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08 Oct 2010

Delhomme back … Hillis out?

With it looking more likely that Jake Delhomme will be back under center this Sunday against Atlanta, things are continuing to look good for the Browns.

But now comes news that Peyton Hillis has been added to the injury report with an undisclosed thigh injury. According to James Walker at ESPN:

“Hillis, who has rushed for more than 100 yards the past two weeks, had limited participation in Thursday’s practice. Hillis apparently got hurt following the 30 minutes of practice open to reporters. Hillis was not on the injury report Wednesday.”

Hopefully, Hillis will be OK to go on Sunday, because the Browns have finally found their identity on offense the past two weeks with a power running game led by Hillis.

“We are who we are,” Delhomme told The Plain Dealer. “We’re a football team that’s physical and runs the football well. When you are who you are, you need to be that.”

If Hillis can’t go, Jerome Harrison or James Davis will have to step up, something they haven’t really done yet this year. Perhaps this will mean more use of the Flash package with Josh Cribbs.

One thing we hope it doesn’t mean is the Browns abandoning the running game and, because Delhomme is Back, trying to force the ball to wideouts Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie. Delhomme, for one, seems to understand how that would be a bad idea and embraces the notion that you are who you are as a team.

“We were working on many things in camp, be it the pass game, where guys fit, different things,” Delhomme told The Plain Dealer. “Certainly, I think you learn as you go. Let’s be honest. We split carries a ton in training camp between [Harrison] and Peyton. Then came the [thigh] injury to Jerome, and Peyton’s had a lot more carries now.

“That’s how things work out. Once you find it, you ride that horse.”

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Jake Delhomme, Peyton Hillis | Leave a comment
06 Oct 2010

Ruminations and Ramblings

Thoughts on a October Wednesday:

  • The NFL hit Browns safety T.J. Ward with a $15,000 fine for his hit on Jordan Shipley. As expected, the Bengals are still crying over the hit.”I just want to let it be known that it wasn’t malicious intent to knock him out or to get him hurt,” Ward told The Plain Dealer. “It was just part of the game. I just reacted to what I saw and tried to make a play. The way it happened, I didn’t really try to hit him with everything I had, but still it was a pretty violent hit. I wasn’t trying to aim for his helmet in any way. I just hit what I saw. It all happened so fast.” Something tells us that Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco will have one eye on Ward when the teams meet again in December.
  • It was three years ago yesterday that the Indians and Fausto Carmona beat the Yankees in Game 2 of the Divisional Series in the game where the midges attacked Joba Chamberlain’s fat head. Seems more like 30 years after the way the Indians have played the past few years.
  • Very glad the Browns apparently were not involved in the talks to acquire Randy Moss from the Patriots. While the team does need a major upgrade at wide receiver, it’s hard to see how someone like Moss, while talented, would have fit in with the culture that Eric Mangini is trying to build in the locker room and on the field.
  • Not sure how we feel about the news that Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry wants to buy Liverpool. Certainly getting rid of the current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett is a positive, and the fact that they are opposed to the sale seems like a good sign. But some are urging caution, making the point that Henry wants the team as a business venture, rather than as a passion. But maybe that’s not a bad thing. The Dolans bought the Indians in part because they are fans and that hasn’t work out so well. Maybe someone with deep pockets that stays out of the way – like Randy Lerner at Aston Villa – isn’t all that bad of a scenario.
  • You kind of hate to feel good about another team’s misery, unless it is Pittsburgh, but the news that Max Hall is the new starting quarterback in Arizona gives us a good chuckle. You do have to feel bad for Cardinal fans, though, as they tried to talk themselves into Derek Anderson the way we did in Cleveland for three years. The worse part is betting against Anderson was a nice safety valve to have each week; now that’s gone.
  • Only 11 more days until Pittsburgh. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here a bit.
Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Derek Anderson, Liverpool, T.J. Ward | Leave a comment
05 Oct 2010
2 Comments

Some Final Thoughts on the Browns Win

Looking back (and ahead) at a few leftover items as the Browns hit the quarter mark of the season following their win against Cincinnati.

  • Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan has got quite a conundrum on his hands. Through the first four games, the Browns have shown they can’t put serious pressure on the opposing quarterback unless they blitz – and even then they aren’t always successful. But that heavy blitzing has left the secondary in some tough spots, especially the last two games as the quality of the receivers has gone up considerably. So what to do? If the Browns don’t blitz, the quarterback will have too much time and someone will eventually get open. With four games in the books, hopefully the team has enough data to figure out what’s working and what to shy away from.
  • Speaking of the secondary, the cornerback trio of Sheldon Brown, Joe Haden and Eric Wright have made their presence know each week, both good and bad. And safety T.J. Ward has been a big hit (ha!) so far. But you never seem to hear Abe Elam’s name called during the game. We had to look up his stats to see if he’s even been in the game on a weekly basis. Turns out he’s somehow accumulated 18 tackles on the season.
  • Ward will surely be fined for his hit on Bengals’ receiver Jordan Shipley, and former NFL official Mike Pereira seems to be taking it personally, judging from his comments to The Plain Dealer. “Nobody in the league likes to say that somebody took a cheap shot at somebody. But I’m not in the league,” Pereira said in an interview. “And I think it was a cheap shot and I think he deserves to be hit and he needs to be hit hard. To me, I’d look at the severity of the hit and even the fact that it led to the concussion and this is just my opinion — but I’d start at the $25,000 mark. To me, I’d make it stiff. He needs to learn his lesson. If people say you’re making an example of T.J. Ward, I’d say ‘so be it.’ There’s no place in the game for that stuff.” Of course, he had no problem with the hit on Ben Watson. Look, we don’t want to see anyone injured, and Ward’s hit look in the flow of the game to us. As long as it doesn’t hurt the Browns, if Ward gets a reputation as a hard hitter than can only pay dividends. And if he can put a hit like that on Hines Ward in two weeks, we’ll make the first donation to help pay his fine.
  • With Peyton Hillis emerging as a threat at running back – he’s 8th in the league in rushing and tied for first with four rushing touchdowns – the Browns seem to have embraced their offensive destiny as a running game. And while the playcalling has gotten better, there are still a few times each game where we have to call shenanigans on offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. After Cincy scored to cut the lead to 23-20, the Browns came out throwing rather than trying to run the ball and use the clock. After a three-and-out that took all of 1:10 off the clock, the Bengals had the ball right back. The defense held and, given a second chance to ice the game, Daboll again called for a pass play. After the incomplete pass, he finally fed Hillis the ball to close out the game.
  • It was great to see Chansi Stuckey contribute in the passing game on Sunday, but the Browns are in real trouble with Mohamed Massaquoi, who pulled in his one catch and that was it. It’s clear he’s overmatched right now at the NFL level but there’s not much the Browns can do if they want to sit him. Moving Stuckey to the outside isn’t necessarily a good option and his skills as a slot receiver don’t translate to playing one of the outside positions. And Brian Robiskie can’t even get on the field because of injuries, not that he’s produced when healthy. With each passing week it’s looking more and more like the team has two more second-round busts from last year’s draft.
  • The so-called “brutal schedule” is starting to look a little different as the second quarter of the season gets under way. Atlanta is a soft 3-1 and the same can be said for Jacksonville (2-2). Miami isn’t playing very well right now, Carolina and Buffalo both stink, and the Browns get a (potentially) rusty Ben Roethlisberger in two weeks.

The Browns have been trending upward all season; let’s just hope they didn’t peak with Sunday’s win against the Bengals.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, conundrum, NFL, upward mobility
04 Oct 2010

A Win Changes (almost) Everything

While Sunday’s win doesn’t change everything for the Browns, it does change a lot.

The team is no longer part of the winless group of Detroit, Carolina, San Francisco and Buffalo. The win also validated that the Browns have been trending upward through the first quarter of the season, despite their 1-3 record.

The win should also help start the process of changing the perception about the team; just look at what wins have done for some of the other teams in the league:

  • The Redskins were pathetic Week 1 against Dallas, only gaining 250 yards of offense and putting up two field goals. But a defensive touchdown plus a meltdown by the Cowboys put Washington over the top and launched a multitude of stories about how Donovan McNabb and Mike Shanahan were “winners.”
  • The Falcons are sitting at 3-1, but if Garrett Hartley doesn’t shank a kick, and if Nate Clements wasn’t a me-first player, they would be 1-3 and fielding questions about what’s wrong.
  • Last week, Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio was supposedly on the “hot seat;” yesterday, Indianapolis drops an interception at the end of the game, Josh Scobee hits a 59-yard field goal, and suddenly the Jaguars are a game out of first place.

One win can change so many perceptions about the team, not just externally but internally as well. The players and coaches keep working every week and, after becoming the first team since the 1954 Packers to lose three games in a row when having a lead in the fourth quarter, finally holding one to a lead and winning a game rewards them for that work and hopefully will give the team confidence going forward.

And good for the coaches for resisting the urge to put Jake Delhomme back under center; giving him another week to heal his ankle was the right call and it would have been the right call even if the Browns had lost. Rushing him back and running the risk of losing him long-term wasn’t worth it.

Even though the Browns were only able to gain 3.3 yards per carry for the game, they were able to run the ball when it counted. After the Bengals scored to cut the lead to 23-20, the Browns went three and out following the usual strange play calling, but after the defense came up big and handed the ball back to the offense, the Browns – after the obligatory odd pass call – were able to run the ball and close out the game.

The biggest run of that final drive was a 24-yard rush around the right side by Peyton Hillis. That play showed what a huge upgrade Tony Pashos is over John St. Clair at right tackle.

So now the Browns – a team that is better than its record indicates – gets ready to face Atlanta – a team that may be worse than its record.

Dare we dream of a winning streak?

Posted in Cleveland Browns, perceptions, winning | Leave a comment
03 Oct 2010

Browns Win! Browns Win!

After three weeks of fighting, working and struggling, the Browns finally broke through on Sunday and pulled out a win against the Bengals – the Browns first win of the season, only their second win at home vs. Cincinnati since 2004 and the Bengals first division loss in nine games.

Even though they were outgained 413 yards to 295, the Browns avoided the mistakes that plagued them in the first three games. The defense was able to put enough pressure on Carson Palmer – four sacks – to overcome two touchdown passes and another rough day from the secondary (the defensive coaches need to fix Eric Wright in a hurry). Peyton Hillis had another 100-yard day and a touchdown, and even Chansi Stuckey got in on the action, catching five passes for 56 yards, doubling his season output.

The Browns earned their first fourth-quarter first down of the season, Mohamed Massaquoi had his weekly reception – for five yards -the team overcame the weekly bizarre play calling on offense, Seneca Wallace managed the game well in his third start of the year and, after the Bengals cut the lead of 23-20, the Browns were able to use up the final five minutes of the game and never allow the Bengals another chance with the ball.

And did we mention the Browns won? We don’t want to over emphasize one win, but this was an important win for the Browns. Not only was it a division win, but it was a win at home and finally rewarded the team for working hard, giving them something tangible to show that they are really making progress.

And it helped them from breaking some kind of ridiculous record. Heading into the game, the Browns were the first team since the 1954 Packers to hold a lead in the fourth quarter of their first three games and end up losing. Those are the kinds of records the team doesn’t need.

And even though they committed another seven penalties, they really didn’t seems to hurt the team. We’ll take the personal foul penalty from T.J. Ward anytime, as that kind of aggressive play will pay dividends down the road as it had the Bengals crying after the game. And if he can deliver a hit like that on Hines Ward in a couple of weeks he’ll get a free pass for the rest of the season.

This team is by no means a finished product, something we are sure to cover this week, and there are still several areas that worry us, but for one week we can bask in a well-deserved win.

Well played lads, well played.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, first win, NFL | Leave a comment
03 Oct 2010

Browns vs. Bengals – Week 4

The Browns reach the quarter mark of the season today at home against the Bengals. The team is looking for its first win of the season and only its second win at home against Cincinnati since 2004.

The Opposition

Cincinnati record: 2-1
Offensive rank: 15th overall/15th passing/18th rushing
Defensive rank: 9th overall/11th passing/13th rushing
All-time record: Browns trail 35-38-0, but lead the series at home with a 21-15 mark
Last meeting in Cleveland: Browns lost, 23-20 in overtime
The line: Browns (+3)

What to Watch For

Cue the broken record: for the Browns to have a chance to win they have to stop with the silly penalties – Ben Watson/Alex Mack personal fouls; Matt Roth’s ridiculous off sides – and stop making that one mistake – Jake Delhomme’s interception at the end of the first half vs. Tampa, Seneca Wallace’s TAINT vs. KC, Wallace’s pitch to no where against Baltimore – that has hurt them through the first three weeks of the season.

The Bengals rank in the middle of the league on offense and defense, but the one area that Browns should be able to exploit is the Bengals run defense. While they rank 13th overall against the rush, they are giving up 4.5 yards per rush, which puts them 23rd in the league.

If the Browns could run the ball last week against Baltimore, they should be able to run on the Bengals. If they can get a lead in the second half again this week, they should be able to control the game with their running attack, which may be even more important today as it is expected to be cold and rainy.

The Browns need to find a way to get pressure on a recently ineffective Carson Palmer. It’s reasonable to expect the secondary – especially Eric Wright – to play better after last week’s debacle in Baltimore. With a week to work on things the secondary should bounce back; if not it could be another long day against Chad Ochocinco (11 career TDs against the Browns) and Terell Owens.

As for who the Browns should/will start at quarterback, unless Jake Delhomme’s ankle is 100 percent, they should sit him out another week. I rather he be fully healthy for the final 12 games than put him back on the field early and have him miss more time – especially since he hasn’t practiced much or at all over the past few weeks.

The Best Browns vs. Cincinnati Game I’ve Ever Seen

The 1988 game, which the Browns won 23-16, to move within one game of the Bengals. Mainly because at one point the crowd was so loud that Cincinnati quarterback was crying to the refs that he couldn’t snap the ball. The Browns also blocked a punt for a touchdown (when was the last time they did that?) and the defense came up big on the goal line multiple times.

Here’s The Plain Dealer’s game story; you can see Tony Grossi’s love affair with the Bengals goes back pretty far. Here’s video of the punt block; this clip of Clarence Weathers highlights what the current crop of Browns receivers lacks: the ability to separate from the defender; and here’s another TD drive just for fun.

The Prediction

The Browns have been hanging tough through the first three weeks of the season but have done just enough to lose. They’ve showed progress – or at least consistency over the first three weeks – while the Bengals have not.

This is the week the work finally pays off and the Browns pick up their first victory of the season.

Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Week 4 | Leave a comment
30 Sep 2010
1 Comment

That’s nice, but … catch the ball

It’s nice that Mohamed Massaquoi doesn’t want to be a distraction or a stereotypical wide receiver diva.

“You want to stay within the game plan,” he told The Plain Dealer this week. “Last game we didn’t have any turnovers. We were moving the ball effectively. You don’t want to take away from the game plan, don’t want to become a distraction.”

And it’s even better that coach Eric Mangini is talking Massaquoi up, trying to keep his confidence high.

“The numbers aren’t there, but he’s made strides in a lot of areas,” Mangini said in the same article. “I don’t think it’s just purely numbers based. Would he love to have a lot more catches? Yeah. Would we like those numbers to be different? You want all your guys to have a lot of catches. It’s a function of getting the opportunity and when it comes taking advantage of it.”

And it is heartening that Massaquoi doesn’t see any reason to panic.

“It’s early. It’s very early,” Massaquoi said. “If this was week 11, 12, 13, 14, it might be a different conversation, but it’s still early. My time will come.”

The thing is, it’s not early. The Browns hit the quarter mark of the season Sunday against Cincinnati and it will be Massaquoi’s 20th game – it’s time to start catching the ball.

According to The Football Outsiders Almanac (Terry Pluto referenced them in his Sunday column), the average wide receiver catches about 57 percent of the passes thrown to him. Last season, Massaquoi was at 36 percent and, with only three catches this year after three games, the number can’t be much higher. Fellow receivers Chansi Stuckey (48 percent) and Brian Robiskie (35 percent) were just as bad.

If you look at his first 19 games, 35 percent of Massaquoi’s career catches and 39 percent of his career yards came in two games last season – the home game vs. Cincinnati and the Detroit game. For the other 17 games he’s played, he’s averaging 1.5 catches and 24 yards per game.

Some of that can be attributed to the quarterback play last year, but not all of it. It’s time for some on-field production.

Much like how the team needs a win to show real evidence of its improvement, it’s time for Massaquoi to start putting up some tangible numbers to reflect the progress that he is supposedly making. Being a good practice player is nice, but more players need to start producing on game day if the Browns are going to start winning.

In short, it’s time to start catching the ball.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, continued lack of production, Mohamed Massaquoi
29 Sep 2010

All’s quiet on the brown-and-white front

For a team that is 0-3 on the season and 5-14 over its last 19 games, all is refreshingly quiet in Berea.

After three close losses, the Browns are focusing on Sunday’s game vs. Cincinnati, trying to figure how to get not only their first win of the season, but how to beat the Bengals in Cleveland for the first time since 2007 (aka when we didn’t know how horrible Derek Anderson is at quarterback).

For a change other teams are dealing with quarterback issues: Buffalo, Arizona (ha!), and Carolina to name a few. And, for the most part, those media members who are interested in the temperature of the office furniture have moved on to Miami, Jacksonville and San Francisco.

This must be what it’s like to follow a real NFL team, looking ahead to the next game and wondering:

  • How Eric Wright will bounce back?
  • How the Browns will game plan for Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco, a particular thorn in the Browns’ side over the years?
  • Can Peyton Hillis have another day like the one he had in Baltimore?
  • Will the wide receiving trio of Mohamed Massaquoi, Brian Robiskie and Chansi Stuckey have more than three catches combined?
  • Can the defense bring some pressure on a declining Carson Palmer?
  • Can the Browns finally hold on to a second-half lead and close out a game?

After more than a decade of distractions, hoo-haa, motorcycle crashes, “teeny, tiny fractures,” debates over which lousy quarterback gives the team the best chance of not being embarrassed and everything else, it’s nice to be able to focus on football for a change.

This is something we could get used to around here.

Now about that 0-3 record …

Posted in Cleveland Browns, hot seats, NFL, quarterback debates | Leave a comment
26 Sep 2010

Same as it ever was? Same as it ever was

The Browns finally read the rule book and realized they are allowed to play offense for a full 60 minutes – even scoring a touchdown in the second half – but despite putting up a good fight against the Ravens, the Browns lost, 24-17, to drop to 0-3 on the season, the fourth time in the past five years they have started 0-3.

It was more of the same for the Browns as too many mistakes made at the worst possible time cut short any chance they had to pull out a win. For your consideration:

  • On the Browns first drive, Seneca Wallace was called for a delay-of-game penalty on Baltimore’s 19-yard-line. A tough 3rd-and-8 became a 3rd-and-13 and the Browns settled for a field goal.
  • In the second quarter, after falling behind 7-3, the Browns had a drive going but right tackle Tony Pashos was called for holding on a Peyton Hillis run. So instead of 2nd and 6 at the Ravens’ 43 yard line, the Browns faced 1st and 20 at their own 43. Three plays later they punted.
  • In the third quarter, Ben Watson was called for unnecessary roughness on a drive into Baltimore territory. Two plays later the Browns punted.
  • After cutting Baltimore’s lead to 17-14, the Browns pinned the Ravens on their own 15 on the kickoff. But Blake Constanzo, who is only on the team for special teams play, was offside. On the re-kick, the Ravens returned to the 31 yard line, starting a drive that resulted in a touchdown.
  • Matt Roth – who we are completely tired of – was offside on the Ravens final drive, killing any chance the Browns had of making a final comeback. That was his second offside of the day.

Well, you get the picture. We thought that having a disciplinarian for a coach, rather than a “softie” like Romeo Crennel was supposed to fix the problem of excessive penalties?

Offensively, the Browns moved the ball pretty well, and you really couldn’t ask any more out of Wallace, who finished 18-of-24 with a touchdown, no turnovers and a QB rating of 103; not bad against the second-ranked pass defense.

The Browns also rushed for 173 yards, with Hillis ripping the Ravens for 144 yards on the ground and another 36 through the air. How the Browns got this guy for Brady Quinn remains one of the biggest mysteries of the year.

The defense, overall, didn’t play all that bad, although they were not able to put any pressure on Joe Flacco, who passed for 262 yards and three touchdowns – all to Anquan Boldin. Which brings us to the biggest pile of ugly from the game.

We have absolutely no idea how to describe Eric Wright’s game against the Ravens. He was burned by Boldin on all three touchdowns and seemed completely lost/overmatched/out of his league on Sunday.

Boldin had 8 catches for 142 yards. Consider that in one game Boldin had:

  • More yards than Chansi Stuckey has had in his last eight games for the Browns.
  • More yards than Brian Robiskie has had in his entire career.
  • More yards than Mohamed Massaquoi has had in his last five games for the Browns.

Somehow Massaquoi and Stuckey played an entire game without catching a single pass. For the season, Massaquoi has five total receptions for 55 yards; Stuckey has five for 41 yards.

Let’s review: in one game, Boldin had more yards than Massaquoi, Stuckey and Robiskie have combined for the season (114) and almost as many catches (10).

We’ve tried very, very hard to give these receivers the benefit of the doubt and accept that they will have growing pains. But with each passing week the evidence is slowly mounting that these guys probably just are not that good.

Excuses were made for them last year with the abysmal quarterback play, but that hasn’t been the case this year. If Josh Cribbs, Ben Watson, Peyton Hillis and everyone else can catch passes from Jake Delhomme and Wallace, why can’t these guys?

Think about it: if the Browns released Massaquoi, Robiskie and Stuckey on Monday, would any of them get picked up by another NFL team? It seems highly doubtful. Thank (insert your deity here) that Eric Mangini is no longer in charge of the draft or trades.

The Browns are back home next week against Cincinnati. We wonder what fun awaits as we near the quarter mark of the season.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, mistakes, more of the same, penalties, Seneca Wallace | Leave a comment

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