OK, class, what have we learned about the
Cleveland Browns in the last two weeks?
You know, that time between the Carolina loss and Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
We learned more, it would appear, than the
Browns did during their bye week.
We learned that bad football is still being
played on the shores of Lake Erie despite the two-week layoff.
We learned that Charlie Frye still has a very
long way to go before he is considered an average National Football League
quarterback. He’s not even close. His decision making needs a ton of work.
Bernie Kosar once said that Frye had “it.” I’m
not sure what “it” is, but if what we’ve seen thus far is “it,” I want no part
of it. No pun intended.
We also learned the offense still can’t run the
ball effectively and the defense still can’t stop the run. Is this sounding all
too familiar?
We learned that the coaching staff of this team
loves the color beige, votes Republican and favors non-aggressive treaties. For
some reason, they are afraid to unshackle the players. They play it close to the
vest, hoping against hope that they can sneak out a victory.
Here’s a little advice for Romeo Crennel and his
merry band of assistant coaches: Open it up. Go after your opponent. It’s
obvious that what you’re doing now isn’t working.
It’s time to try something different. It might
not win a game, but at least get away from the stodginess your team brings every
Sunday. On both sides of the ball.
You don’t coach in New England anymore. The talent you have with the Browns
is nowhere near the level of the Patriots. So stop coaching as though this is
the Midwest version of that team.
Football is a game of aggression. Attack on
offense, attack on defense. Attack, attack, attack. Sixty minutes of belligerent
football.
Extreme? Probably. But it’s time to give this
team a personality.
Bye weeks are for resting, getting healthy and
putting together a strong game plan against the next opponent. One would think
that two weeks is sufficient enough time to put together a solid plan to at
least be competitive against the Broncos, maybe even play well enough to beat
them.
Crennel always talks about “coaching up” his
men. Based on the results, this coaching staff has no clue as to how to maximize
the strengths of the talent on board.
So that’s we learned.
What did the Browns learn in those 14 days?
Judging from their performance against the
Broncos, absolutely nothing. The hole they’ve dug thus far this season continues
unfortunately to be a work in progress.
It was more of the same-old, same-old against
Denver, including dropped passes – on offense and
defense. Even the usually reliable Joe Jurevicius and Kellen Winslow Jr. have
joined the party.
If it wasn’t for Jake Plummer’s careless
passing, the Browns would have been shut out. Their touchdown was a gift.
As a result, the residue of this season is
chipping away at the Browns’ fiercely loyal fan base. The ineptitude that has
firmly attached itself to the franchise shows no signs of letting go and is
wearing down the fans. It has become a weight, for some, too great to bear.
Unless things change, and in a hurry, empty
seats are going to be the norm at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Sure, they’re paid
for. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
All Randy Lerner wants to see is your seat in
those seats. He doesn’t care about you. He cares about the money you spend on
his team.
The coaches don’t care about you. The players
certainly don’t care about you. All they care about are their paychecks.
Fan loyalty is being pushed to the limit by
terrible football. This team has become an embarrassment. And while
Cleveland
sports fans are used to incompetence in their sport teams, there comes a time
when it’s got to stop.
Something’s got to be done.
The cashiering of Maurice Carthon Monday night
is just a tiny step. It soothes the fans’ mounting anger for the moment. There
are still larger problems that go well beyond Carthon and require attention.
Crennel has been the head coach of this team for
22 games. Only seven times has he crossed the field at the end of those games
and commiserated with the losing coach.
He has hung his hat on the Browns’ performance
against the Baltimore Ravens in game three even though they lost. One game. What
about the other five stinkers?
It would be one thing if the Browns were
competitive. But they’re not. Crennel sends out ill-prepared teams Sunday after
Sunday.
He brought a winning culture to
Cleveland from New England as did Phil Savage from
Baltimore. All that means nothing until it translates to
the same in Cleveland.
Crennel is in over his head. As it turns out,
he’s one of those very good coordinators who cannot properly handle head
coaching duties. Some guys have it. Some don’t. Crennel doesn’t.
Many of the fans who jumped on Crennel’s
bandwagon at first and remained on his side throughout the turmoil have become
disenchanted, disillusioned, disheartened. It eventually gives way to
frustration.
That frustration eventually morphs into disgust,
followed by anger, rage, then the ultimate enemy of all pro sports franchises:
Apathy.
Dick Enberg, who worked the Browns-Broncos game
on television, remarked at the beginning of the second half Sunday, “It’s so
quiet (at CBS). The Browns need to do something to excite these fans.”
Enberg is not used to seeing this kind of
behavior from the Cleveland
football fans. He remembers games at the old Stadium where the zealots sometimes
were as much the story as the game itself.
Even he noticed what appeared to be the early
stages of apathy on the part of those in attendance.
With precious few exceptions, this team is not
getting better. It’s not even flatlining. It’s getting worse.
The same mistakes are being made over and over
and over. They added 12 men in the huddle to their growing repertoire of gaffes
in the Denver
game.
The team is not focused. The coaching staff is
to blame.
Clearly, it’s not working out. And there doesn’t
seem to be any immediate solution to the problem.
Someone has to be held accountable. In this
case, there is only one desk at which that buck stops. And it doesn’t have
nameplates that read Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage.
If Lerner truly understands the mounting
frustration of the fans, the Carthon firing is just the first shot of what
ultimately will be a house cleaning. Yep, another one of those.
Hopefully, the owner realizes that a veteran
football man is needed to give the franchise some guidance, some balance, a
sense of direction. The sooner, the better.
Too bad it took something like this to turn on
the light.