The Last Big Show

Mike Holmgren’s last press conference on Tuesday hung with a sense of regret. His time as President and “de facto” owner has sped by, and it seemed everybody in the press room had expected a little bit more, Holmgren included.  It does not seem that long since he took over (and really, honestly, it’s not. A little under 3 years) and the visible results have not been overly impressive. It is obvious then that as Holmgren rolls out of Berea on his Harley that he leaves behind an air of disappointment. $40m seems to have bought so far an overall record of 10-29 and a lot of promises. It’s fair to say that he has left some people feeling like they’ve been stiffed. And therein lies the issue.

What we’ve seen from Holmgren has been a mixed bag. In terms of positives, he has provided the Browns with a great GM in Tom Heckert, who has bought in entirely to the idea of building for the future and has provided the Browns with consistently strong rookie classes, something they have lacked since their return to the league in 1999. He and Holmgren have overhauled the roster, turfed out declining vets and have provided the team with a healthy amount of cap space. Holmgren was keen to point out in his farewell presser his admiration for his GM:

“I don’t think you can get a better general manager, in my own opinion, than Tom Heckert. I think he’s tremendous.”

Whether Heckert survives the ownership change (word is he believes he won’t) has been a much discussed topic and it’s a credit to the job that he’s done that pretty much everybody would like him to stay. Someone even set up a website in his defence. There’s a general belief that you usually get one crack at being a GM, but if Heckert does go I think it’s likely that this won’t be his only run at building a team.

It also seems likely that Homgren had a large hand in the selections of Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden in the draft this year. His mildly cryptic quote could have referred to either the decision to trade up to get Trent Richardson or to pick then-28 year old Weeden at #22. Either way it’s likely that he had a strong influence in these picks. Both picks drew varying amounts of consternation at the time, but since Week 2 the grumbles have incrementally faded and been replaced with a sense of optimism. Richardson, although never quite 100%, has flashed immense ability and Weeden has improved week on week and is looking like he can be the man for the job. If these picks work out then Holmgren’s tenure looks a little more productive.

There has, however, been plenty with which to condemn him. His tenure has been punctuated by missteps, mainly the decision to retain Eric Mangini as coach for the 2010 season. With their football philosophies differing so immensely there was realistically nothing that Mangini could have done to have been retained beyond then. It was essentially a wasted year in the building process, and although Holmgren himself said that he wouldn’t change his decision to keep Mangini on, I’m certain he knows that in reality it was the incorrect one, morals or not.
Mangini’s successor, Pat Shurmur, has done little to dispel the notion that he got the job through nepotism. The nephew of Holmgren’s coaching friend Fritz Shurmur and a client of Holmgren’s agent Bob LaMonte, has seemed overwhelmed and out of his depth during his two seasons with the Browns. This has obviously fallen back on Holmgren, who has taken flak for supposedly helping Bob LaMonte turn the Browns into a cash cow for his agency.

His prickly relationship with the Cleveland media, affronted by his frequent interviews on Seattle radio, has not helped matters either. He said himself Tuesday that perhaps he should have been more “visible” during his time with the Browns and a little more defined in his role. It is this issue that has probably tainted his “legacy” the most. Nobody actually knows exactly what he’s done and the effect it has had. His instruction on hiring was little more than to bring “legitimacy” to the Browns and he has been hard to get a grip on whilst in Berea. He has been a little bit the owner, a little bit the GM and a little bit many other things. It’s likely that we don’t ever find out the amount that he did behind the scenes, but I don’t think anyone will contest the fact that the organisation has been a mess since ‘99 and no doubt needed a lot of cleaning up behind the scenes. Holmgren spoke about how they had “fixed a number of problems in the organisation” and how it had been “a three-year period fixing things”, but with the W-L record being the one thing that remained unchanged. With the team losing so many games it has become easy to question how hard people are working. It’s natural. When things aren’t going right, the automatic reaction is that someone somewhere is not doing their job properly (also much easier to say when they’re on their way out).

Ultimately, it’s an unfinished job. I had questioned that Holmgren had been blindsided by the sale, but with his comments about surprise around the timing it seems he may have been. He did not finish what he came here to do, which was create a long-term winner, and seemed to have spent the first two years working out his role. For me, if anything, he lacked a little urgency. His plan seems to have been an organic one, to let the team grow into a contender, but has missed chances to catalyse the process. There have been things that could have been done quicker, such as firing Mangini and finding an OC, though this summer they did go all-out on building the offense, suggesting that things were speeding up. It is impossible to say that he would have succeeded in his own aims, and what was produced certainly did not match the fanfare, but it is too early yet to definitively praise or condemn.

If he had been here one more year, in my opinion, the view would be a better one. The team is close to getting it and with better coaching things would probably have been rosier than 1-6. This is Heckert and Holmgren’s roster and how it performs in the future will ultimately define his reign. What is certain is that although he didn’t fulfil his “last great adventure”, he did fulfil everything Randy Lerner required of him, to the tune of one billion dollars.

Donkey Punch

“Hi, my name’s Accountability”

Colts 17 – 13 Browns

Jimmy Haslam took his seat at Lucas Oil Stadium for the first time as the unanimously approved new owner of the Cleveland Browns hoping, I imagine, much like rest of us to see another Browns win and their first road win since facing Tankjob Painter’s Colts last season. Alas, it was not to be as the Colts ground out a win, and Pat Shurmur ground everybody’s gears yet again.

It was an interesting matchup as two rookie QBs faced off for the first time this year. Brandon Weeden had defeated Luck’s Stanford Cardinals in 2011 and again he probably had a better day personally, but Luck did just enough to tip the game towards the Colts.
Weeden continued to improve against the Colts, as he threw two TDs and did not throw an interception for the first time since facing Cincinnati in week 2. He took better care of the ball and only had one stand out bad decision when he threw into a crowd near the Colts’ endzone and should have been picked off. Aside from that, he placed the ball where only his receivers would be able to make a play on it, most notably on Greg Little’s touchdown as he made use of Little’s impressive vert and put the ball high out of the reach of the Indianapolis defenders. His most impressive throw came on what would become the key series of the game. On 3^rd & 3 in the 4^th, Weeden threw a 50 yard bomb to Josh Gordon right on the money, despite fading away from the throw due to having pressure right in his face. Unfortunately Gordon lost the ball in the sunlight and dropped the pass, which led to Shurmur’s jarring decision to punt. Since laying a nuke in week 1, Weeden has gone 142/237 for 1665 yards with 9 TDs 6 INTs for a rating of 83.4 and is on his way to crushing the Browns’ rookie QB records.
Greg Little had quietly his best day of the year so far since becoming a pariah in the WR corps. He caught a team high 6 passes (on 7 targets), including his impressive TD leap, juggling the ball and bringing it in whilst keeping himself in bounds. It was encouraging to see him perform well after being somewhat of a non-factor the past few games and ceding the limelight to Gordon. When he holds onto the ball he can be an important part of the offense with his physical attributes and can be a good underneath compliment to Gordon’s deep threat. Let’s not give up on him yet. Josh Cooper also had another nice day, and looks as if he can become a functioning part of this offense. His crisp routes along with his chemistry with Weeden should help become a drive-sustainer.
Shurmur did not have a good day. The Browns got away with a similarly poorly-called game from their coach against the Bengals but this week couldn’t quite do enough. The run game was completely abandoned without Richardson, despite Hardesty showing he can play and the fact that the Colts have been a sieve against the run. Worst was his heinous decision to punt on 4^th & 3 in the 4^th down 4 with 6mins remaining after burning a time out and despite the Colts being able to run the ball all day. It’s becoming not a matter of whether he’ll be here next season, but whether he’ll be here after the Bye Week.

“It was too early in my opinion.” – Coach Shurmur on going for two after the second TD

Superbowl winning coach Mike Tomlin disagrees.

The defense had a similar day to the offense, doing just enough not to win. It helped that they caught vaunted rookie Andrew Luck on an off-day. The pass rush was lacking again, though the Colts’ Oline was aided by the officials refusing to call holding on anybody in blue (part of a number of poor decisions in a foul performance). Luck managed to surgically take apart the D on two touchdown drives, punctuated by two rushing touchdowns for #1 overall pick as Jauron not once, but twice failed to account for Luck’s prodigious athletic attributes.
The biggest problem remains the run D, specifically the ability to contain on the edge and stop opposing runningbacks from getting to the outside. The Colts had struggled to run the ball prior to Sunday when they managed to rack up 148 yards without much difficulty. They were able to put together long drives and control the clock all day, keeping the D on the field for long stretches of times, a problem exacerbated by the O’s inability to stay on the field. Hopefully with Rubin returning and Phil Taylor coming back soon it’s something that will improve in the near future.
To their credit they (mostly) turned up when needed. They stopped the Colts 3 times in the 4^th quarter, including a strip-sack by Sheldon Brown to hand the ball to the offense at the 50 which led to the dropped TD-punt situation. They managed to contain Luck in the air, giving up only 186 yards and no TDs, though Reggie Wayne did manage to gain 76 yards, mostly away from Haden (further adding to the confusion of not having Haden tail him, as Luck seemed to avoid #23). Overall it was a fairly disappointing showing and the defense is yet to put together another performance like week 1 against the Eagles which had people so excited. Something needs to be done to contain the run and to create more pressure if the Browns intend to win any more games this season.

“We can’t afford to give them an inch, and we gave them the game.” – Kaluka Maiava

Just about sums it up.

It was not a strong special teams day. Primarily, Reggie Hodges fumbled the hold on the first PAT which gave the Colts a 1 point lead that the Browns found insurmountable on the day. He has also struggled this year with his punting, and he has looked a different player compared with his 2010 season when he seemed to regularly nail punts inside the 10. If he continues as is, it’s hard to see him being on the roster at the end of the season.
The return game struggled to get off “clean” returns, as Ray Ventrone was called for holds twice and Tank Carder was flagged for an illegal block. It’s worth noting that the coaches were as unimpressed with the officials as the fans and have submitted film of both of Ventrone’s holds to the league for review. Frankly I would have submitted the entire game.

“I’ve been in the league for seven years now and have never had a holding call in my career on special teams.” – Ray Ventrone

You probably still shouldn’t have.

Offensive Play of the Game: Could be either touchdown, but Greg Little leaping high and managing to control the ball inbounds for the TD gets it.

Defensive Play of the Game: Sheldon Brown’s crushing hit on Andrew Luck, causing a fumble and recovering the ball on the 50 in the 4^th.

Player of the Game: Goes to Greg Little. Team high 6 catches and a TD in his best performance of the year.

Phil Dawson Award: The muffed PAT and subsequent loss really showed Phil Dawson’s value so he maintains his clean sweep.

Stuffed Bengals

Gordon’s alive?

Browns 34-24 Bengals

The Battle of Ohio II. Bigger budget. Higher bodycount. A field covered in red (ginger). CGI so good it even looked as if the Browns won. Hang on… they did! Sure is nice to be 1-5. Going into this game I felt that the Browns would win, so it was refreshing to have them live up to expectations. They managed to pull off the must-must-must win game and stop the season from going into a complete tailspin.

Overall it was a good offensive performance during a relatively trying personnel situation. They went into the game Sunday without Mohamed Massaquoi, Travis Benjamin and Jordan Norwood (now on IR), which led to Josh Cooper getting his first call-up to the big leagues and he did a very solid job. He was the Browns’ second leading receiver in the game (though he only caught two passes), converting on two 3^rd downs. The first went for 28 yards and the second was a nice catch short of the posts which he then tiptoed up the sideline for a first down. With Norwood now out til week 14 I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get more opportunities. The chemistry with Weeden is obviously already there.
Weeden had another good day, aided again by another impressive showing by the O-line (unruffled by the in-game loss of Jason Pinkston, his replacement John Greco even made the PFF Team of the Week). He was picked off early, but was unlucky to have been. His pass was batted at the line of scrimmage and then floated straight to Bengals DE Michael Johnson. He struggled a little bit with batted passes again, but this may be partly due to the lack of push allowed by the O-line as D-linemen settle for getting their arms in passing lanes. Aside from that, Weeden spread the ball around nicely, completing 17 passes to 8 different players on the day. They again pulled off the big play, Weeden connecting on a 71 yard pass to Josh Gordon who had completely blown by the Bengals secondary. Another good day for the rookies.
The pleasant surprise of the day came from forgotten man Montario Hardesty. Trent Richardson left the game with a rib injury and Hardesty capably took over. He gave the offense a nice fillip just as things were getting turgid (seven 3 & outs in a row) and finished off a good drive with 1-yard touchdown. It was good to see him out there performing after it was beginning to look like he may be a lost cause. He was aided by some solid blocking by Owen Marecic, but Marecic’s troubles with his hands continued as he dropped another pass.
Up and down day for the coaching. Hit again with the bomb to Gordon and there were some well engineered drives (Obie even got to run the ball, maybe Shurmur is listening!) but the slump in the middle of the game could very well have ended up being costly.

“I like to imagine Josh Cooper plays the Dupree role in the Weeden family.” – Fellow Browns fan @Dayman28

I thought it was funny

Joe Haden is back! And we won! I don’t think anyone will say it’s a coincidence (if we’d have had Haden in Cincinnati personally I think we’d be 2-4 right now). He clearly gave the D a big lift and they came up with some big plays to keep things going the Browns’ way. They provided 4 turnovers in the game and every one came at an important juncture in the game. Joe Haden got his second pick in his second game (looking like a far cry from last year’s INT-less year) which was converted into 3 points via Phil Dawson, getting the Browns back to within 1. They then provided a quick 3 & out on the Bengals’ next possession, which the offense then converted into 7 points to give the Browns their first lead of the day, one which they did not give up.
The biggest play on D came from vet CB Sheldon Brown (who had a very solid day). On the Bengals’ first play following Hardesty’s TD, Brown jumped Brandon Tate’s route and took Dalton’s pass 19 yards for a pick-6. It quickly ended hopes of a Cincinnati comeback and pretty much sealed the win for the Browns. The game was fully put to bed when Emmanuel Stephens strip-sacked Andy Dalton, Billy Winn recovered the ball and ran it back to the Cincinnati 42. Usama Young also helped himself to his second pick in as many games on the final Hail Mary of the day.
There were some negatives on D. The Bengals’ first TD was somewhat of a clusterfuck. A quick slant to Jermaine Gresham went 55 yards to the endzone as he barrelled his way through the entire secondary.  Craig Robertson was his first victim as Gresham first got open then delivered a brutal stiff arm, rumbling on past the unbelievably terrible angle taken by Usama Young and eventually dragging Joe Haden and TJ Ward into the endzone. At that point it seemed a lot like it might be another one of those days. AJ Green also had a big day, with 135 yards and 2 TDs, a large chunk of that came when he beat a clearly gassed Joe Haden on a 57 yard bomb. Overall they got beaten by a couple big plays but came up with key plays at key times to ensure a win for the Browns.

“It was good to have him back” – DC Dick Jauron on Joe Haden

Damn right. Now don’t be so dumb in the future, Joe.

A decent Special Teams game. Hodges was a little up and down with his punting but got the job done when he had to. Josh Cribbs had another nice game with two lengthy returns, including a disgusting cut that split two Bengals on a 60 yard punt return. Johnson Bademosi deserves a mention, as he is becoming a very good gunner. It seems on ST that he is always either first down there or not long after.

Offensive Play of the Game: Déjà vu all over again as Brandon Weeden connected with Josh Gordon (who caught the ball one handed) for a 71 yard TD.

Defensive Play of the Game: Sheldon Brown jumping Brandon Tate’s route and picking off Andy Dalton for 6, on their first offensive play after Ben Watson’s TD.

Player of the Game: A few candidates this week but it goes to Montario Hardesty. He came in from the cold, gave the offense a lift and got himself his first career TD to boot.

Phil Dawson Award: It’s gotta be Phil. Yet to miss, he nailed two FGs to keep things ticking over and had a good day on kickoffs.

Giant Kerb Stomp

This is not the football you are looking for

Giants 41 – 27 Browns

The Browns went off to the Meadowlands last Sunday hoping to keep up their run of defeating Superbowl champs and instead got run over. Like ‘Frogger’ run over. What started so (surprisingly) brightly very quickly turned incredibly ugly, like the ugly duckling in reverse. Stop, they said. They’re already dead.

The offense started like never before. After Chris Snee helpfully forced a fumble on the first play from scrimmage, Trent Richardson ran in the Browns first 1^st quarter touchdown in decades. It quickly got better for Browns fans as after the defense forced a stop, the Browns put together a few plays before Brandon Weeden threw a home run ball 62 yards to rookie Josh Gordon for a touchdown. And then that was about it. Late in the game Gordon caught another touchdown after Weeden fitted the ball into a window that despite seeing replays I’m still sure was smaller than the ball, leaving Gordon with a statline of 2 catches, 82 yards, 2 TDs. I think it’s safe to say he may have earned himself a little more time.
There were some other good spots in the game. Trent Richardson was Trent Richardson. He averaged about 4.8 ypc, and repeatedly ragdolled the Giants’ linebackers. To me, it was as impressive as he has been so far as he showed patience, speed through the hole and the ability to both shake and run over opposition players. It’s safe to say he was good for his word. It goes without saying that he is comfortably the best offensive player the Browns have had in quite some time. As a mark of respect from his teammates he has also been named the fourth captain for this Sunday’s game against the Bengals. He is really emerging as a leader on this young Browns teams. Please God let him in Cleveland for a long, long time.
He was aided by a very impressive performance from the OLine, that held the Giants’ vaunted Dline to zero sacks. They did a strong job in the run game and consistently gave Brandon Weeden time in the pocket. Joe Thomas has struggled a little to start the season (potentially due to a lingering knee injury) but he looked back to his best on Sunday, shutting down Jason Pierre-Paul.
Jordan Norwood also had a nice game, catching 9 balls for 81 yards and looking like a dynamic slot presence. Unfortunately, he was one of many lost to injury during the game and it looks currently like he may not be able to follow up his good work against Cincinnati.
The biggest talking point came on 3^rd & 1. Pat Shurmur called a pass, which led to Weeden throwing a very ugly pick and swung the game back towards the Giants (though I would argue that the way Manning was playing, it looked like he was determined to win after they were put in a 14 point hole). First and foremost, I don’t disagree with the playcall. The Browns have been categorically dismal on 3^rd & short this year, and earlier in the game Richardson had been stuffed on 3^rd & 1. However, I do take issue with parts of it. Obviously, Weeden should not have thrown that ball. He needs to stop trying to make something happen on every play. Protect the ball, take the three points. In terms of the personnel, the problem was that it telegraphed pass. Chris Ogbonnaya has only 2 rushes on the year, but 14 receptions. Defenses know that if he’s on the field it’s a pass play. I can understand taking Richardson out of the game at points. He’s a rookie and has already had knee surgery and you don’t want to burn out a good thing. But don’t take him out on critical 3^rd & shorts.
What had started quite brightly on the playcalling side quickly went downhill. Unless he pulls out a run of wins with the Bengals and Colts coming up, time is starting to look immensely short for Coach Shurmur.

“I think whoever you put out on the field has a chance to be involved in a pass play or a run play.” – Coach Shurmur

That is how football generally works.

The defense clearly saved their “Week 1 offense” for a special occasion, and I’m going to devote just about as much time to them as I did the offense in Week 1. Basically, they need to do better in every area. Frankly with the way the defense is shot to shit with injuries this performance has been coming (and it got worse with D’Qwell Jackson and Ahtyba Rubin going off injured). They managed to get run all over by one of the worse rushing teams in the league.  I think even Brandon Jacobs would have looked good if he was still in NY. It wasn’t much better in the secondary. Poor tackling, poor angles, poor coverage and poor calls. Eli Manning surgically took apart the Browns’ secondary and connected on three touchdown passes with Victor Cruz, who it seemed the Browns made no attempt to account for. On his final TD he was left matched up against 6^th round rookie Trevin Wade who he made light work of. The Dline got very little push, Jabaal Sheard was double teamed often it seemed and Juqua Parker achieved little on the opposite side. Usama Young managed to pick off Eli, but that only came after Sheldon Brown got away with blatant pass interference. It’s clear at this point that the Browns need to be drafting a pass rusher and a corner high in 2013. Thankfully we get Joe Haden back this week, and he’s got a lot of making up to do.

“I didn’t like that look at all” – Joe Haden on sitting on the sidelines and watching

Neither did we Joe, neither did we.

Another solid special teams day with one big blot. The mistake came from an unlikely source, Josh Cribbs fumbling a return after the Giants had turned Weeden’s pick into 7 points which pretty much well and truly killed ant remaining Browns momentum. Aside from that, coverage was very good and Cribbs redeemed himself somewhat with a 70 yard return that (predictably) set up a field goal.

Offensive Play of the Game: Has to be the 62-yard bomb to Josh Gordon. He easily beat Chase Blackburn over the top and Weeden connected with him on a perfectly thrown ball.

Defensive Play of the Game: Uhhhhh…. Young’s pick, I guess?

Player of the Game: Has to be Trent Richardson. The Giants linebackers wanted nothing to do with him. Became the first Browns rookie to rush for a TD in four consecutive games and the first Brown to do so since Peyton Hillis in 2010.

Phil Dawson Award: Another perfect day for Phil Dawson. He has also now moved ahead of Doug Dieken and is in sole possession of the #3 spot in the Browns regular season appearances chart with 203.

Life Imitates Art

Art imitates, well, Art

Originally I had no intention of writing about Cleveland ’95 when I heard that NFL Network were producing a show on as part of their “A Football Life” series, but I felt compelled to contribute having watched it. As the fives of people that read this blog are aware, I live in Scotland so I don’t have any kind of local response to “The Move”. I was also 7 years old and had no real idea what the NFL was, never mind who Art Modell or Bill Belichick were. I have therefore enjoyed reading the articles and personal reminisces of the 1995 move.

Firstly, the show. Like with every NFL Network production, it was beautifully shot and made great use of archive footage of the Browns and talking heads. However, I think everybody was a little misled. I went in thinking that it would be an account of the move, but seemed to focus much more on the ridiculous talent that the Browns had in that front office (I mean, Tom Dimitroff was a part-time groundsman!). I think a better title would have been “The Front Office of the ’95 Cleveland Browns: A Football Life”. Less snappy I know, but you get the point. I enjoyed it of course, but for me having read Next Man Up by John Feinstein and Michael Holley’s books War Room and Patriot Reign it covered a lot of old ground. I was hoping a lot more for something that actually covered the intricacies of the moves, the egregious failures and missteps of those involved and told the story of why it hurt Clevelanders so much and why everybody is still so pissed about the entire event despite the fact that eventually “Cleveland got a new franchise, got a new stadium, kept its colors and records and traditions, and Baltimore was made whole as well.” I was hoping for why. There’s a lack of widespread knowledge and understanding outwith the Browns community that could have been addressed by this. I think it’s an event that could really do with the treatment of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series , especially as a counterpoint to The Band That Wouldn’t Die, the story of Baltimore’s fight to gain a franchise.  All in all, an enjoyable but ultimately unsatisfying account.

It is fair of anybody to question why or how this has any meaning or effect on me. As I have said, I’m from a different country and didn’t even have any knowledge of the sport when the event happened, so I respect anybody who has the opinion that these are to them empty words. However, being a History graduate, I have an obvious interest in past events. History matters to me, and that includes my football team. I am therefore well versed in the events of 1995 and I am aware of how it wasn’t just one slight, but a series of events that repeatedly stung a wounded fanbase and how it hangs over the franchise still today, 17 years afterwards. I can see how it has left the fan base disenfranchised and suspicious. There are many fans I believe who feel that this isn’t their Browns, and Jimmy Haslam even found it necessary to say on buying the team that he has no intentions of moving the team and that it was a condition of Lerner’s that he not. I can see, even from here, that it is still an open wound, left unhealed by successive failure and incompetence since the return in 1999 and by the sustaining success of the Ravens, under a Browns legend no less. “The Move” is a part of the team, and as a fan I guess it’s a part of me now too.
It’s something as well that has taken on added meaning to me of late. I also follow Rangers FC, a club that has recently gone (and continues to go) through not totally dissimilar events. They found themselves overwhelmed by debt due to the malpractice of two successive Chairmen which eventually led to the liquidation of the original Rangers Football Club Plc, in existence since 1872. Although the club continues as a new company (Rangers Football Club Ltd), they have been demoted to the bottom tier of professional football and part of their history, much like the Browns, has been killed. Through this, I can relate to the anger and frustration felt by many at the time, and the sense of helplessness against something you cannot stop. I guess there’s also a sense of pride at how hard a fanbase can fight, as the Browns’ fans did to prevent Modell from taking everything.
Ultimately, as a sports fan, I can empathise.

It also made me take pause on today’s team. It is sport’s unfortunate oxymoron that lengthy failure leads to impatience, which can manifest itself as a Browns fan. It’s long said that the most popular man in Cleveland is the back-up quarterback, and this has been shown through Colt’s many supporters who wanted (and I’m sure continue to want) Brandon Weeden benched after week 1. I struggle with it myself, and find it had to allow Pat Shurmur the time that may perhaps lead to him efficiently managing this team. It is frustrating to see a team be less than the sum of its parts, but as I have said in the past this team will take time. It’s not a rebuild, it’s a building job from almost nothing. Since I have started following the Browns, they’ve had four quarterbacks, two coaches, two GMs, a thousand different players and now two owners. Maybe Brandon Weeden and Pat Shurmur aren’t “the guys”, maybe this team will end up with the worst record this year, but it would be nice to see the same faces at least for a couple years. It took Bill Belichick and that ridiculously talented FO four years to win. Maybe on reflection I can try to wait just a little bit longer.

Bird Droppings

Franchise Kicker

Ravens 23 – 16 Browns

The Browns lined up against their mutant half-brothers, the Baltimore “Ravens”, in their only nationally televised game of the year. The game had an added sense of nostalgia to it, due to both the recent death of Art Modell and the upcoming Cleveland ’95 special on NFL Network. Although the Ravens were relatively sub-par, the Browns were unable to pull off the cathartic shock as they came up short for the fourth week in a row.

The main story of the night for the Browns offense was drops. Tons and tons of drops. The running theme of crucial drops was turned up to 11 against the Ravens as just about every person associated with the organization dropped the ball at some point Thursday night. I think even Ozzie mighta dropped his coffee. In general it was a similar sight. Not enough touches for #33 and a zillion passing attempts.
They managed to stay in touch with the Ravens throughout the first half, managing not to add anything to the current huge first-quarter deficit over Shurmur’s reign. They also managed a first down on their first drive this week. Baby steps people. Trent Richardson kept up his touchdown streak when he capped off a 94-yard yard drive (!) with a 1-yard run on a toss play, beating everybody (including his own blockers) to the corner. The drive included an impressive 43-yard pass from Weeden to Little, who caught the ball over corner Carey Williams in an otherwise wildly inconsistent night. He dropped multiple passes, most notably one on the edge of the endzone for what would have been a huge touchdown. He wasn’t the only offender as it seems that Ben Watson looks like the only guy that can consistently catch the football. Brandon Weeden was fairly magnanimous when asked about the drops, saying that he could make it easier on the receivers with his ball placement. He also back-handedly called out the playcalling, saying “We’ve got to find a way to get 33 the ball, whether it’s [throwing] out of the backfield or handing it to him.” Richardson was again underused, only attempting 14 rushes and catching the ball 4 times. He still gained over 100 total yards on top of his touchdown.
Weeden himself had a fairly up-and-down day. He was again over 300 yards (and would have pushed 400 had the drops been catches) and threw a number of encouraging passes. But on the flipside completed under 50% of his passes and threw an ugly pick that was returned for a touchdown on an all-round clusterfuck of a play. He also was accurate in his assessment of the drops, as he threw a few passes high and hard in relatively challenging conditions. His worst moment came on the final play of the game, when after getting a reprieve (thanks to an Oscar-winner from Joe Thomas) he threw his pass out the back of the endzone (though he was clearly affected by the pressure from Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger).
All in all, almost enough but not quite making it over the top.

“Heck, I remember when I was at Michigan State, we had five plays and some of the guys only knew four of them.” – Coach Shurmur

Everything is making sense now.

It was a fitful day on the opposite side of the ball as well. They managed to hold the Ravens’ new no-huddle high-scoring offense in check for the most part, but looked paper-thin at times. They clearly keyed in on Ray Rice and managed to hold him to under 3 yards per carry on the ground, as the Ravens put it on Joe Flacco to win the game. Which he did. Just. The combination of Flacco-to-Boldin managed to drag the Ravens through more of a fight than people were expecting, as Boldin ended the game with 131 yards. At times Flacco carved apart the Browns’ blighted D, most notably finding rising star Torrey Smith all alone in the endzone for the first score of the game. The D was also slow to react to some (obvious) draw plays, most memorably letting Bernard Pierce through for a decent gain when the Ravens were trying to eat some clock. There were more bad angles taken, the worst culprits being Kaluka Maiava and Dimitri Patterson. Maiava managed to completely lose his bearings and allowed Flacco to saunter into the endzone for a 1-yard touchdown, seemingly trying to take the long way round and then fell over. Patterson likewise wildly overpursued on a short pass, somehow flying massively past the receiver who then had an easy route for a first down.
There were some good points. Craig Robertson got another interception to go with the one he got in week 1. He read Flacco’s intentions and wheeled out then back and picked the ball off in the endzone, as the Ravens were looking threatening in the endzone. It was a wonderful play. The D-line also had a much improved game, getting pressure and pushing the pile. Jabaal Sheard picked up his first sack of the year, speeding by Kelechi Osemele like he wasn’t there and stalling the Ravens at the end of the first half. Overall they gave the Ravens’ O-line a lot to think about.

“The guy is finding a way to make a play.” – Coach Shurmur on linebacker Craig Robertson

Keep ‘em coming Craig.

Very good special teams day. No punt return yards for the Ravens, so a massive improvement from week 2 when bodies were flailing everywhere and week 3 when Reggie Hodges struggled with direction and hang time. After Cribbs went out, Benjamin took over and showed off his immense speed on a 40 yard return, only spoiled by being tackled by punter Sam Koch. Phil Dawson was money as ever, nailing 3 50+ yard field goals in the rain. He became the seventh player to convert 3 50 yarders in a game, and the first to do it in a single half. Money.

“Hey Cleveland, what you are seeing is not the same old Browns. Trust me. I feel it. I can hardly wait until it explodes.” – Phil Dawson via his Twitter account last Friday

Money.

Offensive Play of the Game: Undoubtedly Weeden’s 43 yard pass to Greg Little, who caught the ball strongly over Cary Williams.

Defensive Play of the Game: Again little doubt here. Craig Robertson picking off Joe Flacco in the endzone after wheeling back to double team the WR in the corner.

Player of the Game: Pretty much has to be Phil Dawson. Perfect on the night. He gets better when it’s 50+ yards.

Honourable Mention: The D-line. They gave the Baltimore offensive line a lot of trouble throughout the night, most notably tackles Kelechi Osemele and serial holder Michael Oher.

Phil Dawson Award: Yup you guessed it. “Money” Dawson picks up his second award of the night. Impossible not to agree with Shurmur’s assessment that he is the best kicker in the league.