First and 10
1) There are times when it seems like I'm existing in some netherworld that does not match the rest of humanity. Actually, those who know me say it's pretty much a daily occurrence. Alas, I digress. Sunday night, while driving back from Buffalo I was able to tune in to WTAM. Most of the calls I heard were about Derek Anderson and how horrible he was against the Bills. This led me to say something so very intelligent, like: "Huh?' A guy hits at least eight receivers in the hands and the ball winds up on the ground and that means the quarterback had a bad game? Neither world or no, this makes no sense. If folks want to pin a pretty awful game on Anderson, have at it. But he was among the least of the Browns problems in Buffalo.
2) The other thing you lose sight of when you write about a team from the outside is the intensity of the feelings inside. The emotions and relief following the win over Buffalo were pretty overwhelming — even after a really bad game. I guess it's logical. I mean, guys don't practice to lose. Too, several folks had mentioned that the Browns had quit against Baltimore two weeks earlier. And maybe they did — in that one game. Players sometimes throw it in in a bad situation when the game is hopelessly out of reach. But they rarely do it for a season. As much as they are playing for a coach or a team they also are playing for themselves and their teammates. So you almost always get good effort — even when things go south. The Browns have given excellent effort the past two weeks. They haven't played exceptionally well, but they have given great effort. This is to their credit. I think that's why there was such a sense of elation from the players and the coach after Buffalo, because at last the effort and work had paid off.
3) As bad as the Bills game was, there were things to like. Anderson was reasonably accurate on a blustery day. Jamal Lewis ran very well as the Browns went back-to-back with 100-yard rushers, something that hasn't happened since the Great Depression. The defense did well, though much of that had to do with the Bills inept play. And Dave Zastudil was outstanding.
4) The entire special teams effort was outstanding, really. Coverage, punting, everything (no way to know about the kickoff team since there were only two kickoffs). If you think about it at all, this should not be surprising. Eric Mangini has loaded the Browns with special teams players. Blake Costanzo, Jason Trusnick, Kaluka Maiava, Ray Ventrone. They're all very good special teamers. Mangini does not have many "stars' on the roster on offense or defense, but he's got very good special teamers. So it figures they Browns special teams would play well. Too, the Bills are depleted due to injury. When injuries hit, special teamers become starters and practice squad guys or guys off the street become special teams guys. The Browns have been through that scenario many times the past few years. Combine a roster with some good special teamers and a roster that's depleted and one team should have the special teams edge.
5) Trusnick, by the by, did some very good things, both on special teams and on defense when given the chance to play. Perhaps he could be a player.
6) It's confusing why Dick Jauron did not try some unique strategy late in the game. The Browns got a first down at the 5 and Buffalo used its last timeout just before the two-minute warning. At that point, the Browns were going to run down the clock and try a game-winning field goal at the last possible second. Allowing the Browns to run down the clock meant the game would essentially be over. Which it was. So why not let the Browns score on first down? It goes against the grain, but had they done that, the Bills would have gotten the ball back with 1:50-something left, enough time for a legitimate offense to move down the field and have a chance to tie and send the game to overtime. Yes, it's a stretch to call the Bills offense "legitimate," but that approach really was the only chance the Bills had.
7) The Steak 'N Shake in Erie — one can never spend enough time in Erie — advertises discount milkshakes from 2-4 p.m. and calls it "happy hour." With all respect, would this technically not be happy hours?
8) I'm told that Brady Quinn would welcome a trade from Cleveland. There's no way of knowing if he'll get the deal, but he would welcome starting anew with another team. That dream of playing in Cleveland turned out well eh? If the Browns trade him, it would be good for Quinn but would be another black mark for the Browns. A team celebrates, gushes, is positively giddy it was able to trade up and get a guy in the draft, then it trades him after he plays 4 1/2 quarters as the starting quarterback. This brings two questions to mind: If it's not fair to judge Eric Manini after just a few games, why is it fair to judge Quinn? Isn't the idea of coaching to bring guys along, help them improve? The Browns go through quarterbacks like a shredder goes through paper. Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow must get on their knees every night and pray that the Browns draft another center.
9) One element of the Browns that did not improve Sunday was the run defense. And please don't tell me it did. The Bills ran for 145 yards. The Browns have yet to limit any team to less than 100 yards. That's just poor run defense. Period. Yes, some of the yards came on quarterback scrambles, but those yards count, too. The only reason the Bills did not sustain any drives had far less to do with the Browns defense than it did the Bills' nine false start penalties that kept short-circuiting drives. One hundred and forty-five yards allowed rushing is simply not good run defense.
10) A win is a win, yes, and the Browns had gone a long time without one. But calling the last two games stirring or inspiring or signs of a potential turnaround just does not seem to be looking at reality. Nor am I buying the latest excuse … err … theory that the Browns have lost to teams that are 5-0, 5-0, 3-2 and 4-1. How's this? It's OK to be embarrassed when the other team is good? Maybe I'm on too big a limb here, but the idea is to beat those teams and win the game, no? Before the season, folks celebrated an "easy" schedule. Now it looks tougher so it's suddenly an excuse for losing four of five. You play the teams you're scheduled to play. The Browns have relied on more excuses the past 11 years than a kid missing school. If you celebrate a bad win, you can't cry over losing to a good team. Though I did not find it inspiring, the game against the Bills was a win. However … if the Browns want to really prove something. If they want to show they have grown, they have come together, they have started to "get it" … well they have a chance on Sunday in their personal house of horrors: In Pittsburgh. If the Browns want to prove something, they can go win there. The Browns haven't beaten Pittsburgh since the Spanish-American War was fought. Beating the Steelers would make a loud and positive statement.
And … because they're the Browns and these kind of things keep happening, a bonus 11 …
11) The James Davis situation is potentially very bad for Mangini and the Browns. Davis hurt his shoulder in the opener, then was suddenly and mysteriously put on injured reserve a couple weeks later. ESPN.com reported Sunday that Davis tore the labrum on his shoulder when he was hit in a post-practice drill when he was not wearing pads. The player who hit him was wearing pads. Adam Schefter, one of the better reporters in the business, wrote the story. He had several witnesses — all unnamed, who for obvious reasons can't have their names printed (ever hear of the word "reprisal"?) — describe the story. If true, this is very disturbing — even if Mangini was not present when it happened. Allowing guys to work in that kind of environment is inviting serious injury. It puts players in serious danger. The NFLPA spends hours and hours trying to make sure players are protected, and the image from this injury — emphasis on image — is that there is a team that is willing to skirt rules and put players at risk under the guise of improvement. Now … it's also hard for me to believe any of the team's assistant coahes would allow this to happen. The story will come out; it always does. When it does it will be interesting to see what if anything happened. In normal circumstances, it might cost a coach his job — or a hefty fine. These are not necessarily normal circumstances, though, what with an owner giving this coach the keys to the team. It might be tough to prove the story is true, but if it is it should be very troubling and disturbing to owner Randy Lerner.
Three and Out
Dear Pat,
I hear the Braylon Edwards trade fell through.
He didn't catch the plane.
Eddie Vidmar
Dear Eddie,
Yes, I know … you're here all week.
I hear the Jets actually made sure to give Edwards an e-ticket. That way he wouldn't drop the paper one.
Ba-dum-bum.
Edwards didn't look too bad Monday night, did he?
I grant he's no Chansi Stuckey … but how many teams can have their own Chansi Stuckey?
Dear Pat,
Before we go into another "rebuilding" mode, shouldn't we have had success first? A structure must have been built to rebuild, no?
Kenny Williams Akron
Dear Kenny,
Your build/rebuild logic is priceless and irrefutable.
Rome went up faster than the Browns have built a winning team.
Greetings Pat,
I am going to go out on a limb and take what you said one step further: There has never been an uglier game in the history of NFL football than Sundays' 6-3 Browns win in Buffalo.
I will also say that not all hope is lost. The combined record of the first four teams Cleveland faced (Minnesota, Denver, Baltimore, and Cincinnati) is 17-3, with one of those losses being Denver over Cincinnati, another being Cincinnati over Baltimore, and the third being Baltimore’s close loss to the New England Belichicks.
Those teams may be some of the best the NFL has to offer in 2009.
That being said, I see at least…two more wins this year.
James Hogan
Indianapolis
Dear James,
A three-win season! Hoo hoo!!
Regarding the schedule … I just don't see it, as I stated above. I see your points, but I just don't agree.
Regarding the Buffalo game … every time I think that I was too harsh about it, I think back to the fact that I was compelled, required, obligated to sit and watch every play of that stinking game.
Next year when the Browns play in Buffalo — yes we get to go back! … someone remind me to buzz through Erie between 2 and 4 p.m. — I think I'll put some re-runs of My Mother the Car on the iPod.
One needs some entertainment, right?
Want to be recognized in “Three and Out”? It’s a rare treat. Comment here or send an e-mail to pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com, and put “First and 10” in the subject line.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Just the headline alone is cause for laughter. "A statement?"
Here's a statement: We stink.
You know, watching the Browns look like they did for 4 weeks.. then in an awful game to watch – beat buffalo, and seeing as how buffalo already has a win… It truly makes you appreciate how hard it is to accomplish what Detroit accomplished last year.
DA's complete inability to put touch on short passes contributed to several of those drops.
Isn't James Davis an adult now? Why are we blaming the coach, AGAIN, for a player being stupid.
Braylon cuts his foot running bare foot and not a word of blame goes to Romeo.
And by the way, I wonder if Braylon noticed as he lost last night that the other team had a Michigan QB and an Ohio State WR. They seemed to be doing just fine together. Grow the heck up.
There has to be a silver lining somewhere. How was the contribution of the O-line? How was the play of our number 1 pick? How many sacks does Wimbley have at this point of the season. Have the Browns improved from game to game? Does the term "finesse" apply to any D. Anderson's passes? What are the chances that the Browns score a touchdown against the Steelers?
Jeez…I hope I don't insult anybody by asking such "softball" questions. My ilk and I await your "enlightment", Alan T.
Oh, come on. Somebody is blaming Davis without having a scintilla of the facts? 99.9% chance this comes down to Mangini's fault, but hey, I don't know for sure, but at least I'm honest enough to say it. And Edwards gets another parting shot right after he makes Mangini look like the Indian fools after they sold Manhattan to Whitey for $24?
And for the folks who are blaming Anderson for zinging short passes, odd, but dudes like Marino and Favre never were blamed for their receivers dropping passes zinged at their hands. Do you want to know why? BECAUSE THE RECEIVERS CAUGHT THEM!
Seriously, how many homers and shills does Mangini have around here? Or, should the question be how many homers and shills does the franchise as a whole have around here? Or, is it just what terje repeatedly points out, that Cleveland sports fans are simply drooling idiots. Probably a combination of all three.
Maybe Derek Anderson throws the ball too hard for his receivers to catch, but the NFL isn't peewee football and if the receivers touch the ball they should be able to catch it. Maybe Derek should throw underhand to the stone hand receivers. Go Browns beat the Steelers!
To Alan T.-speak for yourself and stop drooling. Get yourself a bib.
hmmm…didn't both of those Qbs have exceptional accuracy. That was a poor choice in comparison. You'd be better off in comparing D. Anderson with K. Boller and J. Russell. The latter are gunslingers with no accuracy also.
My drooling is caused by orthodontic work that went awry 40 years ago. Also, for some reason, about 15 years ago I started sleeping with my mouth open and drenching the pillow, the bed and practically flooding the whole house. Typical Cleveland sports fans have no such excuse. Probably because they're not old enough to shave on a daily basis, let alone fall asleep and drool on a pillow.
Russell and Boller? Not even close. Especially Russell. That guy has a powerful arm, but throws a ball like Charlie Sheen in "Major League." Anderson is OK with his accuracy, and the fact that he zips balls but is not always accurate is actually an attribute. You don't some dufus out there floating short inaccurate passes.
By the way, assuming they both stay healthy, I've got to hand it to Mangini, being benevolent enough to donate the same guys that fired him a Griese to Warfield-like combo for the next decade. Most folks would be really, really pissed at their old bosses that did them wrong, but not Mangini. Good for him.
Yeah, are we sure Manjeannie isn't STILL working for the Jets? He seems to be stocking THEIR starting lineup with a lot more playmakers than he does here in Cleeeveland. Hmm, sumpthin' fishy.
Uhm, those positives that are mentioned in the article were against the Bills, not what one would consider a stellar football team or say the caliber of say, the Colts or Broncos or Giants or several other teams. It's kind of like looking for a ray of sunshine during the dead of night.
Is it all Anderson's fault, nope. The team looks, and this is hard to believe, less disciplined than under Crennel and even less motivated. They have enough talent to be better than they are and it seems to me that the game plans that are being drawn up don't play to the players strengths.
The Browns are a team without direction and in my humble opinion without a true head coach. If this team is to turn a corner, first Mangini should have never been hired and should be let go at the bye week. Second ownership needs to take a vested interest in the direction of the team or sell it off to someone who will.
Alan…already giving the Lombardi to the Jets? AHHH….I get it, you got me! Man, I was bamboozled by you….either your actually Pat McManamon or his twin. Mangini must've kicked your puppy the way you rant about him.
Of course, the season will turn out poorly and who's surprised by that. What I do know is that the Browns have 11 picks in next years draft. So start watching college football and dream of whom you'll like wearing the orange and brown( start with that safety from USC Mays).
Coach Cable should read your comment about Russell, and buy him a pair a glasses.
Hey, McManamon (the fake one, not the real one), isn't that warped logic? Getting four warm bodies for a guy that not only have reaped superior warm bodies if traded in the off-season, but that "the Browns suck anyway" argument. The argument is that the Browns suck, therefore if a guy is acquired could otherwise help, they would not have made a difference in the record between the Browns suck. Well, why bother having first-round picks, then? Just give them away, they're not being used for their intended purposes anyway.
And by the way, as it now stands, there's a good chance they would have retained Edwards' rights as a restricted free agent as opposed to unrestricted.
The point is Edwards has great value to the Jets, but no value to the very team that actually had him. And that is because none of Edwards' former bosses knew then or know now how to manage different kinds of people. And this fact is pathetic. It killed me inside every time Warfield caught a pass that nobody else would have been able to get open to catch, and I'm going to feel the exact same way every time Edwards catches a pass. Or even every time he drops a pass, because none of the schlub Browns receivers would have been able to get open in the first place.
When you have a guy like Edwards, you can win by playing playground football drawing patterns in the dirt. Just tell him to run deep, and I'll throw it as far as I can. You really think that somebody like Chance the Gardener, or whatever his name is, has 1/10th of the same skills?
Who cares how many picks the Browns have in the next draft? You're hypnotized by that, too, huh? Strength in numbers, even if they're low-round numbers. Tell me, how many first-round picks do they have? The hilarious thing is that a few years from now, they'll be looking to draft a quarterback and/or a wide receiver in the first round. If not in the very next draft.
Alan…you're a sad pathetic whiner.
Games are won or lost in the trenches. A DE or a DB in the first round and guards and RTs in the later rounds would improve this team dramatically. Yes, a blue-chip QB drafted in two years would be be ideal. Only a fool would consider D. Anderson a franchise QB.
Sad. Pathetic. The Browns, not me. Or is that I. But thanks, Rich G., appreciate the compliment. The Browns' PR spinning machine depends upon folks like you. It's good to see the ones who weren't laid off are at least competent at their jobs.
hahaha…that was funny. Just because I don't rip out the last of my hair and scream about the futility of being a Browns fan doesn't mean that I'm drinking the kool-aid their serving. Over the last ten years I watch the Browns by myself, so noone can hear me lament their ineptitude. I usually start raking the leaves off of my lawn during the second half because I can't stand the ridiculous play calling or lack of tackling by the defense.
"There always next year" is my mantra when think of Cleveland professional sports. My cup is half-full and will never throw the Browns under the bus like you constantly do. Three years without the Browns has shown me that I would rather have a bad Browns team, than no Browns at all.
So with all of that, go root for the Bills and ***** ****
Exactly, Rich G. You are the prime example of precisely why the Lerner family is able to get away with what they've gotten away with. Sell hope, deliver ineptitude, sell more hope. And you buy it all hook, line and sinker, rooting and rooting and rooting, like tens of thousands of Ahabs who believe and believe and believe they're finally going to harpoon Moby Dick in Lake Erie.
Brady Quinn's house in Avon Lake is for sale…
http://xr.com/d9m1
Expecting to relocate in the next week?
If this was 30 years ago, the Browns beat writer would be on the phone to Tom Condon, Quinn's agent. Obviously, Condon has informed Quinn that he's gone. But this is 2009, where local beat writers copy-and-paste all of their information from Yahoo! Sports and ESPN. Which means Marla Ridenour can and will snooze her way through until the trade appears on those sites. Tony Grossi has some skills, but he's gotten incredibly lazy, too. These days, I think he spends more time on his hair than he does trying to dig up stories, any story.
Looking forward to more expansion draft-quality players and third and fifth-round picks. That will be awesome.
It's really kind of sad that the guy who reported the Quinn house sale story is James Walker, who covered Cleveland's sports teams from Columbus for the Columbus Dispatch. That guy has better sources than the sportswriters who are supposed to be in the trenches. What are Ridenour, Grossi and Cabot doing with their time?
to mangini-please keep cribbs on the field as much as possible.he is the biggest threat that you possess.run the wildcat offense,hand off to robiskie and cribbs on the reverses,and tell derek to keep throwing hard.if these guys can't catch a ball,then they have no reason to receive a paycheck.i don't think the team is as bad as some say,but there is little margin for error.focus on the unexpected.we know we are not going to the playoffs so let go of the conservative side and embrace the craziness.try something different because this is not montana and the 49ers.we get it .
Another reason not to draft one of the collegiate holy trinity at QB (sorry Claussen – you don't make the cut): How many of those guys have played on a bad team and built it back up to respectable? You want to throw at 22-year old who's had the world handed to him for 2-4 years and expect him to fix this mess? Maybe Terje is right afterall…
alan…"expansion draft quality players and third andfifth round players that would be awesome". Your such a dick. Everyone of your post is the same bitch and moan.
"What are Ridenour, Grossi, and Cabot doing with their time".
…What's wrong with you? You are bitching about a player you don't like selling his house and wanting to leave town. Then to top it off, you bitched about which reporters provided the info. You're better than a soap-opera. What a loser, lol !
If the Spanish American war was fought in the late 80's that is. Kozar and company owned the Steelers!
Sunday the Steelers will have a chance to get their practice teamers in to the game.
The way this season has gone, isn't it a foregone conclusion that the Browns will win Sunday?
And isn't every hour in Erie a happy one?
"As bad as the Bills game was, there were things to like. Anderson was reasonably accurate on a blustery day." "Reasonably accurate?!?" 2-17. What do you call "poor"? Apparently 2-17 is better to Eric Mangini than whatever Quinn was against three good teams. And please don't use the dropped passes thing. That interception was pathetic, along with most of his throws. I was there and felt sick not just from the Buffalo food and the Erie Steak and Shake.
Uhh … Rich G., you homer. I was a bit peeved because I'm getting sick and tired of sportswriters from outside the area doing the actual work, while the beat writers who are supposed to have sources use those sportswriters as their sources. It's also comedic, in a sad pathetic kind of way, that Marla Ridenour actually writes that she used a fan blog to find out her information.
And by the way, contrary to your shillistic post, I neither like nor dislike Quinn at quarterback. I have no idea who or what he is or what he is going to be. Nor does anybody, for that matter.
Oh, and for whoever is using my name as the person who wrote the post (the 11:33 am post), grow up.
The Browns will not beat the Steelers. Keep dreaming clowns fans………………….
Please, that's a weak excuse. Isn't this time that most rats jump ship? Don't let me hold you back.