Deshaun Watson has now led the Browns on five fourth-quarter winning drives this season, and every one of Cleveland’s wins has come that way. Asked on Monday whether he had stopped to think about that, Todd Monken said no. “I really haven’t. That’s really more of a narrative than what we talk about here,” the Browns head coach said, “other than, I mean, the flip side is we haven’t started very fast.” A day after Andre Szmyt’s 32-yard field goal at the gun beat Tennessee 27-24, Monken talked about slow starts, a special-teams mistake and the trip to Pittsburgh.
“We at least scored a touchdown in the first quarter”
Tennessee led 14-0 on Sunday before Cleveland scored, and Monken said early holes have been a pattern on both sides of the ball. “I wish we could get it fixed. It’s not as if we’re not trying,” he said. He pointed to a holding penalty and the interception on the opening possessions, and joked about his own role. “I don’t feel like my pregame speeches have been that dull the last few weeks, to where we’ve come out of the tunnel not fired up, but might have to change up the routine a little bit,” he said. “We at least scored a touchdown in the first quarter, for God’s sakes. So we’re taking baby steps.”
Asked about Watson’s ups and downs within games, he spread it across the whole team. “We’re all under construction. He’s under construction. We’re under construction,” he said. “He can certainly play better. I can certainly coach better. Our players can certainly play better around him. That’s a team thing, not just a Deshaun thing.” Watson finished 25 of 36 for 308 yards, his first 300-yard game with Cleveland.
Monken said the early interception came against man coverage when the cornerback won inside leverage on the route, and that the read itself had nowhere else to go. “If you’re going to throw the football, you’re going to throw an interception every now and then. That’s part of the price of doing business,” he said. “No turnover is a good turnover.”
He liked what he called the “auxiliary” run game, the yards that come from the quarterback, screens and skill players rather than standard runs. “If you’re trying to be one of the better rushing teams, you have to have auxiliary yards,” he said. Quinshon Judkins ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns in a 491-yard day for the offense.
Twelve men on the punt
The Browns had 12 men on the field on a Tennessee punt right after a big defensive stop, and Monken said he was frustrated at the time. On Monday he said everyone shared the blame. “We failed from a player standpoint, because our punt returner should be counting who’s in front of him, and if there’s 11, he makes 12,” he said. “We failed from a coaching standpoint, where we have three special teams coaches and we didn’t notice it.” Tyson Campbell later forced a fumble, which Monken noted. “We’re human,” Monken said. “We’re just going to fight like hell for it never to happen again.”
Gabriel, Graham and Collins
Asked whether the Browns had decided on quarterback Dillon Gabriel, whose 21-day practice window from injured reserve ran out on Monday, Monken said: “Have not.” He said it was partly health and partly “roster management that Andrew and I have to work through,” referring to general manager Andrew Berry. Asked whether the Browns could keep all of their quarterbacks, he said: “Sure, it’s possible. Hell, it’s possible we’ll pick one more up and have five.” Later on Monday, the Browns activated Gabriel from injured reserve and waived tight end Carsen Ryan.
On defensive tackle Mason Graham, he said: “He’s doing fine. It’s going to be sore for a while. … He fought like heck to get back,” adding, “because he’s a warrior.” He also praised Maliek Collins, whose two-year, $30 million extension through 2028 the team announced on Monday. “He earned it,” Monken said. “He fits the style we want to play. He fits as a man who we want in this building. … This was not given. This was earned.”
A first-place game in Pittsburgh
Cleveland and Pittsburgh are both 5-2, and the Browns lead the AFC North because they beat the Steelers 27-24 in Week 4. The rematch is at Pittsburgh on Sunday, November 1, at 1:00 p.m. ET. “It’s fun to play at Pittsburgh. Got a great fan base. It’s a fun place to go play, man. It’s where you want to be,” Monken said. “You want it to be loud. Means the game matters.”
Asked about the chippiness at the end of the first meeting, he called the Steelers an opponent “that has consistently won and played at a high level over an extended period of time, which is where we’re trying to get to,” and said physicality has to be the Browns’ identity too. But he said there were moments in that game when Cleveland went too far. “There was a few times in that game where we did go across the line, whether it was the quarterback, whether it was the physicality, whether it was personal fouls,” he said, “and ultimately that’s Browns hurting Browns.”
Monken said the corrections came first, then rest. “Today we control getting our bodies back after a hard-fought win,” he said, so that the players come in “and have the best Wednesday possible.”
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