Cleveland Browns head coach gave his weekly press conference today after the Browns 14-11 loss against Washington yesterday. Here is the entire transcript of the press conference from Berea:

(Opening statement)- “We lost a tough one yesterday down at Washington. I knew that it would be a tough game because they lost their last home game. I figured they would be focused and ready to go. I thought that we would be focused and ready to go as well, as it turned out, everyone wasn’t focused and ready to go as much as we needed to be. I thought the defense did a heck of a job creating field position and trying to help us during the course of the game even thought we gave up too many yards rushing. Even with the yardage that we gave up, towards the end of the game, we gave up 50 yards in three plays and that is an indication of what went on during the course of the game from the defensive side. Overall, I thought the guys played hard and tried to get something done. Offensively we weren’t quite as efficient, we had mistakes in several different areas that we have to get cleaned up and get better at. It was disappointing that we weren’t able to function, particularly after the display that we had on Monday night. Basically, as I sit back and look at the team now, we are somewhere between Monday night and the Dallas game. That’s the kind of team we are. I think what we have to try to be able to get done is develop some consistency and not be an up-and-down team, to try to be a more consistent team all the way across the board. If we can develop some consistency, I think we can still be in the middle of it as we go down the road. I think we can win some games, I don’t know if we will win them all, but we can win some games and with the way it’s going, I think we’ll be in the middle of it if we are able to get that done. That is going to be the focus for us going forward. Shaun Rogers continues to get into the backfield and be a problem for the opposing offense. The outside linebackers did a pretty good job of setting the edge on a good runner and really, I thought we contained him decently until the second half when he hit some seams in the defense and was able to get some chunks. They hung in there and even got the ball back at the end of the game to give us an opportunity to send it to overtime if we were able to make a kick. Offensively, the guy who continues to be consistent is Jamal Lewis. You give him the ball and he runs hard every time with it and he is a very consistent player. We have to get him some help with other guys being as consistent as he is. If we do that, I think the team will be able to win some games going down the road. Special teams-wise, the punter did a nice job of punting the ball, helping us with field position, the coverage unit did a decent job. We got a return play on a kickoff return, we got a 40-something yard return. That helped and was good. Next week we’ve got Jacksonville, we’re going to have to go on the road down there.”

(On injuries)- “Shantee Orr left the game with a foot injury. He’s going to get an MRI today and we will see what that leads to because he did not come back into the game. Corey Williams left the game and then came back but we are looking at his shoulder today to see how that’s going to play out for us. Ryan Tucker did not play in the game because of his knee. Josh Cribbs took a hit but I think he’s going to be okay, he’s a pretty tough guy so he should be okay for us. Otherwise, we are okay as far as injuries go.”

(On Kellen Winslow)- “Kellen is a very emotional player. He’s competitive and wants to win, he is coming off an injury situation and probably didn’t play as much as he wanted to play, even though some balls went his way. He did make one catch towards the end of the game that helped us in the game. Sometimes the emotions of a game and the emotions of your personal situation, they kind of overflow. He probably said something that he didn’t need to talk about to the media. Going forward we are going to try to eliminate distractions because that is a distraction and see if we can focus on winning games.”

(On Kellen Winslow’s comments)- “We will investigate it and then we will determine if anything needs to be done. My policy is to keep family business in the family so whatever I do, I do. I’m not going to broadcast it.”

(On Kellen Winslow’s staph infection)- “Yes it was (a staph infection). All I know is that it was a private issue for him and I chose not to talk about it. And I’m not talking about it.”

(On the worst part of Kellen Winslow’s comments)- “If he has an issue, he should address it with the organization and not to the media. I don’t know how much you gain by addressing it to the media, he should come to the organization and talk to the organization first and try to reach some kind of agreement and then if he is not satisfied and thinks he needs to go elsewhere, then he can go elsewhere. That is his choice but he shouldn’t go to the media first, he should come to the organization first and address any issues he has with us.”

(On a reoccurrence of staph infections)- “I don’t think there is a reoccurrence. There have been a couple cases that we have had. We have been doing quite a bit to try to make the place safe for the players. We had a sports coating company come in on a regular basis to check. We clean everything in the building where the players are dining, dressing and meeting. We have had experts come in and talk to them to try to educate them, we have handed out educational material so they understand infections and how to deal with them. I think the team is doing everything they can to try to keep our players safe. Even with that there is no guarantee, as you look around the league you see that there are no guarantees.”

(On where staph comes from)- “We don’t know where they are picking it up or where it comes from. If we knew that then we could pinpoint it and be able to address it. There are several different types of staph and different types of infection. Generally they are treated pretty much the same way with antibiotics but I couldn’t sit here and tell you where a guy picks it up or how he got it or anything like that.”

(On the team’s relationship with Kellen Winslow)- “I think Kellen has a good relationship with the organization. I think Kellen likes the players on this team, I think Kellen likes the Cleveland Browns and I think that he will play for the Cleveland Browns.”

(On distractions)- “That’s the main thing is that it is a distraction. Not only is it a distraction for the organization, it is a distraction for Kellen. It will be a distraction for the players in the locker room because they will be asked a lot of questions about what they think about it and all of those things are taking away from football questions and their focus and concentration on the next game.”

(On checking on injured players)- “All I know is that the organization did check on him. The organization values all of our players. When they are injured, generally we try to check in on them and find out how they are doing and give them some encouragement and tell them we want to get them back as soon as we can.”

(On Kellen Winslow’s “piece of meat” comment)- “In the emotion of the moment, sometimes things get said that are not exactly right or not exactly accurate, so I think you have to take it with a grain of salt. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel that way but I try to treat all of them like they are my own kids. Basically, that is what they are to a degree and I respect them all. I think they understand that and they know that and we are going to try to do the best thing for them.”

(On Braylon Edwards)- “We have to keep coaching him and keep working with him on focus and concentration and not pressing, to relax and just let the ball come to him and not tighten up when the ball does come to him. We know that he can catch the ball and he can make good plays for us, we just need to get him to do that on a consistent basis.”

(On Derek Anderson)- “There are a couple things that I think happened. The supporting cast, they were not able to make some plays, I thought the protection wasn’t as good as it was Monday night and he wasn’t as good as he was Monday night. When you put that all together, you are not very effective.”

(On Derek Anderson seeing the field)- “I think it depends on where the first read takes him and if he stays with that first read or not. If he reads the whole field, then he sees them. If he just stays on one side, and sometimes a guy will do that, if there is somebody on that side that he likes and a guy he feels like will be in the right place, he might stay on one side instead of going through the rest of the progression.”

(On spiking the ball)- “Generally, that is a coach’s decision. We had a communication system that wasn’t working as efficiently as it needed to work in that game but we felt like we had enough time. He wanted to get the play correct that we wanted him to get so he came over and got it and we ran the play. At the end of the game, there was still time on the clock so it didn’t hurt us, per se.”

(On Derek Anderson and Lawrence Vickers)- “There was a communication problem with the headsets, he wasn’t able to hear what we were calling and he decided to make a call on his own. I think what happened was without talking to Vickers, he told Vickers where he wanted him to align and it was an alignment Vickers wasn’t used to or didn’t think might have been right and the clock was running down so we called a timeout. But they straightened it out right away. It was more of a malfunction of the communication system than anything between him and Vickers.”

(On how he is handling things)- “The best I can. You go day-to-day, you deal with the situations as they come and you know that everything that is expected doesn’t happen the way you expect it. The unexpected is going to occur so you deal with it, handle it and move on. We do have a game to play and I have to get these guys ready to try to play better than we played yesterday. (I handle it) the same way that I have since I came in 2005. I play them one game at a time, I do the best I can each day and whatever happens, happens. I know that if I win, I get to stay and if I lose I might go.”

(On Kellen Winslow’s maturity)- “I think he has made progress from the time that I have been here. I think the thing that we sometimes don’t understand is the pressure that a young man like that has on him when he gets injured or is not able to play or what he thinks about his future and there are a lot of things going through his mind. They do have to deal with a lot, sometimes emotions do come out, but I think he has made progress since I’ve been here.”

(On the locker room)- “I think I have a good leadership group in that locker room. I think they will be able to handle any situation that arises. I think they are going to do what is best for the team and they are going to try to talk to their teammates about doing what’s best for the team.”

(On Ryan Tucker)- “There’s a lot or wear and tear on that knee. It got impacted because he had to play the whole game, so it swelled up on him a little bit. It has gotten better but we will have to see.”