Archives for January 23, 2014

‘”Your call is very important to us; please continue to hold.”‘

‘Wednesday afternoon, Pettine told cleveland.com he was hoping to get “some feedback” from the Browns by Wednesday night on his second interview, a four-hour session at the Senior Bowl Tuesday night. The Bills were also getting anxious to know if they have to replace their defensive coordinator.’

‘”I’ll say this on the Cleveland Browns. Expect the unexpected,” Schefter said Wednesday on ESPN radio. “… They’re hopping around. They’re interviewing other candidates. They’re bouncing around the country. If you think it’s going to be Mike Pettine, if you think it’s going to be Dirk Koetter, get ready for that curveball.”‘

‘But with important interviews reportedly coming today, the question remains whether Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn remains in the running.’

‘The meandering search has received the most criticism.’

‘ou were diagnosed with cancer of the jaw last year. How’s your health? So far so good. The cancer has not come back. In the last two years I’ve had major back surgery, neck surgery, double hernia surgery and four jaw surgeries. I feel like the Six Million Dollar Man and change.’

‘Cleveland is the only team without a head coach, and owner Jimmy Haslam said last week the team is “prepared to wait as long as necessary” to hire one.’

‘The team initially interviewed Pettine on Jan. 16, and following the interview, Pettine’s teenage daughter, Megan, tweeted that her dad was going to meet again with the team while taking a not-so-subtle shot at the Browns. “It’s the browns,” she posted on a Twitter account since deleted. “But hey, still pretty cool!”‘

‘Losing Pettine would be a big loss for the Bills. But it’s not fatal. He’s a very good defensive coordinator. Yes, there was talent on the Bills when he arrived. But, that same talent (for the most part) was abysmal last year. And several of those same players have been here for the last 3-4 years. Also, abysmal. And they had three different coordinators running the unit over that span. So, he found a way to take much of the same talent and do a lot better with it than anyone else was unable to. He took a group that was 22nd in interceptions and 18th in sacks to 2nd in both categories – in one season. He can coach.’

‘”I think it’s one of those things where if you have that person, another set of eyes, somebody that can point things out just to help the staff overall in the pass game, run game and to help EJ (Manuel) even more. All that stuff is all positive and I think anyway that we can continue to grow and I can continue to grow and just make us better as an offense. I think that’s so important and that’s one step we can take to help us.”‘

‘”One of the things that I found was very similar to back in ’87, we were losing a lot of games by 3 points or less. That’s what happened to the Bills this year. The next year we started winning those games by 3 points. Then the next year we started blowing teams out. If they can keep growing and keep adding players to the puzzle, good things will happen.”‘