Head Coach Todd Monken (9.27.26)
Opening statement:
“All right, I said to the team in there, I mean, ‘if you want to talk about resiliency, you want to talk about team, you want to talk about guys having each other’s back through thick and thin, similar to last week, you know, the ups and downs, the flow of an NFL game, kind of pick yourself up and find a way to go score at the end.’ And so what a great win for the Browns. And it’s really, like I said, it’s credit to our guys collectively. Our defense played their ass off, really did. And, you know, a lot like last week, last week we went for it fourth down at our own end, held them to a field goal. This week, we come out of halftime, we turn it over on the kickoff return, and they hold them to a field goal. Those are momentum swings just because of the score. And then even at the end, we don’t get the first down and the defense holds them. I mean, we’re going to be a damn good football team once Browns stop hurting Browns, and we’re going to fight like hell to fix it. And I’m going to enjoy the win, because we are two and one with a division rival coming to town, and we know we can certainly play a heck of a lot better on offense. The pieces are there; we’re just not coaching or playing. And what are we going to do? Fight like hell to fix it. That’s all you can do. And I’m very, very proud of our guys, because what I’ve seen for six months showed up as men, and that’s about as proud of a win as I’ve been a part of. Certain parts of it are disappointing, but really proud of our guys.”
Todd, can you talk about the way Deshaun (Watson) fought and scrapped through to the end in a game where you had to tell him just go out there and let it rip, and don’t fear anything with coming into this stadium today having to overcome everything?
“Got the greatest fans in the world, man. All Browns fans want is to be part of something special, something to cheer for. Just give them a chance, right? Play tough, play physically, that’s what they want. And the better we play, the more we deserve to be cheered. When you don’t, you don’t. That’s what we live by. But I haven’t finished on Deshaun yet. How cool, really. We had not coached well enough on offense; we had not played well enough. He probably didn’t play as well as he wanted, right? But to get knocked down, then come back in and make a play, and then a two point conversion, this is about him. This is about that. The drive before that too, we stalled, but we’re certainly more than capable. But I’m really happy for him. At the end there, it wasn’t perfect, and we got to coach better, starts with me and our offensive staff. But man, is that really cool for him, to make that play at the end and the two point conversion.”
When did you know, when you started coaching these guys, that Mason Graham could be someone really special?
“Well, let’s just say this, we are in the business of wanting success so early from players and teams inside the ball. So, when you have a young player like Mason and he comes in a year ago, we want it now, we want everything now. We want our players to be great from the moment they get here. We want to be great on offense, defense, special teams from the moment you get here. And we’re always under construction, and players are going to continue to get better with each year, and you can see it early in their careers, you can see flashes, but as they grow and get older, you see more consistency to their play, not just flashes. And that’s what I see. I see with a lot of our players, that they are going to continue to grow. He is one of those. And we’re going to be less flashy and more consistent. And I’m happy for him, I’m happy for all of our players. For today, they put the work in.”
Why do you think it finally clicked for Watson in the fourth quarter? The second half started with a two three-and-outs, but things were going well by the end.
“That was awful. That was awful. I mean, we went three-and-out, you know, after the fumble. Well, we went three-and-out and then we got backed up, right, so a little conservative there. But everybody’s a part of it, whether it’s a missed throw, a poor call, for God’s sakes, a penalty. But I think it says a lot about him. Like the last couple of weeks, no matter how it’s gone, even the first game, God, I’d like to start a hell of a lot faster than that. So, to say it’s a compliment is like, for God’s sakes. But it says a lot about him, right? I mean, say it like it is. To come back last week, even the week before, we didn’t play very good, but to come back and continue to play well, I think it’s a real credit to him.”
Todd, what did you see when Deshaun had to leave the game for that play? Did you know right away that he was going to be able to come back? And then what did you see on the scramble touchdown?
“Well, I didn’t know. I mean, he popped up and they said he’s got to come out. And then as I was calling it, he was jabbing at me like, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ I’m like, ‘okay, fine, frick, I just called the play. That’s fine.’ What do you want me to say, I’m excited you’re going to go in? I mean, okay, great, you can’t go in now. Nothing I can do now about it. It’s amazing how many people want to talk to you when plays are going on. It’s amazing. It’s like, let’s let it play out. I’m joking around, I’m trying to make light of that. But it was like he was ready to go back in, and he went back in, and guess what, all the fans wanted to see us score a damn touchdown. Isn’t that what they want to see? Isn’t that it? And then we’re all back, right? Play good football, none of those stupid a**, right? Isn’t that right? I mean, shoot, I said I was going to be positive. You got me going, Scott, it’s your fault. Okay, so I’m just saying in general, and now it’s my fault, way to turn it on me, Scott. I mean, it just is what it is, man. We pour our hearts and soul into it, and man, you know how I feel about playing football. You know. But I’m excited about our guys. Defense played great. Deshaun came back, and we’re two and one, and we haven’t even touched what we can be. I really believe that.”
Todd, you got the running game going. It seemed like maybe not to where you want it to be, but it seemed like especially there in the first half, you were able to just start to see signs of that running game coming along.
“We got a lot of work to do, but really where it started to come a little bit was right there before half, we got a couple runs that got us down there in the red zone. We’re just going to keep doing what we do and do it better. And we did do it better, we were more downhill, not perfect. I look at the tablet after every drive too, and there’s things we could call better and things we can play better, and the backs can hit it downhill. And the coolest thing about our group is that they all are the same way, just like we are, and that is: we’re all in this together, right? We’re unbelievably connected. And when it doesn’t go right, we’ve got a lot of guys that own it and fight like hell to fix it. And we’re all going to do this together. That’s what makes it so cool every day to be with these guys, man. It just is so cool.”
You’ve talked about being aggressive, staying aggressive. On that last sequence there, you had fourth and one. I understand trying to get it, convert, but you could’ve kicked the field goal and made it a situation where they had to score a touchdown. What was kind of that thinking?
“Well, we screwed it up on second and one, let’s be real honest, right? We get nine yards and all we need is a first down, get down, right? So, okay, so we don’t do that, right? And then we get to fourth and one, and to me it’s fifty-fifty. If you kick it, you do put it where it’s a touchdown, or you get the first down and it ends, and they’ve got to drive it without any timeouts and get the field goal. But what hurt us was we didn’t end up getting more time off the clock, because of the way the timeouts worked, and it’s never easy. It’s just not. And a credit to our defense to go back out there. And so, I got my hat backwards, it’s for Rudy (Mike Rutenberg). I don’t ever wear my hat backwards, but hats off to the defense. I mean, this is what a great job they did. And it was really, we just, the second half for a while we couldn’t get any traction on offense, it felt a little like Jacksonville, man. We’re not able to take them off the field. It flipped. We had the possession the first half, we just didn’t in the second half. And what a great job there, what a great job for them, and happy for our players. This is a player’s game.”
What kind of clicked for Denzel Boston at the end of the game there?
“Well, we threw it to him, I mean that’s on me, got to throw it to him, don’t you? I mean, there’s a guy calling the plays, for God’s sakes. He’s a good player, and sometimes the game goes that way. What happens is when you don’t stack plays and you’re choppy, it’s hard. Denzel caught a bunch of balls as we got in the flow last week. When you’re not, it’s like, oh, run, oh, pass, a third down and you punt, you’re backed up, a couple runs, a third down and you punt, there is no flow. We didn’t get the first first down, and that’s the whole key to being really good on offense. You got to get the first down and get it going. And then you get into their subs, right, the guys that sub it out, and we just couldn’t get that going. And a lot of it is Browns hurting Browns, coaching and playing. We’re all in this together, and I’m going to enjoy it. I won’t get to enjoy it long, we got to get on Pittsburgh, but I’m going to say that we’re 2-1, and offensively, we’re going to get it right.”
What about Deshaun, once again, used his legs effectively, converted three first downs and had a scramble throw for a touchdown. How invaluable is it for him to be able to be using his legs like this?
“It is. That’s one of his superpowers. As he continues to learn the system and gets his eyes right and gets his drops right, which he’s continuing to work on, and we build it better around him, but he’s always going to have the ability to make plays, as he did last week, he did this week. Now, where can we be better? Obviously, throwing the football, right? I mean, you’re not going to win if you can’t throw it. Of course, the last few years you can’t win if you can’t run it. So, s— you’ve got to be good at both. So, I’m just saying in general, we certainly have a lot to improve on. The run game was better, the pass game was not. Got to continue to work on that, and we’re going to continue to grow together. And we haven’t played our best football yet on offense, so we’ve got a ways to go, but we’re going to continue to fight.”
Mekhi Blackmon comes in for Tyson (Campbell), plays in his place. Early on, it looked like they were trying to target him a little bit, but it seemed like as the game went along, he just played more and more comfortable out there.
“I’m happy for him. You’re going to have your moments. We do, in coaching and in playing, where if you play enough, man, you’re going to get beat, and that’s part of it. As a coach, you can’t stop calling man because a guy gets beat every now and then. Or you can’t call zone, and then you get beat in zone, you’ll never call it, you’ll never let it rip, you got to call it. And I’m happy for him. Yeah, there’s probably things he’s going to look at, but to join us a few weeks ago and to go out there and battle, a real credit to him.”
Did you see something in the game plan on the tight end when you opened it? Harold (Fannin) had a great game today, was that about Harold, or was that about Deshaun finding Harold?
“I think Deshaun found him. We had a naked or so that kind of caught the ball there. Really, there were more opportunities really to get it to him within our game plan, we just didn’t get to all of it. Between the fumble and then just three straight drives to start the second half, we really never got into a rhythm, and something we’re just going to have to fix. But Harold is really starting to come along as a player, and the sky’s the limit with him, because he worked to be physical, he’s a hard matchup guy. And it’s another one of those guys that we have on our roster that you want it now. We need it now with a lot of our guys. And we need to be better coaching, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow, like it’s a work Wednesday, and get on Pittsburgh, and walk, and then get to Tuesday, Wednesday. Can’t wait to get back here Thursday night, because it’s going to be rocking. It’s going to be rocking.”
You ever walked off the field high fiving fans before?
“I did it last week. I’ll keep doing it, because that was unbelievable. That was so cool at the end. And there was a lull there, maybe in the third or fourth quarter, where the fans were there, but we didn’t do enough to really get them into it in that third and fourth quarter. We just didn’t. But there at the end, they made a difference. They make a difference. You don’t think that made a difference there at the end? Snap count, they jump offsides, right, that gives us five yards further back. Changes play calls. So, that was awesome at the end. And for Thursday night, Pittsburgh Steelers. What are we now? No matter what…did Pittsburgh win today? Did they? So, what are we, all tied at first? We’re all in first place? So, right, so we’re playing for first place. Holy s—, isn’t that cool or what? I mean, so our guys, we’re ready to rock and roll. We’ll be good to go. But appreciate the fans, you know, and we’re not perfect, we’re not, coaching or playing, but we’re going to fight like hell to get there. I promise you.”
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