News and Notes from Berea

-Brandon Weeden has had no setbacks at this point after having a mild concussion this past week vs. the Steelers. Coach Shurmur said all seems good to go with his qb, He went through practice, did everything and he looked fine. He looked good.”

 -The Browns offensive line has grown this year into one of the more consistent units on the team. Here are some of the reasons Shurmur believes this group has played so well, “They’ve played together now for a long time. Offensive linemen have to work together and the longer they play together the smoother it goes.

I think kind of adding John Greco to the mix there midway through the season has been good. John’s done a pretty good job for us and I think the challenge for them is just to continue. Although statistically there were some things that we did well last week, there were some plays in there when they watched the tape they said, ‘Gosh darn we can’t…’

They’re a unit that works well together, they’re very critical of their mistakes and they take great pride in having a runner that’s efficient and a quarterback that stays on his feet.”

 -Much has been made of the rookie wall; Coach Shurmur thinks his young group hopefully will be able to overcome this though, “I like to think that’s going to be the case. I see our young players getting better each week.

 Typically, when a bunch of men are getting better together, I feel like the results can be better. We’ve talked about this; there are a lot of hard days when you’re building something.

We’re building something by getting rookies better and putting them in there and playing them. I think we’re functioning smoother in a lot of ways. The challenge each week is to go out there and do it in a way where it’s a winning performance. There are no perfect games.

There are no perfect players. Everybody’s got to play hard, no anxiety, eliminate their mistakes and just keep going. Some of the young players, in reference to the rookie wall, I don’t know. It’d be hard for me to say.”

-Shurmur was also asked does he think the combo of Greg Little and Josh Gordon can become elite? “Time will tell, but I like where they’re going. I like how they’re improving. I like how they’re having an impact on the game.

There have been some games where Greg didn’t catch a bunch of balls but he had an impact on the game by the way he blocked, how he fit in combinations of routes. I like the direction that they’re going.

I think they’re both very talented guys, so time will tell.”

-And here are Shurmur’s thoughts on the Raiders defense, “I think they’re big talented guys. I think it’s fair to say that they are playing a little bit more zone this year than they did a year ago.

There are some new faces, although there are some guys on that defense that are very recognizable. I think for the most part, they don’t line up too much different than they did last year. Some of their coverage concepts are just a little bit different.”