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September 26, 2016
Head Coach Jay Gruden
On the injury report:
“DeAngelo [Hall], torn ACL, has surgery – he’ll be out for the season. [Bashaud] Breeland, he got an MRI, he has strained tendons in his ankle – he’ll be week to week. Shawn Lauvao has a moderate ankle sprain, we’re going to evaluate him on a week-to-week basis. [Kory] Lichtensteiger has a moderate calf strain, again, week-to-week. [Josh] Doctson went out to pregame warmup and could not push off the way he wanted to, his Achilles was too sore, so we’ve just got to continue to treat him and figure out the roots of the problem and try to get it fixed. DeSean Jackson aggravated his knee and ankle, came back and finished the game. And [Dashaun] Phillips has a hamstring strain. That is it.”
On if the team will look to bring in extra help for the offensive line:
“Yeah, we’re going to have to. We lost obviously a center, so we’ll probably have to bring in a center-type body, you know. We’re looking at that right now. Scot and the rest of the staff are working on that. We have some people in house. With [Arie] Kouandjio, he could be up as a guard. He’s been here and knows the system, is a good player for us. He’s an alternate candidate also.”
On if they will need to bring in help for the secondary following S DeAngelo Hall’s injury:
“Yeah, same thing. We’re going to have to work a couple of guys out and see where they stand. You know, the thing with [Dashaun] Phillips, we don’t know if he’s going to be available this week or not. With [Kendall] Fuller sitting here, he is obviously our No. 1 option A, and we’re excited to see him play. But, we’ll probably need another one for depth purposes.”
On if CB Bashaud Breeland’s injury results are better than anticipated:
“Yeah, I think it is. I think there was fear he had a high ankle [sprain] – you know, the bad one – or maybe even broke a bone in there, but I think this is good news. He’s always been a quick healer. He’s going to be back a lot sooner than I think people anticipate, hopefully.”
On shuffling players such as T Trent Williams along the offensive line:
“Yeah, that’s something we’ve got to look at. He’s so good at tackle but he actually played pretty darn good at guard. He’s a great athlete, probably be a good center too. I think we’ll just have to evaluate that situation and see how it goes, see how Arie does at left guard. Ty is an excellent player, there’s no question about it, but to move your Pro Bowl left tackle out of the mix to guard is something that’s a little unique and hard to do.”
On if CB Kendall Fuller’s previous knee injury is completely healed:
“There won’t be any restrictions, no. I think he’s played through it and I think he’s in a place now where he feels comfortable going out there and running and playing. I think he’s ready to go. I think he’s been ready, I think now it’s time to let him play.”
On what he has seen from Fuller in practice:
“I think he finished really strong in training camp and I think he had a good preseason, I really do. He was right there, neck-and-neck with [Dashaun] Phillips and we played Phillips there to start the season with the idea to get Fuller a little bit more time to get ready with his body and his mental state of mind. I think he’s more than ready. He’s a bright, bright football player. He’s got great, natural ball skills and instincts and I think he’ll be ready to go.”
On the significance of losing Hall:
“It’s a lot. He’s a captain, you know? He’s coming along, playing a lot better and better at safety, so it’s pretty significant. Now Will Blackmon will take over at that position and we’ll go from there. Will played well when he came in. From a player perspective, Will’s right there with him, but from a leadership standpoint, D-Hall has done a lot for this organization, a lot for this team. He’s going to be missed.”
On if there is concern for Hall’s future:
“We’ll have to see. I think he’s got to really take a look at it and see where he is once he does the rehab if he wants to try it again. I haven’t talked to him about that – his future or anything – we just want him to get well first. We want him to have the surgery and make sure he recovers. That’s the No. 1 priority right now. After that we’ll wait and see.”
On if the message changes coming off a win:
“The message doesn’t change. They [the team’s goals] are still all in reach for us. We’re still in last place in our division, however. Philadelphia is playing extremely well. Dallas, you look at them last night, they’re playing well. The Giants are 2-1; they’re a good football team. We have a lot of work to do. Winning one game does nothing for us other than get us in the right frame of mind and get a little positive vibe going here, but we have a lot of work to do. We have to get our first win at home Sunday against the Browns. It’s a tough opponent, very good coaching staff, and got a lot of work to do.”
On potential remedies for the safety position:
“I think all of those guys’ time will probably increase a little bit. [Deshazor] Everett will get more reps here; he’ll be the backup safety to Blackmon. Blackmon has become more comfortable back there. You can see that every day in practice and in the game. He had a big forced fumble in the game yesterday that was huge for us. He’s doing better. We’re just waiting to see. He’s going to obviously get the lion’s share of the reps, so we’ll see, but I think he’ll be ready to go.”
On S Will Blackmon recording a couple takeaways in the preseason:
“He did, he did. You can see him – he’s one of the guys that really started to pick up his level of play towards the end of the preseason. We’re excited about it. The first couple of games we didn’t get him a lot of reps out there, we wanted D-Hall to take it and run with the position. But now it’s up to Will and we have total faith that he’ll get the job done.”
On QB Kirk Cousins’ play yesterday:
“I think he did well. He threw for almost 300 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. Obviously the red zone struggles – I think we were 0-for-4 in the red zone – kicked some field goals. [Dustin] Hopkins is a heck of a weapon for us, but we have to get the points in the end zone, in the red zone. We tried a quarterback draw one time and we missed the hole a little bit. Had a couple throws that were covered, just couldn’t get it done. Can’t put a finger on one person in that area. It’s not all on Kirk, it’s all on some of the play-calling, some of the routes, everything. We tried a couple runs down there that didn’t work also. [There is] a little bit of everything that we can work on. It’s very important for us in the future here to get some points when we get down there. It’s really a terrible feeling when you get down there [and] you have such a good drive, methodical drive, where you get a turnover and when you get down there and you get three points. That’s something we really have to focus on and get better at.”
On the run/pass balance and the play of the running backs:
“I thought the balance was good. I think we were able to run the ball there at the end. I think we got the ball with six minutes to go in the game and got three or four first downs via the run and did some good things. Matt Jones had some tough yards in there and the line provided some good holes for him. We were able to kick a field goal and leave the Giants with a little bit more than a minute, 1:30 seconds left – 1:50, whatever it was – with two timeouts and our defense got the job done. So, I was happy with the balance. I think that’ll continue to be our staple hopefully moving forward but you never know on a game-to-game basis, but I think it makes Kirk more comfortable. The offensive line enjoys that a little bit more, but they did a great job pass blocking again. We gave up two sacks, one at the end of the half and one where we might have been able to get the ball thrown, but balance is key.”
On the decision to run the fake punt:
“Well, I think the risk was if you don’t get it they’ve got the ball at midfield, first and 10. The reward I thought outweighed the risk in that position. I thought with [Quinton] Dunbar running it, he’s got good hands. Although, we moved him to corner for a reason because he didn’t have great hands [laughter]. But we did it in practice and Tress Way has a great arm – very accurate. Coaching staff on the special teams side of it saw that it was a possibility. We practiced it. He caught it every time but the first day in the walkthrough. So, I was excited actually to get in that position where it was a pooch area where we could throw it and Tress made a great throw. We knew he wouldn’t get doubled out there so we called it. I was ready for it, they executed it. It’s a good thing.”
On the near interception in the end zone:
“I’ve heard that everybody says it was an interception except for the replay guy. I don’t know what the rule is. We just have got to live by it. I thought his elbow was down, I thought his butt was down, I thought he had control of the ball. I thought it was a clear challengeable play, it just didn’t work out for us. I don’t know what a catch is anymore. I don’t know if anybody does. We just are at the mercy of the result. I thought I could have maybe challenged the one Josh [Norman] stripped on Odell [Beckham Jr.] too. That was close. I was afraid. You know, you’ve just got to take the information that is given to you from upstairs or what you see on the replay and make a decision and hope for the best, but it didn’t work out for us.”
On if players ever took Cleveland lightly when he was in Cincinnati:
“No. Cincinnati and Cleveland when I was there was a pretty big rivalry and you never took the Browns for granted nor will I ever take any team in the National Football League for granted. They have good football players. I know Hue Jackson personally. He is an excellent football coach. He’ll have his team ready to play, I know that for sure from Hue. So, for us to take anybody for granted is an insult to anybody in the National Football League.”
On the competiveness of the NFC East this season:
“Yeah, I thought it was competitive last year. I don’t know, maybe I’m naïve. I think it is a good division, always have. And the Eagles are playing good football right now with Carson [Wentz] and the defense is playing well over there. The Giants have a great defense and Eli [Manning] and Odell [Beckham Jr.]. Obviously, the Cowboys with Dak [Prescott] playing as well as he is and their defense is stepping up and they have Dez Bryant and a good group of weapons and an awesome offensive line. It’s a very good division, very competitive. They can hurt you in a lot of different ways so to get too far behind early in the season will be tough to dig yourself out of, but we’ve got the Eagles twice again, we still get the Cowboys, we’ve still got the Giants and a lot of other tough games on our schedule. So, anything can happen in this division, that’s for sure.”
On areas in which Cousins showed improvement yesterday:
“We didn’t turn the ball over so that was good. That’s always the big thing. We protected the football. And sometimes coming away with points is better than trying to force the ball and throwing an interception. So I was happy about that. You know, a couple of times we were down there, they called a quarterback draw on third down and goal thinking that if we don’t get it, we’re still going to kick the field goal and take the lead. So that was part of me being too conservative maybe. But I think he played well. I think he completed a couple of deep balls. The two back-to-back to DeSean [Jackson] were huge plays for us to get the momentum back for us to give us a little sign of hope there moving forward to get the momentum. He made some big throws under some pressure situations and played the position. Got us in some good run checks and did a good job.”
On the thought process behind declining a penalty to make it second-and-10 instead of first-and-15:
“Second-and-10 instead of first-and-15? You know, it’s Eli [Manning], Odell [Beckham Jr.], it’s one less down for them to get the first down. They’re a pretty good offense. So, I don’t know, they were seemingly getting five yards pretty easy there for a little while. So I just thought second and 10 would be better. I think we all decided that. That’s a tough call though. I think it could go either way on that.”
On the team not stringing consecutive wins together until late in the season last year and how the team can win consistently:
“Yeah, I think the only thing you can do is… the ultimate cliché is take it one game at a time. That’s the only thing can do. You can’t look ahead. You can’t look ahead at your schedule and say, 'Hey, when do we play the Cowboys again?’ or 'What’s their record, what are they doing?’ I think we have to worry about what we’re doing, worry about what we’re doing and worry about our next opponent and that’s it. And if we can stay focused on that then we’ll have a good chance – a better one than if we start looking ahead at other things. So, that’s the ultimate goal is to stay focused on the Cleveland Browns and move forward.”
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Head Coach Jay Gruden
On the injury report:
“DeAngelo [Hall], torn ACL, has surgery – he’ll be out for the season. [Bashaud] Breeland, he got an MRI, he has strained tendons in his ankle – he’ll be week to week. Shawn Lauvao has a moderate ankle sprain, we’re going to evaluate him on a week-to-week basis. [Kory] Lichtensteiger has a moderate calf strain, again, week-to-week. [Josh] Doctson went out to pregame warmup and could not push off the way he wanted to, his Achilles was too sore, so we’ve just got to continue to treat him and figure out the roots of the problem and try to get it fixed. DeSean Jackson aggravated his knee and ankle, came back and finished the game. And [Dashaun] Phillips has a hamstring strain. That is it.”
On if the team will look to bring in extra help for the offensive line:
“Yeah, we’re going to have to. We lost obviously a center, so we’ll probably have to bring in a center-type body, you know. We’re looking at that right now. Scot and the rest of the staff are working on that. We have some people in house. With [Arie] Kouandjio, he could be up as a guard. He’s been here and knows the system, is a good player for us. He’s an alternate candidate also.”
On if they will need to bring in help for the secondary following S DeAngelo Hall’s injury:
“Yeah, same thing. We’re going to have to work a couple of guys out and see where they stand. You know, the thing with [Dashaun] Phillips, we don’t know if he’s going to be available this week or not. With [Kendall] Fuller sitting here, he is obviously our No. 1 option A, and we’re excited to see him play. But, we’ll probably need another one for depth purposes.”
On if CB Bashaud Breeland’s injury results are better than anticipated:
“Yeah, I think it is. I think there was fear he had a high ankle [sprain] – you know, the bad one – or maybe even broke a bone in there, but I think this is good news. He’s always been a quick healer. He’s going to be back a lot sooner than I think people anticipate, hopefully.”
On shuffling players such as T Trent Williams along the offensive line:
“Yeah, that’s something we’ve got to look at. He’s so good at tackle but he actually played pretty darn good at guard. He’s a great athlete, probably be a good center too. I think we’ll just have to evaluate that situation and see how it goes, see how Arie does at left guard. Ty is an excellent player, there’s no question about it, but to move your Pro Bowl left tackle out of the mix to guard is something that’s a little unique and hard to do.”
On if CB Kendall Fuller’s previous knee injury is completely healed:
“There won’t be any restrictions, no. I think he’s played through it and I think he’s in a place now where he feels comfortable going out there and running and playing. I think he’s ready to go. I think he’s been ready, I think now it’s time to let him play.”
On what he has seen from Fuller in practice:
“I think he finished really strong in training camp and I think he had a good preseason, I really do. He was right there, neck-and-neck with [Dashaun] Phillips and we played Phillips there to start the season with the idea to get Fuller a little bit more time to get ready with his body and his mental state of mind. I think he’s more than ready. He’s a bright, bright football player. He’s got great, natural ball skills and instincts and I think he’ll be ready to go.”
On the significance of losing Hall:
“It’s a lot. He’s a captain, you know? He’s coming along, playing a lot better and better at safety, so it’s pretty significant. Now Will Blackmon will take over at that position and we’ll go from there. Will played well when he came in. From a player perspective, Will’s right there with him, but from a leadership standpoint, D-Hall has done a lot for this organization, a lot for this team. He’s going to be missed.”
On if there is concern for Hall’s future:
“We’ll have to see. I think he’s got to really take a look at it and see where he is once he does the rehab if he wants to try it again. I haven’t talked to him about that – his future or anything – we just want him to get well first. We want him to have the surgery and make sure he recovers. That’s the No. 1 priority right now. After that we’ll wait and see.”
On if the message changes coming off a win:
“The message doesn’t change. They [the team’s goals] are still all in reach for us. We’re still in last place in our division, however. Philadelphia is playing extremely well. Dallas, you look at them last night, they’re playing well. The Giants are 2-1; they’re a good football team. We have a lot of work to do. Winning one game does nothing for us other than get us in the right frame of mind and get a little positive vibe going here, but we have a lot of work to do. We have to get our first win at home Sunday against the Browns. It’s a tough opponent, very good coaching staff, and got a lot of work to do.”
On potential remedies for the safety position:
“I think all of those guys’ time will probably increase a little bit. [Deshazor] Everett will get more reps here; he’ll be the backup safety to Blackmon. Blackmon has become more comfortable back there. You can see that every day in practice and in the game. He had a big forced fumble in the game yesterday that was huge for us. He’s doing better. We’re just waiting to see. He’s going to obviously get the lion’s share of the reps, so we’ll see, but I think he’ll be ready to go.”
On S Will Blackmon recording a couple takeaways in the preseason:
“He did, he did. You can see him – he’s one of the guys that really started to pick up his level of play towards the end of the preseason. We’re excited about it. The first couple of games we didn’t get him a lot of reps out there, we wanted D-Hall to take it and run with the position. But now it’s up to Will and we have total faith that he’ll get the job done.”
On QB Kirk Cousins’ play yesterday:
“I think he did well. He threw for almost 300 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. Obviously the red zone struggles – I think we were 0-for-4 in the red zone – kicked some field goals. [Dustin] Hopkins is a heck of a weapon for us, but we have to get the points in the end zone, in the red zone. We tried a quarterback draw one time and we missed the hole a little bit. Had a couple throws that were covered, just couldn’t get it done. Can’t put a finger on one person in that area. It’s not all on Kirk, it’s all on some of the play-calling, some of the routes, everything. We tried a couple runs down there that didn’t work also. [There is] a little bit of everything that we can work on. It’s very important for us in the future here to get some points when we get down there. It’s really a terrible feeling when you get down there [and] you have such a good drive, methodical drive, where you get a turnover and when you get down there and you get three points. That’s something we really have to focus on and get better at.”
On the run/pass balance and the play of the running backs:
“I thought the balance was good. I think we were able to run the ball there at the end. I think we got the ball with six minutes to go in the game and got three or four first downs via the run and did some good things. Matt Jones had some tough yards in there and the line provided some good holes for him. We were able to kick a field goal and leave the Giants with a little bit more than a minute, 1:30 seconds left – 1:50, whatever it was – with two timeouts and our defense got the job done. So, I was happy with the balance. I think that’ll continue to be our staple hopefully moving forward but you never know on a game-to-game basis, but I think it makes Kirk more comfortable. The offensive line enjoys that a little bit more, but they did a great job pass blocking again. We gave up two sacks, one at the end of the half and one where we might have been able to get the ball thrown, but balance is key.”
On the decision to run the fake punt:
“Well, I think the risk was if you don’t get it they’ve got the ball at midfield, first and 10. The reward I thought outweighed the risk in that position. I thought with [Quinton] Dunbar running it, he’s got good hands. Although, we moved him to corner for a reason because he didn’t have great hands [laughter]. But we did it in practice and Tress Way has a great arm – very accurate. Coaching staff on the special teams side of it saw that it was a possibility. We practiced it. He caught it every time but the first day in the walkthrough. So, I was excited actually to get in that position where it was a pooch area where we could throw it and Tress made a great throw. We knew he wouldn’t get doubled out there so we called it. I was ready for it, they executed it. It’s a good thing.”
On the near interception in the end zone:
“I’ve heard that everybody says it was an interception except for the replay guy. I don’t know what the rule is. We just have got to live by it. I thought his elbow was down, I thought his butt was down, I thought he had control of the ball. I thought it was a clear challengeable play, it just didn’t work out for us. I don’t know what a catch is anymore. I don’t know if anybody does. We just are at the mercy of the result. I thought I could have maybe challenged the one Josh [Norman] stripped on Odell [Beckham Jr.] too. That was close. I was afraid. You know, you’ve just got to take the information that is given to you from upstairs or what you see on the replay and make a decision and hope for the best, but it didn’t work out for us.”
On if players ever took Cleveland lightly when he was in Cincinnati:
“No. Cincinnati and Cleveland when I was there was a pretty big rivalry and you never took the Browns for granted nor will I ever take any team in the National Football League for granted. They have good football players. I know Hue Jackson personally. He is an excellent football coach. He’ll have his team ready to play, I know that for sure from Hue. So, for us to take anybody for granted is an insult to anybody in the National Football League.”
On the competiveness of the NFC East this season:
“Yeah, I thought it was competitive last year. I don’t know, maybe I’m naïve. I think it is a good division, always have. And the Eagles are playing good football right now with Carson [Wentz] and the defense is playing well over there. The Giants have a great defense and Eli [Manning] and Odell [Beckham Jr.]. Obviously, the Cowboys with Dak [Prescott] playing as well as he is and their defense is stepping up and they have Dez Bryant and a good group of weapons and an awesome offensive line. It’s a very good division, very competitive. They can hurt you in a lot of different ways so to get too far behind early in the season will be tough to dig yourself out of, but we’ve got the Eagles twice again, we still get the Cowboys, we’ve still got the Giants and a lot of other tough games on our schedule. So, anything can happen in this division, that’s for sure.”
On areas in which Cousins showed improvement yesterday:
“We didn’t turn the ball over so that was good. That’s always the big thing. We protected the football. And sometimes coming away with points is better than trying to force the ball and throwing an interception. So I was happy about that. You know, a couple of times we were down there, they called a quarterback draw on third down and goal thinking that if we don’t get it, we’re still going to kick the field goal and take the lead. So that was part of me being too conservative maybe. But I think he played well. I think he completed a couple of deep balls. The two back-to-back to DeSean [Jackson] were huge plays for us to get the momentum back for us to give us a little sign of hope there moving forward to get the momentum. He made some big throws under some pressure situations and played the position. Got us in some good run checks and did a good job.”
On the thought process behind declining a penalty to make it second-and-10 instead of first-and-15:
“Second-and-10 instead of first-and-15? You know, it’s Eli [Manning], Odell [Beckham Jr.], it’s one less down for them to get the first down. They’re a pretty good offense. So, I don’t know, they were seemingly getting five yards pretty easy there for a little while. So I just thought second and 10 would be better. I think we all decided that. That’s a tough call though. I think it could go either way on that.”
On the team not stringing consecutive wins together until late in the season last year and how the team can win consistently:
“Yeah, I think the only thing you can do is… the ultimate cliché is take it one game at a time. That’s the only thing can do. You can’t look ahead. You can’t look ahead at your schedule and say, 'Hey, when do we play the Cowboys again?’ or 'What’s their record, what are they doing?’ I think we have to worry about what we’re doing, worry about what we’re doing and worry about our next opponent and that’s it. And if we can stay focused on that then we’ll have a good chance – a better one than if we start looking ahead at other things. So, that’s the ultimate goal is to stay focused on the Cleveland Browns and move forward.”
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