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CLEVELAND BROWNS COACH PAT SHURMUR

(Opening statement)- “On the injury front, T.J. Ward has a left knee and then Frostee Rucker has a groin, so those are two guys we’ll have to evaluate as we go. I know they were mentioned as injuries in the game. We’ll see what happens overnight and how extensive they may be. We went in at halftime 14-10, and I don’t think we played our best football, but we were ahead. Then it kind of spiraled on us in the second half. As happy as I’ve been the last three weeks standing up here talking about team victories, I think it’s safe to say this was a team loss. In the second half, we threw two interceptions and missed on a fourth down conversion which essentially is a turnover. They scored twice off those two interceptions and got points, and then stretched the lead out. I thought we struggled to move the ball effectively throughout the game. I have to credit them for doing that. We knew coming in it would be a challenge, we prepared for the Redskins, as I mentioned, and they did a nice job. They came in, they were opportunistic and they did what they had to do to win the football game. I don’t think we played our best ball.”

(On why they weren’t able to adjust to Kirk Cousins play-fakes and roll outs)-“I don’t know if we didn’t adjust to it. We practiced against it all week. They were very effective with it. They are a very effective boot and naked team. They do a nice job with the off-tackle run game, which really lends itself to that play action. They made some plays on it. There were times when we had decent coverage and Kirk made nice throws. Anytime you have the quarterback on the perimeter, if you over commit to one or the other then he runs, which he got a couple runs on us. I don’t think it was a matter of the fact that we didn’t prepare for it or adjust to it. I think they did a nice job.”

(On how much Robert Griffin III not playing affected the game plan)- “I’m glad you asked that question. That has nothing to do with it. They would have been doing all the same things, with the addition of the option if RGIII was in the game. That looked like the Redskins offense. I’d like to credit Kirk. I thought he did a nice job of playing the game. He led his team to victory.”

(On where this loss leaves the team)- “We lost the game this week. We lost the football game. We’re disappointed we lost. We’re just pushing forward. We’re going to reload. Everybody’s going to go home. We’re going to get as much of a night’s sleep as we can. We’re going to get up in the morning, and get prepared to play the Denver Broncos. That’s where is leaves us.”

(On if today was a major step back for Brandon Weeden and why he gets so many passes batted down)- “Two part question, I don’t think it was a setback. I don’t think it was his best game, but I think that can be said for all of us. Why does he get passes batted down? We throw a lot of shallow crossing concepts. We throw the ball on the interior of the defense quite a bit. There are times when the rush gets stymied, if you might, and then they just stop and put their hands up. That happens though. I can’t say that’s always the case, but that could be a couple things you could write about.”

(On what he saw on the two interceptions in the third quarter and if players were open)- “I’ll have to look at it. There were a couple things going on there. Whether he was able to get through it or not, I thought the protection was good initially. We can’t throw interceptions.”

(Closing statement)- “I would like to say, and I wanted to lead off with it though, the events this week in Connecticut, we obviously were affected by it like the rest of the world, not intimately like the people in Newtown. It’s very disturbing stuff. I know that our players have talked about it a bunch. We’ve talked about it together. We’d like to send out our thoughts and prayers to everyone that was directly involved. I think we all know that in some indirect way we’re all involved. If we can learn anything from it, let’s not leave anything unsaid. If you’ve got an opportunity to hug your child, let’s not let anything go because tomorrow and anything happening tomorrow is not guaranteed. Our thoughts and prayers go to everyone in Newtown that’s been affected by that. I wanted to lead off with that, I’m glad I remembered to say it. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our issues of the day. I think it’s very important that the folks there know that we’re thinking about them.”