AFC Notes: Chase Brown, Myles Garrett, Kevin Stefanski, Bengals, Browns

Bengals

Bengals RB Chase Brown hit one of the league’s fastest recorded speeds this season and HC Zac Taylor spoke about the speed he has shown while sharing the backfield with RB Joe Mixon.

“We’ve learned he is that fast,” Taylor said of Brown, via the Dayton Daily News. “We do the GPS in practice on kickoff return, things like that. He’s had opportunities to show how fast he is. Second fastest? That’s pretty good. He’s a fast guy. Real fast.”

“I was more slow-paced (in college),” Brown added. “Once I got to the NFL and working with coach (Justin) Hill, the main thing is using that speed as an advantage. That’s something we were talking about all week. When the opportunity was there, and I saw tons of space, I thought I’m going to turn on the jets. Especially after that big run against Jacksonville, I thought if I could turn on the jets, I could make a big play.”

“I think he’s stepping in and doing his thing,” Mixon said of Brown. “He’s bringing a spark and I feel he’s doing a great job, especially as a rookie. He’s learned the playbook. He’s doing all the right things right and (we’ve) just got to keep it up. We’re feeding off each other, so once you make one play, that leads to another. Everybody’s going to need it.”

Browns

Browns DE Myles Garrett was fined $25,000 by the NFL following his comments about the officiating in last week’s win over the Jaguars.

“The officiating was a travesty today,” Garrett said during his post-game press conference. “It was honestly awful. And the fact that they’re letting them get away with hands to the face, holding, false starting — I know they called a couple, but damn, they could have called it all game. And [there was] the one that cost us down on the 2-yard line. I mean, respect to those guys, it’s a hard job, but hell, we have a hard job as well. You can’t make it harder by throwing holding and hands to the face out of the rulebook. And like I said, I got a lot of respect for those guys, but we get scrutinized for the plays that we don’t make. So someone has to hold them accountable for the plays or the calls they don’t make. And they need to be under the same kind of microscope as we are every single play.”

“This ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ crap has got to stop,” Garrett added. “This, ‘Y’all are as dominant as we’ve seen, and we are going to let him get away with pretty much anything’ — it’s ridiculous. You can’t just let a guy put his fingers in your face mask and push your head up or grab you around the back of your collar, or when he’s out of position, so he’s going to snatch you from the front — all that stuff we see, but we try to promote the offensive game. It’s got to be called fair both ways. I don’t care about any of that — offense, defense has to be held to the same standard in more ways than one.”

Browns

Browns HC Kevin Stefanski was asked about Myles Garrett expressing his frustration to the officials following Week 14’s game and pointed out that the defensive end is the focal point of opposing game plans against them. 

“You know, Myles gets a ton of attention,” Stefanski said, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “Breaking news into SportsCenter. The coordinators when they’re getting ready to game plan for him, the game plan is built around stopping him. So he gets a ton of attention via tight end chips, running back chips, slides to him and he’s a difficult guy to block. So, there’s always going to be plays that the offensive line is holding on for dear life, sometimes literally. So he fights through it. I know he was frustrated, but he’s just going to got to keep and he will keep playing and not let that get in the way of him playing really good football.”

Stefanski said he instructs referees before every game to keep a watchful eye on how offensive lines are blocking Garrett. 

“He has respect for this game,” Stefanski said. “He understands that, he’s frustrated. It’s something I talk to the officials about every week leading up to the game is keeping an eye on the guys that are blocking him. So it really comes with being a great player. We want the other teams to play within the rules, obviously, but it hasn’t slowed him down. I mean, he continues to play at a very high level.”

• Browns C Ethan Pocic (stinger) has been ruled out from Week 15, via Jake Trotter.