BRIAN HOYER’S COMMENTS ON THE 31-10 WIN OVER THE STEELERS

On his touchdown pass to TE Jordan Cameron:

“I think we practiced it once this week, but we actually practiced it a few times the first week we played Pittsburgh.  We thought it would be good, and actually, the look they gave us was the second favorite look we were looking for.  The first was something else.  Jordan did a good job of adjusting and I saw that there was no one in the middle of the field and I just wanted to give him a chance.  He did a great job of going up.  It was a little bit behind him, but he ripped the ball away and ran in for the touchdown.”

On what a win like today does for the team’s belief in each other:

“What’s so great about this group of guys is we don’t care who gets the credit.  We just want to win the game.  I think good teams find different ways to win games.  Whether it’s winning on the last play of the game with a field goal, a touchdown pass, the defense coming out and really shutting their offense out or us hitting a few big plays here or there.  I think we had 17 pass attempts.  We moved the ball well and had big chunk plays.”

On the effectiveness of the run offense:

“You could tell that they were trying to stop the run, especially in our no huddle looks.  The safeties were down and that’s where we got a lot of our big passing plays was off of play-action in the no huddle.  When we have something that’s working really well and the defense tries to take it away, you have got to take advantage of what they try to do.  We hit some big passes behind that.”

On what a win against Pittsburgh means to Browns fans:

“I think the last time the Browns beat the Steelers, I was the backup quarterback for the Steelers that day.  Coming in after what we did last week and knowing what the situation was playing Pittsburgh at home, I knew the crowd would be crazy.  They did a great job.  I think there were a few false starts when they were loud and they stayed the whole time, which was great.  Even though it was 31-3, they stayed and they deserve it.”

On the loss of OL Alex Mack to injury during the game:

“It’s tough.  Other than (OL) Joe Thomas, he has been the anchor of that offensive line long before I got here.  You know how much it means to him.  When you see him get carted off and the whole team comes up to check on him, it shows how much he means to this offense.  In the same sense, we always talk about the ‘next man up’ and we knew coming into this game we had a couple injuries, especially on the defensive side of the ball.  Guys are going down during the game and the next guy steps up.  (OL John) Greco shifts over to center and (OL) Paul (McQuistan) comes in and does a great job at guard.  That’s what great teams are made of: every guy on the team being ready to play.  You might be inactive one week and the next week, you have to step up and be ready to play.  They did a great job.  I think Greco gets enough reps at center throughout the week that I wasn’t worried about him snapping the ball or anything.  Usually when a center goes down, the first thing that comes to my head is, ‘Gosh, snap exchange problems.’  I’ve worked enough with John, for the past two years really, that I felt more than confident about that.”