Building The Browns 2020: The Playoffs (Ep. 13)

[Music] tonight on monday night football it's the bronze hosting the baltimore ravens who come in seven wins five losses on the year the browns are nine and three they've won four in a row and are shooting towards the playoffs i don't even know where to start this was fairy tale it was better than fiction and yet it happened yes it was the game of the year considering what lamar jackson did going into the locker room if he didn't come back at the start of the drive he came back on fourth and five both quarterbacks were sensational in the clutch baker really rose and shone last night it it was his best game his approach me from start to finish all things considered that was the baker i knew and loved at the university of oklahoma and it is big game time again there are story lines all over the board coming into this one and business tonight is to beat the new york giants let's go to foe the browns are one of the most entertaining teams in all of football what stood out is that baker mayfield is playing well i want to see the cleveland browns in the playoffs um this isn't just a team that has lucked up and found their place at the top of the nfl this is a team that worked their butt off and baker makes what is leading them feel good to take one home man we'll be here next week too what a couple of days for the bronze as they got hit with kovid 19. basically in summation they have been wiped out at wide receiver all of their wide receivers are missing the game today because of close contact their linebackers have been hit the browns then lost jedrick wills their left tackle what an assignment for kevin stefanski and his coaching staff to try and beat the jets today yeah it sucks that we didn't have our guys but there's no excuse plain and simple i failed this team put three balls on the ground put it on me but for not doing my job so i know you guys got the statement this morning we closed the building while contact tracing is underway really dealing with it day to day hour by hour in terms of what we have going on so we're in constant communication with the league and then we're just going to really lean heavily on the medical professionals and follow their guidelines and that's what we've done today okay so i'm sure you guys saw the news and obviously we just had you mesa down there and i appreciate everybody getting down there okay so kevin johnson was the latest who did test positive today so we're going to continue to do everything to keep you guys safe you guys went down there to take those mesa tests we have 61 of the 66 results are in and they're all negative i feel confident that we're keeping everybody safe on here i just want to make sure that you guys know that's the most important thing tomorrow think about your teammates okay think about look around this room okay think about all these people on this call all right you have a bunch of fighters on this team you have a bunch of scrappers on this team you have guys who have earned where they are think about the city europe right a gritty city there's no palm trees out there okay a city that's earned it a city that fights for it a city that works hard that that's where you are and the truth is tomorrow guys you've earned this opportunity you've earned it okay in that game tomorrow if you win that game you're in the dance that's what you've earned that's the opportunity that you've earned so far this season all that work has turned into that okay now you win that game you got a chance you got a chance to have a chance we got to start with this one right here i want you to realize that you've earned it and i want you to realize that you have an opportunity tomorrow to go do it okay i cannot wait to watch you guys compete i'm wishing you a ton of luck i will see you guys over the state [Music] [Applause] let's do this [Applause] whoa [Music] [Applause] let's get it let's get it hey guys listen just as coach would say guys the only thing that we need to do guys is our job y'all get what i'm saying hey hell yeah room hey make up hey cause when we do our job what are we doing we win no work oh my god it's as big as the [ __ ] kids when are you ready that's all there is to we got no other options when are you [ __ ] in just one on three one two three welcome to the final game of the regular season it's the browns and the pittsburgh steelers with so much on the table today for the cleveland browns a win this afternoon against the steelers and the browns will end a playoff drought going back to 2002 and they'll be in the postseason for the first time in 18 years pittsburgh has chosen tales a story line today miles garrett is the game captain for the browns jordan dangerfield for the visiting steelers and his head cleveland's wonderful the first the browns and they will defer hey set the tone hey something tall no big plays set the tone set the tone no big plays shut the tone so the atmosphere inside first energy stadium tense no doubt about it the browns win they're in i think the guys were well aware what was at stake uh in that last game of the regular season we were talking about it in the locker room the week before when we lost the jets we we knew what was at stake it was win or go home and uh the guys were fully prepared for what that game was going to entail and and that's something that i've seen from our guys all season long and i i remind them about who they are and what how they got to where they were they just fought for everything that they had earned and it wasn't easy nothing was given to us so we knew that we were going to have to go in there in that last game and go earn a victory and had to go fight and scratch and claw and whatever it was going to take we had to get that w and i think the guys knew that going into it [Applause] you know you know i don't never really look at a situation as like pressure or being too big you know what i mean i think it's just another opportunity to be more special you know and um you know we did that we were able to do that minus some coaches minus some players you know regardless of what happens we still have been able to step up and answer the call on first and ten takes the snap gives it chubb runs dips his shoulders he's in the 40 35 he's to the 30. cut back 25 hits to the 15. go five goals don't go let's go let's go let's go let's go nick job he's over a thousand and the grounds lead six nothing yesterday [Music] you know what it takes it's like a see-saw you know we go back and forth you know when they come off the field after score and jarvis is pumped up that just turns us up you know there's more fuel to the fire and they come over there and they're telling us you know let's go like let's make a play you know i'm saying like get us the ball back like we need it hey i mean that you say you got me get me you know you want to hear that from your offense like we want the ball like get us the ball back you know stuff like that so um you know we all build off of that and um it's just great you know and i love it you know and it reminds me of alabama it does [Music] i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog i'm a dog let's finish this out man it's only right like you say that's what they brought us here for it's only right we've had to win games every single different way uh and we've had to fight and come back and some of the games that we haven't won uh we've been you know close or realized what we did wrong and so whatever we need to do to win we're capable of doing that make plays together let's go we've been in playoff mode since week 14. this has always been we have to win you know we lost to the ravens and the jets and i think those are losses that kind of showed us who we were in a way and who we who we want to be so after that we always came back worked worked extremely hard you know after those losses and i think that kind of in a way helped us find our identity yeah down a goal at the one and a half jump in the backfield mayfield turns he's going to throw he's looking left sideline caught touchdown hits austin hooper and you can all exhale just a little bit we got to do it we got to do it need a turnover bro let's go let's go you see somebody else make a play like you happy for him but you like you know shoot i want to make one too you know what i mean so it's just it's just kind of contagious rip the ball rip the ball now make it count let's go from the wrong 42. they need nine he's got the snap back to pass here comes jacob phillips on a blitz and it's picked off by mj stewart he's at the 40. weaves outside left he's at the 35 he's at the 30 25 21 yard line mj stewart gets the interception and the browns defense comes up with a big turnover celebrating the success you know that's another part of our defensive identity and the guys really believed in that you see it just come out of the guys hey mickey count make it count 18 seconds left to go in the corner and on third down in eight baker back to pass in the pocket throws oh he had hodge wide open and he caught it he made a great catch morgan he catch yeah oh you [ __ ] catch boys yeah we like that we like that bank all your receivers like that i'm gonna get out of here keep going bro one more quarter though one more quarter bro one more quarter though and on first down a long count of the line he wants motion and he gets it and they give the ball to landry and he dies left side touchdown jarvis landry takes it in he came in motion mayfield gave it to him and landry got hit about the half yard line and curled in if they win there is and right now they're winning for me like after the play it was just you know it was just like kind of like a surreal feeling like i kind of took a second you know just because you know it's like yeah like like we're here like like we're here we're not running from nobody we ready you know and um throwing a ball at the wall and stuff like that that was just like yeah like you know just put a stamp on it you know i mean [Applause] in week 17 getting that receiver group back you know those are some of our our stars our players you know our our leader juice you know he's one of our offensive leaders uh just to get his energy back and his play-making ability back oh it's huge i mean those are your guys hey i used to running that so i couldn't get down there and he just stayed up and tried to like i'll run straight out of broke something on this on his face mask i promise i i ran up like one of them yeah yeah on second down from the cleveland 28 rudolph back to pass shoulder fade rolls left rolls left throws towards the end zone up in the air they battle for it and ronnie harrison knocked it away in the left corner of the end zone and we have a bronze player done olivier vernon is down medical staff and training staff come out get up o.v get up get up ov get up big dog [Music] get up it hurt let's see him going down talking to him kind of you know piecing the the story together knowing kind of figuring out what what happened and know what what injury it is i knew that was going to be something significant but you know just all those things happen here at the you got to play for those guys well not just ov but you know obj and all the guys who are out now we're doing this for them you know trying to make sure that no we appreciate you guys and then we're gonna try and carry the torch and uh represent you all the best we can how you want to be remember you want to be great you want to be great you got to make a play bro you got to make a play and it's now the bronze leading 24-22 and it's come down to a two-point conversion to try and tie the game up hey brother let's go bro our season on the line let's go and on the year they are two for four on two point drives in the backfield james connor rudolph back pedals into the shotgun mcdonald the tight end goes right to left this is for two points in the tie rudolph to throw end zone no good he missed it as he overthrows claypool in the left corner of the end zone with robert jackson on him and with a minute 23 left the browns lead by two oh man it was just great um like it just felt like one of those kodak moments you know like you know fairy tale moments you know and and i told them you know like this is kind of like your legacy you know like this is a step in your legacy where legends are made so um you know we're not done yet we're trying to keep going but this is definitely a step in the right direction we here bro we right where we want to be bro we here we're gonna talk about to make history around this real talk we about to make history around this a minute away from history around him let's go yeah you go we recover the onside kick and you know you need one first down uh and you're kind of you're all focused on that you know you got a big third down ahead of you we put the ball in baker's hand and we say you know let's make a play here uh kareem does a great job that sets a huge block off the edge to give baker the space to slide down for the first down uh and then you know you've got it [Applause] 12 000 are going crazy inside first energy stadium and wherever you are this is starting to become very very real that the browns are going to go to the playoffs hey bro hey man [Music] jay you look around to the guys you battle with to get to this point and again it's not it's not the end uh hopefully uh it's just the next step but you take pride in those steps because you understand exactly how much hard work and pain uh that goes into getting to that point they're in victory formation and baker mayfield takes a knee and the clock will wind down an amazing story the browns will get their 11th win of the year they'll go to 11-5 and they're going to the playoffs unbelievable what a season and the only thing that's missing all of you [Music] i was happy to you know get that chance you know we had a chance to have a chance and we we knocked down one now we got a chance so you know it was it was exciting it was a hell of a moment for my career and you know us as a team and organization because that's something we haven't done in a long time but i was more excited for you know round three being able to to go against those guys again and to really you know stamp our name as a legitimate team you know in the playoffs and i feel like we still got work to do baker what words best describe what it means to bring this organization back to the postseason i don't think i could correctly describe it i wouldn't justify it for these people uh it means so much to the city i mean you can tell right now we don't even have a quarter of the vans that we can fit in here they're going nuts it means so much to the city but all we needed was a chance to get in the playoffs and we're there now so you know what we're we're gonna enjoy this one but we're in the playoffs so we gotta focus up baker mayfield raising a clenched fist to the crowd as he goes off after a television interview i gotta tell you this is pretty emotional [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] guys i am proud of you okay i got to say something though was the goal ever just to go to the playoffs you got you got more in you yes cause i'm gonna need it hey where's that uh joel futono get yours up here [Applause] a lot more work to do what hey i appreciate being on the winning team changing the culture [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a lot of hard work we put in the work and we appreciate you this guy and his staff and you guys okay great win [Applause] [Music] that is a great team win i'm so proud of you guys think about the resiliency the guys that didn't even know they were playing today and stepped up that is what it's all about team on three one two three [Music] the turnpike series between cleveland and pittsburgh to the hottest rivalry in pro football so the browns steelers rivalry and i still believe it is a very healthy rivalry that is getting healthier now because the browns are better and they're more competitive it's great to be back in a big game it really is whether it's the steelers or anyone else but because it's the steelers i mean it is just really great to be back in a big rivalry game it's a very unique game back in the 80s when the browns couldn't win at three rivers stadium there was a three river stadium hex and the browns had lost like 16 in a row over there just couldn't win at three rivers stadium when bernie kozar's browns finally broke through and won it really was the solidifying point for them that all of a sudden they sat back and said you know what we just beat these guys and we beat them in a place that we never could win before and now we're ready to take over the division and i think that's where we're at with this particular team but i think if you can go over there and a compete with them and i think we're definitely at that level and b finally beat them in heinz field i think like the cozar browns of the 80s this will be the pushover point it's like getting to the top of the mountain and you say all right we can play with anybody if we can beat these guys over here we can play with anyone anybody and we can win anywhere we're ready breaking news out of cleveland brown's coach kevin stafanski has tested positive for covert 19. my first reaction with with kevin was is he okay it's a real illness and it affects people in different ways and so that's really where my where my mind went you know it was shocking to get that phone call uh early on tuesday morning and uh you know i was very disappointed i obviously didn't want to get it i didn't want to be away from the team i wanted to help the team in any which way i could and then to also hear about joel and others it was really disappointing but you know right away the message from myself and to our organization to the players was let's go find a way that's something that we had put a lot of thought in planning into ahead of time so i felt like we were prepared and then we were really more in execution mode as opposed to dealing with any of the emotional effects or trying to pivot to come up with a solution that we didn't already have in place regardless of who's out there regardless of who's calling the plays we felt like we'd established an identity and the guys the players knew that the coaches certainly knew that so i had all the faith in the world and coach preef as the head coach in that game all the faith in the world as abp as a play caller because we've been together we know what we've uh believe in as an offense we know how we operate and ultimately we trust our players you don't get graded on a curve like your job is to find solutions so the team can be prepared and ultimately put in a position to win the game and that's really the mindset that that we took breaking news just in five total positive tests for covet 19 today kevin stefanski uh won't be on the sidelines they're down all these players and all of a sudden the special teams coach is the head coach it's a bad situation and it's getting worse i don't see how the cleveland browns fully loaded can beat pittsburgh in pittsburgh and they are the same browns until the browns win this football game they will go to the steel city this sunday and they will go down i think they're still the same bouncing up every year i think they're nameless great faces um yes they have a couple good players on their team but at the end of the day like we i don't know it does the bronzes the browns all right let's get started guys how do we win this game tomorrow we win as a team we win this game tomorrow as a team and i'm not going to tell you nobody believes in us because i don't know what anybody else thinks i don't care what what everybody else thinks doesn't matter to me i know what i think i know what i believe i know what the people on this call believe okay i am so confident in this group okay and i'm gonna tell you why confidence comes from demonstrated ability i have seen it these eyeballs have seen it okay you've seen it from yourself you've seen it from your teammates okay i've had a front row seat at all at 11 wins i've seen it all right i've had the best view in the whole house now tomorrow night i'm gonna have an hd view it's still gonna be pretty damn good okay but i've seen it and i trust in what i see you know we we've established how we play football at the cleveland browns i don't think there's any debate in how we win around here okay and we've done it and guess what we're gonna do it one more time tomorrow if you stick with it and you compete for 60 minutes and play cleveland brown football you will love where you are at the end of those 60 minutes i promise you that we're all set to go for the browns and steelers the wild card playoff game from heinz field we're thrilled to be here thrilled you're with us all out here tonight leave it all out here tonight personally when i was asked about it about my family and friends i said i didn't change anything no we're going to win the game you know that was just my mindset no matter who was out we got we have the guys we needed to to make this happen right here man starting something special first one feel good to be out here man born and raised in cleveland too don't get much better my mindset always the same as smack them in their mouth we're in the winter go home situation so we had to come find a way to win that football game even without our head coach and joel you know it was it was a game we had you know to come out and prove ourselves and keep it rolling this game taking too long to start i'm ready whatever you got tonight i gotta have it i need it all these guys don't leave here father we beat them into the ground and tell us we gotta leave win let's go win on three one two three i had something i wanted to say i hear coach van pelt talk all the time about starting fast you know offensively you want to start fast defensively you want to slow them down early four spots three and out that type of thing but when we win when we play well our defense forces turnovers our offense gets in the end zone you play well in special teams play play great complimentary football but that's how the cleveland browns bring it in tight most of us have been waiting for this our whole lives man stay outside fly down the field look for something crazy let's go get it now let's go hey hey he's going on three one two three ray mcleod is back deep to return the opening kickoff here at heinz field and parkey approaches the ball and we're underway playoff style parky kicks it deep ray ray mcleod to his right catches at the one he's out to the five and ten the fifteen he's to the 20 and javier thomas comes over there and makes the hit on the play big ben comes out onto the field with that steeler offense ocean by the tight end down the line left to right and the snap goes high over the head of big ben browns have it in the end zone and they dive on the ball and recover it for a touchdown carl joseph's got it in the end zone a touchdown not a bad start and i see the ball just flying today i'm like damn it's actually i know i'm flying towards the ball i'm thinking one of them's got to pick the ball up so i'm getting ready to tackle whoever picks the ball up and it's like they were looking at each other thinking no you're going to pick it up no you're going to pick it up and neither ended up picking up i fell on it ended up like squirting out my my grasp right into the end zone i think carl ends up getting it i tell you that oblong shape it gets you every time let's go let's go i'm winning for playoff games bro my voice was cracking i'm not getting it no oh let's go let's try this again appreciate y'all spotting us play action fake then he's gonna throw the ball over the middle it's intercepted look out the browns have it inside the 50 that is mj stewart everybody was locked in you know they were doing it for coach stefanski doing it for joel and the guys and and denzel the guys that weren't there i felt that i felt that they wanted to get those guys into the next round and get those guys back and let them be a part of it too oh yeah oh go you know about the energy that we want to bring as a team and have an opportunity to start the way that we did and you know then that play to go 14 nothing on the road this early you know i it was one of those definitely you know high energy things where everybody was just pumped up and um you know i'm just happy that i was able to make a play hey come to play come to play come to play come to play you know our time to shine gonna be coming here soon too offense we had some momentum going down the field time they put me in and i heard the play and you know i was gonna get an opportunity and i knew we needed more points on the board hey done have fun baby i'll see you out there have fun [Music] so now i got the football seen a little crease and you know kind of just jumped through it stepped through the hole and smacked the guy hand down and then cut inside and the linebacker tried to hit me and it was like who wants it more pretty much so once we made contact i wanted it a lot you got to keep yours going baby they don't want to tackle you no we got to go we got to keep it going we just started i'm not boys takes the snap drops to throw back looks throws middle tip head picked off they got him again it's red wide have we done anything special bridge is doing our job period third down they need three he's got the snap gives the ball running near side left here comes hunt he's gonna get to the five and he's going in touchdown cody parkey for the extra point snapback ball down the kick is up and it is good 28 nothing i let that sink in no i'm not kidding may this quarter never end folks all you got it's a long game i mean all you got yeah we can't keep reminding them we need more points yeah we don't stop we need more points in the first quarter i said this is the fifth kickoff we're about to cover this quarter i've never never had that before i mean it's 28 nothing and we started the game with the kickoff and now the end of the first quarter we're going with number five kickoff number five so it was crazy you know i was prior proud of our guys and how they were so resilient we knew pittsburgh was going to come after us in the second half and you know they were they're very scary team as you know as our fans though touchdown james connor scampers into the end zone untouched off the right side and the steelers finally break through and get points make your throws end zone touchdown it's austin hooper keep that same fire 49 yards out snap back ball down the kick on the way plenty on it and it is good everybody tight get up play football everybody just in 10 ben empties the set gets his snap looks right throws for the end zone eric ibron touchdown ketchberg i know there's a lot of nervous people in the third quarter and then the offense responded after one of pittsburgh scores went down and made it a 19-point game again and we just held on and kept fighting so i was real proud of the resiliency of the team throughout the entire game oh hey that boy's a dog tell you what just the browns doing brown things man on that truck oh my god i didn't know where you were going you know we just kept more and more pressure on him and i think baker's i think his leadership came in the early in the fourth quarter when pittsburgh had cut it i think to 12. and i could i could see him on the side he and i had a good conversation i could see on the sideline you know going up the offensive line go to the receivers go to the running backs going to the tight ends and talking to his guys talking to the defense even though you're encouraging guys and becoming that leader it's fun to see a young man like that who has charisma who's got a swagger about him develop those leadership skills and i think he's only going to get better at it hey you don't have to do anything special it's just on us just do your job man you're here for a reason do your job don't panic take a deep breath let's go [ __ ] finish this thing man let's go and what's that a wise man once said do or do not there is no trust there is no truck from the 40-yard line of pittsburgh four-step first down and 10. he takes the snap on first down back to pass throws it over the middle picked off takitaki's got it at the 40 at the 30 at the 25-yard line [Music] snap back ball down kick on the way it's good 48 29 come on born and raised here we want mo we won't mow and now with a minute nine left to go it's 48-37 of course it's never over until we recover an onside kick right they bounce the ball it goes to carlson and he's got it at the pittsburgh 45 and it is time right now everybody never gave us a chance they never gave us a chance mayfield takes a snap that's gonna do it from pittsburgh from heinz field sit back and watch and listen to this one inside a half minute and the bronze will not have to snap the ball again they will beat the steelers in the opening round of the playoffs on a wonderful wonderful wild card weekend they knock off the steelers 48-37 kansas city here we come all the best of you guys oh my god first win in pittsburgh since ben has been in the lead i remember he ended my season or they ended our season my first year i made it on 16 and they would've wanted to give us our first club one that's that's poetic justice but they they battled hard keep going y'all hey keep going keep going keep going hey i'm off to cleveland with this one you know it's amazing to be a part of something like that you know growing up and just being a browns fan and seeing everything we've been through all the you know good good and bad to be a part of it and have a chance to help change it change the culture around here you know i'm gonna do whatever it takes we've come a long way man but we ain't finished yet what's the quote we say we we want more you heard unbelievable and coach the fancy this one's for him yeah just to be a very small digital part of that locker room celebration again something i won't ever forget i wish i was there in person but that was the next best thing first of all i want to congratulate the haslam family i want to congratulate the cleveland browns organization uh coach stefanski our whole staff all our players i really want to congratulate our fans because you know i grew up one of them so i know what this means um congratulations to our great city of cleveland and and uh i couldn't be prouder of our guys tonight we're going to get hopefully a bunch of them back next week and we need everybody to go up and uh get out to the world champions all right team up three one two three [Music] [Applause] obviously being a cleveland browns fan and growing up in cleveland and being around passionate family members and friends that uh that love the browns and so that was been ingrained within me since a young age and because we went through those lean years that's why last night's win was so special for our organization our city all browns fans everywhere so it was uh obviously last night's game was a um just a monumental win for for this area that's cleveland fans they're loyal they're always going to be in the forest no matter what and they're also you know tough things finally starting to pay off for the people who stay loyal and you know who do it for them [Music] i joined the browns back in 2005. yeah been romeo cornell's uh first tenured year here in 2005. clinching the playoffs i mean this is what this job is all about to see the players come in the locker room and the coaches and the excitement of finally got that first monkey off our back and uh we're going to continue on that part of it that moment of camaraderie with everybody your family all coming together and celebrating in that moment it's it's amazing well kind of just kind of getting the last bit of stuff inventory making sure we got everything we'll have practices uh this afternoon uh jimmy mack will be working on shoulder pads putting on jerseys on the shoulder pads the tape shoulder pads i came to cleveland brown started interning with them in the summer of 03 right after the last playoff game the concentration now is reaching this far and there's only so many teams they really paying attention to detail that's just a little bit more than you ever did before not that we didn't pay attention to details it's just sometimes you would double check and triple check your work making sure no we cannot miss a beat that's way too important really putting in extra time extra effort and everybody's little job big job whatever it is no detail can be overlooked i just see an excitement in this team i see a team that has come together i see a team that has realized where they they came from and where they're at now there's a there's a lot of energy in there they don't want to finish we're not going to finish it out i guess guess saying we want more you know and hopefully that'll be what happens [Music] we have waited so long for this right well today is your chance with the browns playoff drive-thru rally happening right here outside of first energy stadium if you're not already down here you're already late because there's plenty of cars that are wrapping around the stadium there's hooting and hollering playoff football we're back baby and a lot of honking going on down here outside the stadium it is going to be quite the day [Music] the fans have been incredibly loyal and it's it's been great to finally reward them with you know a team that they can play deep into the postseason [Music] [Applause] [Music] our fans what they did this season was nothing short of remarkable and just the support from the community we felt it as coaches we felt it as players such a different year with this pandemic but that didn't stop them in showing their support for this team that's something that i'll always remember i feel the love from this community for their cleveland browns i i completely get it it's it's an amazingly loyal unique fan base that i'm just so proud to be a part of and we're going to work really hard to make sure that they have a team that they're proud of no matter what we did the year before like the years we were one of 3 13 1 and 15 0 and 16. week one of the next year was like the browns are going to the super bowl no matter what 67 000 people in the stadium ready to roll all off season like oh i love that draft pick like ready roll like they're the most committed fan base regardless of what happens all right so listen this is another reason why i love this place like people recognize my car and like like these people follow me now like blowing it hard at me saying let's go brown so that's always something i'll brighten up a day the support has been steady for you know more years than i can count you know and uh to be able to have this moment um you know for this organization to be able to wear these colors proudly to be able to you know have the supporters and the fans that we have which is the best in the world um and i wish i wish they were there i wish they were there to kind of you know really really be a part of it but you know i think the things that we've done this year obviously they understand and they they're so tied into it man and we want more so we're going for more all right good evening guys next stop on the journey okay and i think when you get to this point it's always good to turn around and look at how you got here all right how do we get to this point on our journey and that's why i put on the tvs this week in the building highlights from our games i wanted you guys to always remember how we play all right what's our brand of football look like we know what it is and this team tomorrow that we're playing is our opponent i respect them okay but i also recognize that they have to play us right a team found out last week that they had to play us the team tomorrow's gonna find out they have to play us this is gonna be a 60-minute affair it's gonna be a close ball game so start to get ready for that start to get your mind ready for that tomorrow you have to earn it all right and i trust in the men on this call i trust in our locker room and that's the team that we're going to battle with tomorrow continue to be special continue to be great man we need a call for your chosen we're here for good reason be great we you know we deserve to be here simple as that those are the greatest champions we gotta take these from them they're not gonna give it to us good afternoon everybody and here we go on to the divisional round of the nfl playoffs the defending super bowl champion kansas city chiefs at 14 and 2 this past regular season the number one seed in the afc take on the cleveland browns [Music] [Applause] [Music] show man let's go six i can't do it unless you do it fight down the field let's get it out let's go all right let's go level three one two three yeah we knew going into arrowhead stadium versus the defending super bowl champs is a tall task and we understood the challenge uh and we were really confident that we could go in there and compete and there's a very very extreme level of disappointment when you don't get it done and when you feel really confident going into a game and and you you ultimately fall short uh it hurts uh it stings it's something that you know i will never fully get over and i don't want to i want to hang on to that i want that to be fuel for us this off season landry in motion left to right mayfield calling signals at his own 25-yard line baker waits and takes gives the ball here's chuck running left he's to the 25 to the 30 got knocked down at the 30. jed wills the brown left tackle is down right away doug yeah not what you need well the offensive line was a focus this offseason and will always be a focus moving forward although perhaps the starting five gets a lot of you know perhaps credit and notoriety we spent equal amounts of time and effort making sure that we could cultivate the the proper depth because it's needed kendall lamb is in at left tackle right now for the rounds after jed wills went out with a right leg injury nick chubb in the backfield second and five mayfield to throw he dumps left caught it joku wide open 35 40 45 50 45 and down to the 43 yard line of kansas city i think we probably played a game that was a little bit more uncharacteristic of you know what we had done over the year but you know that's the thing as the competition grows as the pressure grows you know we really do have to be on on top of our our details and you know you can't can't make mistakes shoot yourselves in the foot so i was i was disappointed from that perspective that i think if you ask every man you know in the locker room hey did we play our cleanest game or play a game that was um as reflective of our identity i think everyone will probably tell you no richard higgins fumbles at the one-yard line through the end zone and out of the end zone a touch back and no points but it doesn't take away from the immense sense of pride that i have for the group for again being resilient because it could have been very easy you know going to half time you know down pretty significantly for that game to snowball and they really did fight scratch and claw their way back to give ourselves a chance to win it at the end time for the second half from arrowhead stadium time for a big rally by the bronx let's go man let's go man new half come on with it keep the standard high high standard high standard let's go high up in the standard miles garrett reach back and pull them down and force mahomes to throw an incomplete pass so they'll settle for a field goal opportunity and he hit the upright and it's no good you know coach stefanski in some way always knows how to trigger you know the the right mindset or the right reaction with his words about the guys they have in the building you know and i think you know you got a lot of guys who are fighters who are hard workers who you know have been through things who you know maybe not have plays in playoff games and things like that but understand what big moments are brown's trying to get into the end zone for the first time this afternoon landry in motion mayfield under center on first and goal play action fake looks throws corner tops down jarvis landry [Applause] [Music] get me going high standard bro high standard let's go that's the way to get it going that's the way the teeth are doing let's go now hey they [ __ ] meeting together cause they [ __ ] know what we can do man listen they're meeting together cause they know what the [ __ ] we can do man let's go man let's go man all right it's third down in one they need to get to the 49 they're at the 48. come on dave brown's defensive line yelling kelsey comes in motion right to left mahomes takes it runs down the line of scrimmage no sir fourth down he hurt he hurt mahomes got wrong and he looks totally dazed as he comes over just feet away from the kansas city bench and as a matter of fact they can't even walk him over right now because he is that unsteady when he went down it's unfortunate to see that happen i mean you never want to see anybody get injured but it's just the nature of the game it's a it's a contact sport it's physical and there's always going to be guys getting injured you know at some point throughout the season but for us you know it really didn't affect a lot of what we were doing i definitely didn't want the players to relax we talked about that on the sideline we just tried to continue to execute our game plan and just try not to let them score they're short of the first down again kelsey's got it at the 15 a yard shy of the first down he got knocked down by carl joseph see what they do are they going to kick again they're going to try it i think butkers coming in he rang one off the left upright the last time butker on fourth down at one with a 33-yard attempt to snap back the ball down the kick is up it's good you know things are going to happen in the game and you know that competitive spirit is you know how you bounce back it's how you shake back it's how you answer the call you know and you know whether things are going good or going bad yeah yeah yeah let's go home let's go low you know you always got to be able to try to compete at a high level you always want to compete at a high level um and and that's the standard and that's what the standard has to be get cats go get kanto come on mayfield under center third and goal from the three they give it to hunt he's going in touchdown off the right side kareem hunt is back in the end zone at arrowhead stadium and he uses the ball as a pillow let's go they fold it's time to eat they fold we definitely have a resilient group and uh really going back you know from the third quarter and into the fourth quarter you know the guys did step up we were able to get off the field the interception was really big he's going to go long as he sets it long and deep down the field it's intercepted carl joseph's got it in the end zone chad hemi just threw the browns back into the game you know i always had a bad taste in my mouth going into the game because the last time i played against him we lost the super bowl so for our team and our organization i wanted to get the win so we can advance you know further in the playoffs uh unfortunately we fell short uh we had our opportunities just they made more plays than us so you have to give them credit but i think it was a great game where you saw the guys fight for 60 minutes and that's really have a chance to win it towards the end and it's third down at 14 for the chiefs after a miles garrett sack the browns need the ball back they must stop them on this play empty backfield chad henny third down 14. he's back to pass henny up in the pocket he's going to run left he's running to the sideline to the 40 to the 45 and he dives out close to the first down he looks like he might be just shy and he is shy it's gonna be four thousand inches he is just shy he finally got brought down by larry oganjobi with a minute 42 left to go it's fourth down and inches for kansas city you know you don't think that in that situation the quarterback's going to scramble for 13 yards and it just comes down to execution you know coach reed he said he's a he's a riverboat gambler and he he took the shot and uh you know it was a formation we were aware of we just didn't execute in that moment he rolls to the right he throws it tyreek he'll caught it and he's got a first down and sits down at the bronx 47 yard line first down kansas city they're going to the afc championship game ultimately we came up short and that's that's where i take full responsibility for that so we're going to have to get back to work and that's something that i'm going to work very very hard this offseason to make sure when we're in hopefully in a big game and a big moment like that again and we got to come through i appreciate how our guys fought for 60 minutes they gave it everything they had i wanted to deliver for our fans i wanted to keep playing so that that one's going to stay with me and this wonderful season for the cleveland browns is going to come up short on a day where they will look back and say we were right there we were right there with kansas city and they lose 22-17 what a year what a finish at arrowhead stadium and what a year next year promises to be it's easy to say some positive thing people's ready to patch you in the back and glorify you and say like man like browns are different or yeah we've done some things but no matter what you do like there's still more to be done until it's done you know what i mean and like we've had success we've we've won games we're made to the playoffs we won one playoff game okay let's win the second one you know i mean we all train to win the super bowl we don't just train and win a playoff game we don't just train to make it to the playoff game we don't just train to win a couple games through a season and go back into training we train to win the super bowl so until that's done then the job is not [Applause] you know i'm very proud of this team and the way we you know handled everything handled adversity handled you know the season and i believe we're going to be you know playoff contenders for a long long time [Music] that's the most important thing right there huh what's the point i don't want to be on the up and down up and down that that type of you know so i i think it takes consistency to continue to earn respect to get you to be able to change the orders around this team you know yeah we this is a start and this is a you know it's a cool start you know it's a cool start um but it's something that i feel with consistency and the right mindset and the right people inside of the organization you can do things consistently that you know you see and like hey like you built some you built something here it's been a journey for sure and it's hard to think about everything you know in the last seven years right now but i can't sleep after games anyway so you know i woke my wife up when i got home i had i just talked to her for like an hour in bed just like all the things we've been through and where we're going um and it's special it was hard to explain exactly what you wanted in a head coach but you get coach stefanski here for a year and it's like that's what you want you know from the outset it's always been about the team it's never been about himself or about one player or anything in particular it's always about the team and this year it's like hey we need to build off this like this is something that we can build on and the nfl is crazy you never know what's going to happen but but you know that you feel good about the people in this building and i hope we're all here together for a long time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right not not the fun meeting that we all wanted to have today you know the next thing you're all asking is what's next what do we got coming now i wish it was another week of practice i wish it was another game all right it's not so the what's next is i want you to go for the fresh i want people to reconnect with their family all right this has been a long year uh being testing every day here i know a lot of guys haven't been able to see their family like they should in a normal season so i want you to reconnect with your family okay i want you to stay safe i cannot tell you how much that it's important to me that all of you as you scatter across the globe right now that we stay safe now there is a very very uh real sense of disappointment and there's a very real sting that i feel in my heart and i haven't spoken to a bunch of you guys today i know you feel that too and what i want you to do is grab that and hold on to that that feeling of disappointment of coming up short that will be our fuel going forward okay it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt anymore or less it hurts like hell um and i'm disappointed but i'm gonna hold on to that we also have to do this as painful as this might be and i want to put the blinders on and just focus on that game we also need to reflect okay we have to look back on the season that was what i come to when i look back is i come to a place of appreciation i asked you guys to work and put the focus on the work and you did that every single day you did that and i appreciate that from the bottom of my heart i appreciate that [Music] all the departments in this building think about all the sacrifices that everybody made to allow us to do our jobs this season i sincerely want to make sure that i say thank you to everybody from that standpoint you know this is the nfl and the nature of the beast is nothing stays the same there will be new faces next season but for this moment right now for a look around this zoom meeting right for this group this is a very special group okay this is a special team no one i promise you this i know no one on this call will forget the 2020 season that's impossible all right too much stuff happened this season forget it yeah you're we're all going to take something from this season that's going to stay with us this journey has to come to an end sometime it's coming to an end right now i just want you guys to know from absolute behind my heart how appreciative i am of this group okay please everybody stay safe have a great rest of the day you

Channel: Cleveland Browns

Views: 205,178

Rating: 4.9477749 out of 5

Keywords: Cleveland Browns, NFL

Id: tvWnByPQwgA

Length: 60min 55sec (3655 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/curryandbeans]

Kareem's scream when that ball over Ben's head lmfao

[u/Knights_Radiant]

@55:33 a coach is talking to Njoku as he's crying and you can here him say "You'll be back with us" I hope so. Dude had a great fucking year. Our best blocker and made a lot of great catches again this year.

[u/meyer_33_09]

Words cannot describe how important Jarvis is to this team, but this episode does a pretty good job of summing it up.

[u/idropbrownbombz]

If you watched this with dry eyes you ain't with it.

[u/iliekdrugs]

Brown tops on orange pants are seriously the GOAT

[u/topkek516]

LOL @ Jamie Gillan with the Nigel Gruff background on the Zoom calls (around the 58:00 mark).

[u/TaoistAlchemist]

What an ending! Coach has a way with words. Great speaker.

LOVE COACH STEFANKSI

[u/bucman1b]

I don't think I could live with myself if I ever caused Nick Chubb to have that look of disappointment.

[u/MannyBells]

Man, coach stefanski really know his way around with words and how to deliver it. Cried a little bit over there.

What a season and team.