Browns Quotebook from Berea Following MNF Win Over Buffalo

The Cleveland Browns returned to Berea with smiles on their faces after a wild win in Buffalo before a nationally televised audience on ESPN's Monday Night Football. Here is what the Browns players said about the big win.

Phil Dawson who kicked a game winning field goal of 56 yards to put the Browns ahead 29-27.

(On the last play)

Well in the spur of the moment you have to be confident so as soon as we threw the incomplete pass on third down I was ready to go and gave Romeo me the nod. He had the confidence to send me out there which I appreciate and we were able to get the job done.

(On the weather conditions)
The ball was carrying a little better that way tonight, but with the temperatures the way they were I wouldn’t say that it was a favorable night for deep kicks.

(On his range)
Usually we give a range before the game. Today that was in that direction up to the 35 yard line ball snapped, but there is always some wiggle room at the end of the half or in an extreme situation which that obviously was. That is up to the head coach and he made the call and I am glad he did.

(On his best game)
Well I had six one time and we lost against San Diego so I will take five and a win anytime. I have said it before and I will keep saying it, but I want to make kicks that help this team win. Whether it is five extra points and we win or no field goals, I don’t care anymore. I have been here a long time and I just want to see this team win.

(On Bills Return Team)
You have to give them credit. That was the best performance by a kickoff return unit that I have seen in my career. Other than the squib kick, I didn’t do the same kick twice. We tried everything moving the ball around. Deep, short, left, right, up high, down low and they had an answer for it. You have to give them credit. We have been covering kicks great all year, we had a horrible night tonight and I still have confidence in our guys and we will cover more kicks in the future.

(On his most important kick)
I will let you all decide what that is. We won the game and that is all the matters.

(On Rian Lindell)

I have the utmost respect for Rian Lindell. When he was jogging out on the field I was afraid that our best effort was going to be in vein because he is an extremely accurate kicker and has been doing it a long time. You kick long enough and you are going to have days like that; I had mine in Washington this year. He will be back; he will make a lot of great kicks for this club.

(On his thought process for the last kick)
Well I naturally get the ball up pretty high anyways so I was focused on the line. I had a 50 plus yarder against Washington to tie the game and I tried to get on it a little too much and left it out to the right which you do sometimes when you over stride. I concentrated on just staying short, trusting my technique. When you do that you hit the ball well, when you hit the ball well you got a shot to make kicks.

LB Andra Davis

(On stopping the run when they needed to)
We just kept on fighting, it was a hard fought game. They have two really good running backs, we were stopping them and they kept coming back. It was a hard-fought game from the first play till the last play and we have a lot of respect for those guys. You see all the bumps and bruises we have, it was just a hard fought game.

(On the Bills having success running the ball)
I don’t think that they had a lot of success running, I think in this game we had more tackles for losses than we had all season. I know [Marshawn] Lynch had that one for 30-yards and they had one earlier for another fifteen or twenty, but up until the last drive they both only had 60-yards a piece.

(On getting that stop at the end)
It was huge for us, you keep playing until the game is over. We give them a lot of credit, they are real good and have real good running backs and they fought from the first play till the last play. We just kept playing and wanted to eliminate the previous two losses.

(On the defense being due for something like this)
Nothing is given to you in this league, you have to go out there and earn it. Thank God for Mr. Automatic, kicking that 57-yard field goal or else we would have been here sitting sad again.

WR Braylon Edwards

(On the win)
As a whole we came together when we were supposed to, and we made the plays necessary to win.

(On Jerome Harrison )He was talking about wanting to make a play, and now it was his time to make a play. By god, he came out there and on the very same drive took off. He gave us that spark to finish the game. We couldn’t go backwards after what he did for us.

(On making plays I just try to make the plays that I can) There are still some plays out there I feel that I could have made, Brady (Quinn) made some throws, you just have to keep grinding every week. You’re always going to wish you made some plays and there are going to be things that you can improve on. When we come back on Wednesday, we’ll get right back to the drawing board.

(On Phil Dawson)
He has been kicking 60 yarders consistently in practice, he’s been kicking them from long, and he’s been very efficient. I think the one that would have went in tonight would have been good from another five or six yards.

*On going forward) We always get to thinking down the road, we can run the stretch and run the table. We just have to come in this week and say, hey, we’ve got Houston. Let’s play Houston. Let’s beat Houston. We’ve just got to beat the team we have next. If we just keep doing that we’ll see what happens.

OL Joe Thomas

( On the attitude of the team)
I know that we’re a different team than we were last year, but we’ve got a lot of guys who want to fight, and who want to play hard. I think we showed that to each other and everyone else tonight.

RB Jamal Lewis

( On how satisfying was the win)
It was very satisfying to get that win. I think we should have capitalized more on the turnovers that they made but at the same time things happen and we did get a few points out of it. It’s a big win for us and I think we did do something things right and Brady [Quinn] played well and connected. I think we ran the ball pretty good, we just weren’t consistent enough I don’t think.

(On this counting as a finish at the end of the game )
Yes, I think this does count as a finish. The field goal block team went in there and put the pressure on him and he missed it. So it was a good finish, I think it was a good finish.

DB Brandon McDonald (On having a good game)
I definitely wanted to comeback strong. I told my team last week that I apologize for the mistakes that I had. I made a vow to myself and my teammates that I was going to comeback strong and play as hard as I can and I think I did that here tonight. There were a few plays that I could have done some things better on but for the most part I think I played well. We got the win and that is what’s most important.

(On what was it like at the end of the game)
We play for moments like that. It keeps us on our toes. We want to go out there as a defense and get the game winning stop. Phil Dawson came through big for us and we forced them to miss a field goal. We got the win and that is all that counts.

(On what his thoughts were when the field goal went through)
I was nervous at the beginning when it was a 57 yarder but I have seen him kick 54 yarders with ease, so I knew if we gave him protection that he would have a chance to make it. I believed in him and he got it done.

(On thoughts when Rian Lindell went for go ahead field goal)
I was telling people in the middle to get a push on him because I knew the pressure was on him to make that kick and if he missed it they would lose. Some kickers don’t want to be in that situation and I am not sure if he wanted to be or not and I am just glad that he missed it.

TE Kellen Winslow

(On his first Monday Night Game)
I had a lot of fun out there, not a lot of catches but we did what we did to win. We did what we had to do. Braylon (Edwards) did a good job, the offensive line did a good job.

(On Braylon Edwards)
I have to look at the film, but obviously he made some plays for us. That’s what we ask him to do, and that’s what we ask everybody to do. The offensive line had to block, (Braylon) catches the ball, and Brady (Quinn) makes the throw, and that’s what we had to do today.

(On the winning kick)
We were passing the ball, (Buffalo) was playing cover 1 on us, it was a tough situation, I think we were on the 39 (yard line). Phil (Dawson) is one of the best kickers in the league, and he has been for a long time. We have the utmost respect for him.

QB Brady Quinn

(On his chemistry with Braylon Edwards)
Each week depending on the defense you face they provide you with options. Clearly Kellen (Winslow) and Braylon (Edwards) are one of them. We like to get them the ball. They do great things with ball in their hands. That was something that sorted itself out based on what Buffalo did on defense.

(On Cleveland’s last possession)
You have to take your hat off to Phil (Dawson). It’s frustrating as an offense to not score a touchdown but he just comes through all night. He’s as consistent and clutch as can be. You really can’t thank him enough. We didn’t get it as close as we would have liked but he did a good job of getting up and in.

(On getting the win this week and not last week)
I think we’ve learned a lot these past few weeks. Hopefully we can take that into the ensuing weeks. We got a tough opponent after tough opponent. We got to go out and review film and correct mistakes. We have a short week and Houston provides a formidable opponent.

(On being worried about not scoring enough off Buffalo turnovers)
You don’t get worried about that sort of thing, you get frustrated. That was my overall emotion in the first half. We weren’t getting it in. Anytime your defense is playing that well and you don’t get it in you feel as if you’re wasting that opportunity and momentum they’re providing.

(On how much the Browns needed this kind of win)
I can’t say enough for this being a big win for our team. We’ve been battling the last two weeks and it hadn’t come out our way. This is one of the situations where we were doing everything we could and we ended winning it in the end. It wasn’t the way we wanted to but a win is a win.

(On taking care of the ball)
The biggest thing in this league is taking care of the football and that’s what I pride myself on. If you limit the amount of turnovers you don’t allow the other team to get momentum. In the first half we were looking to get in the end zone and go for the kill. We really need to score with efficiency.

(On having any jitters before the game)
No we had a prime time game last week so we’re used to this.