Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

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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
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
05 Oct 2011

Things are tough all over

Pop quiz time.

All of the following quotes are from an NFL head coach, but only one is from Browns coach Pat Shurmur.

Can you guess which one?

  • “I don’t think a sense of urgency or lack of a sense of urgency is the issue. I think fundamental football is, better blocking, better tackling.”
  • “There are also a lot of things we need to work on, so that’s what we’re doing. But I’m telling you it’s not one person. It needs to be all of us pulling this thing together and doing our jobs a little bit better.”
  • “You’re always trying to learn from these situations that you’re in. I think he’s ended game situations, in relation to the football, are things he has to get better at. He knows that and he’ll be the first one to say that. So we have to find a way for him to get better at that.”
  • “In my opinion, this is a sport where you develop every day that you practice or every day that you meet and along the way as you’re developing, you need to win games so that’s the focus. We need to get better, we need to execute more efficiently and we need to put our guys in the right spots to do the right things and along the way we need to win.”

If you said the last quote is from Shurmur, take a bow.

But what about the rest?

The first quote is from Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, who’s 2-2 Steelers have lost both games they’ve played this year against good teams. (Sound familiar?)

The second is from Philadelphia’s Andy Reid, who’s seen the Eagles, the alleged “Dream Team,” get off to a 1-3 start.

The third is from Dallas’ Jason Garrett, who watched his Cowboys blow a 24-point third-quarter lead on Sunday against Detroit.

And let’s not forget New England who, because they have Tom Brady, are 3-1 despite being last in the league in yards allowed after giving up 504 yards to a Jason Campbell-led offense on Sunday.

The point of all this? (We’re sure we have a point here somewhere). Teams with far more talent than the Browns are struggling this year, so maybe things aren’t as dire as they appear to some.

It’s easy to put the blinders on when it comes to the Browns, but fans need to look around at the rest of the league to help keep things in perspective.

The Browns just hit the quarter-mark of the season with a 2-2 record. If they repeat that each quarter of the season, they end up 8-8 on the year, which many fans would have signed off on at the start of the year.

But this season isn’t about the final record. It’s about evaluating the talent on the team, figuring out which players fit best in Shumur’s West Coast offense and Dick Jauron’s 4-3, play fast think less, defense. And it’s about learning whether or not Colt McCoy is the quarterback who can take this team to the next level.

It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be frustrating – very frustrating – at times, and it’s not going to be fun. But there are also no shortcuts or quick fixes. The Browns have been down that road before and it just does not work.

Patience is hard to come by in our instant gratification society, and it’s a commodity that is severely lacking in many Browns fans. It seems like the Browns have been on the rebuilding merry-go-round since the late ’80s.

But patience is exactly what we need with this Browns team because things are tough all over.

Just take a look around the league.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, frustration, NFL | Leave a comment
02 Oct 2011

Browns stagger into the bye week

If a team ever needed a bye week, it’s the Cleveland Browns.

Looking like an expansion team, the Browns bumbled their way through a 31-13 loss to Tennessee on Sunday in a game that really wasn’t that close.

“This was a team loss,” said coach Pat Shurmur. “There’s a lot of things we need to get better at, and it starts with me. We just didn’t play extremely well. That’s my responsibility.”

The offense and the defense both had their worst days of the season and, when you are a team that is still lacking in talent at several positions, when that happens, well, you’re going to be on the wrong side of a 31-13 game.

“You see what happens when you let big plays happen,” Shurmur said. “The game changes on any team that plays and we let the score get out of hand, which makes it difficult. Then you’re fighting, scratching and clawing and you can’t do that.”

And while we know the second-half play calling was dictated in large part by the score, if there is anything we are certain of, it is this: the Browns are going to loss any game where Colt McCoy has to throw 61 passes.

“We’re growing every week,” McCoy said. “We are four weeks into it. We understand that we’ve got a lot of room for improvement (and) a long ways to go. We’ll go back and look at some things that consistency-wise we can play better. We can get guys open. They can get some yards after the catch. It’s one of those things that week to week, you’re kind of building your team. We’ve got to do a better job.”

The Titans turned in two big plays – an 80-yard touchdown reception by tight end Jared Cook, where Cook ran away from Scott Fujita in coverage and ran through what can be charitably described as a weak tackle attempt by Usama Young (Usama must have been in class the day they taught tackling in practice at Kent State); and an 97-yard interception return by Jordan Babineaux, where Babineaux ran almost the entire length of the field without ever coming close to being touched by a Browns player.

And let’s not forget about the Titans scoring with 33 seconds left before halftime, thanks to a 57-yard completion to Nate Washington where Tennessee executed a perfect pick play to get Washington open.

Somehow the Browns never seem to have those plays in their playbook, do they?

The offense was an out-of-synch mess all day, with odd personnel packages and a series of dump-off passes over the middle.

After the Titans had taken a 14-6 lead on Cook’s long touchdown in the second quarter, the Browns got the ball with 14 minutes to go. From that point until there was 6:45 on the clock in the third quarter, Cleveland managed to run 22 plays for 87 and three total first downs.

The coaches must have fallen in love with Montario Hardesty after his game against the Dolphins last week, forgetting that he is basically a rookie with one good NFL game under his belt.

How else to explain them only handing Peyton Hillis the ball 10 times on the game (only twice in the second half)? Or giving the ball to Armond Smith on a fourth-and-1 at the Titans’ 41 in the second quarter? Need we say that Smith did not make the first down?

Or that Hardesty had almost as many drops (4) as receptions (5)?

What’s going on around here?

“That is something for the coaches to decide,” Hillis said after the game. “I have no control over that; it needs to be handled by the coaches. I’m fine, I feel healthy and my body feels great. I’m just going to try and make the most of the opportunities and get in when I can.

“I’ve always found myself to be a rhythm guy. The game plan and what the coaches have decided, that’s what they want to go with. Being a player you have to follow the coaches’ orders and do what they tell you to do. You have to respect them.”

The defense wasn’t any better as the front four, which had totaled 11 sacks in the first three games, got no pressure on Hasselbeck, who completed 10-of-20 passes for 220 yards. The Browns didn’t record a sack and Ahyta Rubin had the only quarterback pressure.

Once again, for what seems like forever, the Browns struggled to cover the tight end. In addition to Cook’s touchdown, a wide-open Craig Stevens also caught a touchdown pass.

“It was just us,” said T.J. Ward. “We were missing tackles and we were not on our men like we should have been. We take complete responsibility for that. That’s not the Browns that we’ve been. We know that we can play much better than that. I don’t think the effort was there completely, but it just looked like, including myself, I am not just putting it off on the rest of my teammates, but we didn’t play how we should have played.”

Taking the micro view, this loss was bad, real bad. Any positives the Browns had built up in starting 2-1, be they real or perceived, were pretty much flushed down the toilet against the Titans.

But if you take the macro view, this loss, heading into the bye week, may end up doing the team some good. This team still has a long road ahead of it. Sunday’s loss should give the players plenty to work on and provide the coaches with ample learning opportunities to fill up everyone’s time during the bye week.

“We still have a long way to go,” Fujita said. “We still have a lot of room to grow. You have to go back to the film and find out where you are falling short. Defensively we gave up too many big plays today. We have to look at that closely, look at where we fell short and move forward.”

“There is a lot to work on,” McCoy said. “A lot of things we can improve on, a lot of things as a team that we can improve on. The bye week is good. Obviously, you would like to win going into your bye week because the taste of losing is not that good. We’ve got a lot to work on and we’ll get better.”

Will the lessons be learned? We’ll find out Oct. 16 in Oakland.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, NFL, stench | Leave a comment
28 Sep 2011

Feeling a bit nervous about Sunday

Now that we are a few days away from the Browns last-minute win over Miami, our thoughts have turned to Sunday’s game against Tennessee.

And we admit we’re starting to get a little bit worried.

In the Titans, the Browns will be facing the No. 1 defense in the NFL. Tennessee is second against the pass, eighth against the run and the AFC’s best in the red zone, giving up just two touchdowns on six trips by the opposition inside the 20.

The Browns are catching a break, however, as starting wide receiver Kenny Britt is out for the year after injuring his knee. After Nate Washington (21 receptions on the year) who Joe Haden can shut down in his sleep, the Titans will trot out Damian Williams (2 receptions), Marc Mariani (3 receptions) and Lavelle Hawkins (5 receptions) – apparently wide receiver is even a bigger trouble spot in Nashville than in Cleveland.

Hopefully that means the Browns won’t have to focus on stopping Tennessee’s passing game because what worries us the most is Chris Johnson.

Johnson is off to a ridiculously slow start after holding out during training camp, gaining just 98 yards through three games, a big part of the reason why the Titans rank last in the NFL in rushing offense.

“Of course it’s frustrating,” Johnson told Fox Sports Tennessee after last week’s game. “In the first two games not having big ones, and then starting out this game with a couple of nice runs in the beginning, but all of them were getting called back. It’s always tough, but we have to hold our head up.”

You know Johnson is not going to go an entire season averaging 32.6 rushing yards per game; eventually he’s going to break out.

“It’s one of those things it just probably takes one nice run,” Johnson told ESPN. “It probably takes one or two breaks out of there to kind of get that feeling back again that we can do certain things… It’s got to improve if we’re going to win these next two weeks.”

We just hope it’s not Sunday against the Browns 29th-ranked rush defense.

***

Turns out we were right when we said the excessive celebration penalty on Mohamed Massaquoi and Ben Watson was highly suspect.

Former vice president of NFL officiating Mike Pereira told The Plain Dealer that “It strikes me as technically being a foul but also one you could have gone without making, frankly.

“I personally like the rule about not going to the ground to demonstrate because you were having guys lay down on the ground and act like they were putting a pillow under their heads and all that kind of stuff. Clearly, you really had over-the-top things that happened. The problem is that when you do something like that, then you get into this area where, geez, all of a sudden you get into where you take it literally and it becomes a little picky.”

Thankfully the penalty didn’t end up costing the Browns the game, but it sure was close.

***

Speaking of being excessive, apparently there are now limits on how much standing you can do at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Head over to Cleveland Frowns to read about the ridiculousness that is the “excessive standing” policy at home games.

Just makes us that much more thankful that we can stand all we want at home while enjoying NFL Sunday Ticket.

***

We can’t began to explain how much it gets on our tits that the Steelers can put up a winning record every year while having a crap offensive line.

***

Finally, linebacker Chris Gocong is the latest player to hit the Browns ATM in the form of a contract extension.

The Browns reached a three-year, $16.8 million contract with Gocong, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Gocong becomes the fourth player to get a new deal from the Browns this year, joining left tackle Joe Thomas, defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin and tight end Evan Moore.

Posted in Chris Gocong, Chris Johnson, Cleveland Browns, NFL | Leave a comment
27 Sep 2011

The defense never rests

Fresh off their second consecutive game where they limited the opposition to a lone touchdown, the Cleveland Browns are starting to build something on defense and the league is beginning to take notice.

In less than two years on the job general manager Tom Heckert has jumpstarted the process of rebuilding the defense. Out are the aging veterans and ex-Jets, like Abe Elam, Kenyon Coleman, Jason Trusnik, David Bowens, Eric Barton, C.J. Mosley and Hank Poteat, and in their place are draftees Phil Taylor, Jabaal Sheard, T.J. Ward and Joe Haden.

And it’s starting to pay off.

The Browns are ninth overall in the league on defense, third against the pass and tied for 8th in third-down efficiency.

“You have to get off the field on third down and then there are a lot of ways looking at it,” coach Pat Shurmur said in his weekly presser. “Better percentage on first down makes a longer third, all of that. Most teams on offense find a way to move the ball. Now, when you get in the red zone and teams find a way to get in the red zone anywhere from two to three and sometimes five times a game. That’s when you have to make them kick field goals.

“Turnovers, efficiency on third down, that’s getting off the field and then execution in the red zone. That’s pretty much offensively and defensively the areas that if you are going to be consistently good you have to be good in those areas.”

Through three games corner back Joe Haden is playing like an All-Pro. He shut down A.J. Green in Week 1 (one reception), kept Reggie Wayne in check Week 2 (four receptions) and did the same on Sunday against Brandon Marshall (four receptions).

Defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin earned Defensive Player of the Week honors in Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column.

King writes: Taken out of Iowa State in the sixth round of the 2008 draft, in what would be one of Phil Savage’s last acts as Cleveland GM, Rubin is turning into one of the best defensive tackles in the league. He was one of the keys to a resilient if ugly 17-16 win over Miami Sunday. He had 1.5 sacks, nine tackles and another tackle for loss as the Browns stifled much of what Miami tried to do on offense.

The young and mostly inexperienced defensive line has been a nice surprise so far this season, and should only get better as the season moves along.

“We are another game better of knowing what those guys can do,” Shurmur said. “I thought (defensive line coach) Dwaine (Board) had a good rotation getting guys in there. Every play is a critical play but you need your guys all the way to the end. So we had a good rotation in there and they played a lot of snaps.

“I think getting sacks is a team thing just as well as giving up sacks is a team thing. There is coverage involved. There is pressure sometimes and then there is just flat out guys beating guys. I think there was a little bit of all three elements yesterday, but I think that unit is really improving.”

King also made note of Shurmur’s decision to bring the players in to work on Monday, a sign that the coaching staff knows there is still a lot of work to be done.

There was something I liked about the Browns post-game Sunday, after escaping with a 17-16 win over the Dolphins. With the players screaming for a “Victory Monday,” a day off that normally follows a win, which then is followed by the normal day off on Tuesday, coach Pat Shurmur told the players he’d get them in and out as quick as he could on Monday, but it wasn’t going to be a full day off because next week is the bye, and a game with Tennessee awaited this week, and he wanted to do everything he could to make sure they prepared fully for this game against a non-division foe. And not a peep was heard from the players.

“Multiple reasons why that’s an important game,” said receiver Muhammad Massaquoi. “You don’t want to go into a bye with a loss, and you want to be sure you keep a good thing going. We still have work to do here.” Of the three Rust Belters not accustomed to feeling so good on a Sunday, Shurmur’s idea was not only the right one, but one his players embraced. And that’s the kind of team that can grow into something.

We’ll give defensive tackle Phil Taylor the last word.

“If we keep playing like we’re playing, people are gonna know about us,” Taylor said in published reports. “People already know about us from watching film, but if we keep playing like we’re playing, we’re gonna be one of those dominant forces.”

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, defense, NFL | Leave a comment
25 Sep 2011

Play fast defense saves the day for Browns

The Browns continued to show the benefit of defensive coordinator Dick Jauron’s “play fast” defense, defeating Miami on Sunday for their first home win of the season.

For the second consecutive game, the defense gave up only one touchdown on the day, working hard to carry the water until the offense could get its act together.

The defense showed why we’ve been longing for the return of the 4-3 for years, recording five sacks – four from the defensive line – and keeping the Dolphins out of the end zone for the final 52 minutes of the game.

The Browns also held Miami to 4-of-13 on third down and the Dolphins were just 1-of-3 in the red zone (think field goals, not touchdowns).

The biggest series for the defense came with 6:20 left in the game. Leading 13-10, the Dolphins took over with a chance to put the game away. Miami would eventually have a first-and-10 at the Browns 23, but the defense stuffed the Dolphins, forcing Miami to settle for a field goal and give the Browns hope.

As for the offense, it wasn’t very good – until it was.

Playing without starting running back Peyton Hillis and with a limited Josh Cribbs, quarterback Colt McCoy struggled on the day, but saved his best for when it mattered.

With the Browns trailing 16-10 and 3:23 on the clock, McCoy led an 80-yard drive where he completed 9-of-13 passes, hitting Greg Little with three passes (two for first downs) before finally finding Mohamed Massaquoi for the game-winning, 14-yard touchdown pass.

It was a nice throw by McCoy and an even better catch by Massaquoi.

“My best throw of the day,” McCoy said. “Mo did a nice job and got that guy (Miami defensive back Jimmy Wilson) to bite just a little bit. He wasn’t that open, but in the NFL, when they’re like that, you just gotta make a good throw. Mo did a great job of getting his feet in. It was a great feeling.”

Of course, this being the Browns the victory wasn’t that easy. Two highly suspect calls by the refs – yes, it may be sour grapes but the excessive celebration and horse collar tackle penalties were crap calls – allowed the Dolphins to start on the Browns 48-yard-line with 36 seconds and one time out left.

Needing only a field goal to win, Miami quarterback Chad Henne threw three consecutive incompletions before his fourth-down pass was intercepted by Mike Adams and the Browns finally secured the win.

“I’m proud of the guys because no matter if it’s one point, one second left — we hung in there,” coach Pat Shurmur told The Plain Dealer. “Colt knows how to win games. We are learning about each other.”

“We lost four games last year after leading in the fourth quarter,” Cribbs told The Plain Dealer. “This just shows how much we’ve grown.”

So what did we learn on Sunday?

This defense has the makings of being a pretty good and fun to watch group as general manager Tom Heckert’s decision to add Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard to last year’s draft picks of Joe Haden and T.J. Ward looks better every week.

You know who else looks better every week? Defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin, who had nine tackles and 1.5 sacks on Sunday.

The defense may not have a lot of depth, but the starting 11 looks pretty good.

Montario Hardesty looks like he may be a nice compliment to Hillis at running back. Making his first start on Sunday, Hardesty ran for 67 yards and a 4.8 yards-per-carry average. If he can continue to run like that, the duo of Hillis and Hardesty are going to be a real asset.

The offense is still very much a work in progress. The timing between McCoy and the receivers just isn’t there yet, and McCoy’s accuracy is off – he’s only completing 54 percent of his passes.

It’s obvious that the shortened training camp, combined with preseason injuries to the receivers, has the offense struggling to catch up.

“I’ll be the first to tell you I’ve got a lot of work to do leading this football team, and we as a team have a lot of work to do,” McCoy said in published reports. “We earned some confidence today in each other.”

There are those who will say the Browns “deserved” to lose the game because of the offensive struggles, but the last time we checked both sides of the ball count. The defense made the plays it needed to keep the team in the game and the offense found a way at the end.

There is still plenty of work to do, especially on offense, but for now the Browns hold a share of first place in the AFC North, and that’s a good thing.

“We got the job done,” Phil Taylor told The Plain Dealer after the game.

And really, that’s all that matters.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

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25 Sep 2011

Browns vs. Dolphins – Week 3

Fresh off their first win in the Pat Shurmur era, the Cleveland Browns return home to take on the Miami Dolphins and try to turn up the temperature on Dolphins coach Tony Sparano’s chair.

The Opposition

Miami record: 0-2
Offensive rank: 10th overall/9th passing/8th rushing
Defensive rank: 32nd overall/30th passing/22nd rushing
All-time record: Dolphins lead 9-7 (including playoffs), but Browns are 5-4 in Cleveland
Last meeting: Browns won 13-10 in 2010
The line: Browns (-2.5)

What to Watch For

How the Browns respond to being back at home following the mistake-filled season opener against the Bengals.

The Dolphins come into the game as the worst defense in the NFL, but that has a qualifier to it. They have given up the third-most passing yards and the second-most passing touchdowns in the league so far, but those numbers came against New England’s Tom Brady and Houston’s Matt Schaub, quarterbacks who can make any defense look silly when they are on their game.

Is the Miami defense really that bad, or are the numbers skewed because of the level of the opposition?

This will be a good game to see what kind of progress the Browns have made as they transition to the West Coast offense. The offense should be getting better each week as they make up for the repetitions they lost during the shortened workout.

If Colt McCoy and the receivers are on, they should be able to take advantage of the Dolphins, especially since Miami will be without starting cornerback Vontae Davis and possibly back-up corner Will Allen. Miami is giving up 30.5 points per game and allowing opponents to convert on 46.4 percent of their third downs.

Sounds like a potential good day for the offense.

Of course, the Browns may be without starting running back Peyton Hillis (strep throat), as well as starting wide receivers Josh Cribbs (groin) and Mohamed Massaquoi (ankle), who are all questionable for the game.

If all three are out, then the Dolphins can key on back-up running back Montario Hardesty, pay a little attention to rookie wide receiver Greg Little and ignore Brian “Blutarski” Robiskie, which would make for a long day for McCoy and the offense.

Much as the Dolphins defensive ranking may be artificially low because of the opposition, the Browns No. 6 ranked defense (No. 2 against the pass) may be a bit high because of playing Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

The Dolphins can still run the ball and, even under Dick Jauron’s “play fast” defense, the Browns are struggling to stop the run.

But the Browns have been tough in the red zone as they are tied for third in red-zone defense and didn’t give up a touchdown to the Colts until there were 24 seconds left in the game. The Dolphins may play right into that strength as they are weak in the red zone under offensive coordinator Brian Daboll (think field goals on Sunday, not touchdowns) and have made the eighth-most negative plays in the red zone in the league.

The Most Frustrating Browns vs. Dolphins Game We’ve Ever Seen

The 1986 playoff game where the Browns blew a 21-3 lead in the third quarter as Miami rallied back to win 24-21.

We can still see Miami’s Ron Davenport running over Don Rogers on his way to the end zone.

The Prediction

If we knew the Browns were going to be healthy on offense we would feel a lot better about this game. There’s no such thing as an “easy win” for the Browns, even if the other team is 0-2 and falling apart under a lame duck coach.

We’re worried that the Dolphins are not as bad as they’ve looked over the first two weeks, but that the Browns are what they’ve looked like: a young team adjusting to a new offense and new defense that can play well in spurts, but possibly not yet for an entire game.

And the Dolphins do have the third-best road record in the NFL since 2008.

But the Browns did look noticeably better at times last week against the Colts, which gives us hope.

The Browns should think touchdowns, not field goals, just enough on Sunday to pull out the win and stay on pace with Pittsburgh and Baltimore at the top of the AFC North division.

Take the Browns and the points.

Record picking the Browns (using the point spread) this year: 1-1-0.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, NFL | Leave a comment

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