Highlights

TODD HALEY: “After reviewing the tape, there’s not a lot different than what I talked about yesterday. I thought special teams cannot let a returner beat us like he was able to do. Two returns were absolutely a big difference in the final outcome of the game.

“Defensively, just an inability to get the run stopped proved to be our downfall. Made multiple adjustments in the game to try to get Cleveland’s running game stopped and were unable to do it.

“Offensively, the drops, in my mind, made a difference in the game.

“Any one of those three things we don’t allow to occur and we’re probably in a much better mood today. I really mean that – any one of those things. If all things being equal and we catch the ball on third down specifically in the third quarter or in the end zone we’re probably in a position where Cleveland cannot continue to run the ball and has to throw it. I felt our defense in throwing situations did a good job in the passing game.”

Q: Was the timeout at the end of the first half the result of a lot going on or some confusion?

HALEY: “Got ourselves in a poor situation with the sack. We didn’t want to kick a field goal if we were out of range. The play called on third down was an effort to get into field goal range. ”

Q: Do you hold your assistant coaches and coordinators accountable the same as you do your players?

HALEY: “Absolutely - myself included. I think that’s the only way you can do it. We’re all evaluated every week and we just got done with a three-hour evaluation meeting in all areas, us included.”

Q: At this point would you anticipate any coaching changes on your staff?

HALEY: “I’m not going to speculate on that. We’ve got our biggest game of the year coming up at Cincinnati. We’re going back on the road after three disappointing home games and have to figure out a way to stop the run, cover kicks and catch balls. If we do that and continue to do some of the other things that we’re doing well or above the line we’ll have a chance.”

Q: You stopped yourself yesterday from saying something that you said you would regret tomorrow. What was that about?

HALEY: “I don’t know that it was about anything specific. I just think that when a game ends like that and you’re obviously frustrated with the result and specifically giving up that amount of yards on the ground and two returns for touchdowns that it’s probably wiser to sleep on it and see the tape and be aware of what has gone on before saying too much.

“But that being said, we did not win the line of scrimmage yesterday on defense. When you don’t win the line of scrimmage on defense you’re going to have problems. But as I said at the beginning, if we had done one of the three things better – if we had covered the two kickoffs better or tackled better we probably win the game, if we do a better job in the run game, we probably win the game, if we catch the ball we probably have a great chance of winning the game.

“Offensively, I was very pleased with our ability to move the football. I think we have made progress there even going all the way back to the San Diego and Denver game. We’ve shown some progress on third down. We’ve shown the ability to run the ball consistently better. And yesterday, I thought we had a chance to have a really outstanding output. But for the drops most specifically in the third quarter and one for a potential touchdown we would have been happy with that side of the ball.”

Q: Are guys too tight when catching the ball and maybe need to just relax?

HALEY: “I would answer no on that. I’ve coached receivers for a long time and have coached them a certain way and have had high expectations when I have coached them. I feel like I’m part of that coaching right now. The receivers job is to catch the football. You saw a nice bounce-back performance by Chris Chambers yesterday that really put us in a position to score points. I’ve been doing it long enough to kind of have a feel and know what’s required to be a productive receiving group in this league and how you do that. We’ve got to catch the ball. It wasn’t strictly receivers. We had a couple of drops at the tight end position that were pretty costly also.”

Q: So you absolve coaching from any of the problems with drops?

HALEY: “We’ll continue to do more, we’ll continue to do anything and everything to try and fix the problem. That won’t stop.”

Q: How many were there by your count?

HALEY: “10 drops.”

Q: In light of these three weeks of disappointing losses would it be fair to say that the team overall has regressed?

HALEY: “No, I wouldn’t take that stance. I think the result of yesterday wasn’t good enough and we have to do a better job. But there has been progress made in enough areas to know that we’re making progress . Now, some of it has been more yo-yoish than I would like. But I expect those guys up front to bounce back and everyone involved in run support to bounce back this week and get back on track. We’ll continue to work on those things that are necessary to be a good run-fit team and good tackling team and, at the same time, avoid big plays in the passing game. Yesterday, we didn’t get the job done.

“But I wouldn’t go so far as to say there has been regression, but a little too much yo-yo on certain individuals and certain groups.”

Q: Is the problem with your run defense personnel or coaching?

HALEY: “I think that question is a little too black or white. I think it’s a group effort. It’s doing things the right way and coaches getting our players to do it the right way and then our players doing it the right way. Then, doing it at a high enough level in a game situation to be effective. Yesterday we were not.”

Q: Are you unhappy with the way your coaches are teaching it?

HALEY: “I wouldn’t generalize or put words in my mouth. We have to be better and that means everybody. The result was what it was and we have to be better. You can’t win if you can’t stop the run and yesterday we were unable to stop the run.”

Q: Given what they have to work with, are [defensive coordinator] Clancy Pendergast and those guys doing a good job?

HALEY: “I know that everybody in this building is working their tales’ off players included. That being said, this is a win-loss evaluation ultimately and yesterday was a loss. There is nobody who gets a pass when it’s a loss and especially in a game that we had a chance to win.”

Q: How have Tyson Jackson and Alex Magee progressed given the events of yesterday?

HALEY: “After yesterday’s performance I would say that entire group was not good enough. If that doesn’t change it won’t be good enough. I expect those guys to bounce back and show a little fight to get back to where we were a couple of weeks ago and felt like we were making progress. No matter what you say, when you give up that amount of rushing it’s going to be hard to preach progress. They can’t let it happen.”

Q: Are those two players – particularly Jackson – where you had hoped they’d be at this point of the season?

HALEY: “Coming off that particular game it would be an unfair evaluation on my part. I think last week I answered that I thought that is a very difficult position to come in and have a major impact, especially with the way we’re asking them to play. Again, I would say the guys are working hard and doing the things we’re asking them to do. But yesterday was not good enough. I’ll stay away from an overall evaluation coming off the last couple of weeks.”

Q: When you watch the tape can you see how much you miss Glenn Dorsey who didn’t play this week and not much of last week’s game because of injury?
 
HALEY: “I think I’ve been pretty straight forward that Glenn has been a real positive and continued to make progress for us. There is no doubt we missed him. You miss one of your better players when he’s not in there and he’s a guy who has made big strides. There is no doubt when a player like that is not out there you’re going to miss him. But that being said, injuries are part of the game and guys have to step up and fill in.”

Q: When you’re going against one of the best returners in the league do you have good enough guys to stop him from this roster? Are they overmatched?

HALEY: “We’ve gone against some pretty good returners this year and special teams are a big part of this game. I thought there were some terrific plays yesterday on the punt returns where this guy is a great punt returner. But we’ve seen a bunch of really good returners this year.

“That first return we had three chances to get him down and didn’t get him down. The second one we just didn’t do a good enough job getting down field and taking on blocks and getting off blocks. But I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Cribbs who is an impressive returner. But you’ll never hear me say we can’t get it done because I’ve seen us get it done.”

Q: Is the most bothersome thing this time of the season that the most basic things kill you: stopping the run, catching the ball?

HALEY: “I’d like to say that, sure, just like I’d like to be sitting here with five or six wins in what I thought were winnable games. I’d feel better but I wouldn’t feel great because the object of the game is to get into the playoffs and ultimately have a chance to getting to the Super Bowl and winning it.

“This drop thing is as frustrating a thing as I’ve ever had to deal with in coaching. Not only does it cost us chances to win but it turns second-and-twos into first-and-10s or third-and-sixes into punts or giving the ball up. Really, you can go down through our season and wiping everything else out of the equation if we catch the ball we’re sitting here feeling a lot better about ourselves. This has been a very frustrating situation and we’ve done things coaching-wise, we’ve done things personnel-wise, technique work to try and change it and fix the problem and have thus far – especially yesterday where it’s painfully obvious if we just catch the ball we have a chance to have a nice game offensive and more importantly win the game.”

Q: There were two or three passes that hit the receiver up by his helmet or where he couldn’t seem to get his hands around it; is that just a case of not getting heads turned around fast enough or being surprised?

HALEY: “If the ball is thrown too early there is always the potential of somebody being surprised. We have set rules and techniques on when our receivers’ heads have to be turned back to the quarterback, and we have rules for the quarterback on when he can let the ball go in certain situations. We work really hard on it and talk about it. There are going to be some difficult catches in certain coverages that the ball has to be put in certain spots. But when the ball’s put where you think it needs to be put the job is to catch the ball. That’s how I judge drops.

“I’ve been very tough on it. I have very high expectations but when you see it done and you see it executed the right way in practice and then not executed in the game that’s when you get frustrated.”

Q: How did Matt Cassel grade out?

HALEY: “I thought the quarterback made strides yesterday. This drop thing…it’s easy to look at statistics and say this is his completion percentage and it isn’t good enough. Just looking at numbers that’s all you’ll get. Now, when you see what’s going on on a daily basis, or you know within a game where there are five or six balls dropped that should be completions and what a difference that would make for the quarterback psyche and confidence and ultimately our team, it’s a pretty impacting deal.

“I thought yesterday what I was most impressed with Matt was that sometimes when those drops occurred it’s affected him. Yesterday, I didn’t see any of that. I saw a guy that continued to come right back and make good decisions and throws that had to be made to the right receivers.”

Q: Do you protect Matt from fans and the media taking shots on him?

HALEY: “I’m not in the business of defending people. I know what the quarterback position requires and it requires a tough-minded guy. I think this guy has shown resolve and the quarterback’s job is to stare adversity in the face and make plays. I think for Matt to be a great quarterback that ultimately will lead us to Super Bowls and Super Bowl wins this is probably pretty good for him. He’s shown me some of the things you need to see.

“I saw a guy yesterday that handed the ball off and was 15 yards down the field blocking linemen that had taking shots back at him and he’s taking a shot back. This is a tough customer we’re talking about and that’s required to be a quarterback that can win on a consistent basis.”

Q: Are drops contagious with other guys?

HALEY: “As I’ve said I’ve never led the league in drops and we may be setting the record this year. You can look at it any way you want to, anybody out there running routes his job is to catch the ball and block in the run game. That’s about it. It’s not to look pretty, it’s not to run the best route, it’s to block in the run game and catch the ball when we’re throwing it. That’s it. We need to catch the ball or find somebody who will catch the ball.”

Q: Is Matt Cassel able to criticize himself? Is he maybe not as self-aware as you’d like a quarterback to be?

HALEY: “Are you referring how he acts with me or with you? I don’t hear how he interacts with you unless you to tell me, or how he works with other people.”

Q: Not how he talks to you, but can he accept he plays poorly when he plays poorly?

HALEY: “Maybe that’s an important question to you but it’s not an important question to me. I know what a quarterback has to do to be a winning quarterback in the league and that’s what I’m concerned with. I care about how he reads coverages, how his [pass] drops are, that he handles the ball well and is not careless with it, that he’s got the arm and accuracy to make the throws that are necessary to win. Coming off that game I believe there are some encouraging signs.”

Q: Looking at your last draft now and how you addressed the defensive side of the ball and what the offense has suffered, do you ever sit back and say we should have invested more in the offensive line or more receivers?

HALEY: “This is a full time, seven days of the week job. This is a busy job and I’m pretty much focused on the task at hand. Some of the things you’re talking about are more off-season decisions and thoughts. I’m in the present tense and right now we have to figure out a way to stop the run to stop the Bengals and have to exhaust all avenues this week.”