Cleveland Browns 48, Pittsburgh Steelers 37
Q. Even though he had the turnovers, you gave up some long drives. What seemed to go wrong with the defense?
CAM SUTTON: Question is, what went right? We didn't stop the run early. We didn't execute. And then the quick passing really got the best of us and yards after catch. Our tackling was poor. And we didn't -- we didn't give up field goals. Even when we did turn the ball over, we still had a chance to fight, but it all was terrible tonight.
Q. We talked with Mike Tomlin earlier and he said this team was a time that died on the vine. What did he mean by that and is that something you agree with or you see where he's coming from with that statement?
CAM SUTTON: You'd have to ask him. I don't know what he meant by that statement. We blew it. I can't sugarcoat it. You look at the score. As a defense, we gave up too many points. And as a leader, as a leader of the defense, I failed, miserably, and you know, it's tough to lose. It's tough to lose guys in our locker room who have done great things on and off the field. And you know, that unknown just kills me. To squander an opportunity like that and to know we didn't play our brand of football and it sucks.
Q. Second playoff game in a row where you've allowed 45 points or more. Do you look at it as an isolated incident or something that needs to be examined? I know it's a couple years apart, but what?
CAM SUTTON: We got beat. Didn't stop the run. Didn't execute. You guys don't know our defense, but when we don't execute at a high level, that's what's going to happen. You know, we preach execution. And we do it, you know, good results and when we don't it puts the defense at risk. You know, we never got a rhythm. You can point to the second half. We got a couple, you know, three-and-outs. We got of the field but we were on our heels the entire game.
Q. Pretty soon to look back on it but first impression, do you feel like you hit the saturation point with injuries or is there something else you're going to have to uncover to kind of figure out how this happened the way it did at the end of the year?
CAM SUTTON: We lost some great players, but you know, injuries are part of the game. And I can never make excuses and say injuries caught up to us but you know, there are things that have to be addressed. We just had one of the worst showings as a defense the whole year.
We did not play complementary football. We did not have our offense's back. Starts at the top with me. It was not acceptable. I don't know what it is but we did not play well.
Q. Ben took a long time on the field before he came in the locker room. Do you have a sense of what his future is, and if this was it, what has it meant playing with him?
CAM SUTTON: I don't know what Ben's thinking. That's something he has to discuss with his family.
Would I love him to come back? Of course. But every man has to make that decision. You know, there's a lot of guys that are free agents, and Ben's been a heck of a teammate. Whether he's battling back from injury, being a leader on the field, it's been a pleasure to play with him. It's a luxury to have a quarterback like that and a person like that. He's going to be a Hall of Famer one day. To say I've played with a guy like that is pretty special.
I don't know what next year holds but we'll see.
Q. The Steelers don't usually have many free agents but there's up to ten starters that are free agents this year. Every year, it's the last time you're with a group of guys, and especially everything you've been through this year, is it going to be that much harder to say good-bye to people tomorrow or the next day?
CAM SUTTON: Yeah, it's very tough. Every year, the team looks completely different. I'm appreciative of everybody in that locker room, coming to work, sacrificing, their families' sacrificing, as well. It's been a year. It's not been our year. We did some great things this year. But we didn't reach our goal. It hurts knowing we're going to lose players. Especially in the pandemic and things have changed. But I loved every one of these guys in here. To come to work and just talk to these guys, go to work, it's just been a real treat and I appreciate it.
Q. Depending how the salary cap goes this year, you'll lose a lot of people and could very well blow this whole thing up. Do you think that's a possibility and what would you think if that would happen?
CAM SUTTON: I don't know. It's totally possible that I could be gone next year. I don't know what to expect. We are in uncharted territory to say the least, and changes have to be made. That's part of the game. We all have to deal with this.
Q. Earlier you talked about not playing -- this team not playing its brand of football tonight. Does that date back to the Washington game and from that point on, was it just a ship that was never righted?
CAM SUTTON: You know, I don't know if it dates back to the Washington game. But there were games where we didn't -- we won games and still made mistakes, and I thought our mistakes caught up to us. You know, you look back to this game and you think as a defense, you didn't control the rushing, you didn't get off the field, you didn't get any turnovers, any sacks, and we weren't playing complementary football to the offense. If they turn over the ball, at least surrender three points. And we didn't do that today.
If we had a checklist of how to play the worst game possible, we did that.
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