he was with the Redskins. I admire him. He and my uncle were buddies when they worked together. We have a chance sometimes to reminisce a little bit. It was a very fine team we played. Our guys fought. It was interesting, before the game I asked those guys, I said, ‘Let’s go for three hours and 15 minutes and just play this thing like a bunch of kids playing in the rain.’ I think they did that. I’m happy that they get a chance to enjoy the victory. We presented a couple of game balls, the first one to Bryan Wiedmeier, our friend who is involved in a little struggle right now. Obviously, the second game ball went to Jimmy Haslam, our new owner. Another interesting note from the locker room, I was kind of happy about the victory, so I was getting ready to give them a, ‘See you Wednesday,’ and before I could get that out they all said, ‘Nope coach, we’ll see you tomorrow,’ which I admire because these guys know how important it is to get back to work. They know we’ve got a bye week on the horizon and they want to work. That’s an impressive thing for our team.”

(On Trent Richardson’s ribs and what he did today)- “There was nothing wrong with his ribs. I just had to keep answering the questions. I think he had a great week of practice. Trent’s a competitor. Trent wants to be out there. I’m sure he was less than perfect, but he obviously had a tremendous game.”

(On if there was a difference in the Richardson attacked)- “I thought our guys up front for the most part blocked our runs pretty well. We knew it was going to be one of those games that was going to be close to the vest. I think they handled it well, and Trent ran hard. There’s no question he ran hard.”

(On their last possession of the game when they were backed up)- “The last possession, being backed up there, we got to a third and medium there. We threw the ball to Trent. I knew once he had the ball in his hands in the flat that he was going to make the first down. That was huge. Then we had a couple more possession throws and then a couple of good runs. We had to take some time off the clock. Of course we were trying to score, but we had to take some time off the clock, and we had to flip the field because they are very explosive. All they needed was a field goal so from that standpoint it worked out well.”

(On what was the key for the defense to play so well)- “I think they felt challenged by the opponent and I think they’ve got great pride and they went out and they executed.  I think the defensive coaches, Dick Jauron and all the coaches, put together a terrific plan and then the players went out and executed.”

(On if they drafted Trent Richardson for bad weather games like this)- “No, we drafted him to play on nice days too.  It just so happens that you have to play in the rain once in a while. I think it’s common that we talk about running the football.  We had a whole bunch of nice idea’s throwing the football and you just couldn’t get it done today.  It was one of the games too where the score was such where you could be close to the vest and so it worked out well.”

(On Buster Skrine being criticized this year and making a big play at the end)- “Not by me. Buster is a guy that I’ve always thought challenges.  We were in man coverage and he did a good job.  Those are defining plays when you get a team stopped fourth and 10.”

(On not turning the ball over in these conditions)- “I thought for the most part we handled the ball well, which is very important. One turnover can make the difference in a game that can come down to a field goal one way or the other.  Credit to our guys and they did a good job.”

(On if he held his breath when Richardson took big hits and if he had to check to see if he was okay)- “No, you just keep watching him play.  I can read his body language now and know when it’s maybe better to throw it, hand it to somebody or get him out of there.”

(On Joshua Cribbs should have fielded the punt at the end)- “I’m going to look at it.  It’s hard to tell unless you’re out there, but the ball was doing funny things.  You’ll have to ask him, but those were hard balls to judge coming off the punter’s foot.”

(On what he saw on Richardson’s touchdown run)- “I saw him break a couple tackles and get in the end zone.  It was just a lead draw. He hit it up in there nice and tight and then got to the second level and you could see he put a little burst on and got it in there.”

(On Shawn Lauvao giving Richardson a push during the play)- “I don’t know what you would call that.  He was urging him along, right? (joking).”

(On when he knew the weather was going to affect the game)- “When I drove in here this morning.  I typically get here and then walk out on the field to take a look and it was pretty steady and from what I was told it was going to happen for the rest of the day.  We had things ready to go.  We were going to try and be a little more aggressive throwing the football, but we changed gears and you always have enough plays to get to other stuff.”

(On James-Michael Johnson’s performance)- “I think he played better.  I think he’s been like all of our rookies.  They’re playing a little better each week and I think he showed up well today.”