QB Baker Mayfield (9.8.19)
QB Baker Mayfield:
On the difficulty generating momentum on offense with all of the penalties:
“It is extremely difficult. Anytime you get something going, you shoot yourself in the foot. That was our big problem today was not being able to build positive plays. Like I preached last week, we are trying to eliminate the negative ones. That is exactly opposite of what we did today, and that falls back on me. We are going to look at the tape and like (Head Coach) Freddie (Kitchens) said, evaluate the problem. I think we know it is within ourselves. They are a great football team. Whenever you hurt yourself, you are not going to win.”
On challenge fixing the mistakes and eliminating the penalties:
“With the men in our locker room, not difficult. We will address it and we will get it fixed. We will move forward.”
On how disappointing it is to lose after all the excitement from the fans coming into this game:
“A loss is always disappointing. I do not really care what is going on on the outside. We lost and we expected to win.”
On if he was OK after Titans OLB Cameron Wake’s sack:
“Yeah, I will be alright.”
On the difficulty replacing T Greg Robinson on the offensive line, especially after T Kendall Lamm’s injury:
“I thought for our guys coming in there, some of them not expecting to play – obviously, Hubbs (T Chris Hubbard) was not expecting to play on the left side. I though that they played well, being thrown into there and just being able to do their job. We have to be better early on. We would like to have Greg in there, if it comes down to it. The guys that stepped up, we are going to watch the tape to see how well they did.”
On if he could tell if anything preceded Robinson’s ejection that may have led to that type of escalation:
“No.”
On if there is a common thread to the lack of discipline:
“No, I think everybody just needs to be more disciplined. I think everybody knows what the problem is. We will see it. We will see exactly if it is bad technique or what. Dumb penalties hurting ourselves. Then obviously turnovers on my part. Just dumb stuff.”
On his three turnovers:
“I think once you have one mistake and then you are pressing late in the game, it compounds and it hurts us. I have to take care of the ball. Like I said, eliminate negative plays.”
On the feeling after scoring to make the score 15-13:
“We were in the game until the end there after the second interception late in the game. I truly believe that.”
On if his first interception was a miscommunication with WR Odell Beckham Jr.:
“No, it was just a bad throw. Just a bad throw. He had the in route. Just a terrible throw. He was at the right depth, right place. Bad throw.”
On when the Browns’ rhythm dropped after coming out strong on the first drive:
“In that drive, we overcame one penalty. Later in the game when we hurt ourselves, we were not able to overcome it. Therein lies the difference. When you hurt yourselves, you are not going to be able to overcome it every time. You have to eliminate those things and then trying to press and do too much and having bad technique, it is just kind of a snowball effect.”
On his confidence in the Browns have the resiliency to bounce back:
“Because everybody is going to throw this in the trash. I think that is good. I know what type of men we have in this locker room. Quite frankly, I do not give a damn what happens on the outside. I know how we are going to react. I know what we are going to do. We are going to bounce back. We have a Monday Night game coming up so we do not really care. We are ready to go.”
On if there were any indications ins practice this week the team would lack discipline today:
“No, I just think it comes down to carrying over what you do in practice to on the field.”
On what he can do as a captain to rally the team to improve discipline:
“We just need to rally together. Don’t flinch. It is Game 1 of a long season. To get to where we want to go, you are going to have bumps in the road. How to react to it, we are going to come together. We are going to push forward. We are not going to let it define us and let’s see what type of men we have in this locker room. I am pretty sure I have a good idea about it.”
On if losing the game felt startling due to the prior expectations:
“The easiest out right now for anybody on our team or in our building to use is the expectations were high. We said it from the very beginning, we did not care about those. It is not that. It is just the fact that we did not play well today. We did not show up and do our job.”
On if not playing as a full offense in the preseason was a factor in the loss:
“No, negative plays – anytime you get back behind the sticks and you are letting a team that is coached very well on defense tee off on you and you are pressing too much because you are trying to make up ground, it is going to hurt you.”
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