Opening statement:
"Not a good day for the Browns obviously. Did not play as well. We left some plays out there, but I did see the fight in the second half from our football team. We did not play very well in the first half. We just did not play well. We need to play better. There are some things I thought we did OK in the second half. There were some runs that were OK. Did not throw the football as well as we can as an offensive football team. Obviously, I have to give their defense credit. They made plays, and we didn't. We had a chance to get it flipped, and there was a real key play down there in the second half where we had to kick the field goal. I thought we had a chance to go score. We could have had a chance to score. We just did not see it the same way. We just have to grow from these things and keep getting better. The more you keep playing different people, these are the things that are going to show up – just the growing pains. We will get through it."
On QB Robert Griffin III's performance:
"I thought he had good poise. I didn't feel like it was too big for him. Obviously, there are some plays that we wish we had back and he will wish that he had back. That is Robert's [second] game where he has really been out there playing in two years. Like I said the other day, if things go great, good. If they do not go as good, that is OK, too. We have to grow from it. He will grow from it and continue to get better."
On if the play referenced on the opportunity to score was when Griffin threw it away out of bounds:
"No, not that one. No, there was a chance where we had a run up in there called. We just didn't see it the same way. I think it would have been a big play."
On when Griffin threw the ball away on that drive:
"I think he was trying to not get hit. He was trying to be a little bit more protective of himself there, which is smart. Sometimes you have to say uncle, and that is the one that he did."
On the Bengals' ability to drive down the field in the first quarter:
"I have to look at the tape. Obviously, I don't think we fit somethings as well as we did in the second half in the first half. Our second half, the defense showed up and fought their butts off. In the first half, they kind of had us on our heels a little bit. They did a good job that way. We have to get better."
On his message to the Browns at halftime, given the team looked different in the second half:
"It doesn't matter what I said. It was not enough to get us over the hump to win. I think I say a lot all the time every half time. Our guys have responded in the last few weeks in the second half. We have gotten better that way. What we have to do is start games faster."
On if Griffin did a good job protecting himself:
"I thought he did. Yeah, I thought he did not try to expose himself that way. I saw him one time run out of bounds. I am telling him, 'Hey, go north,' and he is going, 'Hey, I am protecting myself.' He is right. You have to do those things so you can be out there for the next play. For him, just being out there and moving around again, calling the game and being involved in a game against a good football team, he showed that he belongs. He has to get better in some areas. I think we all know that. I am not running from that, but for the first time back out late in the season like this, I thought he held his own."
On previously stating this season that Browns players are expected to produce if they are out on the field and if QB Robert Griffin III is being held to a different standard:
"No, it is not a different standard. I am not saying that. I expect him to play well and produce, but you have a guy that is a quarterback. That is different. That is the most prestigious position in all of pro sports in my opinion, and you are asking a lot. We are sticking him back out there, and it is not like we have training camp and it is not like it is a preseason game and we are getting him ready. This is a real game, and it counts so he has to go out there and play well. You can't simulate everything that is going to happen in a game in practice. There is just no way to do it. At that position, you have to be a little bit more understanding as you go through it. I want him to play well. The more guys are around our system and how we play, the better they will be, but again, this is a first time for everybody and we are going through it right now."
On if Griffin will start next week against the Bills:
"Right now, that is my intention to do that. Unless there is something medically, which no one has told me – he played the whole game – or something like that is not right, he will go out there and play next week versus the Bills."
On if Griffin missed some open receivers because he has not played in a game recently:
"I know you guys are seeing there were some opportunities to hit some guys underneath, and sometimes it is not just him. Sometimes guys need to be a little bit wider than what they were. They have to be in the right spot, but do you think that we can still be able to complete the ball? Yeah, you do. That is what it is. It is getting to know these guys again in a game situation. Practice is different. I hope we know that. We practice fast and do all that, but the game is a different game once you play in the game. It is."
On how Griffin 'showed he belongs':
"I thought the poise and the ability to run around with the ball and to protect himself. I think that is what we are all concerned about – if he did get hit, if he did go down, would he get up? He did, and for the most part, he was pretty team protecting. He was not trying to put himself in situations where he was just going to get hit and maybe not get up. I thought that he showed that he has made that jump, and that is important."
On DL/LB Emmanuel Ogbah's performance:
"He is a young player that has emerged, and he is starting to have his arrow go up. These young guys have been playing a lot. They start off going and learning how to play the NFL game and then you start making plays. Then you kind of taper off a little bit and then you hit it again. Hopefully, he will finish the season strong with making plays because we think this guy has a bright future ahead of him."
On Griffin's interception on the flea-flicker play:
"Yeah, that was disappointing, but we took a shot and should not have, but we did. At the same time, that is on me. I made the call so I will take responsibility for that."
On if he noticed an emotional exchange between Griffin and WR Terrelle Pryor Sr.:
"Oh yeah, I noticed it. It was because we were trying to get in the right formation. I think one was trying to call the formation and the other one is trying to get people lined up. Those things happen from time to time. That is nothing. I don't think anybody should read into that. Those things happen from time to time."
On if RB Isaiah Crowell or the OL did something different to produce the 100-yard rushing game:
"No, I think it is us doing something different. That was another one of the areas, as I told you, that we need to get the running game back to going. That part of it we did OK, not great but better. We have to continue to get better at it. This is a team sport, and we have to play well in all phases – special teams, offense and defense – to win a game. As I said before, we almost have to play close to perfect to do that. We can't play in spurts. We can't play not well enough in the first half and then come out in the second half and do some things better and think you can catch a good team because they have good players, too. We have to find a way to start faster."
On how tough it is when the team is unable to highly involve Pryor in the offense:
"Oh, it is tough because he is a playmaker. We want to get him involved. We are trying to, and you have to remember the other team is trying to take him away. We have to find more ways. That was disappointing. The one thing I left the game with being disappointed about from our staff standpoint and from an offensive standpoint was not getting him more opportunities. They were trying to take him away. It is not like I don't think Robert was not looking for him. He was trying, but this guy flashed, that guy flashed and you have to go try to make a play someplace else."
On Griffin throwing the ball deep early was part of the Browns' gameplan:
"Oh yeah, that was, and I thought one was pass interference. They did not call it. Those things right now for us, it is like those things we will talk about because those things make a difference in our game. That is a huge gain or it is we are getting the ball down there because it is a penalty. We can't get those right now for whatever the reason is. We don't get those calls, and that is part of it."
On WR Corey Coleman having 11 targets but only three catches and if that is a result of Coleman and Griffin not playing together much:
"Just have to spend more time [together]. Have to spend more time."
