BALTIMORE RAVENS TRANSCRIPTS: BROWNS WEDNESDAY
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Head Coach John Harbaugh
On the 0-2 Browns coming to Baltimore hungry for a win:"I'm sure [our players] understand the Browns' situation. They've been studying their situation, but our guys are focused on us and what we need to do today to get ready to play."
On whether things have settled down after the postponement of last week's game:"We've moved on from it. We're just focused on the Browns and we're confident, and we're going to play on Sunday."
On RB Jamal Lewis:"He's one of the best running backs in the game – has been for a long time. [He's] powerful, a build-up-speed runner [and] dangerous if he gets to the secondary. And, our guys have a lot of respect for him."
On whether the additional week between games was beneficial to rookie QB Joe Flacco:"That's one of the plusses. We talked about it on Monday. You can catalog the plusses of the situation, and that's we've tried to do now. And, that's one, the fact that Joe gets an extra week of practice before his second game."
On CB Chris McAlister's play given his injuries and going up against many of the bigger receivers in the league:"Chris McAlister has done a great job of fighting through the injury, getting treatment, working in the weight room with Bob Rogucki and John Dunn. He's just done a great job of working really hard to be able to play. That showed up in the game last week and he looks good this week."
On the matchup of McAlister and Brown WR Braylon Edwards:"Any DB is going to have a touch matchup against Braylon Edwards. Chris knows that's a big challenge for him."
On the Browns being hungry for a win because of their two losses:"The Browns are a real good football team, and every game in this league is important. I'm sure that they're taking this game very seriously."
**On how much WR DonteStallworth adds to the Browns' offense:**"We were with Donte in Philadelphia, and DonteStallworth is a really good receiver. The Cleveland people haven't seen him yet at his best this year. He's an explosive, powerful guy who's really hard to tackle when he catches underneath routes and obviously is a vertical threat. So we're taking Donte very seriously."
On the matchup between LB Terrell Suggs and Browns T Joe Thomas:"Suggs will be on both sides, so it will be Suggs against their pass protection, just like it will be the rest of our front, our DBs, our linebackers – we'll bring everybody – against their pass protection. That will be one matchup that will show up. Thomas is a really good football player."
On whether he feels the team has grasped the new offense fully allowing him to be more flexible offensively:"They've got the concept of the offense and the idea that Cam is going to be real versatile and flexible, but also the fact that we want to be really physical and we want to be fast tempo. I think they understand that part of it. As far as having the whole thing, there'd be too much to have after one week and that kind of evolves as we go."
On whether he will use the committee approach at RB with the return of RB Willis McGahee to the lineup:"It's our philosophy, and the running back situation applies. We're going to use all of our good players and put them in positions where they do what they do well. So we're going to put our running backs out there and let them play."
On whether he is concerned that players may be rusty after unexpected time off last week:"No, no concern over rust."
On the advantage of Flacco being able to start his first two games at home:"We're talking about cataloging the plusses, and [we have] mentioned one of them, you mentioned another one. The fact that Joe gets a second game at home before he has to go on the road is going to be valuable for him."
On Browns QB and former Raven Derek Anderson:"I wasn't here for his time here, obviously, but having watched him last year as a secondary coach and having the chance to watch him on tape – didn't play him but we studied him – he's a strong-arm guy. He's obviously a big guy. He does a great job of handling pressure and he's smart, and our guys have a lot of respect for him."
On whether FB Lorenzo Neal is feeling better:"Lorenzo's fine."
On whether S Ed Reed's status is game-to-game:"Yep, that's what he is."
WR Derrick Mason
On how he feels head coach John Harbaugh handled the cancellation of last week's game with the team:"I think he handled it well. He handled it like a head coach is supposed to handle it – prepare your team throughout the week and plan on playing. But you can't control the circumstances, you can't control the weather. You just make sure, if we would have played, your team is prepared to play and we were."
On QB Joe Flacco having an extra week to prepare:"I think it helps him out a lot. I know he was ready to play last week. He was well prepared to play last week, but I think this week he's had an added week to really analyze their defense and see where the weak spots are, if there are any, in that defense. It gives him another week to mature as a player under this system. So any time you can get a surprise value like this, especially for a young quarterback, it works wonders. Now he doesn't have to have his second start on the road in front of a hostile environment. Now he gets his second start back here at home with a more appreciative audience. I'm looking for Joe to do well this game as he did the first game."
On the changes the Browns have made in their defense:"Romeo [Crennel] will have those guys playing. Regardless of who they bring, he's going to have those guys playing. The big guy in the middle, Shaun Rogers, he's made that defense into what it is right now. Their backend is pretty good. Their linebackers, of course, are very good. But that front three, that big guy gets in the middle and he pushes everybody back and allows everybody else to rush the passer. So, I think their defense was good last year; I think they're much improved. But we'll concentrate on what we have to do this week and that's prepare to play a very good Cleveland team."
On what it would mean to be 2-0 in the division with a win on Sunday:"Just like it meant for us to go 1-0 when we played Cincinnati two weeks ago. It means a lot, especially because it's a divisional game. You always want to try [to win]. Those games are a little bit more important than the other games, because at the end it boils down to how many teams did you beat in your division. That separates the teams that make the playoffs and teams that don't. For us to have a possibility to go in and come out of this 2-0, it's good. But we know it starts now. We've got to prepare ourselves. We could talk all we want to, but we have to prepare ourselves to play a very good Cleveland team."
On whether this game is dangerous because Cleveland is hungry for a win at 0-2:"Every team is dangerous; every team is dangerous. I don't think one game is more dangerous than the other. I think every game, every time we step out on the field on a Sunday or a Monday, is a dangerous game because we don't plan on losing. Every game can turn out to be one of those games where it's kind of a letdown. So we're not looking at this game any different than any other game. This is a game that we have to win, and I'm pretty sure that's the same mindset that they have as well – [that] they have to win this game."
On the difficulty of playing 15 straight weeks without a bye this season:"It is what it is. Whether it's 14 straight weeks, 15 straight weeks, we play football. We are a well-conditioned team. Coach Harbaugh made sure that happened during the OTAs and two-a-day practices. We're a well-conditioned team, so whether we have to go 15 straight weeks – honestly, we're looking to go more than 15 straight weeks – whatever it may be that's the obstacle we've got ahead of us and it's an obstacle that I think we can overcome as a team."
LB Ray Lewis
On how he feels rookie head coach John Harbaugh handled the postponement of the Houston game last week:"I think he handled it the way it should have been handled. You have to understand where he came from: There were a lot of people that were truly affected by a natural disaster. Just to see everything that came to Houston, your regards and your sympathy has to first and foremost think about them and the lives that were lost down there in the city. The game is the last thing you should be thinking about when you see things like that. I was talking to my mom [about] if we were going to play or not, and I [said], 'Mom, we're praying that hopefully everybody makes it down there safe and things like that.' So, I think coach handled it very well and letting us understand how important it was just to [understand] what the city of Houston was going through."
On facing 15 straight weeks of football without a bye:"You just let football be football. The bottom line is that every week is a just a different 60-minute ball game and you just handle it like that. There's always upsides to everything, I believe, in life. If you get on the right road you just keep rolling. Sometimes in this business taking that break sometimes hurts [a team]. If you don't have a break, just suck it up. Houston is in the same situation we're in – they're missing their bye – so it's not like we're the only one. It's football. We're going to adjust to it and just keep on working from there."
On whether he thinks Browns RB Jamal Lewis is as powerful a player as he always was:"I think Jamal, outside of maybe one or two bad games, Jamal has always been Jamal. Jamal is going to hit the hole hard. Jamal is going to play a physical football game. Jamal just loves the game of football. Anytime you get that coming at you in itself, you've got to take your hat off to a guy who just likes playing football the way he does. He's still the same Jamal. He's going to really try to get down. He'll get on your back, things like that. Our job as a defense is to make sure he doesn't get rolling, and things like that, and pretty much try to contain the offense."
On the Browns' offense, despite their 0-2 record:"More than what I see, I think they see themselves as a very talented team. They have a lot of pieces over there if you look at those guys. On paper it's one thing, but I think we've been through the injury bug ourselves. When you do go through things like that, it's hard to find out where your chemistry is going to come from, where your consistency is going to come from and things like that. But they're a capable team. They're a capable team and they won 10 games last year and they're back this year. They started out with two of the hardest teams in the NFL. The bottom line is we can't worry about what they have going on. We've got to worry about what we've got going on. So, as healthy as we can get, I think the better we'll play."
On how much the offense controlling time of possession helps the defense:"In any game of football, everybody knows that the best defense on the field is a great offense if you can hold the ball. Any time you're not on the field [is good]. When you look at the way Dallas had productivity when they were in Cleveland, I think they held the ball for almost over 10 minutes at one time in the fourth quarter. Any time you have that type of balance on any side of the ball, it's going to wear down one side of the ball. So, any time you can come in, really try to control the game and really keep the game under wraps and [have] 'Flac' [Joe Flacco] stay out there and do his thing, it's only going to help us."
On the importance of having CB Chris McAlister, who can match up against good wide receivers:"Mac is probably one of the special ones. It's just good to always, once again, to have your core start, have your core healthy. And now, Mac is healthy, excited. And everybody on that back game is. But to have someone like Chris [is great]. Chris is one of those corners you can put out there and just say. 'Just go be you and we'll check on you at the end of the game.' It's just good to have that balance right now. I think most importantly, it's just good to have everybody healthy."
On the advantage of having DT Justin Bannan step in and fill the role of NT Kelly Gregg:"That's the beauty of our team, the talented core guys that we have. When one man goes down, the next man is up just as quickly. You don't miss a beat. Of course, you want certain guys there, but if they're not there you go right down to Justin Bannan and you don't miss a step. Justin's going to go as hard as Kelly and give you the same things Kelly gives you. They give a little something different, but they are kind of the same type players. I think it's like that all the way around our team. Next man up, next man up. I think as a team, we've handled it pretty well."
On whether this past week felt like a bye for him:"If you take whatever days that we had off the way me and Lorenzo Neal took them, you gain a great advantage from it. You really do, man. We laid down, and I was trying to make sure [Neal] averaged a gallon of water a day. We fought through each other just making sure we got through the gallon of water, making sure you get massages and making sure you're off you're feet. If you take care of yourself during the bye week, like I regularly do anyway, it's going to benefit you whether if it's sooner or later, bottom line. We got a lot of football [TV viewing] in, saw it from the outside. But, it's still just a 60-minute ball game, and as long as you take care of yourself, everything else takes care of itself."
On whether he feels like a man younger than his age:"It only gets better. Life only gets better when you've been in the game as long as I've been in the game. The game has just slowed down so much for me, man. I still love having fun and I love playing the way we play football. When you worry about everything else that takes away from it… I just love that we have a great challenge coming up this weekend, and we're going to get to do it all over again."
QB Joe Flacco
On how an extra week to prepare and playing at home again this week helps the team:"We'll see. I think we're excited to get out there and get ready to play again. We prepared all last week, but there were obviously some unfortunate events. We feel for the people down there, and we're just hoping that everybody's OK down there. It sounds like they're pretty good and they did a pretty good job down there, but that's past us now and we're moving on to Cleveland. We did, we got an extra week of practice before our game and we're going to be back at home, but when it comes down to it on Sunday, it's not going to matter. What's going to matter is us going out there and playing the way we want to and going [out] and having fun."
On whether the extra week of practice helped him in getting to know the system:"I think any time you get more practice under your belt you benefit from it. I think playing another game on Sunday, I would have benefited from that, but obviously we didn't get to play. You can look at it a couple of different ways, and I'm going to look at it like it was a good thing. I'm going into my second game as prepared as I can be."
On the advantage of starting his first two games in front of the hometown crowd and not on the road right away:"It's always fun to play at home in front of the home crowd, and we can go out there and just have fun and play. Any time you're playing at home it's fun. But, there are benefits of going and playing on the road, too. You get the experience, so the next time it comes up it's not the first time. It should be fun. It should be a good time for us to go out there and play our second game – it's a division game – in front of the home crowd and hopefully add another win."
On what concerns him about the Cleveland Browns' defense:"They get up to the ball. We understand what they're all about this week. They're going to come in and they're going to be playing hard to get a win in the division. That's what they need. We're going to do our best as an offense to go out there, put some points on them and let our defense take care of things."
On what he feels he can improve on after his first game:"I can get better in every area of my game. That was my first game as an NFL quarterback and I obviously hope that I have a lot more of them. From two Sundays ago to the end of my career, I want to be getting better each week and learning something new each week. Once we get out there this Sunday, it's not going to go perfect. There are going to be things to learn from and there are going to be hard times to fight through, but I expect us to overcome those kinds of things."
On how he is adjusting to the pace of the NFL game:"From the very beginning, I've never really felt like I've been trying to catch up with it. I've been trying to downplay it a little bit and go out there and play football. That's all everybody wants to talk about – the speed of the game. It's true, the speed of the game is obvious. But the last thing I want to do is go out there and let that be on my mind. That's what I've been doing the whole time. I want to go out there and I want to downplay the speed and just go out there and tell myself that it's just football and that's going to be the best thing for me."
On if the team thinks about the possibility of being 2-0 in the division if beating the Browns:"It's great to be at home and playing a division opponent. That's what we want and that's what we'd like to do – get those guys and get in these rough games and just see what we're made of. We believe that we're pretty tough and we're ready for it, so it should be a good test for us."
On whether he watched the Steelers-Browns game Sunday night:"I got a chance to watch a couple of games during the week, and that was definitely one of them [on] Sunday night. It was a sloppy game, weather-wise, up in Cleveland. But it's always good to watch the opponents. They're our next two opponents, so..."
LB Terrell Suggs
On how the Ravens match up with the Browns:"They are really talented and deep on that team. They've got a lot of depth, and they've got the best tight end in the game and one of the best receivers in the game. But I think our defense matches up with their offense pretty good. I think our offense matches up with their defense pretty good. So, it should be a pretty good game."
On how his bye week was:"Bye week? Is that what they're calling it? It didn't feel like one to me. I just laid around the house, kind of depressed, but I'm over it."
On his goal matching up against Browns LT Joe Thomas:"Just try to affect the game, have an effect on the game as much as you can, especially from my position. They're going to try to run behind him. I definitely have got to anchor down over there. He's going to try to protect his quarterback, and my job is to get after their quarterback. So, there we go, we've already got a conflict in interest."
On the Browns' improvement last season:"At first, they were just pretty much another team in the NFL. Now, they've elevated their game. They're obviously 10 times better than they were when I first got here. Now, you've got to prepare for the Browns. Usually, you'd put the game plan in on Monday and go play the game on Sunday, but now they've proven and they deserve the respect that they're somebody we've got to get ready for, prepare for a football game."
On the cause of the Browns' offensive struggles in their first two games:"I don't know. I don't think their offense is really struggling. I guess, what determines that? I guess you all decide that by numbers or the number of touchdowns they have scored. But if they're moving the ball, they're not really struggling. I think, in years past, we kind of know what a struggling offense looks like, but I wouldn't say that they're struggling. They've still got everybody healthy. They faced one team that's picked to come out of the NFC with a great defense, and then they faced another team that's the defending AFC North champion. I think they ran up against some good teams and came up with the short end of the stick. I think these guys, just because they're 0-2, they're not to be taken lightly."
On whether he considers Browns QB Derek Anderson a streaky quarterback:"No, I don't know. All I know is what he did last time he faced us. I don't know about his streakies and how he did his last couple games, but I think he had some pretty good games against us. That's the only thing I can really go off. I can't go off how he played everybody else and what they did. All I know is what he did to us, and he was really solid there."
On the importance of the Ravens' offense helping win the time of possession battle:"That helps the defense a lot. You've got a fresh defense out there, and we play our best when we haven't had 13- or 14-play drives. I think it does a really good job when they hold the ball like that. Not only that, but to give production. They got 17 points. That's more than enough."
On whether that allows the defense to be more aggressive:"Definitely. As you can see, in this league it's different playing with a lead than playing from behind."
On if the Browns will be desperate for their first win:"I don't think they're going to be desperate. I think they're going to be ready to play some football, and that's pretty much it."
On the added emphasis to this game as a divisional match:"There's extra in this game because they whooped our [butts] twice [in 2007]. You just don't recover from that. You don't sleep well at night when a team beats you two times. It's the whole Browns thing. That's for you all to play with, the whole, 'Oh, the team moved from Cleveland back to Baltimore,' or something like that. That's for you all to play with. But the simple fact that they beat us twice last year, that's why there's more oomph on our side this year. And, they're trying to get their season to snowball, especially [because of] the way they started."
On Browns RB Jamal Lewis:"If he gets going, he's kind of like the Juggernaut. Have you seen the movie "X-Men"? He's kind of hard to stop, just zoom-zoom-zoom, just running through people. But if he has a tough time getting going, you never know when Jamal's going to show up. But if he gets that thing rolling and we let him up to the second level, he's going to try to embarrass us in front of some people. I think we've got to do our job in the front seven of stopping him."
On the finish to last season's Browns-Ravens game in Baltimore:"Yeah, I talked about it in the offseason. You can do that when you don't have any playoffs. I was thinking about it. I was like, 'What about in basketball when a shot goes in and then it rolls out? It's no good, right?' That's just what I thought happened. It went in, hit the crossbar, came out. It didn't hit the net or go behind anything. It went in, came out, and I heard we weren't even supposed to review that play. We kind of got screwed on both ends of the thing. But it happened and it was a fun game. It shouldn't have even come down to that. We should've just went in and took care of business, but we didn't. They won the game. Kudos to them. But it's a whole new year. We've got to do our best to make sure we don't have anything like that again."
TE Todd Heap
On if he's looking forward to playing a game this week:"It feels like it's been a while since we've played a game, so I'm definitely looking forward to another home game. Divisional opponent, rival, it's going to be a fun game."
On if he enjoyed the mini-bye week:"Yeah, half a bye week. You know, it's more trying to just relax with the limited amount of time. It was enjoyable, but at the same time we wish we could have played the game. You've got to understand the circumstances and just move on."
On this being the second home game against another division rival:"It's a storied rival. So, we know a lot about them, they know a lot about us. They're coming to our place, and obviously they've got an attitude about them with how the first couple of weeks have gone on. We've got to be prepared for that."
On if the Ravens also have an attitude coming into the game, because of the Browns' series sweep last year:"No question. Year to year, every year, we have something to prove. And that's definitely the case this year with how the season went last year playing against them."
On if having another home game helps rookie QB Joe Flacco:"I think having our bye week this early is a huge help for him – getting a little more film study out, just being able to grasp the offense that much quicker. He's done a great job of that. You'd like to get that game experience this past week, but at the same time he's the type of guy that can take all those things in, and I think he's going to perform well this week."
On wanting to improve from his Game 1 performance:"No question. That's how every week is. You know what? You're not going to make every play, but definitely that's what I'm going out there trying to do, is make every play. And obviously this is the week where I want to go out and perform well. As a team, we have to perform well. We have to make all those plays to win this game."
On any repercussions in practice from his fumble in Game 1:"No, I just don't fumble. That's it. You can go into practice and just have a mindset about you. That's all you do."
CLEVELAND BROWNS CONFERENCE CALL
Head Coach Romeo Crennel
On if he is mystified with what the offense has gone through in the first two games:"Yes, I am, because we expected more from the team, period. We expected the team to be improved, and we're not where we need to be. But, we are continuing to work on it, trying to get it right."
On whether the offense's struggles can be attributed to facing good defenses:"We had two very good defenses that we went against, and then we're getting ready to come up against another very good defense. But I've had some guys miss some time during preseason and training camp, and so I think that has impacted the offense because these are key position guys who have missed time. The quarterback [Derek Anderson] missed two games and also the practices associated with those. The wide receiver [Braylon Edwards], he missed three games and the practices associated with those. The other wide receiver [Donte' Stallworth], he pulls up in pre-game warm-ups in the first game, so he's missed two games. We haven't really had the full complement of guys working together to try to get the timing and execution that you need."
On how the team is moving forward from an 0-2 start:"I think that the morale is still good in the locker room, because they gave a good effort Sunday night against the Steelers. We're in the ballgame, and so I think that they feel like if we can get the offense on track, that we'll have a chance to win some games."
On whether this game is a "must win":"It's the third game of the season and it's the next game, so that makes it the big game. But, we still have 14 games to play. A lot of things can happen in a 14-game season, so we're just going to try to improve, do the best we can and win as many as we can."
On if QB Derek Anderson has fully recovered from his preseason concussion:"Yeah, I think he's recovered from it, yes."
On if Anderson needs to improve on timing with his receivers:"Yes."
On if he wants RB Jamal Lewis to anchor the offense:"I think that he is one part of this offense, and he is an effective part of this offense. You give him the ball, he runs very hard, and that shows up. Sometimes in situations we don't get it to him enough because of score or game situation and what's happening. But Jamal is one of those guys who'd like to have it 30 times in a game, and we've been a little lax in trying to get him that 30, but we know he can make plays."
On Lewis' demeanor coming into Sunday's game against his former team:"I think that his demeanor would be the same as it is as he approaches every game. He wants to be the guy that his number gets called. He wants to have the ball under his arm, and he wants to show that he's a very good running back."
On the significance of the loss of DL Robaire Smith:"I think that that will be a major impact. Anytime you lose a starter, that hurts your team. And that will hurt our defense until we can get somebody in there to play. That's one of the things that we do have, is because we've had four guys who we felt like could play. Wow we'll just have to move one of those guys over and let him take Robaire's place. So, our depth is not as good at it used to be, but we still think the guy we put there will be a good player."
On what he likes about his defense, and conversely, where the defense can improve:"I think from the first game to the second game, our energy and effort, there was a big improvement. The way we played the game against Pittsburgh versus the way we played against Dallas. As a coach, you look at every team as a different team, every game plan as a different game plan, and you do what you think you need to do to help your team win and help your guys play good. So with the effort that they put forth Sunday night, I think that they feel good about the future and what lies ahead of them."
On if the media had unrealistic expectations of what Anderson could do in his second year as a full-time starter:"I think that the media has the same expectations that probably the fans have, because he showed that he could win 10 games in the NFL by doing it last year. So, everybody expects him to be able to do it again and do it easily. The NFL is not about easy. The NFL is about being tough and making the adjustments and making the plays that you have to make to help your team. Our offense has been a little inconsistent, so we haven't been able to make enough of the plays we need to make."
On whether opposing defenses are keen on covering WR Braylon Edwards:"Sure. And that's what they're going to do. Coaches, they look at the tape and they see who they think the playmakers are, so they're going to push the coverage toward the playmakers."
On if that strategy has affected Edwards' production:"No, I think Braylon was in a slump, and he's got to get out of a slump."
On if the slump is more physical or mental:"I mean, hey – he's had some drops, and that's the main thing. In baseball, when a hitter is not hitting, they say, 'He's in a slump.' We've got a receiver who's not catching, so he's in a slump. We're trying to get him out of the slump so that he can become an effective receiver for us."
On how he gets a receiver out of a slump:"I think it's a lot about fundamentals. You go back to the basics and get his focus on the things that a receiver has to do – about hand placement, about hand-eye coordination, about focus on the tip of the ball, looking the ball all the way in, tucking the ball, you know, all of those kinds of things that you teach. And, you go back to the basics; that's what you do."
On the Ravens' run defense:"They have a good combination of strength in the middle, and all of their guys have speed and ability, and they run to the ball pretty good. Sometimes you might have a hole, but that hole closes pretty quickly and they rally to the football. I think that has a lot to do with their ability to limit the opposing running back."
On whether he plans to throw a lot of blitzes at Ravens QB Joe Flacco:"I think that your coaches down there are trying to take as much of the load off him as they can because he is a rookie. I noticed in the Cincinnati game that he ran the ball effectively and did a good job with that. You've got a tremendous defense. You've got good special teams. So the offense is not necessarily expected to win the game right now because the young quarterback is still learning the system and getting comfortable with his reads and things like that."
RB Jamal Lewis
On whether it feels any different coming back to play in Baltimore:"Not really. Just being able to come into town and see some of the old guys and the old stomping grounds, that's about it. But it'll be real interesting."
On the Ravens' defense:"They're a good defense. They're a great defense, actually. They come with a lot of multiple fronts and have some hard-working guys up front and a great linebacking corps. So, that's what makes it tough to run the football. It just makes for a physical running game from the offensive standpoint because you know that they're going to be physical."
On the key to getting the Browns' offense going:"We just need to execute, I think. Execute, stop making the penalties, and basically execution is the key, I must say."
On whether he thinks getting more carries would help get the offense on track:"I don't question what the offensive coordinator calls, but at the same time I'm sure things will start to gel soon enough. He's going to put us in the right position to go out and try to make plays, whether it's running the ball or passing the ball. I just take what's given to me and just go out and try to be effective and do my part in helping to win the football game."
On whether he feels more ingrained in the offense this year:"Yeah, it feels more comfortable with the scheme and everything because we've been running it now for two years, and everything's kind of clear and everybody's on the same page. Things are much simpler now, getting into the offense, just because it's a lot of multiple things and a lot of different things that I wasn't used to coming in here. But, now I'm pretty much used to them, and it's just a matter of trying to go out and execute what's called."
On if he is looking forward to meeting any particular Ravens defender in the middle of the field:"Not really. I'm not looking forward to meeting any of them. I hope I don't meet anybody in the middle. I hope it's wide open. But I'm sure 52 [Ray Lewis] will be roaming around like he always is. The last two times we played them last year, they were interesting games. I had a good time, and it's just what football's all about – a physical football game."
On whether he has talked to any of his former teammates this week:"No, not yet, but I will."
On if he would make any comments to them about rushing for 100 yards:"No, 100 yards is not my main goal. My main goal is to come in and get the first win for the season. That's the main goal. I think that's the goal of everybody on the team. But 100 yards, that would be good. That would be sweet. But, at the same time, a victory would be better."
On the importance of getting their first win:"It's very important to come in and try to get a win. The first two games, we kind of slipped up. I would say we kind of beat ourselves, but I think if we go out and minimize our mistakes and play our game, hopefully we'll be OK."
On starting 0-2 and the low percentage of such teams to make the playoffs:"It's been kind of disappointing, but, like I said, we know what the problem is. We've been going out and making mistakes, as far as penalties and things of that nature. We can't beat ourselves. We can't make those small mistakes. Those are right in front of us, and we know exactly what those have been. I don't really go with the percentages or whatever. That doesn't really mean anything to me. It's on us. It's on us and what we want to get accomplished and what we plan to do. I think that's how we're trying to practice this week, to come out and minimize our mistakes and just play much better football than we've been playing these last two weeks."
On now not being a time to panic:"No, definitely not. I've been in this league for awhile, and I know it's not a time to panic. I went to a Super Bowl with a team where we didn't score any points in five games. We lost a couple games early, too, and went on a nice winning streak. So, I don't panic. I know we have a good team. I know we have great players around, and we can get those things done."
On whether he had any special plans while in Baltimore:"I just want to go into the stadium, get my job done and get out. That's about it."
On if he will notice fans in the stands wearing his old Ravens jersey:"No, not really. I don't really look in the stands a lot, but I'm sure I still have some fans there that hated to see me go. That's pretty much it. Hey, it's the NFL. It's football, and I just love to play it. I love this game. Like I said, I'm sure I have some other fans out there in Baltimore, but I'm a Brown now. I'm on the other side of the fence, so I'm looking forward to helping this team go as far as we can go."
