BEREA- Mike Pettine said it best on Monday following his team’s 30-27 loss to the Steelers on opening day, “As I told our players in the meeting today, there’s a phrase for almost winning, or a word for it. It’s called ‘losing.’ I talked about no moral victories and when you guys publish the standings it’s wins and losses.”
Despite the loss, the Browns have plenty of positives to build on as they head into Sunday’s home opener against the New Orleans Saints.
The Browns came back from 24 points down to tie the Steelers late in the game. Isiah Crowell and Terrance West were a big part of that, Crowell scored two touchdowns and West rushed for over 100 yards.
“We kind of dangled a carrot with him giving him jersey number 28. We told him it depended on how he prepped for the week, so he was a model citizen the day we told him that. I think running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery has done such a good job with the young backs especially (RB Isaiah) Crowell was a guy we were thinking, ‘Hey, I don’t know how much we’re going to use him this year,’ – not a lot of reps in the preseason and just his lack of experience,” said Pettine.
He’s a guy who stepped up and obviously played well. I don’t think anybody would have guessed that he would have had two touchdowns in the opener.
The Browns certainly have plenty to work on before the Saints come marching to town, the defense was torched for 24 points in the first half, missed tackles played a huge part of the defensive collapse in the first half.
“Sometimes in practice you get a tendency,” said Pettine. “Guys just kind of fly by and tag. I think that’s on us as coaches. It is one of the most difficult things to be able to work on because just for obvious reasons you’re not going to tackle live to the ground in practice, but it’s certainly something…it seems when our guys are into it and focus we tackle better. We’ve got to make sure our minds are right. We didn’t tackle well in the first half, and it improved in the second half.”
Justin Gilbert, the 8th overall pick in May’s NFL Draft struggled mightily in his NFL debut. Ben Roethlisberger exposed him on Sunday by throwing to receivers that he was covering.
Mike Pettine said he will not bench Gilbert but will scale back his reps this week.
“I think we need to do a better job as a staff putting him in some situations, maybe getting him some help. There is no substitute for playing, and that’s something where he needs to transition. He needs to take what he does on the practice field and take it to the game because he’s practiced well. That’s part of the learning process, too, that he’s got to be able to dial in,” said Pettine.
The hard part is the Browns only have 4 days to fix the mistakes they made on Sunday before they are back on the field, Pettine is confident it can be done.
“When you’re in a new system, there are going to be situations that come up (on) both sides of the ball that you haven’t gone over in an OTA or in training camp that come up for the first time in a game. Where you get some mistakes made because there’s just not that bank of experience playing in that system to lock those things in,” he said. “We’re hopeful that this group will handle the corrections and lock them in. We’ll just keep building from there.”
Pettine did not give any injury updates on Ben Tate (knee) and Jordan Cameron (shoulder).
Our NFL coverage begins at 12 p.m. Sunday with the pregame show.
Then watch the Browns host the Saints at FirstEnergy Stadium at 1:00. It will be Cleveland’s home opener.
Stay tuned to FOX 8’s post game show after the big game ends.
