Hue Jackson walked around a horde of reporters before stepping in front of the podium. He paused for a second, looked up and smiled.
"That was fun," Jackson said after a Friday practice that had nearly an hour of live, 11-on-11 play between the offense and defense.
There were big plays on offense, especially when Robert Griffin III was looking for rookie Corey Coleman, and some impressive defensive stops against the run. It's exactly what the coach wanted to see on the eve of Saturday's Orange and Brown Scrimmage in Columbus.
"The other day, the offense kind of got off to a fast start against the defense – had them on their heels. It flipped," Jackson said. "Today the defense got off to a fast start, kind of had the offense on their heels. For me, like I told our team, that's the makings of a good football team. If the offense is always dominating the defense, or the defense is always dominating the offense, then we've got a problem.
"What I saw over the last couple of days, was a team that's becoming a team."
Here's what else happened on a warm and sunny evening in Berea.
-- It took two plays for Coleman to make an impact on Friday's 11-on-11 session.
Working against the second-team defense, Coleman made a double move and hauled in a well-placed ball from Robert Griffin III for a long gain. Later in the scrimmage, he hauled in an even longer pass while guarded by veteran Tramon Williams and then capped his performance with his deepest catch in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
"Well, that's what he does," Jackson said. "He's not doing anything that I'm surprised of. I've said it before, that's why we drafted him. He's a tremendously talented young man. He's got some growing to do, so there's some things that he's got to clean up and continue to get better at. He always finds a way to make a play. That's what you're looking for in a guy that has the opportunity to score the football like he does."
As for Coleman? He called the performance "decent" and stressed his focus was on maintaining the consistency that's served him well through the first week of practice.
Music to Jackson's ears.
"He knows there are some things I'm expecting him to get cleaned up here real fast in order to be the type of player I think he can be," Jackson said.
-- In order for Coleman to make those big plays, he needed the ball in a good place. All three of them came from Griffin, who put some nice touch on his passes on an evening in which he kept the ball on his side of the field.
"I keep saying and you guys keep watching Robert get better and better and better right before your eyes," Jackson said. "He's no different than any other player I'm coaching. There's an expectation that I have for that position and how they play. There's an expectation for the line, defense or offense. Our guys have to meet that expectation, and I think he's trying. That's all you can ask for.
"He'll keep growing and going after it, and good things are going to happen."
-- Coleman's second big catch set up the first-team offense's first touchdown. On third-and-goal, Griffin lofted a pass only tight end Connor Hamlett could nab for the score.
Some other big plays included a long catch-and-run from rookie Jordan Payton, who broke a tackle after hauling in a pass from Austin Davis. Davis also threw a touchdown pass to rookie tight end J.P. Holtz, and Josh McCown connected with rookie Ricardo Louis on a long touchdown pass.
-- The double-edged sword of practicing against each other is when one side thrives, the other side comes away with plenty to fix.
On Friday, that was the Browns' running game.
"I didn't like it. I'll be the first to tell you I didn't like it," Jackson said. "I liked the second part of it. There were a couple of times that (RB Isaiah Crowell) had some good runs. We have got to get our pads down. I think what it was is that our defense said, 'Forget you, we're not letting you run it today.' That's going to happen. We play in the AFC North. There are some really good defensive football teams. They're not going to just let you walk out there and just walk up and down the field. We have got to become a gritty group up front."
-- Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews and former NFL star Desmond Howard were among those watching from the sidelines Friday. Matthews' son, Mike, was signed by the Browns as an undrafted free agent in May. He's primarily worked at center.
