Kevin Kolb? Really?
The Kevin Kolb who was 2-6 as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals this season? This is who the Cleveland Browns should be looking at for quarterback in 2012?
(Pounding head on the table).
OK, let’s back up a minute.
Some questions we are pondering following this weekend’s NFL Wild Card playoff games (and how they relate to the Cleveland Browns).
Including the biggest question of the day:
How is it that the Browns seemed to be playing an entirely different game this year than the eight teams we watched this weekend?
For more, head over to The Cleveland Fan.
(Photo by The Associated Press)
Cleveland Browns team president Mike Holmgren and general manager held their season-ending press conference on Thursday and delivered a message that Browns fans should be embracing.
“We know what we have to fix. But we’re not going to blow it up and start over,” Holmgren said.
Hit up The Cleveland Fan for the rest of the story.
C’mon, you know you want to.
(Photo by The Plain Dealer)
The Cleveland Cavaliers will be short a player for tonight’s game in Toronto after Samardo Samuels was unable to make the trip because he lost his passport.
With Samuels unavailable, Ryan Hollins will fill the backup role at center. If he gets in the game, it will be the first action Hollins has seen since opening night.
Did anyone with the Cavs think to check Hollins’ locker for the missing passport?
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Cold Hard Football Facts threw a little cold water on Seneca Wallace’s quest to replace Colt McCoy as the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback in 2012.
With a chance to play in the final three games of the season, Seneca Wallace wanted to prove himself worthy of a starting quarterback position. However, he didn’t get the job done as the Browns lost those three games by a combined 13 points. Perhaps if Wallace played one level better than Colt McCoy, the Browns win a few games and Wallace gets a chance to further prove himself in 2012.
Wallace posted a weak 50.27 Real Quarterback Rating. This includes completing only two of 14 passes attempted to Greg Little or Mohamed Maasquoi.
Overall, Wallace finished with a 65.87 QBR, while Colt McCoy finished with a 75.16 QBR. Clearly, neither quarterback worked in this limited offense, and McCoy should be the leading candidate to return as the starter in 2012.
Not sure we like either option, but Wallace definitely didn’t do himself any favors over the last three games of the season.
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Everton’s Tim Howard became the fourth goalie – and second American – in Premier League history to score a goal in Tuesday’s game against Bolton.
But just like when Brad Friedel scored, Everton ended up losing.
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Finally, Jonah Keri at Grantland is not a believer in the Window in baseball – the short period of time in which small-revenue clubs supposedly have to compete.
Keri writes that: There is a nugget of truth behind this Window obsession. Smaller-revenue teams have a tougher time signing premium free agents, or retaining their own top players past their initial six years of team control. That puts extra pressure on these poorer teams to bring up a bunch of great prospects all at once, then hope they get good at the same time before they get expensive.
But far more often it’s a … excuse. It’s a vague, faraway goal that always seems several years out of reach. It’s a cover for cheap, greedy ownership, lousy scouting, drafting, and player development, and myopic trades. It’s a weak attempt to placate a fan base screwed over by years of management incompetence and indifference.
We think the Dolans would like to have a word with Keri.
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Finally, today is the 31th anniversary of the Browns playoff loss to Oakland in the Red Right 88 game.
That was the day we learned what it meant to be a Browns (and Cleveland) fan. We were obviously much younger then and that was the first Browns team we fell in love with.
If only Brian Sipe had thrown the ball to Dave Logan this site would exist under a different name and would possibly have a different tone to it. But that’s not the way it worked out.
If you’re in the mood, video of the final drive is here. If you want to relive that magical season, Jonathan Knight’s book, Kardiac Kids: The Story of the 1980 Cleveland Browns, is an excellent read.
They certainly didn’t go out with a bang, but the Cleveland Browns didn’t go out with a whimper, either, in their season-ending loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
A year after giving up 41 points (31 in the first half) and 418 yards of offense in the season finale, the Browns fought hard before falling, 13-9, to a Pittsburgh team that was fighting for playoff positioning.
“At this point, guys really don’t like to hear progress,” wide receiver Josh Cribbs said after the game. “It is almost like, enough of the moral victories, just get the win. We play hard; the fight in us is so strong. We say this week in and week out, we beat this team up today, but they came out with a victory.”
The Browns were undone, again, by their inability to get in the end zone. Seneca Wallace continued to make a strong case to not be the starting quarterback as he completed just 16-0f-41 passes and had his usual bad interception.
Sixteen weeks after the Cleveland Browns opened the 2011 NFL season on a warm, September afternoon, the season comes to a close on Sunday when they host the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Opposition
Pittsburgh’s record: 11-4 (tied for first in the AFC North)
Offensive rank: 11th overall/9th passing/16th rushing
Defensive rank: 1st overall/1st passing/9th rushing
All-time record: Steelers lead, 63-56 (counting postseason). The Browns are 35-23 at home against the Steelers
Last meeting: Pittsburgh won, 14-3, in Week 14
The line: Browns (+7)
What to Watch For
With last week’s loss to the Ravens, the Browns earned their fourth consecutive 11 loss season. They are the only NFL team to pull off that dubious accomplishment.
So what better way to close out the season than to host a Pittsburgh team that is No. 1 in defense and playing for a No. 2 seed and first-round bye in the playoffs?
The fact that the Steelers have something to play for works in Cleveland’s favor, as the Browns still have an opportunity to maximize their draft position. And really, this time of year in Cleveland, what else is there to talk about?
While we will never root for the Browns to lose, a loss on Sunday will at least be more palatable knowing it will give the Browns the No. 4 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Plus, while a win on Sunday would be nice, there is always the fear that, by beating the Steelers, fans will lose sight of how much work still lies ahead for the team, much like what happened in 2009, when the Browns beat the Steelers late in the year in the most over-rated win in franchise history.
“I think you remember what happened most recently and I think anytime you can win your last game I think it makes you feel good as you move forward,” coach Pat Shurmur said in his Friday press conference. “Then regardless of what happens, there are ways that we have to improve so that’s not lost on me either. What’s at task now is playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and doing what we have to do to get a victory.”
Seneca Wallace will get the start again at quarterback, which, according to him, is all that matters. Apparently helping Colt McCoy learn the offense and, you know, making the team better isn’t a priority in Seneca’s world.
“That was Jake (Delhomme’s) deal,” Wallace told The Plain Dealer when asked if he mentored McCoy this season. “He did a lot of some stuff with him last year. But that’s not my thing. It’s just one thing I don’t do. I came in with the mind-set I wanted to compete, whatever case that was.”
Way to be a team player.
On the defensive side, it will be interesting to see how cornerbacks Joe Haden and Sheldon Brown match up with receivers Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown.
According to Pro Football Focus, Haden and Brown did not allow a single reception last week against Baltimore. Brown has had two solid games in a row since giving up four catches and a touchdown against the Steelers, and Haden has allowed just two catches for 18 yards in the past two games.
The Prediction
The Browns are just too limited on offense to put up much of a fight against a Pittsburgh team with something to play for.
We’ll take the Steelers minus the points.
Record picking the Browns (using the point spread) this year: 8-6-1.
(Photo courtesy of Cleveland.com)
With the season finale against Pittsburgh just days away, the Browns are moving closer to one of the most important decisions the franchise has faced since coming back in 1999:
What to do about the quarterback position?
Head over to The Cleveland Fan, where we will now be writing from time to time, for the rest of the story.
The Cleveland Fan was founded on February 1, 2006, by Rich Swerbinsky. Since then, it has grown into the most trafficked fan run Cleveland sports website in cyberspace, boasting a community of 50,000 monthly visitors strong (and growing) with over 2,000,000 page hits each month.
In bringing The Cleveland Fan to life, Rich’s mission statement was simple: Create an alternative to the traditional media sources and a place for Cleveland sports fans to congregate to read opinion on the teams we live and die for, and also a place for fans to have intelligent discussions about those teams.
We’re excited to work with them – even if they have a “no soccer” policy (we’ll work on that); head on over and check the site out.
The Cleveland Browns gave fans their annual lump of coal in losing to the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Eve.
The loss was the Browns 11th this year, giving the team four consecutive 11-loss seasons for the first time in franchise history. We’re sure their are fans who will blame the previous 11 loss seasons on current coach Pat Shurmur.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
For the third week in a row, the Browns were competitive against a better team but came up short. Unlike last week, when the Browns came from ahead to lose against Arizona, this week the Browns fell behind 20-0 before putting a scare into the first-place Ravens.
“We knew this would be quite a challenge for us,” quarterback Seneca Wallace said in published reports. “We’re playing the Ravens at home, and they’re playing for everything. I should have played better, and I should have made better decisions.”
Two plays stand out in particular, starting with one involving Wallace’s decision making.
The Browns lost a chance at the end of the first half to put some points on the board when Wallace, a nine-year veteran who fancies himself a starting quarterback, thought it was a good idea to run the ball from the five-yard line with the Browns holding no timeouts and just 11 seconds remaining in the half.
“I knew we had no timeouts left,” Wallace said of the run call. “It was very loud in that end. It was bad communication on my behalf. I heard Pat (Shurmur) yelling, ‘Clock, clock, clock,’ but I wasn’t sure everyone was on the same page, and that’s my job. It’s not the head coach’s fault. I called 66T, a running play, and it didn’t work. It was a tough situation, but I should have handled it better.”
On the preceding play, Evan Moore caught a short pass but could not get out of bounds, which kept the clock running. The Browns ended up losing 23 seconds before the hand off to Hillis.
That sequence of plays shows why Wallace is still a back-up and why Moore doesn’t get on the field more during the game. The players have to do a better job understanding the game situation.
“We called two plays — one to get us the first down and one to either throw it into the end zone or to the sideline and get out of bounds; that was the design,” Shurmur said. “From there, we wanted to make sure we got the clock stopped on the second down play. Evan caught the ball on the sideline, did not get out of bounds, so the clock was still running. Then, what we wanted to do was get the clock stopped. Get the clock stopped and then, be able to regroup in the huddle, maybe have one play at the end zone. If we don’t, kick the field goal. That’s what we wanted to get done.”
Thanks to a Josh Cribbs 84-yard punt return for a touchdown – about time Shurmur called that particular play, don’t you think? – and a Wallace to Moore touchdown pass, the Browns climbed back into the game and inexplicably trailed just 20-14 with 8:22 left in the game.
The defense forced a three-and-0ut and the Browns moved to their own 45 before facing fourth-and-five. Shurmur went for it (right decision) but Wallace’s pass to Peyton Hillis in the flat was stopped for no gain (bad play call).
The Browns had one last chance to get the ball back as they forced the Ravens into a fourth-and-2 at the Cleveland 37-yard-line. Coming out of a timeout, the Ravens went to a hard count, hoping to force someone on the Browns to jump off sides.
Need we say that defensive tackle Phil Taylor took the bait?
“It was the first hard count and we stayed onside,” Taylor said. “The second time, I just jumped. Of course you feel bad, but you just got to move on.”
It happens, but still …
“In the timeout, we talked about the potential of that happening,” Shurmur said. “I’ve seen it, and we had a nice huddle to discuss that might happen. And then, you’re out there playing and you can’t do that.”
“I told (Phil) that if you play in this league a long time, things like that are going to happen,” linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said. “You’ve just got to learn from it. We’ve never been in that situation all year. We’ll talk about it. It’s one of those things where you wish you could get it back. He’s young and he had a lot of learning experiences this year. He’s done a tremendous job.”
As usual, there were a few bright spots. Hillis ran for 112 yards, showing how a healthy running game can help the offense. Cribbs found the end zone on his punt return and, after allowing Ray Rice to run for 204 yards in the first meeting of the season, the Browns held him to 87 yards and no touchdowns.
And the Browns could have quit after falling behind 20-0 on the road against a team that is battling for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. But they hung in there and played themselves back into a position where they could have won the game.
But it wasn’t enough to avoid another loss in another lost season. It just never is.
And it wasn’t enough to quiet the bleating of the anti-Shurmur crowd, who want to find fault with everything the team does.
Losing to the Ravens is nothing new for the Browns – they’ve done it twice a year for four consecutive years now. And the past two years, the Browns lost by an average of 17 points to the Ravens – not even the revisionists can spin that.
The Browns flat out stink when they play within the division and until they get that problem fixed, nothing is going to change.
For now, though, the Browns gave everyone a reason to watch until the end yesterday and didn’t do anything to hurt their draft position.
At this point in the season, that’s probably the best Christmas present fans could ask for from the team.
(Photo by The Associated Press)
The Seneca Wallace era continues, as the Browns head to Baltimore for a Christmas Eve match-up with the Ravens.
Probably not the best Christmas present the NFL could give to Browns fans.
The Opposition
Baltimore’s record: 10-4 (tied for first in the AFC North)
Offensive rank: 15th overall/16th passing/16th rushing
Defensive rank: 3rd overall/4th passing/2nd rushing
All-time record: Ravens lead 18-7′ the Browns are 3-9 on the road against the Ravens
Last meeting: Baltimore won, 24-10, in Week 13
The line: Browns (+13)
What to Watch For
How the Browns respond to playing the Ravens for the second time this season.
In the first meeting, the Ravens had their way with the Browns, rushing for 290 yards behind Ray Rice’s 204 yards and Ricky Williams’ 76 yards.
“Obviously it wasn’t what we wanted the first time,” defensive coordinator Dick Jauron said in his weekly press conference. “(Rice) is an exceptional player. I don’t know that we can make sure things happen, but we’ll certainly try not to have that happen again. They’re very good at what they do. We’ve made some adjustments. We’ll just have to see if they work out the way we would like them to work out. Obviously, they’ll make adjustments too. They do an outstanding job. He’s an exceptional player.”
In the past two games, the Browns have done better with their run defense, holding Pittsburgh’s Rashard Mendenhall to 76 yards (although the Steelers did run for 5.3 yards per carry) and Arizona’s Beanie Wells to 51 yards (and limited the Cardinals to just 3.1 yards per carry).
The Browns may be catching a break as wide receiver Anquan Boldin will miss the game with a knee injury, which means the defense may be able to focus even more on the running game. Of course, that could open up tight ends Dennis Pitta and Ed Dickson as options for quarterback Joe Flacco, and we all know how much the Browns struggle in covering tight ends.
On offense, Wallace makes his second consecutive start at quarterback.
“I think any player, and you see it quite frequently early in the year, there’s a huge improvement from game one and game two and I think I’m looking for that (with Wallace),” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said. “He’s going to be, as I mentioned earlier in the week, more comfortable with the speed of the game. He’ll be more familiar with the receivers he’s throwing to and just generally more comfortable and I’m hoping that will mean he’ll play even better.”
Last year in his second start – also against Baltimore – Wallace’s passing yardage went down, but his completion percentage (75 percent vs. 51.6) and quarterback rating (103 vs. 73.2) were both considerably higher than his first start. So there may be something there.
Oh, and the Browns have still never beaten Flacco, who is now 7-0 vs. Cleveland.
The Prediction
The Browns have looked better the past two weeks, even though they lost both games.
And for first time in a while, the team had a relatively normal week, without dealing with any manufactured controversies.
But the Ravens are still playing for a first-round bye and home playoff game and, after their poor performance last Sunday night against San Diego, they should be up to the task of facing the Browns.
We’ll take the Ravens with a later cover.
Record picking the Browns (using the point spread) this year: 8-5-1.
(Photo by Cleveland Browns.com)
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Take a moment to check out this feature story from NFL.com about how the Browns helped deliver a special holiday gift for Felix Poteate II of the U.S. Navy and his veteran father.
We came across an interesting article this morning about Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy in the Philadelphia Sports Daily.
The article makes a case for McCoy as the best back in the NFL, citing his 1,273 yards rushing, 17 touchdowns and 4.9 yards per carry this season. He’s also rushed for 82 first downs; no other back in the league has run for more than 63.
In a year where the Browns have lacked playmakers on offense, it’s hard not to think back to the 2009 draft, when the Browns passed not once, not twice, but three times on selecting McCoy, who went to the Eagles in the second round with the 53rd pick.
The Browns decided that, rather than McCoy, they’d rather have a wide receiver who will probably be out of the league next year (Brian Robiskie), a No. 4 wide receiver (Mohamed Massaquoi) and a linebacker who is no longer in the NFL (David Veikune).
And there are people who still wonder why the Browns are in their current situation.
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Big news on the sanction front today as Liverpool’s Luis Suárez received an eight match ban and was fined £40,000 after being found guilty of misconduct for “using insulting words towards” Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
What, you thought we were talking about the slap on the wrist the NCAA game Ohio State?
Suárez allegedly racially abused Evra “at least 10 times” during a match in October at Anfield.
Oddly enough, Suárez was found guilty even though no one – other than Evra – heard the comments. According to the club’s statement on the decision:
“We find it extraordinary that Luis can be found guilty on the word of Patrice Evra alone when no-one else on the field of play – including Evra’s own Manchester United teammates and all the match officials – heard the alleged conversation between the two players in a crowded Kop goalmouth while a corner kick was about to be taken.
It appears to us that the FA were determined to bring charges against Luis Suárez, even before interviewing him at the beginning of November. Nothing we have heard in the course of the hearing has changed our view that Luis Suárez is innocent of the charges brought against him and we will provide Luis with whatever support he now needs to clear his name.”
And somehow the FA missed – or chose to ignore – that Evra admitted that he insulted Suárez in Spanish in the “most objectionable of terms.”
Just another case of their being one set of rules for Manchester United and one for everybody else.
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Not a huge surprise as it appears likely that Seneca Wallace will start again this week at quarterback for the Browns.
“Seneca (Wallace) right now will take the reps and Colt McCoy is making progress,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said Tuesday. “It’s too early to tell whether he’ll be available this week. There are a lot of steps he has to go through before he’s ready to play.”
That’s most likely for the best, as there is really no need to put McCoy back on the field unless he’s 100 percent recovered from his concussion. The Browns have plenty of film on him to help them make a decision in the off-season.
In related news, the NFL announced today that trainers will be stationed at games effective immediately to monitor players for possible concussions. The trainer likely will be stationed somewhere in the press box of each stadium to monitor the game and assist the medical staff of both teams.
Good to see the league put some action behind its words when it comes to dealing with concussions. After all, if they can have someone at each game worrying about the players’ socks, they can certainly have someone on hand to deal with something this important.
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Finally, here’s a cool graphic from Midwest Sports Fans representing how on any given Sunday any NFL team can win – yes, even the Browns. (h/t Brian McCarthy, NFL PR)
(Photo by Getty Images)
Red Right 88 