Heading to Buffalo …
Anyone care to shuffle off to the game with me … you can drive:
Who has really hurt the Browns?
The more I think about the Browns this season the more I believe the team's record is far more a product of the people around Derek Anderson than Derek Anderson. One player who bears a large share of responsibility is Braylon Edwards, for his 12 drops of course but also for less visible but vital elements of the game. Yes, this may be late to bring this up, given that Brady Quinn now starts for the Browns, but one example illustrates how Anderson took the fall for Edwards and others.
Remember that final drive against Washington? When the Browns were trying to tie? Edwards admitted blowing the second-down route when he missed the blitz, but he also blew the third-down route. On that route, Edwards is supposed to cross into the middle of the field. Anderson led him as if he would cross, but Edwards stopped after his cut. Just stopped.
As a result the pass was in front of him and looked low, which led the TV announcers to blast Anderson and wonder where he was throwing the ball. Well, he threw it right where it was supposed to be. And Edwards was not there.
A long, long time ago Bernie Kosar simplified the quarterback's job for me. He said the quarterback' s job is to get the ball to the right spot. He said there's not enough time and there's too much going on to improvise. He has to throw to the spot. The receiver's job, he said, is to win. Which means be at that spot. Because the quarterback has no time to figure where he's going to be if he's not at that spot.
In both those cases, Edwards was not at the spot required, and both plays fizzled. And in both cases, the TV announcers blamed Anderson. The nice thing to think here is that Edwards could have been held accountable for his actions and … perhaps … benched. Especially after that drop against Baltimore. But the Browns had nobody else to play. Literally. Who would it have been? Syndric Steptoe? Steve Sanders?
This highlights another problem: In preseason the entire world knew that the team had problems at receiver and in the secondary. Phil Savage chose not to add veterans to either spot, and the results are the results.
Brady Quinn might play lights out the rest of the season, and that would be a good thing. But the circumstances that led to Quinn's promotion were much more the result of poor play around Anderson as opposed to poor play by Anderson himself.
Speaking of Adriana Lima, did you know that she speaks Portugese, English and French, and in her free time she likes … READING NOVELS. I'm guessing Thomas Hardy and Dostoevsky.
Okay, ENOUGH of the Anderson defense. We all get it. He's the 2nd coming of Unitas. Nothing's his fault. Blah, blah.
Simple fact: Anderson undeservedly quarterbacked the team for 24 consecutive games. Was it wrong, with the team underperforming and likely out of the playoffs, for Brady Quinn to at least receive the final 8 starts….so that the team could properly determine whether he could even PLAY in the league? Sheesh, enough of the whining about "Anderson didn't LOSE the job…" From the moment Brady was drafted, he was rightly destined to lead this team for the next decade. DA got in the way of the plan with some adequate play vs. horrible teams.
Perhaps if Savage had had the brains or guts to get Brady some playing time at the end of LAST season, he could've made this switch in the off-season and the Browns would now be playoff-bound. But he was sucked in by the DA hype-machine, only to discover that the guy's name is Mr. Inconsistency.
I do agree that Anderson should not swallow all of the blame. However, he tended to play poorly the entire first half, warm up towards the end of the 3rd quarter. How many games can we stick with a player that plays poorly for three quarters? His being set down was long overdue. Quinn seems to have the intangibles, that extra sixth sense for playin QB. Yes, he should get the opportunity to show what he has the rest of the season.
I agree all the blame should not fall to Anderson. However, I did not see you mention the fact that on many occasions Edwards and Winslow had to make circus like catches to bail Anderson out. I think you need to judge Anderson on all the games he played and not just a couple. I also do not think he has been good when the game is on the line. Actually Anderson has an enourmous amount of talent around him and that has probably been the reason he has lasted this long.
Dink and Dunk, the Browns are sunk! Never gonna win with Brady Quinn!
Browns fans, the bottom line is you blamed D.A. for everything short of the economy because he's not your precious Golden Boy. You blew it. Again. You got what you wanted, so enjoy watching Quinn's glorified handoffs the rest of the year.
I can't wait to see D.A. go off and excel somewhere else why the Browns continue to wallow. I promise you Quinn will never win 10 games or throw for 29 TDs in a season. Never.
I blame their crappy Eastern European backup kicker, Staf N. Fection.
Look back at 2007; Remember the spectacular catches that were being made by Edwards, Windslow and JJ, they made Anderson. Now they are not making the catches, so where's the problem?
Hey, thanks for the good wishes, Eric Loughry. Bitter much? All you "Anderson lovers…." I just don't get it.
You made promises. Here are two for YOU: Anderson will never, ever again win 10 games for ANY team. Ever. And he most certainly will never throw 29 TDs again. Reality is back, my friend. Better hop off that DA bandwagon while the gettin's good. He was mediocre, at best, and how you fail to see that is the real mystery here.
That still means he did it one more time than Quinn. Tell me what you see in Brady?
Pat, what you forget to mention about the Washington game was how HORRIBLE Anderson was in the ENTIRE FIRST HALF and early third quarter. I think he was something like 3 for 14 for 14 yards in the first half. Didn't we have like 6 3-and-outs in a row? There was a drop or two, but he was consistently throwing balls in the grass, over peoples head, couldn't even throw a screen pass, etc… Sure, he started looking better late 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter, but it was too late. We should have had 14-20 points on the board by then.
The thing that puzzled me watching that Washington game was how could he look so good against the Giants and then just fall apart 6 days later? That Giants game had to be one of the best performances I've EVER seen by a QB. It wasn't like he was getting tons of pressure constantly from Washington – he had plenty of time most of the time and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if his life depended on it. In the Giants game, he was making one great throw after another, threading the needle between 2 or 3 defenders, and he was just unstoppable. I do believe that Anderson has a lot of talent and may still be a great QB some day (he's still young), but I think his problem is all mental. He reminds me of a young pitcher that comes up to the big leagues throwing 95-98 mph and is so erratic that he eventually is out of baseball in a few years. We've all seen occasional pitchers like this – they'll be unhittable for a few innings or even a game here and there, but most of the time they just have no command and keep walking people and grooving the ball down the middle and get hammered.
I wish him the best next year wherever he gets traded to since I really do like the guy. I wouldn't mind him staying and being the backup (or even the starter again if Quinn doesn't work out), but I doubt that would happen. I think Quinn has the brains and instincts to be a great QB, but I guess we won't know one way or the other until he shows us what he can do. To all of those who think he can't throw deep just didn't watch the Denver game I guess. His arm is plenty strong enough, he just has to work into the offense and I think gradually he'll work in some deep throws into his arsenal. But you know, if the short passing game is working and we move down the field and score plenty of points, I don't see a need to change until the defense shows that it can stop it. If they do, then hit them deep to keep them honest.
This piece is spot on, Pat. Anderson will a good QB somewhere for a long time. He might not be great, but he will certainly be good.
But the important point here is about Phil Savage. Phil is even more to blame for this season than is Romeo. Not dealing with the secondary was a huge mistake, and not addressing the wide out position was also big. These two areas were well known problems even before training camp. JJ wasn't going to play, the corners were two kids who were small and no sure thing, and we had no one of quality backing them up. Plus, Sean Jones went down in training camp, and then Stallworth went down with a strained fingernail or something.
It was a recipe for disaster. Only blind luck would have had all of that working out for us.
So what are our two biggest problems 10 weeks in? Terrible secondary play and more drops than any team in the league, along with poor route running and lots of offensive pass interference calls. Blaming Derek Anderson for all of that is crazy. It is time for Brady to play now that the season is lost, but anyone who thinks Anderson isn't a good QB is dreaming.
The worst thing that happened was the funky weather in the Pittsburgh game, getting to play Cincy and their high school quarterback, and the flukey picks in the Giants game made everyone think this defense was really good, when in reality they weren't even close to being adequate.
Now, however, the defense is ranked 27th, which is where we have been for 4 years, and really still were even when it appeared through 4 games that we were going to be ok there. Romeo deserves a lot of blame for this, but Phil has just not made any impact with his defensive roster, save for getting Roger, for whom he had to gut the secondary AND give up a pick.
Also, the HUGE money pickup of Stallworth (the reason Phil cried money problems when he refused to add to the secondary) looks like a HUGE bust right now. That was an iffy signing to begin with, and it has gone as poorly as it possibly could so far. Big money and/or big draft picks on wideouts rarely turn out to be worth it.
Fire everybody and hire Cower. End of story.
The sad thing is, I really think they are going to win enough games to stay with Phil and Romeo. Lerner appears inert. He doesn't want to have to get out of bed long enough to have to deal with builiding a new organization. That's a lot of work for a guy who couldn't even find the time to issue a statement or make an appearence as the season was circling the drain in the wake of the Winslow fiasco and the terrible start.
I'm betting 6-10 is enough for Lerner to spend five seconds talking himself into keeping everyone and chalking this season up to bad luck.
Yeah, four straight years of a last ranked defense. That's just bad luck.
The fans are too stupid to understand what a QB is supposed to do. Quinn is cute and has only failed once so far, and they plenty of excuses for that.
Of course Anderson was not the problem. Anyone that understands the NFL knows that. You have Braylon dropping record numbers of passes and Kellen running whatever route he feels like and DA was supposed to what find them in a mass of players looking threw 9 men weighing 300 lbs each as 4 or more of them tried to remove his head?
Now the know nothing Notre Dame fans have their golden boy playing, he better start winning. He was unremarkable in a loss to one of the worst pass defenses in NFL history last week. Lets see what Monday night brings. If he can win games DA will be a forgotten backup until he is on another team and coming to Cleveland as a Pro Bowler and beating us for 300 yards and 4 TD passes.
Oh and lets not forget, the players that were hurt much of the year like Donte and KW2 are back and playing now so Quinn has no excuses. Maybe he can dink and dump his way to wins and we can all celebrate his greatness.
Dear Eric Loughry: Surely you're not so dense that you do not understand…D.A. is a .500 QB who received 24 chances to pad his stats. Uh, duh, no, Brady has not *yet* won 10 games or thrown 29 TDs, only because the morons in charge gave him ONE–count it–ONE freakin series last season. Talk to us after he's had 24 games to prove himself, as the hillbilly from Oregon got, and you'll change your sarcastic tune.
It's just shocking how many lovers of mediocrity post here. A guy goes 13-11, and there are people (a minority, thank heavens) who are ready to enshrine him in Canton. THAT's truly mind-boggling.
To think that all this time, until I had the luxury to read these comments, I had been totally unaware that Anderson plays 22 positions. Thanks for the knowledge.
something about blue eyes and brown hair. i just never liked it. sorry adriana.
Nate what is wrong with being a hillbilly from Oregon? I think a remark like that has nothing to do with football. You are just an ignorant person about football. When you don't have something constructive to say -then you become totally out of it. I hope noone actually finds you because I know some people who are looking for you.
Simply absurd, not a single mention of Crennel's DEFENSE.
Enough of this Anderson crap, the guy has zero presence and zero touch. Those are prerequisites at that position. Enough please. Brady was picked #1 for a reason my friend, give it up.
What about the DEFENSE my man? What about Savage and his construction of the DEFENSE and selection of Crennel as HC?
What about the DEFENSE?
Eh. To quote my teenage stepdaughters, "Whatever".