Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

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23 Oct 2011

Browns vs. Seahawks – Week 7

The Cleveland Browns return home on Sunday looking for their first win in almost a month as they take on the Seattle Seahawks.

The Opposition

Seattle record: 2-3 (2nd in the NFC West)
Offensive rank: 30th overall/26th passing/29th rushing
Defensive rank: 18th overall/23rd passing/8th rushing
All-time record: Browns trail 5-11, with a 2-4 mark away from home
Last meeting: Browns won 33-30 (in OT) in 2007
The line: Browns (-3)

What to Watch For

  • Can the Browns actually score some points in the first quarter? So far this season they scored three points total in the first quarter, the lowest amount possible for an offense to score.
  • Seattle, which beat the Giants on the road in their last game, have won two consecutive road games since late in 2007.
  • In addition to their regular offensive struggles, the Browns are going to be tested by the Seahawks’ rush defense, ranked 8th in the league. Seattle leads the NFL in rushing average, giving up just 3.1 yards per carry, and haven’t given up more than 70 yards to a running back all season.
  • Compounding the problem, Peyton Hillis is questionable with a hamstring injury.
  • The Browns may be catching a break as the Seahawks will start backup quarterback Charlie Whitehurst. Normal starter Tavaris Jackson is one of the worst quarterbacks in the league, so what does that say about his backup?
  • Of course, the last time Whitehurst started a game for an injured quarterback, he threw for 192 yards and a touchdown to help Seattle beat St. Louis and win the division.
  • Not helping matters is that linebacker Scott Fujita is out and cornerback Joe Haden is questionable after not playing last week.

The Most Memorable Browns vs. Seahawks Game We’ve Seen

That’s a tough one. When we think of the Browns playing the Seahawks we mostly think of Todd Philcox in 1993. We completely forgot about the game in 1994 where the Browns earned a playoff berth.

So we’ll go with the 2007 game where the Browns won in overtime.

The Prediction

Who knows with this Browns team anymore?

The standings say the Seahawks are not very good and they historically struggle when they have to travel East for 1 p.m. games.

Of course, they have played a far more difficult schedule than the Browns this year, having faced Pittsburgh, Atlanta, the Giants and San Francisco so far (combined record 16-8).

But if a team ever needed a win, it is the Browns after the week they’ve had.

Let’s take the Browns to win, but not cover, on a late Phil Dawson field goal.

Record picking the Browns (using the point spread) this year: 3-2-0.

(Photo by Life Magazine)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL, Seattle Seahawks | Leave a comment
20 Oct 2011

Serenity now, Browns fans

Repeat after us, Browns fans: it’s only five games.

Five games into the season. Five games that Pat Shurmur has been a head coach in the NFL. Five games into a season with a new offensive and defensive system that has been installed without the benefit of a full off-season program (think the Browns could have used the approximately 1,000 snaps of practice lost to the lockout?)

Five games.

The hair-pulling has begun in earnest among Browns fans. Some have already hit the panic button, ready to bench the quarterback or fire the coach. Some revisionists are pining for the return of former coach Eric Mangini and his 10-22 record.

That’s the kind of thinking that, in the past, has put the Browns in the situation they find themselves in. That’s how you end up with:

  • Tim Couch becoming the starter at halftime of the first game of the season.
  • Or how you hand out big contracts to players who don’t fit the system (Corey Williams) who have had only half a good season (Derek Anderson).
  • And how you hire a coach before a general manager.
  • It’s also how you end up with two ex-coaches and two ex-general managers still on the payroll.

The Browns have finally put the correct structure in place. Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Shurmur are all pulling in the same direction, share the same idea on the offensive and defensive systems the team will play, and know the type of players that are required for those systems.

And they should blow it up after just five games? Why? Because the Browns are “just” 2-3?

We are fully convinced that the process the Browns are using is absolutely the right way to go. Everyone has a clearly defined role to play, everyone is working toward the same goal, the team is building around young players and draft picks; it’s all the right way.

Will the end result be one that Browns fans can cheer? That chapter still has to be written, maybe not for another two or three years.

Of the three, Heckert is really the only one who we know can perform his job in a capable fashion. The jury is still out on Holmgren and Shurmur. Mistakes can still be made, things can fall apart and, as we’ve seen repeatedly over the years in this town, just because you’re a decent coordinator doesn’t mean you have what it takes to be a good head coach.

What we don’t want is a repeat of 2007, where the combination of a few lucky bounces and a soft schedule created the mirage that was a 10-6 season. We don’t want the Browns to be the flavor of the month in the NFL – think San Francisco and Detroit this year – but rather a team that consistently competes for the division title.

More importantly, Holmgren is not firing Shurmur – especially after only one year on the job. It was easy to fire Mangini, Holmgren didn’t hire him. But Holmgren’s sucess as team president is tied to Shurmur’s success as head coach. If Shurmur fails, that means Holmgren failed in hiring him, so short of Shurmur doing something off the field to embarrass the organization, he’s not going anywhere for a few years.

The Browns need time to work this all out. This isn’t a game of Madden football – we can’t just continually hit reset if we don’t like how things are playing out.

When it comes to the current state of the Browns, we’re reminded of this phrase from the Cadet Prayer at West Point: “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.”

The Browns are currently taking the harder right. All we can do is go along for the ride and hope for the best.

To hear what Holmgren had to say today: Part 1 & Part 2

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Mike Holmgren, reason for hope | Leave a comment
19 Oct 2011
2 Comments

Just another day in Browns paradise

The NFL trading deadline came and went at 4 p.m. today and, despite speculation that the Browns could, possibly, maybe, sort of, you know, consider, kind of, trading starting running back Peyton Hillis, the team thankfully didn’t make any moves.

The Browns were probably too busy picking up the pieces from Sunday’s loss in Oakland to do anything ridiculous. And the coaching staff certainly has plenty of work to do, starting with quarterback Colt McCoy, who seems to be struggling to get the offense in gear, especially when he’s under pressure.

Or does he?

“There were a couple times when we had pressures that should have been picked up that weren’t and there were reasons for it,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said in his Monday press conference. “It may have appeared that Colt didn’t see it coming, he saw it coming and thought it was picked up. I wouldn’t say there’s anything consistent. We’ve just got to get better.”

The offensive problems are all inter-connected – McCoy holds onto the ball too long because the wide receivers can’t get open which puts pressure on the offensive line resulting in McCoy dumping the ball off for a four-yard gain or getting drilled by the defense.

And lets not forget the offensive line’s role in this tragic comedy.

Coming into the season the Browns three best offensive linemen were Joe Thomas, Alex Mack and Eric Steinbach. Thomas and Mack were first-round draft picks and Steinbach was taken at the top of the second round. That’s how you build an offensive line in the NFL – with very high draft picks.

When Steinbach was lost for the season, rookie Jason Pinkston stepped in. Not only is Pinkston learning a new position, people seem to forget he was a fifth-round draft pick. Right guard Shawn Lauvao was picked at the bottom of the third round and Tony Pashos was a fifth-round pick.

It’s nice to see players the Browns drafted (Pinkston and Lauvao) on the field, but the reality is they are the types of players that generally are not starters at the NFL level. We heard a stat earlier in the season about how something like only 40 percent of players taken in the fourth round or later in the NFL draft ever become contributing players. The Browns are asking a lot out of their offensive linemen not named Thomas or Mack.

Sunday’s game was a perfect example. There was one blitz where a Raider safety came straight up the middle to nail McCoy. But watching the play again showed that at the snap Pinkston turned to his left to help Thomas double team a Raider (why Thomas would need help is an unknown), Mack picked up the player to his left and, with Lauvao, Pashos and running back Montario Hardesty picking up their players, there was a gap for the defensive back to waltz right through.

If Pinkston had just taken his man, Mack would have been free and waiting to pick up the extra blitzer. But that’s the way things have been going for the Browns so far this year.

So who gets the blame on that one? Pinkston? Mack, who called out the blocking assignments? McCoy for not getting rid of the ball quicker? Or maybe it was a team breakdown.

We didn’t have high expectations coming into the season, not with all the changes the Browns made and the shortened NFL off-season. But we also didn’t think we’d be this exhausted just five games into the season.

A win on Sunday against Seattle would be nice, but it won’t solve all the problems the Browns currently have.

***

The Browns did make a move on Tuesday, signing running back Chris Ogbonnaya off the Houston Texans’ practice squad and waiving undrafted rookie running back Armond Smith.

Ogbonnaya played in two games this season for the Texans, carrying the ball three times for six yards.

With the way the season is going, would anyone be surprised if he got 20 carries on Sunday against the Seahawks?

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL
18 Oct 2011

Browns a hot mess in Oakland

The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He’ll knock you ’round and upside down
And laugh when he’s conquered and won.

The Browns learned on Sunday that the Autumn wind truly is a Raider, falling to Oakland 24-17 in a game that featured one ugly performance from the offense.

Let’s start with the good stuff.

Phil Dawson kicked a 47-yard field goal and executed a perfect onside kick. Punter Brad Maynard had a nice day.

See where this is going?

Actually, the defense had another solid effort. After giving up a touchdown on the Raiders’ opening drive (and forcing Oakland to use two timeouts in the process), the defense held the Raiders to just three points the rest of the way.

The Browns held Darren McFadden – the NFL’s leading rusher – under 100 combined yards and did their best to keep the team in the game.

After ranking 22nd and 31st the past two years, the Browns currently sit 7th in the league in defense, so they have that going for them.

Unfortunately, the offense continues to be a considerable work in progress.

After another slow start, the Browns looked like they were ready to play, finishing a seven-play, 56-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown pass from Colt McCoy to Alex Smith, making the score 7-7.

But the special teams squad gave the momentum right back to the Raiders as Jacoby Ford took the ensuing kickoff 101 yards for a touchdown. Another special teams breakdown – this time in the third quarter when Oakland scored on a 35-yard fake field goal – put the Browns into a 24-7 hole that the offense was not able to dig out of.

The Browns were supposed to use the bye week to figure out what works and clean the playbook of what doesn’t. Instead the offense staggered through the game, never getting anything going until it was too late.

This team has no identity on offense, no consistency in the play calling – it seems at times as if the coaches are using a roulette wheel to call plays in the hopes that something works – and is struggling considerably to pick up the West Coast offense.

For the second game in a row McCoy threw to many passes – 45. On one level that is understandable as the Browns were trailing 24-7. But we can’t shake the feeling that the current offensive strategy is to abandon the run at the first sign of trouble.

McCoy also struggled when the Raiders blitzed, which they did on 22 of his pass attempts. On those plays, McCoy only completed 35 percent of his passes for 56 yards (according to ESPN Stats & Information). McCoy entered Sunday averaging 3.1 yards per attempt when the defense blitzes a defensive back, the fourth-lowest average in the NFL this season.

“There were a couple times where we had pressures that should have been picked up that weren’t,” coach Pat Shurmur said on Monday. “It may have appeared Colt didn’t see it coming. He saw it coming and thought it was picked up.”

All that does is ensure that McCoy will continue to see a steady diet of blitzers in the coming weeks.

The Browns couldn’t run the ball as Peyton Hillis gained only 14 yards before hurting his hamstring (what Madden Curse?) and Montario Hardesty only added 35 yards and two more dropped passes.

Things have gotten so bad that Josh Cribbs is volunteering to play more on special teams.

“I’m very insignificant on offense, so I need to be out there heavily on all special teams,” Cribbs said after the game. “I got the ball only twice, so that’s insignificant right there. Snaps, it’s insignificant. I want to help my team win. You get the ball to your athletes. I feel like where I’m an asset on this team is special teams and I want to re-focus on what got me into this league.”

So now what?

This year was never about the final won-loss record for the Browns. Rather, it’s about developing the young talent and finding out which players fit into the offensive and defensive system.

And it’s not as if the Browns were a well-oiled offensive machine under the previous regime, finishing last year 29th in overall offense and 31st in points scored.

But we expected the offense to show us something five games into the season – be competitive, be able to sustain more than one drive a game, be consistent at something.

Instead we have an offense that does nothing well, with an injured No. 1 running back, and the hoople heads calling for the coach to be sacked already.

“We fought till the end,” McCoy said in published reports. “Eventually, we thought, we’re going to catch a break. In the huddle, after we got the onside kick, we thought we had a chance. We had a minute, that’s a long time. We got it on the 50. We just didn’t capitalize.”

Yep, that about sums it up.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, hoople heads, NFL, slumping offense | Leave a comment
15 Oct 2011

Browns vs. Raiders – Week 6

The Cleveland Browns head to Oakland on Sunday for the first time in four years to take on the Raiders.

The Opposition

Oakland record: 3-2
Offensive rank: 9th overall/22nd passing/2nd rushing
Defensive rank: 31st overall/29th passing/22nd rushing
All-time record: Browns trail 8-12 (including playoffs), with a 6-7 mark away from home
Last meeting: Browns won 23-9 in 2009
The line: Browns (+5.5)

What to Watch For

With two weeks off since their last game, Browns coach Pat Shurmur and defensive coordinator Dick Jauron spent the bye week reviewing the first quarter of the season to find out what worked and what didn’t and claim to have adjusted the playbook and personnel accordingly.

With eight starters in their first or second year, and with a new offensive and defensive system being put into place, the Browns treated the first four games of the season as almost an extension of training camp, trying different personnel packages and plays to try and accelerate the learning process for not only the players but the coaches as well.

“We are still young together, but we know a lot more than we did when the preseason started about our guys,” Jauron said this week. “We’re still learning though week-to-week. We threw some stuff out that we didn’t care for and we didn’t add a whole lot. We really like the way our guys played, their enthusiasm and we felt the longer we can keep them together and do somewhat similar things, the better off we’ll be.”

This week on Sirius NFL Radio, the always excellent Pat Kirwin and Tim Ryan were talking about how teams missed about 1,000 snaps of practice this year because of the NFL lockout. There’s no question that the Browns could have used that practice time.

Now that they are through the initial part of the schedule it is time for this team to start showing what it is capable of. The Raiders present both an opportunity and a challenge.

Oakland is second in the league in rushing, led by Darren McFadden, the NFL’s top rusher wtih 519 yards and an average of 5.7 yards per rush. The Browns continue to struggle against the rush, ranking 25th, meaning the Browns should see a steady diet of McFadden left and McFadden right.

“I think the biggest thing we can do against him is set the edge and make him cut back and use the rest of our defense instead of putting (it all) on one guy,” linebacker Chris Gocong said in published reports. “But it’s a hard thing to do.”

If the defense can limit McFadden, however, the Browns could be in for a good day. The Raiders are a weak passing team (22nd) while the Browns have the fourth-best pass defense in the league. Stop McFadden on first and second down and the Browns could make it a long day for Oakland quarterback Jason Campbell.

On offense, this would be as good a time as any for the Browns to get the West Coast offense untracked as the Raiders are next-to-last in defense in the league.

Inserting Greg Little into the starting lineup at wide receiver over Brian Robiskie (three catches on the year) is a good start, as it puts another playmaker on the field against Oakland’s 29th-ranked pass defense. Also, if Tony Pashos can make it through the game without hurting himself, the Browns can give Evan Moore additional snaps as they don’t need Alex Smith to help with blocking on the right side.

The big worry on offense is Alex Mack. It sounds as if the Browns center will play after having his appendix removed, but if he has to come out the Browns are left with Steve Vallos at center, lining up next to rookie Jason Pinkston at left guard and second-year player Shawn Lauvao at right guard.

Not sure the thought of that will help quarterback Colt McCoy sleep any better tonight.

Oh, and it would be nice if the Browns could score some points in the first quarter for a change. This year they have been outscored 27-3 in the opening period.

“I’m very optimistic, the practices have been good, the guys have been focused, their energy level was good,” Shurmur said on Friday. “They practiced hard, I saw very few mistakes and again, as I tell them every week, good practices don’t guarantee good performances in the game. All it does is give you the best opportunity, but I feel very confident that we’ll go out and play well.”

The Most Painful Browns vs. Raiders game We’ve Ever Seen

If you don’t know by now, we don’t know what to tell you.

The Prediction

We expect the Browns to play a sharper game this week now that they have had two weeks of preparation.

But will that be enough against a Raider team that, while not great, is pretty good? And playing their first home game since owner Al Davis passed away?

Unfortunately, we don’t think so.

We’ll take the Raiders and the points.

Record picking the Browns (using the point spread) this year: 2-2-0.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL, Oakland Raiders, Red Right 88 | Leave a comment
13 Oct 2011

Physics, Can-Am Spyders & 241 feet

It is unfortunate for Marcus Benard and the Cleveland Browns that Bernard will miss the rest of the season after injuring himself in a motorcycle crash earlier this week.

Benard was placed on the reserve non-football injury list two days after he lost control of his Can-Am Spyder while driving on I-71. According to published reports, Benard cut across three lanes of traffic before crashing into a guardrail in Brooklyn.

Fortunately for Benard he came out of the accident with a broken hand and, possibly, broken ribs. Things could have been far, far worse.

According to the police report, Benard said he was driving at 60 mph when he crashed. Benard was thrown 241 feet – that’s just over 80 yards – in the accident, which got us wondering just how fast a 256-pound man (Benard’s listed playing weight) would have to be traveling to be thrown nearly the length of a football field.

So we posed the question to a physics teacher we know and here is what we found out.

The formula to find the Range = (v(initial)^2/g) (sin 2 theta)

If you rearrange the formula you can solve for the initial speed (so we’re told, we didn’t do so well in high school physics).

However, to calculate Benard’s speed based on the distance he flew off the bike, you need to know the angle of departure, which is a variable we don’t have.

But the teacher made us a chart showing the different angles of departure with their corresponding speeds (the first number is the angle of departure, the second is the corresponding mph):

  • 5/143.9
  • 10/102.5
  • 15/84.8
  • 20/74.8
  • 25/68.5
  • 30/64.4
  • 35/61.8
  • 40/60.4
  • 45/59.9
  • 50/60.4
  • 55/61.8
  • 60/64.4
  • 65/68.5
  • 70/74.8
  • 75/84.8
  • 80/102.5
  • 85/143.9

Looking at the chart we can see that there are several angles that correspond (or are at least close enough) to Benard’s stated speed of 60 mph that it is certainly possible he was not speeding when he crashed.

And that ends today’s science lesson.

The Browns also announced on Thursday that they will pay Benard’s full salary for the rest of the season, even though they are not required to by league rules. So good for them on that.

***

And don’t forget to read part two of The Guardian‘s interview with Liverpool owner John W. Henry.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Can-Am Spyder, Cleveland Browns, Liverpool, Marcus Benard | Leave a comment
11 Oct 2011

The lucky & unlucky in the NFL

It was Seneca, the Roman philosopher (not Seneca Wallace, the Cleveland Browns backup quarterback), who reportedly said, Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

And while that may be true, there is still an element of luck (both good and bad) involved in the NFL.

On Sunday, Eli Manning’s pass tips off the hands of Victor Cruz, bounces off Kam Chancellor and, 94 yards later, Brandon Browner hits the end zone to seal Seattle’s upset of the NY Giants.

Were the Seahawks more prepared than the Giants? Maybe. But luck certainly played a role.

If it weren’t for luck, how else to explain Buffalo being 4-1 despite having one of the worst defenses in the league? The Bills are 30th overall (26th against the pass, 29th against the rush) but have built their record on the fact that they have a turnover margin of +11, which is clearly not sustainable.

And what of the Steelers? Despite having a turnover margin of -10, Pittsburgh is 3-2 and only a half-game off the lead in the AFC North. Of course, that could be more a function of evil than luck, but nevertheless.

The Eagles have the third-best offense in the league, but their -10 turnover margin has resulted in a 1-4 record. No luck for them, obviously.

The Vikings obviously did something to offend Lady Luck over the summer, as in the first three weeks of the season they blew halftime leads of 10 points, 17 points and 20 points on their way to a 1-4 start to the season. You’d think that a team with the No. 3 rushing offense would be able to sustain a big second-half lead, wouldn’t you?

It was unlucky that Peyton Hillis missed the Miami game with an illness, as we’ve been subjected to a manufactured controversy that won’t go away.

But Marcus Benard was very lucky he walked away from a motorcycle crash with nothing worse than a broken hand.

Luckily for us, the Browns are done with their bye week and we’ll actually have something worth writing and talking about again.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Lady Luck | Leave a comment
11 Oct 2011

Likes, Dislikes, Hopes & Fears

Now that the bye week is out of the way, it’s time to take a look at the Cleveland Browns at the quarter mark of the 2011 NFL season.

Through four games there are things about the team that we like and dislike, plus some things we hope to see over the next 12 games and a few things we fear we’ll see.

Like: The Browns 2-2 record is their best since 2007.

Dislike: Both of the losses have come at home, although that is a little skewed by the fact the Browns have played three of their first four games at Cleveland Browns Stadium. But for a team that is 28-44 at home over the past nine seasons, that’s not a way to send the fans home happy.

Hope: That the Browns can stay competitive as they still have the NFC West and Jacksonville on the schedule; those five teams are a combined 8-16 on the season.

Fear: There are more games like the Tennessee one on the horizon.

Like: After giving up a ridiculous 11 penalties in the season opener, the Browns have settled down to the point where they have given up fewer penalties through four game (27 to 29) than they did through the same point last year. Turns out you can treat professional athletes as adults – rather than junior varsity high school players – and still see positive results.

Dislike: While the penalties are down, the timing and type of penalties that are being called are a bit troubling. The two penalties – even though one was highly suspect – at the end of the Miami game almost cost the Browns a win.

Hope: That whatever the coaching staff told the players after Week 1 continues to stick.

Fear: The Browns will commit a penalty at an inopportune time, costing the team a win.

Like: The Browns were able to get a sense of what Montario Hardesty can do at running back in the game against Miami. After missing his entire rookie year to a knee injury, Hardesty had a solid – if not spectacular – game against the Dolphins, showing that he can be a nice compliment to Peyton Hillis.

Dislike: The reason why Hardesty was on the field against Miami – Hillis missed the game because he was sick and, two weeks later, there are those who won’t let it go. Hillis didn’t play because he is soft. Hillis didn’t play because he wants a new contract. The nonsense has gotten out of control.

Hope: The Browns remember what they have in Hillis – a player who accounted for 71.5 percent of the Browns rushing yards and 84.6 percent of the team’s rushing touchdowns in 2010. If you factor in his 61 receptions for 477 yards and another two touchdowns, he was responsible for 34 percent of the team’s total offense and 50 percent of the offensive touchdowns last season.

Fear: The coaching staff can’t figure out the best way to use Hillis and Hardesty, meaning both players are ineffective and the offense suffers.

Like: The overall play of Dick Jauron’s think fast defense, especially the front four of Ahtyba Rubin, Phil Taylor, Jayme Mitchell and Jabaal Sheard who have been rather frisky through the first part of the season. Joe Haden is quickly turning into an All-Pro corner back in his second season. And D’Qwell Jackson has looked good after missing large parts of the past two seasons with injuries.

Dislike: 4-3, 3-4, 1-10, doesn’t matter, the Browns still can’t stop the run. They currently rank 26th in the NFL against the run. Because Haden is so good Sheldon Brown is seeing more activity on his side of the field and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Hope: The young front four continues to mature during the season and the Browns figure out a way to at least slow down opposing running backs.

Fear: Injuries will take their toll on the defense – which is still lacking in depth – and the players will start to break down in the season’s last quarter. Haden may miss this week’s game against Oakland, and on Monday Marcus Bernard suffered a broken arm in a motorcycle crash. This team can’t afford to have that happened and hope to be at least competitive.

Like: Colt McCoy has mostly done more good than bad through four games. He had a good game against the Colts, led a game-winning drive against the Dolphins and was OK against the Bengals.

Dislike: On of McCoy’s strong suits is supposed to be his completion percent, but on the year he’s only at 58 percent – good for just 23rd in the league. His 5.7 yards per attempt leave him 30th out of 32 quarterbacks. Of course, not all of those numbers are totally on McCoy’s shoulders (more on that in a minute).

Hope: The McCoy we saw on the final drive against the Dolphins – when he led an 80-yard drive by completing 9-of-13 passes, including the game-winning touchdown to Mohamed Massaquoi – is the real McCoy and he will continue to grow during the season.

Fear: The McCoy who throws a preponderance of check-downs, holds onto the ball too long and seems unsure of himself is the real McCoy. Which would mean the Browns will be in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes next April.

Like: Jason Pinkston’s play at left guard. The fifth-round draft choice switched positions after Eric Steinbach was put on injured reserve for the year and hasn’t been all that bad. We’re sure playing between Joe Thomas and Alex Mack has made his transition easier, but we don’t go into a game worried that Pinkston is going to be the weak link on the offensive line.

Dislike: The play at right tackle. Artis Hicks and Oniel Cousins showed why they were available on the waiver wire as they filled in the first three weeks for starter Tony Pashos. They also needed help from a tight end, which meant that Alex Smith was on the field at the expense of Evan Moore, a stronger offensive threat that the Browns need.

Hope: Pashos can stay healthy the final 12 games of the season and the offensive line can work itself into a stable unit.

Fear: Pashos hasn’t played a full season since 2008, so we haven’t seen the last of Hicks and Cousins.

Like: The (albeit) slow development of rookie Greg Little at wide receiver. After not playing his final year at North Carolina, Little has been adjusting to the speed of the NFL. In a part-time role he is second among the wide receivers with 14 receptions and third with 131 yards. Those numbers should go up as the Browns have promoted Little to one of the starting spots.

Dislike: Brian Robiskie taking playing time from anyone on offense. It’s clear by now that Robiskie just is not an NFL wide receiver. Doesn’t mean he’s a bad person, or that he doesn’t try hard, but the Browns just can’t afford to keep giving him playing time.

Hope: Little can turn into a reliable playmaker, Josh Cribbs can stay healthy, Mohamed Massaquoi can be at least a decent third receiver, and Ben Watson and Moore can continue to make plays at tight end.

Fear: The wide receivers will continued to not be able to gain separation, meaning McCoy will have to hold onto the ball too long – opening him up to repeated hits – or he will continue to have to dump the ball off for four-yard gains.

Like: The approach the coaching staff is taking with the team. The lockout took away weeks of key preparation time that the Browns – who have eight starters in either their first or second year – desperately needed. The coaches have used the first four games of the season as a sort of extended training camp as they continue to learn about the players.

Dislike: The defensive breakdown against Cincinnati that lead to the game-changing touchdown by the Bengals, the way coach Pat Shurmur has used Hardesty at the expense of Hillis, the overall play against Tennessee in the last home game before the break. The slow starts by the offense – the Browns have been outscored 27-3 in the first quarter this year.

Hope: The team will show improvement as the year moves along, giving the coaches and front office a clear indication of where the team needs help.

Fear: More games like the one against the Titans, more nonsense over Hillis, that Shurmur is in over his head as a first-year head coach.

We’ll give Shurmur the final word.

“What you’ve noticed from the first four weeks is we’ve got some good young talent that’s out there getting better each week,” he said on Monday at his weekly press conference. “I feel like our schemes are in place. As I mentioned earlier, there are some things that we’ll do more and emphasize and then there are some things about our scheme that we’ll, both sides of the ball and our kicking game that we’ll set aside. I felt good about that.”

(Photo from Cleveland Browns.com)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, quarter mark, reason for hope | Leave a comment
06 Oct 2011
1 Comment

It’s the NFL’s world

We’ve known for a long time that Cleveland is the Browns’ town.

Heck, Terry Pluto even wrote a book titled When all the World was Browns Town.

And it’s also well accepted that, while baseball still clings to the outdated title of being the National Pastime, the NFL is the National Passion.

So it didn’t completely surprise us to learn that fans – by an almost 2-to-1 margin – chose to watch the Curtis Painter-led Colts take on Tampa Bay on Monday night rather than watch Detroit (with Justin Verlander) take on the Yankees (with CC Sabathia) in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.

The Monday Night Football game drew a 4.5 rating and 11 share in the coveted 18-49 demographic, and 10.84 million viewers. The baseball game got a 2.1 rating and 5 share in the demographic, and 6.05 million viewers.

Through the first weekend of the playoffs, the ratings for MLB playoff games were down 27 percent from the first three days of last year’s playoffs.

So much for the theory that everyone wants to watch the Yankees.

But we were surprised by this little nugget from USA Today: Fox’s NFL pregame show on Sunday received a bigger overnight rating than any of TBS’ baseball playoff games through the weekend.

Holy smokes!

What’s even more surprising is that people actually watch the pregame drivel that Fox, CBS and ESPN put out on Sundays before the NFL games.

That’s one of the beauties of following the Premiere League: the 11 a.m. game on Sunday finishes up about 5 minutes or so before the 1 p.m. NFL games kick off, so we don’t have to waste our time with pregame hoo-haa.

But still, it’s the NFL’s world, we just live in it.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL, TV ratings
05 Oct 2011
2 Comments

This is what we’re worried about?

So it turns out that Peyton Hillis’ agent told Hillis to sit out the Miami game after Hillis came down with a case of strep throat.

“I would give him the same advice to him or any of my clients as if he were my son,” Kennard McGuire told The Associated Press. “The game is physical enough, and the way Peyton plays the game, he needs all the elements of his physical game. Him being sick, and the level of his sickness, is the equivalent of being injured.

“Not only could he have hurt himself but he could have hurt his team. Nobody embodies Cleveland like Peyton Hillis. If anyone wants to point a finger, point it at me.”

And this has become some kind of referendum on Hillis’ toughness as a player.

The thing we don’t get is: why? Why is this an issue?

We love living in Cleveland and rooting for the local teams. But this is one of those things that gets on our tits.

Nothing can ever be as simple as someone was too sick to go to work. There has to be some hidden agenda.

Of course McGuire wants to avoid Hillis getting injured – he’s the meal ticket. McGuire doesn’t get paid until Hillis gets paid and the bigger the contract the bigger McGuire’s piece will be.

That’s why, when a player switches agents, the new guy always wants to renegotiate the player’s contract – the agent doesn’t get paid under the old deal, he only gets his money under new contract.

We thought everyone around here understood that after the whole Manny Ramirez to Boston fiasco – agents will steer their clients to the highest bidder every time. Doesn’t matter if it’s not a good fit, just give me the greenbacks.

Was it disappointing that Hillis – the one player that opposing defenses have to worry about – didn’t play against Miami? Of course.

Was it the end of the world? Of course not.

In fact, one good thing came out of the Miami game (well two, counting that the Browns won) – the team found out that, if he can stay healthy, Montario Hardesty has a chance to be a contributing member of this offense.

Hillis and Hardesty give the Browns a solid starting and back-up option at running back, something the team hasn’t had since … Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner maybe?

But apparently we can’t focus on that; we have to go looking in dark corners for the bogeyman.

Heaven help Alex Mack – who’s out of the hospital after having his appendix removed. Coach Pat Shurmur said on Tuesday that it was too early to know if Mack will play or not against Oakland on Oct. 16.

After the Hillis brouhaha, there’s no telling what kind of nonsense we will be in for in Mack doesn’t suit up for the Raiders.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL, Peyton Hillis, utter nonsense

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