Cleveland Browns defensive end Jared Verse said Thursday that he has talked with his teammates about how they reacted when Pittsburgh Steelers guard Mason McCormick threw him to the turf, and he took a share of the blame himself, Yahoo Sports’ Sean Leahy reported.
“That’s a conversation that we’ve had and spoken about,” Verse said. “I’ve made my issues known about the situation, but also I didn’t put them in a position to let them know beforehand I was going to talk the way I talked to the Steelers. … I got to be better than that. I didn’t do enough on my part. We all got to pick it up.”
The Play That Set Him Off
The play came on the extra point after Steelers running back Rico Dowdle’s first-quarter touchdown in Pittsburgh’s 27-6 win. Verse leaped to block the kick, and McCormick caught him in the air and dumped him to the ground, drawing a 15-yard penalty.
Verse said the play could have ended his season, and the lack of a response around him upset him too. “The lack of reaction by those around me had upset me a lot,” he said. When a similar play happened to defensive end Derek Barnett on the next field goal, he added, “I lost it. Because those are my brothers, those are my teammates.”
McCormick said after the game that he did not know who he had tangled with. “Just felt somebody jump, and we’re told to get jumpers’ hands down, and that’s really it,” he said, explaining the extra-point play.
Storer Says Cleveland Does Not Teach It
Browns special teams coordinator Byron Storer rejected the technique Thursday. “We don’t teach a guy to take his legs out and slam him to the ground,” Storer said, describing a fine line between stopping a player from making a block and trying to hurt him.
Storer also offered an explanation for the quiet sideline. “I don’t think they saw it in the moment,” he said, adding that he did not see how severe the play was himself until he watched the film after the game.
Trash Talk Raised The Stakes
The tension started before Sunday. Verse accused Pittsburgh of playing “dirty” when the teams met in Week 4, and before the rematch he said Cleveland was going to “make Pittsburgh ours.” After the loss, he said he stood by everything he had said. He finished the game with one tackle and one quarterback hit and has yet to record a sack this season, Steelers Now reported.
Related coverage: Browns Took the Ball First. Two Fumbles Followed. More from the week in our Browns coverage.
Image: AI-generated image.
Leave a Reply