Final Thoughts on the Browns & Week 14
We were planning to put together something coherent about the aftermath of the Browns loss to Buffalo, but spending a combined 90 minutes getting the car unstuck from the street that that city can’t be bothered to plow and then cleaning the driveway took the fight out of us.
And really, what is there to say that we didn’t already know? The Browns are not yet at a point where they can make mistakes and hope to win a game. That was true Week 1 in Tampa and it was true on Sunday in Buffalo.
We’re with coach Eric Mangini on the disappointment.
“In watching the tape and talking to the players, I think the best way I can say it is disappointing,” Mangini said in his Monday press conference. “It was disappointing to me because it’s really not the way that we play football and we’ve made a lot of strides in doing that in terms of eliminating the self-inflicted wounds, putting the ball on the ground five times and interception. That’s taking points off the board and defensively, not doing a good enough job on some game-plan specific things.”
One of the areas that was extremely disappointing was on third down as the Browns only converted two-of-10 third downs against a Bills defense that came into the game allowing opponents to convert more than 44 percent of third downs. Since Jake Delhomme returned as a starter, the Browns are only eight-of-35 on third downs.
“We weren’t very good on third down to extend drives, which doesn’t help; putting the ball on the ground doesn’t help,” Mangini said. “The time of possession was skewed heavy in their favor and that’s a collective deal where, defensively, we need to get them off the field so they can’t eat up the clock and offensively, we’ve got to be able to extend drives so we have more chances to continue to the full complement of plays.”
We’re glad to see that Mangini and the team have embraced our philosophy of win as a team, lose as a team.
“There are things from a scheme perspective that we could’ve done better as well. I’m not saying it’s all playing,” Mangini said. “There’s some things that I feel we could’ve done better from a coaching perspective too and that’s the way it always is. It’s never just the players or just the coaches. It’s all of us. We’re all in it together. When it’s up and down, we all need to pull a little bit harder.”
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Our biggest concern here is that the Browns lack of talent, depth and growing injuries are starting to catch up with them and that will be exacerbated and exploited over the next three weeks with division games against Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
If the Browns were to stumble as the season comes to a close, that would be back-to-back 5-11 seasons, only this time the season would end with a four-game losing streak, rather than last year’s four-game winning streak.
Under that worse-case scenario the jackals who worry about the temperature of the office furniture in Berea will be out calling for Mangini’s job. And that’s not funny or fun.
The positive part is we get the impression that team president Mike Holmgren doesn’t care what the media wants. It’s not that he’s egotistical, it’s that he comes across as someone confident in his football knowledge and trusting of his instincts. He knows that starting over after one year of the rebuilt Browns management is a no-win situation.
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As sure as we are that Jake Delhomme’s time as a starting NFL quarterback has passed – he has seven interceptions to two touchdowns on the season – it looks like we’re with him for at least another week as Mangini said Monday that Delhomme’s the quarterback if Colt McCoy isn’t healthy.
Even if McCoy is healthy – or as close as he can be – the Browns should sit him for another week just to be sure. There’s no reason to rush him back.
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As always, lots of good stuff on the Browns at Cleveland Frowns and Waiting for Next Year.
Red Right 88 