Head Coach John Harbaugh
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(opening statement) "Alright, obviously a very disappointing loss. One that shouldn't have happened. Give the Browns credit, they found a way to win. They made the plays they needed to make; we did not. And that's on us."
(on what some of the issues were on the defense) "Specifically, we'll go back and look at each defense. I can't sit here and list every one, especially until I see it, specifically, football wise. The great picture was, we didn't cover the way we needed to. Whether it was deep, whether it was intermediate or whether it was short. We didn't get the job done in coverage."
(on if the injuries are wearing him down) "No, it doesn't wear me down. I don't get worn down. That will not happen. I will not get worn down, especially by injuries."
(on whether losing defensive players to injury affected the defense's play) "It's not helpful. The goal is not to be decimated by injuries during the course of the game. That's not what we're trying to accomplish, obviously, but you have to just deal with it. It is what it is. Our guys play hard. Our guys compete. I love our guys' heart, how tough they are, and how hard they compete. And they did that again; there's no question about that. We just didn't play well enough. Whoever is out there has to play well. Whoever is out there has to get the job done. That's what has to happen. And that goes for all of us. As coaches, we have to find a way to put whoever is out there in a kind of position where they can be successful. That all goes hand-in-hand. And that was a very winnable game. We should have won."
(on whether the types of coverage changes based on injuries) "Yes. Yes it changes what you call."
(on the impact of the penalties) "The penalties were a major problem. And the penalties, for the most part, were inexcusable – late especially. Lining up in the neutral zone, I don't understand that penalty. How do you explain that one? Any other penalties, off the top of my head, I can talk about, if you want to ask specifically, but it's too many of them, and the ones that I remember towards the end there should have never happened."
(on how much of a challenge it will be moving forward) "It's a challenge, no matter what position you're in, no matter what situation you're in. You have to find a way to win the next game somehow or another. You have to find a way to improve and get better. Gauging challenges and saying we've never been in situations – that's not true either. We've all been in different situations. People have been different places, coached different places or played in different places and faced greater adversity than being 1-4 in a football season. I promise you that. We have people on our coaching staff and our team that are facing bigger challenges than that, in life. It's not going to be a matter of how we handle this adversity of being 1-4; we'll handle it. And we'll compete, and we'll fight, and we'll practice, and we'll prepare. We'll put the best football team out there that we can. We can, and we will expect to win the next time we play, and that's just how we'll approach it."
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RB Justin Forsett
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(on the injury) "I've got to still be evaluated on in that process. A [player] rolled up on my ankle."
(on not being able to play in overtime) "It's tough. You want to be out there and help your team win, and you can't do any help on the sideline."
(on if the run game was starting to roll late in the game) "We felt good about it, starting to crease them a little. That's usually when we do most of our work is in the fourth quarter, and we take pride in that. Today we just didn't get it done."
(on losing at home and the 1-4 start) "It's tough, man. We want to win games. But we've got to keep fighting. We can't feel sorry for ourselves. We wanted to be in a better situation, but we've got a whole bunch of fighters in that locker room who've got to just keep fighting."
(on if he could've played in the overtime) "It would have been tough. I feel like if I went back out there I possibly could have, you know, damaged it a little more. But who knows?"
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QB Joe Flacco
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(on how much injuries are hurting the team, especially on offense) "It's a part of every season. You have to deal with it, and we might have a lot right now. It's just part of the game, and you can't use that as an excuse."
(on the play on the missed two-point conversion) "I was looking for man-to-man and just trying to hit, you know, a one-man route to [running back] Justin [Forsett] there. They kind of just dropped on it. The guy near the line of scrimmage just dropped underneath of it, and then they had a guy over top, too. I might have tried to stuff it in there but, at this point, with the new rules, they can run it back for a touchdown or two points."
(on if his first touchdown run was his call) "Yeah, when you look at these guys down in that area, it looked like they really came hard off the edge. So, there was nobody really over there except for guys on the line of scrimmage. I felt like they would collapse hard, and I could beat one guy."
(on how tough two home losses to division foes at home are) "I don't care if it's division or where it is. Any time you lose, and you're a 1-4 football team, it doesn't feel too good. We did a lot of good things today, but we hurt ourselves. We had a lot of second-and-longs because we had some negative runs. We had a lot of penalties. We had a penalty at the end of the first half that really beat us up, because it pushed [kicker] Justin [Tucker] back 10 more yards and gave them points. So penalties like that just kind of hurt us all day."
(on if he's seeing the younger guys making progress and plays on offense) "I thought our guys did a good job today. Down there stretch there, I had to throw the ball away a lot, but I thought our receivers made some big plays and did a great job just staying patient and doing what they were supposed to do. There in the second half, our run game started to come alive. We started to run to the three-receiver side over there and kind of started gashing them a little bit. It's a credit to our offensive line, and the way they keep going and [running back] Justin [Forsett] back there and [running back] 'Buck' [Javorius Allen], so, you know, we just weren't good enough. The guys played well, but we had some plays here and there that just backed us up and then, you know, penalties. We had good spurts, but the second-and-longs and the penalties kind of hurt us when we had some little lulls there. I think in the third quarter, I [think] we only had one possession. They got the ball first. We went down and scored. Then they had a pretty long drive, so we've got to make most of our possessions in a game like that where you don't get a ton…the second half there and the first half, we had too many lulls where we just couldn't continue to build on the points that we got."
(on how disappointing it was to settle for a field goal at the end of the fourth quarter) "Yeah, it's huge. I mean, when you get down in there, and you're first-and-goal from the 10-yard line with all the time in the world, you want to be able to get in there and put the game away. We've won a lot of games against these guys down the stretch like that. Both games last year we played against these guys, we were trailing with like four minutes left in the game, and we came alive and found a way to win and put it in the end zone at the end of those games usually to finish it off. We weren't able to do it, obviously.'
(on how big of a challenge it is now with a 1-4 record) "I think the record speaks for itself and what kind of challenge it is. We haven't been in this position before, so I can't speak from experience, but it's not going to be easy. But there's no better guys for it than the guys in that locker room. We've got to rally together and start putting everything together and playing fundamental football and being where we're supposed to be, not having bad penalties that really detract from winning the football game, and if we can do that, we have a lot to look forward to. But you've got to take it one game at a time. It's not the easiest thing to do in this situation, but it's all you can do."
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DT Timmy Jernigan
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(on his quarterback sack) "I mean it was a great play, but it doesn't even matter. I'm mad we lost, and we just have to figure out a way to win these close games. At the end of the day, we're not losing games badly, it seems like it comes down to the last minute every game. We just have to figure out how to turn this corner, that's what's on my mind right now."
(on the lack of pressure on the quarterback in the second half) "I can't even give you an answer to that. I'll have to go back and watch the film. We just have to finish, that's number one right now. We have to figure out a way to get these games."
(on the mentality of being 1-4) "We've got to keep slugging. We've got to keep pushing. The worst thing we could do is to give in and start pointing fingers right now, that's not what a family does. We have to stay together and figure this thing out. The biggest thing we can't do is point fingers and give up on the season."
(on the fourth quarter) "We've just got to keep working. Whatever we're doing wrong, we've got to look at the film and study these plays and pay even better attention to details at practices. If one guy gets hurt, the next guy has to be ready to go. That's how it has to be with everybody on the team, everyone who suits up and comes out on gameday."
(on not having OLB Elvis Dumervil in the second half) "The next guy who's behind [Elvis] Dumervil really just has to step up. At the end of the day, it doesn't mean the game stops when one guy goes out. I have to pick up the slack, and everybody else up front has to pick up the slack when [Elvis] Dumervil's gone."
(on the defensive huddle in the fourth quarter) "We were just trying to figure out a way to get the game won. I don't think effort is an issue. Every guy's out there trying to do everything they can to get the game won. But at the same time, sometimes it just goes differently."
(on losing cornerbacks to injury) "It's not fun, but it's part of the game. We just have to be better as a whole, everybody has to be ready to play when their number is called."
(on the multitude of injuries) "At the end of the day everybody gets paid. Just because you're second or third on the depth chart, that doesn't mean that you don't have expectations for you that are high. Your rank on the depth chart doesn't matter. You have to be ready to go."
(on being 1-4) "We can't hang our heads. It would be real easy to. It would be easy to have our heads hung low and just give up, but that's not what we're going to do. That goes for everyone. We're not going to give up. We're going to keep pushing, and we're going to go into San Francisco and try to win the football game. Period!"
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WR Kamar Aiken
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(on today's loss) "That was a tough one, my spirits aren't too high right now. Any time you're 1-4 it's tough, we just have to watch the film and get better. At the end of the day, we just didn't get the job done."
(on any adjustments the Browns made to cover him) "They didn't do anything different. We ran the ball a little more, and tried to establish the running game, that was working for us. We just couldn't make that one more play that we needed."
(on not being able to finish) "We're not doing a good job of that. Even when we got the lead, I think we were up 14-3, we didn't do a good job of just finishing."
(on whether he felt 14-3 was a comfortable lead) "Every game that you're in is a game that you think you're going to win. The only thing we kept telling ourselves was that we needed a touchdown every time we touched the ball, but we just came up short."
(on injuries) "Every NFL team I've been on deals with it. We've had our fair share, we just have to deal with it the best way we can."
(on not taking advantage of opportunities) "We definitely had opportunities out there today, we had two opportunities. We had an opportunity in the first half to put it away, and then we had another time to score down in the red zone before we kicked the field goal to tie it. We had our chances, we just didn't finish."
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WR/RS Jeremy Ross
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(on being activated) "I got released by Detroit and the Ravens picked me up and put me on the practice squad. I just grinded every week. I got the call earlier this week, and it felt good to make plays and be able to contribute to my teammates, and make some plays for our team."
(on being a part of the return rotation) "It's just kind of day-to-day, I was just back there in practice catching the ball and getting into the routine. Late in the week they let me know I would be the guy. I'm always prepared, it just so happened that I got the call."
(on if they made adjustments to stop the Ravens pass game) "It really wasn't about them. It was just things that we decided to do, we decided to run the ball more. They pretty much stayed the same. They did make a few adjustments, nobody stays exactly the same, but at the end of the day it was about us."
(on the difference between practice and live action) "The only difference is that it's live now, people are actually trying to come hit you and tackle you. But the way we prepare and practice, everything is full speed, and we're always getting game-like looks. The only thing that's different is I'm not actually getting hit."
(on how difficult the loss is) "Any loss is difficult, any loss for any team is something you don't want to have. We're just going to keep moving forward, and keep trying to get better."
(on being 1-4) "Our mindset is the same, we just keep fighting to get better. We keep trying to get a win, it's been multiple weeks in a row now where we just take it to the next game. So we'll go to San Francisco, and just try to win the game."
(on getting the chance to be the return man) "Any practice squad guy will tell you that they want to be out there, they want to play the games. I was one of those guys, and I definitely wanted to play. I knew what it felt like to play and be on a roster. I definitely loved it today."
(on being the permanent return guy) "I was prepared for it if it came, and it did. I'm going to go out and prepare like I am every practice. As a competitor, you want to be the guy to make plays for the team, so that's definitely in my nature. I'll be whoever I need to be for this team."
(on if their mistakes are fixable) "In any game, win or lose, there are always things you can get better at. Things like more discipline, or being in the right place at the right time. Focusing that much longer, running that much harder, there are always little things or details we can do to get better."
(on how he performed today) "I think I did alright. I had one good, explosive return, and I had a good average in punt returns. It was a pretty good performance."
(on how the return game can get better) "We just have to stay true to us, making sure that we do what we have to in practice. We have to prepare like we're going to be an explosive return team. Nothing changes, we just have to be true to us, and if we do that, we'll be explosive."
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ILB C.J. Mosley
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(on how tough the loss is) "Just like the last two losses, it's on the defense. We played with the lead for a while, gave up big plays, and at the end, [we've] just got to finish. We keep saying that, but we've got to do it."
(on what has to happen to finish close games) "I'll point out myself in the first one. [I've] just got to have more discipline. I gave up a big play.They were able to get a shake right on me, I took my eyes off of him, and they were able to convert to get the field goal – attempt to get the field goal – to end the game. That's the first thing – start with discipline. [We've] just got to make sure we stay on our man and just get back to the basics with the little things."
(on the mentality of the locker room) "We're disappointed, because we know what kind of team we are; we know how we work, and we're definitely better than 1-4, or whatever we are right now. We've just got to put our foot down and prove that. We play hard, but like I said, we've just got to finish as a team. And like I said, when I point out myself, certain players have got to do a better job at what we do."
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FB Kyle Juszczyk
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(on what worked well for the offense in the first half) "It seemed like everything was working. In the first quarter, it felt like we were executing very well, good run game going. We had a good pass game. We wanted to just continue doing that for the rest of the half."
(on what has to change to finish close games) "It's just execution under pressure, being able to still make good decisions when you're in the heat of battle and everything is on the line."
(on him scoring touchdowns against the Cleveland Browns) "I don't think it's anything in particular. It's just kind of the luck of the draw that it's been against them."
(on how the team will react being 1-4) "I think we will react the same way we did when we were 0-3. We're a resilient team. We're going to show up on Tuesday and just try and get better. That's really all we can focus on, just getting better every day."
(on not closing out in regulation and not scoring in overtime) "Field position was everything. We talk about that all the time, so for us to not move the ball too much on offense in overtime, it really put our defense in a bind."
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CB Jimmy Smith
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(on losing two corners) "It's huge when you're players go down, but it's no excuse. The next man has got to stand up. We practice this all the time, so it's no excuse."
(on what was working for the Browns against the Ravens' secondary) "They were finding us, hitting us in zones. [They gave us] big penalties, big plays and [we] can't do that at the end of a game, and that cost us."
(on the frustration of not getting off the field late in games) "Yes, absolutely. I don't even know what they were on third down, but it seemed like we didn't get off the field at all. So, we've got to go back to the drawing board and get right. Our technique has got to get better. We can't be having penalties in clutch situations. We've got to get off the field on third down. That's huge for us right now."
(on if it's a technique issue) "[It is] that, penalties [and] not playing smart. There were a few things that cost us this game, and I'm the first to say, I put this on the defense as a whole. We didn't come through today. We were supposed to show up, and we did not show up in the second half."
(on how to move forward from this position) "We've got to win more games. We've got another game next week. We don't have time to sit and sulk about our problems. What we've got to do is go back, get to practice hard, figure out what we need to do to get better in those situations and come out on top this next game. It's not a lot of time to sit and worry about being 1-4, even though it's hard to look past – it's very hard to look past – but we have another game. Every game for us from now on, even this one, is a playoff game. So, we have to take that mentality for the next 13 weeks, 15 weeks, or however many."
T Eugene Monroe
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(on getting back on the field this week) "I was healthy and it's a tough day. Tough day, man. That's all I've got."
(on what the vibe is around the team) "[PO'ed]. We know we're better than what we're showing. We can talk all we want, but [shoot] we've just got to go out and win games, and we've got to get ready to do that on the road here."
(on how they improve and what the message is going forward) "Execution, being a more disciplined team, not shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties and things of that nature, [and] just grinding for the win. We have the team. We have the guys here to do it, but we have to put it together on Sundays."
(on it being disappointing with such high expectations for this team) "I don't think anyone in here thought we'd be where we are. But we're here, so we've got to get ourselves out of it."
(on every game this season being a one possession game and why they haven't been pulling them out) "We've just got to keep pressing. We had a nice lead at the beginning of the game, and for whatever reason didn't continue that same style of execution. We came up short, so we've just got to keep moving forward, look at this game, the areas that we can improve and the areas that we need to be more disciplined and get ready to go on the road and get a win."
(on having to settle for three points on the last drive of regulation rather than scoring a touchdown) "Giving ourselves a chance to take it into overtime was good, but not scoring and putting the nail in the coffin is just unfortunate. We just didn't do enough to pull it out."
S Kendrick Lewis
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(on allowing Cleveland to score a few touchdowns in the second half after holding them to field goals early) "We've just got to play better. Those guys came out and executed their game plan in the second half and we let a few get away; penalties and a lot of bad plays, but we've got to get better."
(on if it's tough losing even more playmakers with OLB Elvis Dumervil and CB Lardarius Webb having injuries today) "This is the NFL. Everybody is here for a reason. The next man [has] to step up, and we can't miss a beat. That's what we've got to get better at."
(on if he feels like all the injuries are making a difference) "No. We've just got to get better, all across the board. If you come in the game, you're a starter. If a starter goes down, that's part of the game. Injuries are a part of the game. If you come in the game, you're a starter. We've got to get better."
(on Cleveland TE Gary Barnidge's touchdown catch with his feet and feeling like it just wasn't their day today) "Yeah, that was just a crazy play. It just happened to roll their way, happened to bounce their way. We can't take it back, it was an unfortunate situation and they ended up on the good side of it."
(on struggling on third down today) "They just executed. We made simple mistakes, and we've just got to get it corrected [and] get better. Attention to detail, locked-and-loaded, every play."
(on how to pick themselves up after falling to 1-4) "It's a must we pick ourselves up; it's not how. It's when are we going to pick ourselves up? Next day, we have practice. Monday, we're correcting our mistakes, starting new. What [did] these guys do that hurt us? That attacked us? We've got a game to go play in San [Francisco] next week."
WR Marlon Brown
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(on if this loss hurts a lot) "Oh, yeah, for sure. We played hard and didn't get the job done. As simple as that."
(on if guys didn't step up when players were leaving with injuries) "There's a lot of things that didn't happen today, you can't just put it on one thing. Things just didn't go our way today."
(on if the team is in a tough spot at 1-4) "Yeah, very tough. But you've got to go to work and just keep fighting your way back out."
(on how confident the team was when they had an opportunity to score a game-winning touchdown on the final drive of regulation) "Very confident. You're in the red zone, you've got a chance to put the game away, so we were really confident."
(on how much he feels like injuries are affecting this team on both sides of the ball) "It's a football league – it's the NFL – so it happens. You try to deal with it every year, and you try to find guys to step up and make plays."
(on how to bounce back from here) "Same thing; just work hard, grind [and] you can't get too down on yourself, because that's when bad things are going to keep happening. You've just got to keep stacking wins, not losses."
DE Lawrence Guy
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(on not being able to get off the field on third down) "We've just got to all come together to keep on putting pressure on the quarterback, keep up what we've got to do. Sometimes the ball doesn't roll our way, but we can learn from our mistakes and just keep on moving."
(on being in a situation this team is not used to at 1-4) "We just have to learn from our mistakes. Learn from what we did bad, what we did good, move on and look at the next team and try to get a win next week."
(on trying to make a play in overtime to stop Cleveland) "We just have to keep doing our assignments. The best we can do is just play our game, play technique sound, and just keep giving it all we have."
(on his two sacks today) "Team effort right there. We've got a whole line getting penetration, and [I] got free [and] got a couple sacks. But I give credit to everybody on that D-line that helped out for that."
TE Nick Boyle
(on where the team goes from today) "With this being my first year, the only thing you can really do from this point on is come in tomorrow and watch the tape and learn from our mistakes and focus on the next game. You can't really let this dwell too much, because … You can't let it dwell on you, so we just have to come back to work and fix our mistakes."
(on him and TE Maxx Williams' role on the offense) "With Crockett [Gillmore] not being able to play these past couple of weeks, Maxx [Williams] and I had to come step in. We've been like sponges this first year trying to soak up and learn everything and just coming in and doing our job, whether it be run blocking, pass protection or going to get the ball."
(on contributing to the offense early in his career) "It's awesome. You, obviously, want to come in and play as much as you can. Like I said, with 'Crock' [Crockett Gillmore] down … 'Crock' is an awesome player. And learning from our coach [and] Dennis [Pitta] and 'Crock' … Maxx [Williams] and I, we just want to come and do our job."
(on how disappointing is it to not win the game) "It's obviously disappointing for us, disappointing for the coaches, disappointing for the whole organization. But, we're going to work on it tomorrow, fix it, so we'll be ready for next week."