UNDERSTANDING WHAT GREGG WILLIAMS REALLY MEANT

By STEVE KING

Browns head coach Gregg Williams said – and didn’t say – some interesting things on Monday as he took one last look back at the club’s 37-21 home loss to the Kansas City Chiefs the previous day and began getting ready for next Sunday’s visit to FirstEnergy Stadium by the Atlanta Falcons.

Everybody knows all the things that went wrong against Kansas City, but what, according to Williams, was the biggest positive to come out of the game?

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“One of the things that I covered was it was pretty good to see the offense and we went in and stole some possessions. The fourth-down conversions were good – three of the four. We should have gotten the fourth one, too. The understanding of how important that was on making sure that a really good offense also is on the other side on the sideline and your offense is on the field. Two-point plays, we have to execute those better. That is one of the things that has been going on here this whole year, but how much emphasis we place on that in practice, we need to get more production out of that. Those types of things are meaningful. The penalty things, which I thought was really good, too, I thought that was excellent. What I did notice was – I talked to the team about the fact – I never saw them blink. One, two, scores down or whatever, we were always in a position to continue to fight. I never saw them blink. That is good. That is what we are supposed to do as professionals. Young team, old team, I do not care – that was good. There was a lot of positive that way. Defensively, we have to play better. That is what I said. We have to make the space plays. (Chiefs head coach) Andy Reid’s teams have done this for a long, long time. They create the space plays to make you play in space. We have to tackle better. We have to play in space better. We have to do better on third down. We have to be better in the red zone. We have to play a more synchronized game. Offensively, we did well in the red zone, and we did well on fourth down. Defensively, we have to do better in those other areas.”

When asked if Greg Robinson’s play in place of a sick Desmond Harrison earned him a shot to start again at left tackle, Williams tried to say that the two would battle for the job. But when you read between the lines, it’s pretty clear that Robinson is his guy.

“Played well, didn’t he? He played well. It was good to see. I have known him since the day he came into the league. I was on the team that drafted him when he was the high draft pick at the Rams. I have seen him develop as a young guy. I have seen him have his battles, ups and downs. It has been good. I think that (offensive line coach) Bob Wylie and (offensive coordinator) Freddie (Kitchens) have done some good things with him. It is a day-by-day process. That is what the next man up is supposed to be. You are supposed to perform the way that he performed. Those are the discussions that the offensive staff will have. I will be a part of that once they go through it. I mentioned that to them today.”

And finally, in also being the defensive coordinator, Williams was careful not to directly answer the question when asked about the external perception that linebacker Jamie Collins is not playing hard on every snap.

“I will say this, and it has come across my desk a couple times here today – we have to play better on defense. That is what we have to do. When all of a sudden all of the dominos start hitting around him and all of the things he is saying and doing to everybody else just to try to get them lined up, sometimes there is a lot going on. We have to play better on defense as a whole. It is not him. I have to coach better. It is not him. I have to coach better. All of us have to play better on defense. When we understand that, then you understand the importance of playing as a team. We have to tackle better. Not just him, we all do. Those things are addressed daily, and we have to practice better in those kinds of things and we have talked about it. As a team on defense – not just one guy – we have to play better. I have to coach better.”