QB Baker Mayfield (10.21.20)
QB Baker Mayfield:
On how he is feeling physically and if he will be able to do more in practice this week:
“Yeah. Luckily did not have any setbacks so yeah, should be able to do a lot more in practice and get more reps.”
On how he is able to shake off the loss and his performance and move forward to the next game and next play:
“I have to have a short memory playing quarterback. That is for the good and the bad but especially the bad. Getting back to the basics, finding completions. It is tough when you are in a momentum swing like that to get back on track, but at this position, you have to be able to do that. It is about finding completions and getting back to basics.”
On what stood out about his performances in the two losses this season:
“I think there were a lot of completions left out there to not let them up front pin their ears back and bring a bunch of different crazy blitzes, get the ball out of their hands and not let them get a little taste for hitting the quarterback and getting some of those sacks. Just playing the field position game early on is more than OK. You do not have to win it in the first quarter. I think there are things and little-details wise that I can do a whole lot better.”
On if he feels there is more pressure on him to perform with RB Nick Chubb out:
“No. Obviously, losing a player and person like Nick is never great, but no, I do not feel any added pressure because of that.”
On if his confidence takes a hit after Sunday’s game, given his comment earlier this season that he doubted himself at points last season:
“No, I think it is all very correctable things that will be corrected. No, I do not feel the same way.”
On the importance of bouncing back this week:
“Yeah, I would say the feeling throughout the building after that loss, 4-2 has never felt so much like 0-6 before. That is because we have very high expectations for ourselves. We are eager to get back to work and to get out there and fix the problems that we know or are within our own control.”
On if he helps take the lead on lifting the mood in the building after a loss:
“It is something I definitely have to do, but it has to be everybody. We have to realize that it only counts for one loss, and the most the important game is the next one. We have to get back to work and handle it with that mentality.”
On how to focus on now and not the upcoming ‘stretch of games the Browns will be expected to win’:
“With that singular-game mindset, first and foremost. No matter what the expectations are on the outside, we have to go in there and handle it. It is the NFL. There are no gimmes. You have to earn it in this business so we have to handle it that way.”
On recent criticism from national media:
“I do not give a damn what they say. It is within this building. We know we can do better. I know I can do better. That is how it is going to be handled. The outside noise does not matter. They get paid to talk. We get paid to do our work. That is how it is going to be handled.”
On the team holding each other accountable:
“It is the next game mentality, but we know we can do better. I know I can be better, and they see that. We are all in it together right now. There is no ‘the world is crashing right now’ mentality. We are in it together. We are on to get to work and to move forward.”
On if the Bengals are playing differently than when the Browns faced them in Week 2:
“They are doing a little bit, some small changes. Some personnel changes, as well. They lost (Bengals DE) Sam Hubbard and (Bengals DT D.J.) Reader on the inside so their D line, we are kind of expecting to react on how they are going to line up. St secondary wise, one new face. Schematically wise, they are not doing too much different, but they might disguise it. They are playing belt better as a unit. If you look at their games, the games they have lost have been all extremely close games.”
On former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky saying young QBs, including Mayfield, need to do a better job getting to their second and third reads and if that is something he has been working on:
“I think when people say that, you can sit on the TV chair and go through the reads and say, ‘He is hung up on this guy,’ but yeah, I think when you are trying to have the play called and you want to get the ball to somebody and if it is not there, live to play another down. You can check it down and go through your reads. Most likely, if the play call, the one you have drawn up and you have waited for it, if it is covered for some reason that means something else is open. I would say that is where that is coming from.”
On Steelers S Minkah Fitzpatrick’s interception and if he needed to progress through his reads more:
“I saw him going left when we brought the tight end in motion over there, and then at that point, I had lost vision of him. It is about seeing the whole picture, and if it is cloudy in there at all, live to play another down.”
On how Head Coach Kevin Stefanski has handled the adversity from the loss with the team:
“Control we can control, which is a lot of corrections and mistakes that we can fix and move on. Go back to work and handle it in such a way that we are ready to get back into action in the middle of the week.”
On if there are things the Browns offense can do schematically to help him function better in the pocket, if teams take away bootlegs and rollouts:
“I think we can just be more efficient in the quick game and stuff like that. I think it is all around. If teams want to take away and they have somebody really worried about the quarterback keeping the ball, then that means they have one less guy in the run game or if they are stretching out the field horizontally. There are different things that we can do, and we can do better.”
On how to counter when opponents try to take away certain aspects of the Browns offense’s gameplan, including to eliminate bootlegs and rollouts:
“I think we just have to be able to react, find completions like I keep hitting on, and then be ready to fight for 60 minutes because they can’t play like that while game. Obviously, they are doing that and it is a numbers game. We will react and adapt, and I think we will handle it in that manner.”
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