Broncos DE Shelby Harris (10.21.21)
On not being able to stop the Browns run game:
“Kudos to them. They had a good scheme and we didn’t execute ours to the best of our ability. That’s winning the game – who executes their scheme the best. There’s 11 players on defense and 11 on offense, and it takes all 11 of us playing together to make it a team. We have to play better team defense. We have to have fun again. We are so caught up in our losses that we are losing sight of the fun. Why do we do this in the first place? When I started playing football in the fifth grade, I didn’t quit the next week because I enjoyed it. We have to go out there and have fun again. Fly around, have smiles on our faces, and enjoy what we are doing.”
On the key to having fun:
“It’s doing assignment football. That first and last series were the epitome of that game. We have to stop them on that first series. They can’t just make their way down field and score. The same goes for the last series. That’s literally our job – to stop them. If we stop them in that first series, the morale goes up. Instead, we go down and they score. It’s on all of us to bring the intensity and ride the ship.”
On Browns QB Case Keenum’s scramble:
“It was rush and we were trying to get there but it just opened up in the middle. I looked and he was scrambling off. That’s on all of us to make sure he can’t scramble but (it was a) good read by him to go out and make the play.”
On the blocked field goal:
“It was a group effort with (DL) Mike (Purcell) and (DE) Dre’Mont (Jones). It takes all of us to knock them back and make a play. No one play is a single play by any individual. It takes teamwork to make that happen. (Special Teams Coordinator) Tom McMahon wrote up some good schemes for us to attack their weaknesses, and we worked together and it happened. We have to make more plays that put ourselves in positions to win.”
On the defensive performance:
“Still don’t need to worry about this defense. Every defense has a bad game. At the end of the day, you have to give credit to their offense. They had a good showing today. That kind of thing is going to happen to a defense. The measure of a defense is how they respond. You’re not going to be perfect every game and you’re not going to shut them out every game. So when you have a bad game, how do you respond?”
On what can be done to have fun when things aren’t going well:
“As athletes, we are very blessed to get paid to play this game. There are people who are out there working blue collar jobs and working night shifts. Who are we to not be having fun? It really shouldn’t take much motivation because we are playing the greatest game on Earth and we are getting paid for it. We go play in stadiums with thousands of people watching. If that’s not fun then I can’t help find it.”