BEREA, Ohio — Browns interim head coach Gregg Williams indicated that Myles Garrett’s criticism of the defensive gameplan following Sunday’s 33-18 loss to the Steelers sounded like an excuse to him and that he’ll “get to the bottom of it.”

Among other things, Garrett said, “I think we just took the wrong approach this time. I think we should've just stayed with what we did the first time, just go with base calls and punch them in the mouth. I feel like we should've stuck with the same game plan."

He also said, “They were able to adjust, and we have to do the same thing.''

In his first press conference as interim head coach on Wednesday, Williams stressed that excuses won’t fly.

“People handle frustrations differently,’’ Williams said. “One of the biggest gifts – I tell the coaches that get a chance to work with me and players – is my biggest gift that I give you if you have a hard time taking responsibility is blame me.

“They have had heard me say that over 100 times here. You can’t take responsibility? Just blame me. I’m OK with it.’’

He added, “We’re going to discuss it, but there are people that respond that way. That’s just how they are. Some of you guys have kids. I have a bunch more kids, too. It’s crazy in some of the world and how we accept excuses anymore. My dad did not accept many excuses when I was growing up.’’

Williams noted that “it just is what it is. He’s fine. He’s totally fine. It’s really a non-issue.”

Garrett didn’t think after the game that Williams would be bothered by his critique.

"I don't see it that way,'' he said. "He wants to go with the best plan possible, and if we think what works best would be what we did before, then he's going to take our adjustment into account. He's not going to bash us for having an opinion. He wants us to be able to be on the field and be comfortable.''

Williams’ “no excuses” mantra comes on the heels of lecturing Garrett and the rest of the defensive players about criticizing the officials. Garrett came out after the Chargers game and blasted the officials for missing the false start on Philip Rivers’ 29-yard TD pass win the 38-14 LA victory.

“I don’t want to hear their excuses,’’ Williams said last week. “I don’t make the excuse. I don’t want them to make the excuse. Everybody’s going to make a mistake. We have to play. We have to do our part. That particular play (when the false start was not called) that has been talked about all along. I’m hot at how we handled the play, not how the referee handled the play.

“We have to finish the rush. We stopped rushing. We stopped finishing the coverage. You have to finish the coverage.”

Garrett was also highly critical of himself after the Steelers game, in which he was held to one sack for a career-high eight on the season. Running back James Conner rushed for 146 yards, and the Steelers rolled up 421.

"It's never going to be good enough for me,'' he said. "Had a sack early, had a tackle, but other than that, I was holding my edge but didn't make enough plays. Just being in the right place at the right time is not enough. We've got to be all over the field and we've just got to dominate and I wasn't there.''

He was hoping for an Aaron Donald-type highlight reel. Instead the Browns lost their third straight game and 15th straight in Pittsburgh to drop to 2-5-1.

"I wish that on every game I play in, but sometimes it’s not in the cards,'' he said. "Sometimes they’ve got a plan for you and they get paid too, and they executed their plan and for the most part they kept me off the quarterback and kept me off James.''