Head Coach Todd Monken (9.28.26)
Todd, just wondering, when you watch the film, are you seeing anything that can be improved, or what can you guys do differently to make sure that KC (Concepcion Jr.) and Deshaun (Watson) can kind of get their mojo down together a little bit better?
“Well, I haven’t looked at the tape yet. We moved on to Pittsburgh last night, but it’s just a work-in-progress. It just is, all of our receivers with Deshaun, and sometimes the game plays out a certain way, and so everything’s a work in progress. We’re under construction.”
Any lingering effects for Deshaun a day later on the (Bobby) Okereke hit, he took there in the fourth quarter?
“Not that I noticed. We’ve already started meetings today and, not that I’ve noticed.”
And then, asking about the penalties, what can you do to minimize those, to cut down on those? Is it practice reps? Is it just mental focus? What do you attribute that to?
“All the above. Coaching and playing alike, mental stamina with shifts and motions, getting aligned properly, proper snap count. It’s all the above. It’s hard when it doesn’t show up in practice. When it doesn’t show up in practice, it’s hard to wrap your head around why we had the issues that we did. But it’s got to be fixed. It’s got to be fixed in a hurry with a short week.”
After the game, you gave Rudy (Mike Rutenberg) the game ball, and you had your hat backwards. What did you like best about his plan and what his defense did yesterday?
“Well, first off, they’re playing really hard and they’re playing connected. And I think you’ve seen that started to come two weeks ago. And I just like the energy that they played with, and they played off each other.”
And then we saw Tyson (Campbell) work out before the game, and obviously, he was inactive. Was he close to going, and how do you feel about him for Thursday?
“He was close to going, and I feel good about Thursday.”
Is it easier to do breakdown film and point out mistakes to players after a win versus a loss? Do you find that the players are a little more receptive to coaching points or absorbing the information you’re trying to relay to them? Obviously, as you said last night, it wasn’t perfect. You won the game, but there’s a lot of things you can clean up, and you haven’t even scratched the surface of the team you think you can be.
“I think we all are, you know when it’s a win, because there’s a lot of things in the game, both weeks, the last couple of weeks, where you could point to, if we played cleaner. And every team goes through that, and it’s a race to making the fewest mistakes, forcing the opposite team to play their best. And it’s a lot easier for all of us to own it, coaching wise and playing wise, when you win, when you find a way to win and overcome things that happen throughout the game, be it a turnover, be it penalties, be it a change in momentum, which we had a number of those. The fumble and the kickoff return, we scored to take the lead, they go right down the field, get a touchdown, we stop them on a two-point conversion, we have guys make plays at the end, we get a stop. Heck, we get stopped and our guys go back out there. That’s a huge credit to our team and our guys and their connection and resiliency.”
Coach, how much of the offensive line penalties go back to cadence issues that you struggled with in training camp?
“Not really as much. I mean obviously, that’s got to be a part of it, our quarterback owning it at the line of scrimmage and being on point. But we had no excuses. We were at home. That’s embarrassing. We got to get it fixed in a hurry. It’s blank football, I mean, it is what it is. You’ve heard me say it before, and that’s coaching and playing. And again, we had not seen that. You get one thing semi-fixed with your operation and get into the line of scrimmage, and then this comes up, and it’s Browns hurting Browns, and we know it. And now we’re going to work like hell to get it fixed.”
And as far as short yardage runs go, do you think you’re just getting beat at the point of attack right now, or is it more than that, is it scheme?
“I mean, it’s everything. It always is. We could scheme it better. We can certainly communicate it better. We can get to a different play that came up, we didn’t get a check, or we’re getting beat at the point of attack. All the above.”
On false starts, three of them on Tytus Howard. What do you see from him, the way he’s played for you these first three games?
“Well, you started with the false starts, and then you went to how he played. So that’s really two questions, but I appreciate that. First off, if you’re trying to anticipate the snap count, and I told Tytus this today, it’s like a defensive lineman trying to anticipate the snap count. And if you jump offsides, you false start once, okay, right, like, all right, I get it. After that, it’s over. It’s not okay. It’s not kosher anymore. Okay, so that’s on him. He knows it, and we got to get it cleaned up. And the other one, I think Tytus has done a great job of battling through little nicks and bruises that have come up throughout each game. And I think as the year goes on, and we’re doing the same things over and over, I think he’s just going to continue to play at a high level.”
Is Dawand (Jones) ready to step in if you need him there at right tackle, since he got most of his work at left tackle?
“Well, he’s been at both. And lately he’s been at right tackle. He did work with Spencer (Fano) earlier in the competition during training camp, but he’s worked a lot at right tackle during practice. He’s ready to go.”
Is there any update on Tylan (Wallace) and his knee injury?
“Don’t have it yet. We have a walk through here later today. I’ll have more information later in the day.”
I was just wondering, kind of going off that Tylan question, did you come out of that game yesterday relatively healthy? Are there any other injuries? Saw Austin (Barber) was kind of limping around, and I think Spencer was in the blue tent at some point yesterday. Did you guys come out of that game relatively healthy?
“Feels like it. You’re always going to have little nicks and bruises, and until you get through, really, which is kind of weird to say, for us this is almost like a Wednesday/Thursday of a game week, but usually it takes a day or two for their bodies to really, you know, to see how they come out of the game. We’ll have a better idea with each day, later today, and then tomorrow we’ll have a better idea.”
Todd, I know you kind of joked after the game about we got to get Denzel Boston the ball. What do you think is a good number of targets for an X receiver with his ability, per game? He’s averaging like two or three.
“You know, I don’t know what that number is. I don’t control where the ball goes. We certainly can do a better job of moving him around. We certainly can do a better job of stacking plays that allow us to get into some of our other concepts. That was part of the issue in the third quarter. You’re not going to get nearly as many targets when you’re not in two-minute, which you could argue maybe at the end we’re semi two-minute, but you’re not going to get nearly as many targets, and we didn’t complete as many passes. And you certainly can target him more, but we certainly didn’t throw it nearly as well as we’re capable of. But he’s certainly a threat and a weapon, and we need to find ways to target him more.”
And in yesterday’s game, in particular, only four targets to wide receivers, a few to Concepcion, a few to Boston. Is that a hunch of the defense yesterday, or the quarterback, or what?
“All the above. It wasn’t just the quarterback. Sometimes it’s protection, sometimes it’s the flow of the game. Is that ideal? Of course not. No doubt. Sometimes you’re having to check the ball down. So, it was just a byproduct of the way the game flowed. Not ideal, that’s for sure.”
I got two quick ones. What did you see out of Quincy Williams yesterday? Felt like he was really active. And then Denzel, you gave him the game ball for following four (Tetairoa McMillan) around. How well did you think he played?
“Really well. Again, I haven’t watched the tape. I mean we moved on, but it appeared that four didn’t take the game over, and they didn’t try to target Denzel. And that’s a real credit to him. The ability to want to do that, not every player wants to do that. Denzel, you talk about Denzel and also Grant Delpit, a couple guys that signed extensions in the offseason. Here’s Grant, who fought like heck during the week to get back and play, Denzel, the same way, covers number four. Here’s a couple of guys that understand what that means, what it means to earn your salary, that it’s what we expect from them, and they lived up to that. What was the first part? What was the other part that I missed?”
Quincy Williams.
“Oh, Quincy felt a lot more comfortable. It’s hard to play fast and trigger when you’re processing and thinking, and I thought he played a lot faster and a lot more comfortable within the system.”
I know you said you have not watched the film, but I was just wondering if you have had any time to really go back over a little bit of what Deshaun was able to do in that game, and sort of give your day after thoughts on what kind of game he played for you.
“Well, again, I haven’t watched it. Certainly, parts of the game felt like we had a good flow, but there was a good amount of it where we weren’t able to stack plays for a number of reasons. And that’s coaching, that’s playing. But ultimately, a couple weeks in a row, there were two drives this past week, and very similar the week before, a couple of drives where we took the lead. The first drive that we stalled and kicked the field goal to take the lead, they went right down, scored, and then Deshaun led us back down the field for another touchdown. So, I’m just really happy for him. Again, the work he’s put in, certainly he knows he can play better. We can certainly coach better around him. And all we’re trying to do is, this week, clean up what we can clean up in a short week and be ready to go and be as fresh as we can be for Thursday night, to better put our best foot forward.”
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