Quinn, Cribbs, and Jennings Talk About Cleveland Browns Win Over Steelers

QB Brady Quinn (On what they did to beat the Steelers)- “Offensively, we didn’t have any self-inflicted wounds. We talk about that being a difference sometimes in games, not turning the football over always helps, having the running game going, whether it was (Josh) Cribbs or Chris Jennings, or Jerome Harrison. They all did a great job, you have to take your hats off to the offensive line. I think the wide receivers in the perimeter made a couple plays that were good enough for the passing game to kind of change field position to get us down there to make a couple scores.”

(On winning against the Steelers)- “Personally, I wish I would have had a better game for it, but it’s funny how things work out. It’s hard to describe it, I’m happy for our team, our coaches, our fans. It’s been a long time coming after all we’ve been through this year. It tells you what kind of character you have with the guys on this team.”

(On playing against the number one rushing defense in the league)- “The weather conditions played a little bit of a part in that. Again, we have complete confidence in our line and our running backs, if there’s an extra guy in the box, to make him miss. Go on, run on; they did a good job of that tonight. Using Cribbs in that package is something that Pittsburgh has always had a hard time dealing with.”

(On the film study)- “Just looking at it from last game to this game, I think we have a lot of positive plays in the first game that we played - earlier in the game. That was something that we tried to utilize in this part of the game.”

(On the standard running game)- “Again, the running game opens up for you, whether it’s the wildcat or your base personnel regular runs. It opened up everything for us.”

(On being a Browns fan growing up)- “It’s incredible, hopefully it’s a start of a lot of good things for us.”

(On the new coach for Notre Dame)- “I think he (Brian Kelly) had a lot of success in Cincinnati. You just have to pray and hope the best for him and hopefully the players will be able to adjust and have a great season, next season.”

RB Chris Jennings

(On the offense)- “First of all, man, God is good. Jamal [Lewis], there’s no better teacher in this game so far that I’ve played with throughout the years. He took me under his wing and kept me. So far, he’s taught me the ‘ins and outs’ along with Jerome Harrison. Coming from Canada, terminology is different, but how I caught on was because they took me under their wings and taught me the ‘ins and outs’ of the game.”

(On the weather in Canada)- “I actually got away from it when I came down here in August. The weather here and now has no comparison to Canada. We’ve got snow up there now.”

(On the rivalry and what winning means for the team)- “We have so much potential to be a great team and it really means a lot to get a win. It’s just joy. It’s been a long time coming. Thank God. Thank Mangini for sticking with us and not giving up. We’ve been through it.”

(On his first NFL touchdown)- “The best is yet to come. Hopefully, there’ll be more. God blessed me, so I’ll run with it.”

LB David Bowens (On the Steelers last play) – “It just kind of slowed down and it was like one of those slow-motion deals. My hands seemed to be faster than they actually were, but I dropped the ball. As long as I got something on it, I was happy.”

(On the effort this evening) – “We were working on a short week but everybody understood their job and it showed in their game. It was a total effort. A 110-percent effort where our guys stayed after it. We were down guys, had young guys in and guys who were just activated and they all came in and did a great job.”

(On the defensive effort against Ben Roethlisberger) – “The thing that I am pleased about is that we got him down. A lot of times, you see Ben take the first hit, get out of the pocket and make some big plays. He is going to make plays. He’s not a Pro Bowl quarterback for nothing, but for the most part, we contained him. The thing that I am very pleased about is that (Browns defensive coordinator) Rob Ryan stayed with the game plan and didn’t abort. They got some big plays against us but then we went to the sideline and collected ourselves and everybody got on the same page.”

(On snapping a 14-game losing streak to the Steelers) – “I didn’t know that because I don’t get into all that stuff and I wasn’t here before. But I do understand the significance of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game. Our guys got up for it. You can throw wins and losses out the door and just go in there with a cold game and a short week for a good old-fashioned kick tail football game.”

(On what the win means to the team) – “It means a lot to this team to get a win. It is good that it came against Pittsburgh but if it had come against another team, it still would have been good. It is just two wins. We don’t have a lot of room to pat ourselves on the back just yet but we can now play something on tape and show how it is done and just work off of it.”

WR/KR Joshua Cribbs (On what the game means) – “It means everything. I think our fans are going to have a Merry Christmas. There are a lot of Steeler fans around the city so I hope people go to work and kick those Steeler fans.”

(On the wildcat offense) – “They overplayed it and I cut back, so the next time, they were scared of overplaying. I did what I do and let my ability talk.”

(On returning kicks) – “I just do whatever I can to help the team with. Things don’t always work the way you want, but in the end, you have to win the game.”

(On the Pittsburgh-Cleveland rivalry) – “I love it. It’s been five years for me and we’ve never beaten the Steelers so tonight feels great.”

LB Marcus Benard (On the game) – “It was a great game. It was a hard-fought win that we needed.”

(On the play of the defense) – “We have always been that good, we always play that hard. We play hard, week in, week out. It says a lot about our future and our character. We are 2-11 now, but we came into this game with the odds against us. It says a lot about our team as a whole that regardless of what is going on, we are going to play hard.”

(On finally beating Pittsburgh) – “It is a wonderful win for the program. In our meetings this morning, we met as a group and said what we individually thought about each other. The defensive players said something about the offense, the offense about the defense and the coaches about the special teams. We collectively came up with the same answer that we all love the way we stick together. Nobody blamed each other for the losses. We put our heads together and we tried to turn things around.”

DB Mike Adams (On finally beating the Steelers) – “It feels great. This is my third year here and all I have been hearing (from fans) is ‘beat Pittsburgh’. This one is for the fans, the die-hards who always want a win against Pittsburgh. That’s why I leapt into the Dog Pound. This one was definitely for the fans. Two years ago, we had them beat at halftime but they came back and won. It was nice to be able to finish (today). It was so important today and that’s what we did. We finished.”

(On the defensive game plan) – “That was our game plan. Keep it simple. We played our base coverages and rushed the quarterback. We kept him (Roethlisberger) in the pocket. The number one thing that coach (Ryan) stressed all week was to keep Ben in the pocket. That’s why we were able to get those sacks. When he gets out of the pocket is when he gets elusive and hard to tackle.”

(On Hines Ward) – “Same old Ward. I went against him earlier this year and he really didn’t stand out to me. I jammed him, put my hands on him and I limited his catches. For the most part, I thought I did a great job on him.”

(On sending the Steelers home with a loss) – “Now they get to think about what we did to them. This was a playoff game for them and hopefully, we spoiled their dreams. If we aren’t going, then they aren’t going.”