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In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “hoople heads”

12 Oct 2010

On the Browns, QBs and Pittsburgh

With it becoming more and more likely that Colt McCoy will make his NFL debut Sunday in Pittsburgh, the hysteria is starting to ramp up.

There is a growing consensus that something unspeakable is going to happen – that the Steelers are going to go through the Browns like Caesar through Gaul and McCoy will be playing the role of Vercingetorix. In other words, it will be a “disaster:”

“If McCoy is viewed as the future of the Browns, they must be very careful about the long-term impact of this decision,” ESPN’s James Walker writes. “Throwing McCoy out there at Heinz Field against Dick LeBeau’s defense is a recipe for disaster. In fact, it’s the last defense I would pick a rookie quarterback to face in his first NFL start, especially against a hungry Steelers’ defense coming off a bye week.”

Thankfully, coach Eric Mangini offered some much-needed perspective to the situation, telling The Plain Dealer:

“If you didn’t have that guy, then you drafted the wrong guy,” Mangini told the paper. “If he’s sitting at home at night curled up in a blanket hoping he doesn’t get the start, you’ve got the wrong guy. You look for that competitiveness, you want the young guys to always be pushing the guy in front of them, saying, ‘come on, move out of the way, give me my chance to do it.'”

We believe McCoy can survive playing an NFL game against Pittsburgh, other quarterbacks have done it. Just look at this partial list of Browns quarterbacks who have beaten the Steelers over the years:

  • Tim Couch (three times)
  • Gary Danielson
  • Paul McDonald
  • David Mays
  • Mike Phipps
  • Brady Quinn (we’ll get back to him in a minute)

Not exactly a roster of Hall of Famers.

Seriously, what’s the worse thing that is going to happen? The Browns lose? All the “experts” would still pick them to lose if Jake Delhomme or Seneca Wallace were starting at quarterback. It’s not as if the Steelers are going to barbecue and eat McCoy on the 50-yard-line.

Is it really going to be worse than Charlie Frye in 2005 or 2007?

The worse part are the hoople heads who think that, if McCoy starts on Sunday and does poorly his career is over, or that by starting him the Browns are breaking some kind of oath that they took not to play him this year.

The plan – and it is a sound one – called for McCoy to sit the entire year as long as nothing happened to Delhomme or Wallace. Well, guess what? Delhomme and Wallace are hurt, so McCoy needs to play. This isn’t Chris Palmer pulling Ty Detmer at halftime of the season opener and putting in Tim Couch. McCoy can play two games and, win or lose, go back to being the team’s No. 3 quarterback after the bye week.

And that’s exactly what the Browns should do – let McCoy play the next two games before the bye to give Delhomme and Wallace as much time to heal as possible. It will be the right move for all three of them.

The thing is, the Browns don’t need the second-coming of Otto Graham to beat the Steelers. They already know what they have to do. The Steelers are bullies, and like all bullies they don’t like it when you hit back.

Last December the Browns finally hit back and beat Pittsburgh with Brady Quinn at quarterback completing six passes for 90 yards. The Browns did it by running the ball for 171 yards and hitting the Steelers until they quit.

That would be easier with a healthy Peyton Hillis running the ball, but the Browns got the job done last year with Chris Jennings at running back, so anything is possible.

There’s just no reason to give up the ship just yet,

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Colt McCoy, hoople heads, no worries | Leave a comment
15 Sep 2010
2 Comments

Hold on, I’m Adjusting

What do NFL teams do in the locker room at halftime?

In his new book, Take Your Eye off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look, Pat Kirwan, a senior analyst on NFL.com and former coach and front office member, offers a glimpse into what goes on while we’re grabbing a beer and restocking the chip bowl:

“… the booth coach typically gets down to the locker room ahead of everyone else. He sets up a quick statistical breakdown on the white board of everything that’s gone on so far.

“The goal is to give coaches enough material to use both in determining what adjustments are necessary and lecturing the players about what’s working and what isn’t. Some coordinators keep it simple – for example, they’ll decide that every play that gained 4 yards in the first half will be run again in the second half.

“Of course, most coaches aren’t going to have emptied the bucket in the first half. There should always be a few plays at various down and distances that a team didn’t show. Those will get unveiled in the second half.

“Then the coordinators write up new play-call sheets, filling new plays into each box. The key is to not rewrite the entire game plan. A coaching staff may be able to identify three new things to roll out; any more than that and they run the risk of confusing too many players.

“The team that had the best game plan going into the game – and the team that makes the best adjustments in the locker room – is usually the one that comes out on top.”

So now that we know what teams are supposed to do, the question becomes: just what are the Browns doing at halftime? Time and again, the Browns struggle in the second half; what worked in the first half rarely seems to work in the second, and the team, especially on offense, more often than not loses its way.

Last season, the Browns were outscored in the second half in nine of their 11 losses – the only exception being the two games against the Bengals. That’s probably not uncommon for a game where you lose, but consider that in their five wins, the Browns only outscored the opposition twice (KC and Oakland).

It happened again Sunday against Tampa – after a strong (for them) first half, the Browns wilted in the second. The question is why?

Maybe this is just another indicator of a team that isn’t very good. Maybe it’s an indictment of coordinators Brian Daboll and Rob Ryan. If the team plays well in the first half that would indicate the scouts did a good job creating a report on the opposition and the coaches prepared the team well during the week.

But it’s up to the coaches to adjust and put the team in a position to win in the second half of the game. And something is clearly wrong, especially on offense where it seems like Daboll is turning into Maurice Carthon. It could be that in all the talk last year about how coach Eric Mangini must go, we’ve missed the real culprit in all of this.

We know what we’ll be doing Sunday during halftime; the question is: what will the Browns be doing?

***

C’mon, Tony, didn’t we just cover this?

If Jake Delhomme is hurt it’s OK for Seneca Wallace to play on Sunday. That’s why you carry more than one quarterback on the team. This isn’t Derek Anderson vs. Brady Quinn all over. This is just the way an NFL team operates.

I wouldn’t expect the hoople heads to be able to tell the difference, but the main beat writer for the city’s biggest paper covering the most over-analyzed team in town should be able to see the difference.

Tell me how having Wallace under center will change the game plan; how will the Chiefs have to adjust; what kind of shenanigans can the Browns throw at Romeo Crennel with Wallace playing instead of Delhomme?

Just don’t give me more of the same.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, hoople heads, Jake Delhomme, Pat Kirwan, second-half adjustments
06 Sep 2010

This Isn’t the Big Ten

With Saturday’s cut down of NFL rosters to 53 players came the news that the Ravens finally cut ties with former Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith.

That news was predictably followed by the cries of the hoople heads who want the Browns to sign Smith.

The big question in that scenario is why would the Browns do something like that?

Smith was exposed in the 2007 National Championship game against Florida as not being an NFL-caliber quarterback. The Gators defense, loaded with NFL talent and speed, overwhelmed Smith and the Buckeyes that night.

Since then he’s done nothing in Baltimore to change that fact. He played in 14 games for the Ravens, starting two of them. In three years he completed only 53 percent of his passes in a league where the top quarterbacks best 60 percent, for three TDs and one interception.

The NFL is a quarterback starved league, with half of the teams barely able to find one decent quarterback. Derek Anderson has a starting job in Arizona. Todd Collins – who played at Michigan so long ago they may have been wearing leather helmets – earned a roster spot in Chicago. Dennis Dixon is going to be starting Week 1 for Pittsburgh.

The jobs are there if you can play; it seems obvious that is not the case with Smith. He’s really no different than Pat White, who was cut by the Dolphins.

The Browns need players who can compete on the NFL level. It doesn’t matter where they went to school, they just need players who can be the dogs bollocks on game days. Thankfully, Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Eric Mangini realize this. They aren’t going to sign someone who can’t help the team on the field.

And for those who think that Smith just “needs a chance” to prove himself, ask yourself this question: If Smith had played at any other college than Ohio State, would you still think he’d be a good fit for the Browns?

If you’re being honest, then the answer is clearly no.

Posted in bad quarterback play, Cleveland Browns, dogs bollocks, hoople heads | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2010
2 Comments

What Makes a Good Owner?

Here in Cleveland, we want to classify the owners of the local sports teams with neat little labels.

The Dolans are “cheap.”

Randy Lerner “doesn’t care.”

Dan Gilbert is “a winner.”

Those are easy tags for the hoople heads to latch on to, and there’s something to be said for that. But are the labels accurate?

If winning championships is the only criteria, then every Cleveland owner since 1964 has failed. But is that fair? George Steinbrenner was hailed as a great owner by Yankee apologists because he was willing to do “whatever it took” to win. That overlooks the fact that in 2009 the Yankees had $441 million in revenue – $173 million more than the second-place team! Having that much of an advantage makes it a lot easier to do “whatever it takes.”

If you look deeper into the numbers, however, you find something interesting: in 2009 the Yankees spent 54 percent of their revenue on player salaries ($240 million on $441 million in revenue), while the Indians spent 53.5 percent of their revenue on salaries ($91 million on $170 million in revenue).

It appears that the Dolans may not be unwilling to spend to make the Indians a winner, but rather they are unable to spend to compete under the current system.

So does that make them cheap or bad owners? I don’t think so. It’s more that they, like other mid-market owners in Major League Baseball, are caught in a cycle that makes it next to impossible to compete.

What about Randy Lerner?

The Browns have been a mess since they returned in 1999 and Lerner has been the one constant. That’s certainly a huge negative against Lerner. Many wrongly believe because Lerner is in England on Saturday watching Aston Villa play, rather than sitting behind a desk in Berea, he’s indifferent about the Browns.

If we were still in the 1930s, when a trans-Atlantic crossing took weeks on a ship, that may be true. But when you can make a flight from London to Cleveland in 7-8 hours, there’s no reason Lerner can’t have a presence at both team’s games.

Many fans want Lerner to be more “hands on” to prove he is “passionate” about the Browns. Because he lets people do the job that they are hired for, without constantly interfering, he’s labeled as being apathetic about the team. But if you look around the NFL, hands-on owners are not what you necessarily want.

Consider Dan Snyder of the Redskins, for example. Snyder has been overly involved with the team since buying them in 1999. Since then, the Redskins have been to the playoffs only three times. The team has had six different head coaches, has spent a disproportionate amount of money on expensive free agents and has traded away draft picks to acquire stars, many of whom have fizzled in Washington. He’s also sued season-ticket holders who’ve lost their jobs.

How about Al Davis? He’s as hands-on as they come. Or Jerry Jones, who’s led the Cowboys to one more playoff win than the Browns since 1999? Are those the type of owner Browns fans want Lerner to be?

It seems extremely unlikely that Lerner doesn’t care about the Browns. The problem is more that he’s made some mistakes in his hiring.

That brings us to Gilbert, an owner who’s benefited the most from a perfect storm of circumstances.

Gilbert has spent money and that was made easier by the presence of LeBron James, having the smallest roster size of the three major sports and the ability to pad the bottom line with all the extra playoff games the Cavs have been in since he bought the team.

But that has to be balanced with the fact that he let LeBron essentially run the team, which as we’re learning this summer, wasn’t the best idea. That “all-in” mentality cost the team a GM and a coach this off-season and it still wasn’t enough to keep James in town.

It would appear that Gilbert is as much an opportunistic owner as a winning owner.

So what does this all mean? Just as there’s no one way to define what a “good” coach is, there’s no one true blueprint for finding the best owner. As fans, all we can ask is for our owners to spend money to try and keep the team competitive, hire the best people they can find for the job and stay out of the way.

And remember that perception isn’t reality.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Dan Gilbert, Dolans, hoople heads, Randy Lerner
23 Jul 2010

Bless you, Tottenham Hotspur

Earlier this week, Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League announced it was banning vuvuzelas from White Hart Lane, the team’s home stadium.

Arsenal, Birmingham, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, West Ham and Sunderland followed Spurs lead later in the week, letting people know that the popular South African horns are not welcome in England.

I, for one, say “thank you” to the teams. When the vuvuzelas were a part of the World Cup that was OK because they were part of the culture of South African football. You accept the country as a host, you accept the customs.

But if they had infiltrated England’s stadiums, it would have been intolerable. Hopefully, Aston Villa will soon join the ban or else it could set off a ripple effect that will be felt here in Cleveland.

If Randy Lerner walks into Villa Park this fall and hears the stadium buzzing with the sound of vuvuzelas, he may get the crazy idea of importing them to Cleveland Browns Stadium. Can you imagine sitting next to a group of hoople heads blowing on those for four quarters?

And with attendance dropping for the Indians, there’s little doubt the Tribe would add them to their promotional schedule. And Dan Gilbert wouldn’t want to be left out, as he just loves “enhancing the in-game experience.”

Come to think of it, handing them out the first time Miami comes to town might not be such a bad idea.

Maybe not.

***

He hasn’t even played a down of football yet for the Browns, but Colt McCoy has already shown that he’s smarter than Brady Quinn.

The third-round pick from Texas has reportedly signed a four-year deal, so he will be in camp when rookies report today. Guard Shawn Lauvao has also reportedly signed.

The Browns previously signed draft picks Larry Asante, Carlton Mitchell and Clifton Geathers.

Nice work by new GM Tom Heckert on this one.

***

Finally, news out of Baltimore is good. Safety Ed Reed, who is recovering from offseason hip surgery, has said he will start the season on the physically unable to perform list, missing the team’s first six games, including a key Week 3 tilt with the Browns.

And quarterback Joe Flacco is whining about the team signing Marc Bulger to be his backup.

Seems the Flacco is concerned that adding Bulger will upset the other backups, Troy Smith and John Beck.

We think it’s more likely the Flacco is concerned that the Ravens actually have a legitimate backup, knowing that with Smith and Beck on the bench, anything short of death and Flacco was staying in the game.

Poor baby.

Posted in banned in England, Colt McCoy, hoople heads, Randy Lerner, Tottenham Hotspur, vuvuzela | Leave a comment
01 Jun 2010

Searching for an Edge

The Cavs may not have a head coach, but they apparently have “an edge” when it comes to LeBron James.

In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, James said that Cleveland has “an edge” to re-sign him when free agency hits July 1: “Absolutely. Because, you know, this city, these fans, I mean, have given me a lot in these seven years. And, you know, for me, it’s comfortable. So I’ve got a lot of memories here. And – and so it does have an edge,” James told King, according to published reports.

And James is 100 percent correct. The fans have been behind him and the team every step of the way, from the first time he took the court against Sacramento back in 2003, through all the playoff disappointments and all the way through this year’s collapse against Boston.

But it’s more than just loyalty and knowing that the majority of the fans have your back night in and night out. It’s also knowing you are in a situation that puts you in the best position to win a championship.

Consider that, according to John Hollinger at ESPN, Chris Bosh is the best player to pair with LeBron. Bosh has made it clear he wants out of Toronto – he’s not the only one – and the Cavs have the assets (J.J. Hickson or Anderson Varajeo and Shaq) to work a sign-and-trade with the Raptors to acquire Bosh. That would give the Cavs a frontcourt rotation of James, Bosh, Antawn Jamison, Leon Powe and either Hickson/Varajeo.

That certainly would be of interest to James, yes?

* * * * *

If you’re looking for something silly to kill some time, take a spin.

* * * * *

Finally, Brian Windhorst of the Plain Dealer is no friend of the hoople heads. In his Sunday column, he laid out what the smart folks have been saying, namely that firing a coach is the easy part. I especially enjoyed the part where he tracked down the contract situation of two European coaches.

Posted in Chris Bosh, Cleveland Cavaliers, edge, hoople heads, LeBron James, NBA free agency | Leave a comment
24 May 2010
3 Comments

What’s the Next Move Dan?

“It’s a mess, ain’t it?“

“If it ain’t, it will do until the mess gets here.“

Now that Dan Gilbert has taken the easy path and fired Mike Brown, sacrificing him to appease the hoople heads, we’re left hoping that the next mess doesn’t arrive.

As we explained last week, firing a coach is the easy part. Terry Pluto made the same, correct point in today’s PD. Zydrunas and Mo Williams also agree.

Now Gilbert has to find the answer to the question: who are you going to hire? And if he can’t find someone who will produce better results than Brown, then what was the point, exactly? Brown was not only the most successful coach in franchise history, he was the sixth winningest coach in NBA history, percentage wise.

Read that sentence again. Only five other coaches in NBA history have had a better winning percentage than Brown. Think that will be easy to replace?

Brian Windhorst ran down a list of possible replacements in today’s PD: Other than Phil Jackson, who’s not coming to Cleveland, the list shouldn’t inspire confidence or excitement among the fan base. Consider the “accomplishments” of some of the names on that list:

  • Byron Scott, .498 winning percentage, only eight playoff wins in his last seven years as coach.
  • Dwayne Casey, .434, no playoff wins.
  • Maurice Cheeks, .498, five playoff wins.
  • Lawrence Frank, .483, no playoff wins in his last three years as coach.
  • Mike Fratello (please, no), 20-42 career playoff record, only two playoff wins in his last 10 years as a coach.
  • Sam Mitchell, .452, three playoff wins.
  • Terry Porter, .460, one playoff win.

You really want one of them running the team for the next three years – because, let’s face it, that’s about how long one of them would last if they were hired. Is there anyone on this list that gives fans any reason to hope that they will be the ones to lead the team to a championship?

And let’s not even go down the road that would end in disaster if the Cavs hired a college coach.

But I guess it’s not all bad. We still have Manny Acta (.385 career winning percentage) and Eric Mangini (.438) in the Cleveland coaching fraternity. That will put an extra hop in your step.

So now the search is on and Dan Gilbert faces the latest in a seemingly never-ending list of “most important decisions” facing the franchise.

“The expectations of this organization are very high,” Gilbert said Monday in published reports. “Although change always carries an element of risk, there are times when that risk must be taken in an attempt to break through to new, higher levels of accomplishment. This is one of those times.”

We have to all hope that Gilbert is correct. Who knows, maybe he is the owner that can break the championship drought that has hung over Cleveland for almost 46 years.

If not, there’s no telling what kind of mess the Cavs will find themselves in.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, dispair, Eric Mangini, hoople heads, hoplessness, Manny Acta, Mike Brown
16 May 2010
6 Comments

Look Before You Leap

Dan Gilbert is a smart man. We know this because he didn’t listen to the hoople heads and fire Mike Brown on Friday in an emotional, reactionary decision. Instead, Gilbert came out and said he will take his time and evaluate everyone before making a decision.

And really, what’s the rush? Do the Cavs have a game this week that we don’t know about? Or course not. Plus, it’s not like the list of available coaches is long or distinguished: does Mike Woodson, Lawrence Frank or Vinny Del Negro get anyone excited? Well, those are at the top of the list of the current coaches who are looking for work.

Thankfully Gilbert is acting like what he is – the responsible adult in the room. What would the Cavs gain by firing Brown now? The only reason would be to find a scapegoat to appease the mob.

Brown deserves his share of the blame for the Cavs loss to Boston – but just his share, no more no less.

Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy hit the nail on the head when talking to ESPN:

“Mike Brown’s one of the most successful coaches that there’s been in this league for a long time,” Van Gundy said. “But it becomes scapegoat time and you’re not going to see many people other than coaches stepping up and taking the responsibility. The players are absolved. It’s sad, but it’s the way it goes. None of it is surprising.

“Mike’s been in a very difficult situation, again because the media created the expectations that that was a team that couldn’t lose, and so when they did, he pays the price. Instead of people maybe just saying, ‘The media was wrong.” … the inevitability of it. The ‘Win a ring for the king,’ and everything, it just made it inevitable that if it didn’t go well, Mike would be the one to pay the price. I don’t know if that’s fair, but that’s the way it is, that’s business.”

So we really have to question if the Cavs should fire Brown at all.

Here’s a small sampling of what Mike Brown has done:

  • Won the third-most games in team history with 272 wins;
  • Won the most postseason games in team history with 42 wins;
  • Coached the team to the playoffs five straight years;
  • Coached the team past the first round of the playoffs every year;
  • Posted at least 45 wins five straight years, the first time in team history;
  • Posted back-to-back 60-win seasons;

And here’s an even smaller sample of what Mike Brown hasn’t done:

  • Won an NBA title

If that’s enough to be fired, then just about every coach in the NBA should be canned immediately. Since 1984, only eight coaches have won NBA Championships: Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Chuck Daley, Gregg Popovich, Rudy Tomjonavich, Doc Rivers, Larry Brown and KC Jones. That’s it. Eight guys in almost 30 years.

As we’ve learned all to well in Cleveland, firing a coach is the easy part. Just look at the Browns. And if the Cavs do fire Brown, then what? The national media has read the tea leaves and come up with the ridiculous conclusion that John Calipari should be the Cavs next coach.

Oh really? Pop quiz, hotshot: What do the following have in common?

  • Lon Kruger
  • P.J. Carlesimo
  • Rick Pitino
  • Tim Floyd
  • John Calipari
  • Leonard Hamilton

They are all college coaches who moved to the NBA and failed, miserably. The last college-bred coach to win the NBA championship was Paul Westhead, who as an NBA rookie led the Lakers to their 1979-80 title after taking over the team in midseason.

Do you really believe a team based in Cleveland is going to buck those odds? Are you ready to gamble the next 3-4 years of the franchise on that?

Thankfully, the Cavs are run by a highly successful businessman who doesn’t make decisions based on emotions, or fear or to appease the mob.

As fans we couldn’t ask for, or stand for, anything less.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Dan Gilbert, hoople heads, Mike Brown, NBA coaches, responsible ownership

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