It was while reading Grant Wahl’s excellent article in Sports Illustrated, The World’s Team, that we had our ah-ha moment about the Cleveland Browns.
We want them to be the NFL’s version of FC Barcelona.
It’s not just the Barcelona wins a lot – 14 trophies in 20 competitions over the past five years (although that would be nice) – it is also how the team’s history, identity and style of play are as much a part of the city as the club.
A few lingering thoughts as the Cleveland Browns get ready for Sunday’s game with Baltimore.
Just what did running back Brandon Jackson do to land in coach Pat Shurmur’s dog house?
Since the Week 1 game against Philadelphia, where Jackson caught two passes for 20 yards, no one has seen or heard from him. Not to make Jackson out to be a superstar or anything, but he did rush for 703 yards and three touchdowns for Green Bay in 2010, and caught an average of 30 passes a year as a third-down back for the Packers from 2008 to 2010.
It certainly wasn’t the prettiest game you’ll ever see.
It definitely was not a game you will be telling your grandkids about one day.
But when you win as infrequently as the Cleveland Browns do, every win is a good win.
On a rainy, windy and generally unpleasant day at Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Browns did just enough to win (or just enough not to lose, depending on your perspective) against the San Diego Chargers, 7-6.
For all the details, head over to The Cleveland Fan.
(Photo courtesy of The Plain Dealer)
The Cleveland Browns and San Diego Chargers both come into today’s game at Cleveland Browns Stadium off of disappointing losses.
The Browns dropped a winnable game against Indianapolis on the road, the franchise’s 11th consecutive loss away from home, while the Chargers went into their bye week after giving up 35 consecutive points in the second half of a loss to Denver.
Sunday’s game also marks the return of the brown jerseys, as Cleveland will drop the all-white look for the final five home games of the season.
Will that turn out to be the highlight of the day?
Full preview starts … now at The Cleveland Fan.
(Photo by SanDiegoChargers.com)
The Kent State Golden Flashes posted the biggest win in the 90-year history of the football program on Saturday, beating No. 15-ranked Rutgers on its home field.
The win is Kent’s sixth in a row – the program’s longest in-season win streak in 72 years. It is also the Golden Flashes first ever win over a ranked opponent, breaking an 0-22 streak against Top 25 teams.
Just seven games into his NFL career, has Josh Gordon become the best wide receiver on the Cleveland Browns?
Well, the numbers seem to back it up. Consider that Gordon is:
Not bad for a second-round supplemental draft pick who only played one year of college ball at Baylor.
Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson will suit up on Sunday against San Diego despite a painful injury to his ribs.
Unless he doesn’t, that is.
“I think what’s important is if he’s healthy to play, he plays,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said on Wednesday. “If they tell me he is at no risk to hurt if further then we’re playing ball. As I watch him in practice, just like we watched him in the game, if we feel like that’s something that we can and should do we’ll do it otherwise we’re getting ready to play.”
The Mike Holmgren era ended on Tuesday in Cleveland, not with a bang but with a bit of a wimper.
Holmgren held his final press conference as team president of the Cleveland Browns and, while he will stay on through the end of the season in a transitional role, his time is definitely up.
“I want to feel like I’m contributing,” Holmgren said. “My emphasis is going to be in the football side of it. I don’t have to do the business stuff anymore. If I can help one player be a little better this season or one coach be a little better with some of the things that I know how to do and I feel like I’m contributing, then that could happen. We’re just going to take it a day at a time and see how it goes.”
More than 24 hours later and many in Brownstown are still scratching their heads over the decision by Cleveland Browns coach Pat Shumur to punt on fourth-and-one with a little more than six minutes remaining in the Browns loss to Indianapolis.
It’s not so much what the Browns did – punt when they were on the Colts’ 41-yard line and only needing one yard – but why they did it.
On game days Shurmur dresses like a coach, wears a headset like a coach and does coach-like things. But, and we’ve touched on this before, more and more it seems as if Shurmur makes key decisions based on what he thinks an NFL coach is supposed to do in a given situation (almost as if he was playing a head coach in a poorly written sports film) rather than read the mood of the team and the game situation.
For the rest of the story, head over to The Cleveland Fan.
Welcome to Cleveland, Jimmy Haslam.
If you didn’t know what you were buying before Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, you sure do now.
The Cleveland Browns lost a very winnable game against the Colts, coming up on the wrong end of a 17-13 decision. It was the team’s 11th consecutive road loss and drops the Browns to 1-6 on the season (0-4 on the road).
More importantly, the loss wiped out any goodwill the team had banked with a long-suffering fan base after last week’s win against Cincinnati.
Red Right 88 