Shurmur press conf. transcript

Browns Head Coach Pat Shurmur press conference 8-26-11

(Opening statement)- “I don’t have much to add from last night. I think I’ll stick with my comments after the game after watching the tape. In certain instances in the game, there are things in there better than I thought and in certain spots you can see errors that were made that are killers. We were out here today getting rid of it. Part of a process of a game win, lose or draw its 24-hours. You come in, you correct the mistakes and in the case of today, we came out and did some physical work with the idea that we’re still in training camp mode. The players were great. The guys that made errors really absorbed it and we did a very good job of going through the corrections. Now we’re moving on to the Chicago Bears and the first regular season game.”

(On Titus Brown’s injury status)- “I think he has a high ankle sprain. We’ll have to just see. They’re still fully evaluating it, but he may be out for some time.”

(On Brandon Jackson’s injury status)- “It’s hard to say with that. He’s in a cast. He’s around the building so he’s not avoiding you. I know he’s here, I saw him. He’ll be out for an extended period as well.”

(On if turf toe is still the diagnosis)- “He has a toe injury. I don’t know the actual term for it. He does not have a broken toe, but it’s going to take some time to settle down.”

(On if their amount of injuries are normal or abnormal compared to the rest of the league)- “The coaches that I interact with behind the scenes, I think we’re all dealing with the same types of issues. Everybody here, we deal with them on a day-to-day basis so we’re aware of the ones that we have. Again, I think everybody’s dealing with the same issues in terms of injuries.”

(On Usama Young’s return)- “I think he’s improving. The reports that I’m getting are that he’s getting better and that it’ll be very, very soon before he’s out here. It won’t be long.”

(On making roster decisions and if certain injuries affect making those decisions)- “In some situations it’ll affect the roster. On the other hand we know a lot about some of the players that are injured or I would say are not practicing. I guess I would say it would be a case-by-case basis. We may end up on our 53-man roster having some guys that haven’t competed much.”

(On if last night’s struggles surprised him)- “I don’t expect it. When you look back on it, there were some things last night that we didn’t do well. There were some easy ones we didn’t take advantage of and most of the errors that we had were because of the Browns not the Eagles. I’ll go back and say that they played a good game and they’re a tremendous team. When you walk in that stadium you sense that confidence of winning that, ‘I want to develop with this team.’ I feel good that we can correct the errors we made last night.”

(On if it was a real game situation would they being able to stabilize the game by running the ball)- “There were times in the game where we ran the ball for decent chunks of yardage. Believe me, there’s reason for doing what I’m doing. I think that we have the ability to run the football here. I’m trying to use the preseason as a way to develop the team, you really need to develop the pass game as much as the run game. That’s important in the preseason. Especially for a bunch of guys that have only been together for less than a month.”

(On Phil Taylor’s performance)- “I’ll tell you what, there were flashes of what you want from a defensive tackle in this league and then again, there were some areas in the game where he needed to be a little more explosive and consistent. Generally, like I said last night, he’s making steady progress and that’s good.”

(On Taylor working inside with Ahtyba Rubin)- “Very well. Rubin’s one of those guys that goes hard all the time. He’s a true pro. For a young guy like Phil that’s got so much ability, that’s a good pair. In fact, there they are together right there. They’re working well together. Rubin, leaders are guys that kind of take care of their own business and have enough strength and will to help out with the other and I think that’s where Rubin is at.”

(On Taylor making steady progress verses a giant leap)- “Yeah, I think so. Again, I’m comparing the games. You see him in practice and guys have good days and bad days, but I think his game each game has picked up. That’s where I’m going with that.”

(On the offensive line meshing together as a unit)- “I think you can point to some guys that played extremely well. We had a rookie playing in there at left guard. I’ll tell you what, Jason Pinkston has made huge, huge strides in three plus weeks. It’s one thing to be out on the perimeter running routes as a rookie and doing it, but when you’re in there in the thick of it, it’s very challenging for those big guys. It really takes development and seasoning and I think he’s making huge progress a lot like Phil, who’s a rookie. Then I think you have pretty much steady play from the other guys that are vets in there. If you ask them, they’ll all say, ‘Gosh darn it. I had a handful of plays that I just wasn’t very good.’”

(On keeping cuts to a minimum or bringing in guys)- “You’d like to think that you’re going to comprise your team of the guys that are here minus the guys you can’t keep. The reality of it is I think every roster may have a new face when it comes to the 53. That’s a reality.”

(On Eric Steinbach’s injury status)- “He’s dealing with a back issue - disc. At this point, he’s going through some treatments that we’re hoping we’ll get him back. There’s no real final call on when he’ll be back or not.”

(On if the starters will play against the Bears)- “My plan is that we’re going to go in there and do what we have to do to win the game. In terms of the starters, we haven’t decided yet on who’s playing. There are some positions where we’re trying to find a starter. I’m not trying to be evasive, but we haven’t really decided yet how we’re going to do that.”

(On Jordan Norwood’s injury)- “His knee flared up a little bit on the punt return when he ran into Sheldon (Brown) and the gunner. He obviously played through it and then he woke up this morning and it was a little bit sore. He got a little bit of a knock on his knee on that play.”

(On how you avoid that situation from happening)- “It’s rare. Like I mentioned last night, that’s one of those things that you’ll see happen around the league five times a year. You’d like to see that not happen, but there is communication that’s going on that he’s fair catching it and for guys to stay away. Sheldon was just blocking his fanny off. It was a freak”

(On if the special teams break downs were a function of this offseason)- “I’m concerned about it. I don’t know if it’s a function of the offseason and how we’re practicing. Again, the first one which was kind of a freak deal. We had the blocked field goal which was a break down on the edge. Then we obviously muffed the punt. Here you can break those down into individual tasks. We’ve got to get better there.”

(On if they spend more time working on those issues)- “I think you get what you emphasize. In areas that you see errors then you go back and put a little more emphasis. A week ago, we had an issue with ball security so we spent three days over emphasizing it. Aside from the one punt, I think it was pretty good.”

(On if he’s concerned with depth at wide receiver with the injuries)- “I’m not as concerned as if we were starting training camp and there’s a certain amount of work that needs to get done. As we get closer to our first game week, so to speak, we can manage that better.”

(On Mohamed Massaquoi playing against Chicago)- “I don’t know. My understanding is that he’ll be out here practicing this week. We’ll see how well he does. Much like Montario, we brought him back and tried to give him a week plus before we put him in the game. We’ll have to evaluate it that way.”

(On Marcus Benard)- “I think he came in this morning with a sore shoulder so he went to get it checked out. I don’t know any more on that yet. I’m going to get some more updates as I go in today.”