Cleveland Browns: Lumps of Coal All Around
Posted December 24th, 2006 by George Thomas
It's been a busy weekend, other than missing some much cherished family time during a holiday time, I also enjoyed it immensely. That's still an adjustment in coming from reviewing movies to sports. I worked plenty of Saturdays - primarily due to matinees of kid flicks in the morning hours - throughout the year, but an entrie weekend. Ummm…unless someone was giving otu an Oscar, I avoided it like the plague. I also spent a number of weekends bored out of my dome, so shall we say this was….ummm…invigorating.
Of course it's never that when you have to sit through the debacle known as a Cleveland Browns football game. One of my assignments today was to talk to fans for a story in tomorrow's paper. While there is plenty of passion left for the team (the Browns organization had best thank the pigskin gods that this is a football town), there is an apathy developing in some as well. I'm sure it was heightened after that 22-7 loss.
How can I tell? Gee, LeBron James' head imposed on a uniformed Ozzie Newsome? Think that's a dead giveway. Then there was an entire group of guys from 15 to 59 who showed up with Heinen's grocery bags to don should the Browns looked bad. They came out before the end of the first half.
Incidents such as these are reason for the Browns to play closer attention to what they're putting on the field. Do I think this team is completely void of talent? No. Offensively in Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius (who is the prototype slot receiver - savvy, tough and reliable) there is a core there. Some would have added Charlie Frye and Reuben Droughns to that mix. I do not.
Frye is a iikeable enough guy with toughness and heart, the type of players that Browns fans love because let's face it, in Northeast Ohio you gotta be tough. But until his performance today, Derek Anderson earned the right to challenge for the starting QB job. As for Droughns, he's not the same guy we saw last year and some of that may not be his fault given that the consistent problem with this team has been the offensive line. Something this organization has been unwilling to pay for until signing LaCharles Bentley last year. It's a trend that dates back to the Art Modell years.
Here's a tip: the offense goes nowhere without a powerful line with an attitude. There's a kid in Wisconsin who plays left tackle named Joe Thomas (gotta love that last name) the Browns need to seriously look at him as they prepare to overhaul the team's weakest link once again. If for some reason the Browns aren't drafting high enough, they should look at another Big Ten OT out of Penn State, Levi Brown.
It's clear that unless this sieve is fixed in the near future that the Browns' offense will enjoy little in the way of sustained success.
December 25th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Obviously changes need to be made, we all know that. Romeo is a great coordinator but obviously he does not have the fire or passion to be a Cleveland Browns head football coach. If he is not able to devise a plan or get his team to show more pride in their play then he needs to be the first change in the off season. It has not been the fact that the Browns have lost games, it is the way they look while they are losing them. In this league you have to earn your respect as a TEAM, not by runnig off at the mouth and the Browns are respected by no one.
Winslow and Edwards are your typical overpaid professional athletes and I use the term professional in it's least form. They have done nothing but run their mouths and then go out and drop passes and don't block, all the while blaming someone else. Use them as trade bait to get offensive lineman who come to Cleveland not becasue no one else wants them but becasue they want to turn this thing around for themselves and the fans who endure so much.
Gentlemen, take some pride in your profession. Have some sense of pride for the people who help pay your salaries. Act like men who have been given a lot of money to play a game, be thankful for what you have and then go out and play like it, play like you deserve to be in the NFL representing Cleveland. With the exception of a few of you, you have embarrasses this City this year and that is something we as fans could never forget!!
December 25th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I am amember of the Lady Lake Browns Backers in Fl. Wehave over two hundred members in our club. To a man we are totally disgusted. We watch ahead coach and coachig staff that doesn't have any clue as how to play NFL football, over paid has beens that look like they are running in mud (they couldn't catch acold in the middle of a Cleveland winter), and Braylon Edwards and Kevin (cheap shot) Winslow who are total draft busts. All these two brats can do is run their mouths. They couldn't hold Ozzie Newsome's jock strap!!! Get rid of these two jerks and start rebuilding this team with some real football players.
December 25th, 2006 at 11:14 am
I wouldn't be so hard on Edwards or Winslow: they are victims of a system malfunction. The browns need a head coach for sure, but not a rookie. This week showed perfectly why Crennel ain't the one. Instead of showing any confidence in Anderson, he dissed him — for no real apparent reason. Yes Frye may start next season, but that doesn't mean you ignore your starter for the next game. So it's no surprise that Anderson had a bad game, and got hurt. Potential great players are only great in a functioning system, and not so great players become winners. A bad head coach kills a team.
December 25th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
My Browns observations:
- Willie McGinest cannot run anymore - he has no speed
- Ted Washington also cannot move. Watch some of the other nose tackles in the NFL and they can get to the play.
-Droughns also is too slow to hit the hole. He runs up the back of his blockers instead of looking for creases/holes. Convert him to the blocking back as he was in Denver, and get another running back.
Terrell Smith is a liability in that he can't catch the ball, and he can't run the ball. All he can do is block, and Droughns doesn't follow him to the hole.
-Savage is partly responsible for this collapse by not getting a veteran QB in the off-season.
-We don't develop linemen! Isn't that what a coach is supposed to do? For example, Nat Dorsey. He hasn't played in 2 years, yet he's the 3rd string tackle. Why keep him all these years if he can't develop? The entire offensive line needs to be replaced.
-Also need defensive linemen - no pass rush!
-Who decided to play allegator arms Northcutt earlier in the year over Jurevicius? I like Robiskie as a person, but who has he developed over the last couple of years?
- the only people who should get kudos this year are: Rosburg (special teams coach), Cribbs, Jurevicius, Wimbley,and Zastudstil
December 26th, 2006 at 1:18 am
I was born the year the Browns came into the league. I watched Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly , Gary Collins on TV when I was a kid. I watched Sipe and Cosar win, I've seen some crummy coaches make bad decisions, some who have gotten better. (SD & NE). Romeo hasn't a clue. Edwards and Winslow need to go play touch with Couch. I've nev er been as ashamed to be a Cleveland fan than now. The NFL is rapidly going down hill anyway with children like TO and Gold teeth from Cincy and even Jason from Miami acting like children if and when they actually do what they are paid for. Thank God for class players like LT who know how to act like men. I still miss Jim Brown, Sweetness, and Emmit who did there job and got off the field. I guess I'm getting old. At least Emmit saved his dancing till he retired. I guess in down to "Go Saints and Go Chargers"
December 27th, 2006 at 11:03 am
The Cleveland Browns ( Clowns) have continued to look like a team that has no leadership and poor coaching. I am sick of hearing the same excuse week in and week out, "Were not a good football team, we didn't play well today, we missed tackels, we dropped passes, we missed blocks" When you have 2 yrs to get a team on the right track, you let players go that you say are not better than the players you have now, yet never improve, something is wrong with how you evaluate a player, whether he has what it takes to be in the NFL. Crennel is a Defensive Coordinator and that is it, I thought he would make a Good Head Coach, and I was wrong. Boring uniforms, Offense, defense, and coaches. "Isn't about time somebody done something"