Those who were concerned about Peyton Hillis after hearing about his hip strain might be eased to learn that the team's starting back appears to be on track to start against the Pittsburgh Steelers this Thursday. The Browns had their full day of practice on Tuesday (due to the short week), and Hillis took part and team drills and was "ready to roll" according to head coach Pat Shurmur. This is a very important game for Browns fans, who always anticipate a match-up with the Steelers. It's unfortunate that the Browns' record is terrible, but as is the case every year, a win over Pittsburgh can do some healing. When asked if he spoke with the team about the rivalry with Pittsburgh, Shurmur said the following:
(On if he plans on addressing the team about the Cleveland-Pittsburgh rivalry)- "I will and I have mentioned it. I think we all understand what the AFC North rivalries are. I talk about it through the week in my team meetings and how important it is to win a division game. I think the most important thing is this is our next game and I think we need to keep that in mind as well."
There was a lot more things that Shurmur talked about in his press conference today. I didn't find a lot of it particularly interesting today, but you can read the full transcript here. I did highlight a couple of comments by Shurmur after the jump regarding a bad sequence for Colt McCoy from the Ravens game:
(On if he could analyze the part of the game when McCoy threw the ball and Haloti Ngata knocked it down and then followed it with an interception)- "The first pass he was trying to check the ball down to Peyton who was open and they ran a line stunt. Ngata appeared and he tipped the ball away. Colt was trying to do the right thing there. Can’t throw the interception, that route was obviously covered, you’ve got to pull it down and check it down. That’s that. I’m forgetting what the second one was that you’re talking about, but it was an option route."
(On Ngata being 6-6 and McCoy being 6-1’ and how from the press box is appeared that Ngata was right in front of McCoy)- "From the press box and the sideline it was. There are times in there and again, for a quarterback it’s never an excuse that I didn’t see him. I don’t think there’s anything to that other than the fact that if he does recognize that fact that Ngata’s coming out then to scramble a little bit more and make the throw. Peyton broke out on the route, which was proper, and he was running in space and Ngata appeared and knocked the ball down. That’s what happened."