The Numbing Sameness of it All, Again--Midweek Edition

The Cleveland Browns and their fans find themselves in the oddest place, which is first place in the AFC North. Lest you think god is smiling with them he’s not.  He’s laughing at them.

In a week that started with an amazing confluence of events that brought fleeting joy to the sports fans in these parts has ended in a confluence of events that more than anything confirms exactly how much God really does hate Cleveland sports.

Sure the Indians went on a 10-0 run to end the season and grab the top seed in the American League wild card play-in game.  But that was just a way to suck fans into the false conceit that this could be their year.  It’s never their year.  The middle of the lineup went 0-16.  Asdrubal Cabrera, in front of Gods and countries, demonstrated exactly how much he’s regressed since the last time the Indians were in the playoffs and then Nick Swisher, everyone’s Nick Swisher, first failed to lift a ball out of the infield and then  struck out on 3 straight pitches to kill the last flicker of a chance.

The Indians got plenty of hits, 9 to be exact.  But not a single one came when it mattered and like the Browns team of several seasons ago that won 10 games and didn’t make the playoffs, the Indians were done before they started and the jaded fans that had repacked Progressive Field to remind everyone how it used to be were left wondering exactly what kind of menace the front office would bring in the offseason.

Your first place Browns can’t seem to lose for winning or, more accurately, lose for losing.  It’s clear what God intended. Joe Banner just hasn't been around long enough to recognize the forces he's battling. He had a plan, damnit.  He had a plan. 

The team he inherited, the one Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert built, had the following characteristics: a first round 29-year old rookie quarterback; a first round running back who can’t seem to average more than 3 yards a carry or stay healthy; a substance abusing wide receiver who is one step away from getting kicked out of the league; another wide receiver who can’t catch; and, of course, Buster Skrine, the worst cover guy in NFL history (slight exaggeration that!) anchoring of sorts the secondary.

It took Banner no more than one regular season game, though he waited two, to assess what he had.  This team would have to be disassembled, piece by piece.  Banner would sell off what he could and discard what he couldn’t.  Stockpile draft picks and get a quarterback who when he's 29 will have been in the league for 7 years. And the plan was working.

Banner took advantage of a desperate Indianapolis Colts team and extracted a first round pick (!) for Richardson.  If it were any team other than the Browns on the receiving end of that trade, I’d immediately declare it the most one sided trade since Dallas went all in for Rickey Williams.  But it is the Browns, a team that has made high art of squandered draft picks.

Still, a good start.  With no running attack and a quarterback with no fast twitch skills, a losing course was set. Wait 'till next year, again. Just sit back and let the rest of the league come to you.

Then as almost luck would have it Brandon Weeden injured his thumb. If having a first string Weeden is critical to a losing season then imagine how delicious it must have been to Banner to use a back up quarterback for a good part of the season. But just to leave no stone unturned Banner had the team use the third string quarterback instead. It's as if Banner, who resembles the Grinch anyway, was in his cave rubbing his hands together, talking to his dog.  

But the Who down in Whoville didn’t get the message.  Brian Hoyer, waiting, learning from the masters old school way, jumped into the fray and ignited an offense that had been moribund since the word moribund was invented.  The improbable victory against the Minnesota Vikings looked like an outstretched middle finger to the front office.  Then came the victory against the Cincinnati Bengals, a team with high playoff hopes.  The game was boring, sure, but Hoyer rallied in ways that Weeden could never imagine and the Browns ground out a very professional victory.

Two straight and the smacking sound you heard all the way to Green was Banner slapping his head with his palm.  The two game win streak energized the fan base who, even if the Indians were in the middle of winning game 7 of the World Series by 5 runs, would still flood local sports talk shows with questions about the Browns.

Banner’s plan was unraveling faster than the plot of a Kate Hudson movie.  With that as the backdrop, the Browns entered into Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills not exactly sure where they stood.  The fans were just as confused.

Order seemed restored early on when first Greg Little, who has the decision making skills of a 10-year old in a trading card store, fielded the opening kick from 9 yards deep and returned it 18 yards, pinning the Browns on their own 9 yard line.   Hoyer then hit Josh Gordon in the hands on what should have been about a 70-yard touchdown pass on the game’s second play.  Naturally Gordon dropped it.  The ensuing punt was returned well by the Bills who found themselves with a short field, made all the shorter when Joe Haden interfered with Steve Johnson in the end zone, setting up a short touchdown and a quick 7-0 Buffalo lead.

On the Browns’ second series, Hoyer scrambled for a first down and in true Cleveland fashion, tore his ACL and ended his season.  Weeden trotted in, looking as effective as he had before his own injury, and the Browns quickly punted.  This led to a Buffalo field goal and now a 10-0 lead.  The rout certainly seemed on.

Just as Banner was secretly celebrating Weeden’s return and the return of his master plan, something strange happened.  Once again the Browns rallied around the beleaguered Weeden and he found what amounts to sea legs.  True Weeden more or less looked as he always has.  He holds the ball like he’s afraid he’ll never get it back and moves in the backfield as if he was driving with the brakes on.  Those deficiencies aside, he was able to play nearly effective enough.

Weeden will forever be defined by 57 yard return that gave the Browns the ball at the Buffalo 31.  A short pass fell incomplete.  A run went nowhere.  A third down pass fell incomplete but the Bills were penalized for unnecessary roughness.  A Weeden sack and a few incomplete passes later the Browns were settling once again for a 30-yard field goal.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

What Weeden will rarely be defined by is the next drive, an interminably long affair that started at the Browns 12 and ultimately ended in a game tying touchdown.  It mostly featured the running of Willis McGahee enabled greatly by the return of Shawn Lauveo at right guard.  It was tedious at times and nerve racking at others.  It was not clear until it happened that McGahee would get that final yard.  He did and the Browns were tied.  Fah who for-aze. Dah who for-aze.

After a defensive hold, Travis Benjamin took the Bills punt 79 yards and the Browns were now winning, 17-10.  Games do turn quickly, usually against the Browns.  This was a through the looking glass moment.

In the third quarter, the Bills scored twice and were now up 24-17.  The first was a 54-yard touchdown run by C.J. Spiller against a defense that apparently featured no defensive backfield.  Once Spiller made it past the line he could have run sideways to the end zone so alone was he.  The second was nearly a carbon copy of the Bills’ first touchdown, set up by interference in the end zone.  The only negligible difference was that it was T.J. Ward who committed the penalty.

The game was turning predictably back, except it really didn’t.  As suddenly as the clouds returned and the rain began to fall, figuratively and literally, Gordon turned a short pass from Weeden into a 37-yard touchdown. Another should have been touchdown turned into a chip shot field goal courtesy of a poor run from the 1-yard line by McGahee and a wildly inaccurate pass to tight end Jordan Cameron.

Still another Cundiff field goal was followed by a pick six from Ward on a pass from the Buster Skrine of quarterbacks, Buffalo’s Jeff Tuel, and the game was over.  Final score, Browns 37, Bills 24.

Let me pause here for a moment to stop picking on Skrine.  In truth, he played probably his best game as a professional, and probably his entire life, on Thursday night.  He was mostly where he was supposed to be and that’s a major accomplishment.  Haden, on the other hand, seemed lost.  Maybe he’s trying to do too much given the shortcomings around him, but against a better team and a better quarterback Haden would do well to pay attention to his assignments and not try to do others as well.

Now back to our regular programming.

Weeden wasn’t anything special on Thursday night.  He was only 13-24 for 197 yards.  Yet he wasn’t awful at least awful as defined by Banner’s expectations of him or those of virtually everyone else that have followed his brief, flatline trajectory as a starter.

Now the Browns are firmly entrenched for another week at the top of the AFC North.  It is a highly winnable division because there isn’t a dominant team among them.  Heck, the Steelers might go 0 for the season. Yet you get the sense that Banner can’t possibly be happy with this outcome.  It doesn’t completely devalue the power the Browns will yield in the draft but if this winning stuff continues it does diminish it.

So in any sense, large or small, God really does hate Cleveland sports.  If he didn’t, the Browns would have a lock on the first pick of the draft, the Indians would be playing the Red Sox this weekend, Hoyer would be healthy and Bernie Kosar wouldn’t be trying to find a creative defense for the DUI he got last weekend.

The Things We Know--Week 3

Maybe we already know everything we’re ever going to know about these Cleveland Browns. Maybe we’ll never know all we should. But what we do know now that Week 3 is in the books is that the Browns are one of two 0-3 teams in the league, the other is a team that literally is without a head coach.

It’s a useful marker, actually. All those people complaining about head coach Pat Shurmur now know that it really isn’t any worse than having no head coach. Indeed, had the Saints not blown a lead on Sunday, the Browns would actually be worse than a team without a head coach.

Now that even the most optimistic among us finally understand that the Browns aren’t going to the playoffs this week, it’s far easier to focus on the Things We Know, Week 3 and that starts first with Shurmur, of course.

If Shurmur has any hopes of maintaining his job once Jimmy Haslam takes over as owner, he better hope two things: that Haslam wasn’t around Sunday to witness the way his new team was manhandled by the Buffalo Bills and that Haslam doesn’t have access to one of the 42 different mobile apps produced by the NFL. Haslam strikes me as an iPhone guy and probably has the apps. It doesn’t matter. He was in the house. In fact Haslam wasn’t just in the house but in the broadcast booth with CBS in an exchange that went something like this:

Third Tier CBS Announcer: How does a guy go from being an owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the league's most successful franchises, to now owning the Cleveland Browns?

Haslam, pained grin on his face as if he were being examined rectally by Melissa McCarthy: Uh, well, we enjoyed our time with the Rooney family but we won't have any trouble turning in our black and gold for the orange and (stumbles for a moment almost imperceptibly but just enough) brown.

I don’t know why Haslam didn’t seem to remember, even for a moment, that the team he bought, Browns, has brown as one of its colors. I’d rather focus on the question. It was the kind of question, really, that Haslam has probably asked himself every day since overpaying for this team. How does one go from a franchise that has the ability to walk, chew gum, text and carry on a conversation all at the same time to one that has to sit down just to concentrate on how to turn that damn smart phone on in the first place.

Sunday's loss to the Bills, a team that hadn't won on the road since at least the last time the Browns won a game, wasn't Shurmur's finest moment. He’s only won 4 games as a head coach so that isn’t really saying much. But more fascinating was his post game obit in which he said that the team’s stated goal going into the game was to get off to a fast start and to finish well. Yea, about that.

The Browns started in a 14 point hole and from there it looked like the Bills might actually score 100 points, so compliant was the Browns' defense to the every whim of the Bills offense and so eager was the Browns' offense to get off the field as quickly as possible lest they have to spend one more minute with these replacement refs.

When the Browns did claw there way back into the game, and they honestly were back in the game and hanging with a team only slightly more competitive than they, the strong finish never materialized. Indeed, quarterback Brandon Weeden threw a couple of awful interceptions that killed any final, fleeting opportunities. It was only through the good graces of Bills head coach Chan Gailey that the final score wasn't even more lopsided.

So the last thing Shurmur tells his team before it heads out of the tunnel in its own stadium and in front of its own fans is that they need to start fast and finish strong and they go out and do the exact opposite? It could be me but I'm starting to get the sense that the team has tuned him out.

It wasn't just that Shurmur's team ignored his broad themes; it was also the fact that his team looked ill prepared and I'm not talking about the fact that a rookie-laden defensive line and a back-up/too old-laden defensive secondary can't be expected to stop NFL-caliber teams. It's more the fact that this team commits idiotic penalties, which reflects on a lack of concentration, tackles poorly, which reflects on a lack of effort, and has relatively high draft picks at receiver who drop balls in their hands, which reflects on a lack of drafting acumen. There is no sense that the team could ever meet the challenge to start fast and finish strong.

Then, of course, was the odd decision by Shurmur to forego a 4^th down attempt around midfield with about 6 minutes remaining in the game and his team down by 10. Shurmur thought about the decision like Mike Hargrove used to think about pinch hitters, technically. Right handed hitter, have the lefty get a bat. With Shurmur, it was pin the Bills back with a punt and then get a quick 3-and-out with plenty of time still left. A failed 4^th down attempt would give the Bills the ball at midfield and almost any score at that point would put the game out of reach.

(Everything that follows assumes the technical soundness of Shurmur’s decision. But let me say a few words about that. If Shurmur felt that his defense was capable of a quick 3 and out following a punt, why wouldn’t it be capable of that same quick 3 and out if the 4^th down attempt failed? Buffalo’s approach wouldn’t have changed irrespective of the field position. The Bills were interested only in keeping the clock moving, which meant keeping the ball on the ground. In other words, if the defense could hold the Bills at the 15 yard line they could hold them at the 45 in that scenario. Glad I got that off my chest.)

While Shurmur was thinking technically, he should have been thinking emotionally, like a leader who understands what’s at stake, how desperate his team is for a win, and how it’s easier to erase a 10 point lead with nearly 6 minutes left then it is with 3. Besides, didn’t the Browns draft Trent Richardson just for these kind of moments?

As it happened, Shurmur’s text book response somewhat played out like he hoped it would except Weeden ruined it with interceptions. But that's hardly the point. When Shurmur sent the punt team on the field, you literally could see whatever spirit remained in this team drain out as if their collective carotid arteries had been opened by Theodoric of York and they lost every remaining drop of blood. The team could feel the lack of confidence their coach had in them, the fans could feel the lack of confidence the coach had in them, and the inevitability of what would happen next took over. It was all just so self-fulfilling.

When the carnage that was Week 1 stopped smoldering it was clear that this franchise suffered from a lack of boldness, the failed pursuit of Robert Griffin III being a prime example. For a team that had lost 8 straight games dating back to last season and was on the cusp of number 9, it needed to do something bold at that moment. Instead it literally punted and the game was lost.

This is why Shurmur is going to have trouble retaining his job. He may have made the right technical move but football is a game of emotion often decided by waves of momentum. Shurmur had no idea that the moment was there to be seized and that's why it's no surprise that his team didn't start fast and finish strong.

Coaches in the NFL are usually hired on their technical accomplishments as coordinators. But in a way that Romeo Crennel couldn’t grasp either, the job of the head coach is as much emotional guide as anything else. There are plenty of examples of teams with lesser talent have been rallied by their coach to accomplish more than they should. How is it that Jim Harbaugh, for example, can continue to coax good performances out of a mediocre talent like Alex Smith when others couldn’t? Shurmur may have been dealt an unwinnable hand given the talent on this team, but he's also showing no propensity for instilling a belief into his outgunned team that against all logic and sense they can still accomplish good if not great things. At some point Shurmur’s going to actually play a hand instead of folding and waiting to see if the next deal works out better.

**

While I think Shurmur’s lack of emotion and plodding approach created and environment for Sunday’s loss, it was hardly the only reason. The Browns still have a significant problem at wide receiver.

Greg Little, in particular, looks like the second coming of Braylon Edwards, perhaps without the chip on his shoulder but with the same hands of stone. Little dropped at least one pass that he could have turned into a long gain, maybe two. And Little wonders why the fans objected when he drew so much attention to himself last week for catching a touchdown in a game the Browns would lose anyway? Little clearly is a product of youth sports in which every small accomplishment, like remembering to wear his cup, was celebrated with a trophy.

Little is, at best, streaky. When you think about Edwards that’s the thing that comes to mind immediately as well, his streakiness. He was like Julio Franco playing shortstop. On instinct, he could make spectacular plays. With the routine, the ball would go through his legs or, in the case of Edwards, through his hands.

Edwards hasn’t become a barely hanging on receiver in the league simply because of injuries. It’s because his lack of discipline toward his job engendered a lack of trust by his quarterbacks. Little is only in his second season but to this point he’s shaping up to be another Edwards and unless he wakes up quickly will find himself in a few years driving a Bentley at 2 a.m. drunk and sobering up to find that he had no friends to bail him out.

What is of particular concern about Little is that his route running still isn’t particularly sharp and neither is his concentration, despite having a year in the league. Josh Cribbs is a terrible route runner as well (which is why you see so little of him) but he never takes a play off mentally. The route Cribbs turned into the team’s longest gain of the day on Sunday wasn’t a thing of beauty but he made it work.

If Little is going to be all that he imagines, not to mention all the fans imagine, he’s going to have to stop his annoying habit of breaking off routes too early or too late and, as importantly, he’s going to have to learn how to hold on to the damn ball. A quarterback will always try to find the guy that can catch, even if he runs lousy routes, like Cribbs. A quarterback will always ignore a guy that can’t catch, even if he runs great routes, like Brian Robiskie.

Josh Gordon, a year younger but in pretty much the same position as Little, thus far looks like as much a reach in the second round as Little. Charitably, he’s off to a slow start. In truth, he looks as lost as the producers of Lost during its last season. Did Gordon pay attention at all during training camp?

Then there’s Mohammad Massaquoi. He’s off to a much better start, somewhat justifying Mike Holmgren’s gushing review of Massaquoi’s preseason. But let’s keep that at least at some level of context. Massaquoi is a possession receiver and not the downfield burner this team needs to take the pressure off of its running game. A team absolutely has to have a receiver like Massaquoi but if he ends up being the number one receiver in a number three receiver’s body, then that means the passing game is still lagging, probably significantly. And if it lags significantly, just like it did last year, I wonder how quickly Holmgren and Heckert will conclude that the problem isn’t their miscalculations at receiver but some critical skill missing from their quarterback as they angle for Matt Barkley (assuming they have positions with the team from which to angle).

**

In his three weeks as the starting quarterback, Weeden has been bad, good and in between. That’s not a surprise since he’s a rookie. But there was a point Sunday that gave me a little more insight into why Shurmur et al. have put their faith in Weeden rather than Colt McCoy.

What Weeden does better than McCoy, consistently, is look down the field to make a play. McCoy was the master of the check down to the outlet receiver. Time and again on Sunday Weeden had a running back or other outlet receiver nearby and time and again Weeden threw downfield to someone else instead, sometimes justifiably sometimes not. You had to appreciate the intent if not the results.

Watching Weeden throw downfield has been a bit of a revelation. The Browns only scored 14 points on Sunday but they were relatively close to scoring more (which is the kind of sentence someone like Mary Kay Cabot would type in order to remain upbeat and positive). What you hope comes in time is that Weeden gets better touch on the deep balls. Weeden’s self-assessment of his performance Sunday was that except for the interceptions, he had a solid day. Yea, except for the interceptions.

But I do think that Weeden is also victimized by the same things that victimized McCoy, receivers who aren’t very good. Weeden came close to connecting on those deep balls and arguably some of them could have benefited from having a bit more air under them. But the Browns’ receivers could help him out a little by fighting for the ball once in awhile.

The one thing you don’t see any Cleveland receiver do ever is use his body to gain position and then fight for the reception in traffic. It’s as if unless the ball is perfectly placed it isn’t going to be caught or, in the case of Little, even if it is perfectly placed it isn’t going to be caught

It’s both a talent and an effort issue. General Manager Tom Heckert still puts too much faith in project receivers, like Ernie Accorsi used to put too much faith in undrafted free agent offensive linemen. Even if there is some raw talent to be cultivated the coaches on this team, starting with Shurmur, could do a better job (or even a passable job) of finding a way to reach into the psyches of these receivers to turn them into guys who would do anything to make a reception. When you watch the New England Patriots by contrast it almost doesn’t matter who they have at receiver. Heck they overhaul their receiving corps every year. But there is an amazing consistency to their approach. The Patriots find the guys that want to win while Cleveland spends too much time settling for guys who just want to play, or in the case of Shurmur, who just want to coach.

**

To kind of finish where we started, a comment earlier in the week by Trent Richardson certainly takes on more resonance in retrospect. Richardson, used to winning as a collegian, told his teammates that they need to practice harder and stop accepting losing as a way of life. I suspect his teammates wrote that off as collegiate exuberance but when you saw the pathetic effort that was this team on both sides of the ball Sunday, you do wonder how hard they practice and/or whether they more or less accept losing as their current lot in life.

An Exercise in Tedium

Well, there will be no end-of-the-year 4-game winning streak this year.

The Cleveland Browns, who seemed to overwhelm the competition last year with a rediscovered late season running game that literally saved head coach Eric Mangini's job found themselves a victim of their own medicine as the Buffalo Bills rushed for nearly 200 yards en route to a 13-6 win. The loss dropped the Browns to 5-8 and assuring another season without a winning record.

A thing of beauty this game was not. It was nearly exactly what you might expect from two teams playing in December with a combined 7 wins between them. It was mistake filled and mostly served to highlight two franchises that are still firmly gripping the bottom rungs of the league's ladder.

There would be no sudden end or last second collapse. There would be no ball grazing a goal post to tip the fates one way or the other. Instead it was mostly a painful journey through all the reasons these two teams are what they are. Though the game was played in a steady rain, it really didn't seem like it was the overriding factor in the game.

A far bigger factor was the Browns' inept approach and even more inept execution. In the game they had 5 fumbles, 3 of which were by Hillis. They lost two of them. They also had the 1 interception that allowed the Bills to close out the game. For good measure, they never even crossed midfield in the second half. The Bills were slightly better, fumbling twice and losing it once. They also had their share of goofy mistakes, starting with being offside on the opening kickoff.

Still, credit should be given to the Bills since they found a way to win. And when the Bills get into their film room come Monday, they will enjoy in particular how they finished the game. Let's preview that film session for them.

After a predictable Jake Delhomme interception late in the fourth quarter, the Bills pounded the ball nearly at will at the heart of the Browns defense to run out the clock, ending the game at the Browns' 7-yard line. It was a little mercy shown and a little exclamation point for a team that going into the game had but 2 wins all season.

If Delhomme was using Sunday as a chance to make his case to remain the starting quarterback for the team's final 3 games, he wasn't persuasive. Skittish for the second consecutive week, Delhomme rarely looked down field to pass and in the process made the Browns offense even more predictable then the outcome of “It's a Wonderful Life.”

Even a team with the worst rushing defense in the league, which the Bills have, will eventually be able to stop the run when they know nothing else scary is coming their way. Just put 8 or so players up close to the line of scrimmage, which the Bills mostly did. Although Peyton Hillis had 108 yards rushing, there was virtually no passing game to support him as Delhomme was just 12-20 for 86 yards and 1 interception.

The fact that the Browns would try to run the ball was hardly a state secret anyway. And it certainly seemed like the Browns might be in for a good day based on the ease of their first drive. It featured 8 straight runs that covered 54 yards, nearly all of which were by Hillis. It allowed Hillis to quickly get the yards he needed to go over 1,000 for the season, making him the 9th running back in franchise history to achieve that milestone.

The problem was that the Browns needed to cover 55 yards in that drive to get into the end zone. But for reasons as mysterious as they were mystical, the Bills' run defense tightened up once the Browns were 1st and goal from the 5-yard line and as a result the Browns settled for a 19-yard Phil Dawson field goal for the quick 3-0 lead. On the plus side it kept a nice streak in tact as the Browns have now had a lead in every game this season. On the down side, it was the only real highlight of the game for the Browns.

For a moment, though, the Browns looked to be right back in business after the Dawsn field goal when linebacker Chris Gocong forced a Ryan Fitzpatrick fumble and it was recovered by Eric Wright, who took it back to the Buffalo 25-yard line. But Hillis returned the favor on the next play as he tried to leap over a defender and lost the ball to nose tackle Kyle Williams. The Bills put together a nice drive in response but weren't able to turn the fumble into points when they came up short on 4th down at the Cleveland 35 yard line.

It didn't matter. The Bills were able to get on the board and get the lead on their next possession thanks to 11-yard touchdown pass from Fitzpatrick to David Nelson. It was the conclusion of a 14-play 89-yard drive that bled the Browns' defense one paper cut at a time. It also was the only touchdown of the game.

The Browns' only other score of the day was on their next possession when they marched right back on the Bills but then had to again settle for a short Dawson field goal. What was most notable about the drive, however, was that it featured Delhomme's only down field pass of the entire game, a 34-yard hook up with receiver Mohamed Massaquoi. But Delhomme, despite all the time anyone would have needed, couldn't find an open receiver on 3rd down from the Buffalo 8 yard line forcing the team to settle for the field goal.

Looking to trade field goals for touchdowns, the Bills turned right around and marched through the Browns' defense just before the half. But there's a reason they are who they are as well. With the ball sitting at the Cleveland 5-yard line and 36 seconds remaining, the Bills came out of time out and preceded to get a delay of game penalty, which is the kind of things teams with two wins tend to do. That pushed the ball back to the 10-yard line. Fitzpatrick was then sacked and missed on a 3rd down pass, setting up a Ryan Lindell 30-yard field goal. It gave the Bills a 10-6 lead at the half.

The second half was simply an exercise in tedium. Still, there was some fun to be had if your sense of humor runs to the absurd.

If it does, then you'd have a hard time finding anything more absurd than the Browns' drive that started late in the third quarter and carried over into the fourth. It began at their 9 yard line, lasted over 5 minutes, featured 10 plays and covered a grand total of 24 yards before Reggie Hodges punted. There were 3 fumbles, two by Hillis and one by Cribbs. The Cribbs' fumble really told the story of the drive, indeed the day.

The play started when Hillis and Delhomme ran into each other while attempting a fake hand off. It fooled no one. By the time Cribbs came around from the right end, he was greeted by a host of Bills players who had more or less set up camp about 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage as they waited for this excruciatingly long play to develop. Cribbs was stripped of the ball as he attempted to avoid the inevitable loss of yardage and appeared to have lost the ball completely but somehow emerged with it when the play was all over. It allowed the drive, such as it was, to continue but only for a moment more.

The fun continued on their next possession when Delhomme fumbled deep in Browns' territory while attempting to pass. When the ball came loose, Bills defensive back Bryan Scott recovered and was heading into the end zone untouched. But the back judge, who likewise was having a rough day, whistled the play dead quickly thinking that it was an incomplete pass. Bills head coach Chan Gailey challenged the call and it was overturned, giving the Bills the ball at the Cleveland 23-yard line. It could have been a critical mistake by the official because the Bills were not able to punch it in the end zone, despite getting it down to the Browns' 1 yard line. They had to settle for a 19-yard Lindell field goal and a 13-6 lead that theoretically kept the Browns within a touchdown with 7 minutes remaining in the game.

It was just theoretical. Delhomme piled on still more misery on the Browns' next drive when he literally threw a ball up for grabs on 3rd and 8 from the Browns' 49-yard line. Of course it was intercepted by Bills cornerback Leodis McKelvin who returned it back to the Buffalo 42-yard line. From there running back Freddie Jackson took over and iced the game for the Bills.

As far as performances go, it was probably the Browns' worst of the season given the level of competition and the decided advantage they seemed to have going into the game. They didn't just play down to their level of competition. They played below it. There was no cohesion on offense and as they have done too many times this season, the Browns' defense couldn't get the stops they needed when they needed them most, meaning late in the game, although that hardly mattered ultimately.

As Mangini crossed the field at the end of the game to shake Gailey's hand, you could see the anger streaming from every pore. He knows that if nothing else, this kind of performance isn't going to quiet those that already are convinced that he needed to essentially win out once again to save his job. I'm not so sure about that but there's no question that Mangini won't be using this game as his primary argument when he discusses his fate with Mike Holmgren come season's end.

From here, the last breather on the Browns' schedule is next week against the woeful Cincinnati Bengals. Of course, that was a description that until today applied to the Buffalo Bills as well and we know how that has since turned out. And perhaps even more depressing is that given the extremely limited interest in a game where, once again, the teams combined have 7 wins, we'll likely be subjected to once again the crack broadcast team of Don Criqui and Steve Beurlein. Talk about your lumps of coal.

Why Cleveland, Not Buffalo

Along about the time that the Cleveland Browns were at their nadir this past season, many openly speculated whether anything or anyone could fix the mess. The theory was that the Browns were so off track in so many ways that no one with a lick of sense would even bother.

It was also about that same time when owner Randy Lerner essentially undertook the implied challenge and emerged, rather quickly actually, with not just anyone but someone in the form of Mike Holmgren, the former head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Most people that I’ve talked with in the league think Holmgren has more than just a lick of sense. He’s viewed as a thoughtful and inside player, someone whose resume is neither artificially enhanced nor noticeably thin. You might be able to poke as many holes in it as you care to, but Holmgren’s record still stands solidly intact.

The underlying question is why Holmgren would take the job. The answer to that is easy enough. It had the essential elements of any good opportunity: freedom, power and money. Holmgren has the benefit of working for an owner that wants to stay in the background even more than Deep Throat of Watergate fame. Indeed, Lerner wants nothing more than to have someone like Holmgren oversee every aspect of his asset and enough money to pay him to do so. In legal terms, it’s as if Holmgren has Lerner’s full power of attorney.

But it actually goes much deeper than all of that. Case in point, look at the mess in Buffalo and then start counting your blessings.

The Bills have had all sorts of difficulty filling one of the toughest jobs to get in football: NFL head coach. There are only 32 such jobs and yet the Bills have all but posted the job on Craigslist in order to get a taker. People selling time shares in Boise have an easier time getting nibbles than the Bills do on their head coaching job. After scouring the cut out bin, they finally got Chan Gailey to take the job.

To understand the dynamic, consider the contrast between Bills owner Ralph Wilson and Lerner. The 91-year old Wilson is nearly double Lerner’s age. He’s a Hall of Famer whose seemingly run the franchise since there were real buffaloes in Buffalo. He has a history Lerner could only imagine.

And it’s not as if the Bills are perennial losers. It just seems that way lately. Hey, you lose in consecutive years to Cleveland you’re going to take a few lumps. But the Bills actually are a relatively storied franchise dating back to its days in the AFL. They had pre-double murder O.J. roaming their backfield. They had the aptly named Electric Company of an offensive line supplying the Juice. They had Jim Kelly and Jack Kemp. It’s a franchise with a real history.

The problem these days is that Wilson is a meddling fool of an owner. He’s become the Al Davis of the East, someone who is so far past his prime that he’s forgotten what it looked once looked like. Since 1997, the Bills have been through five head coaches and are searching for their sixth.

With that kind of track record you’d think that every one of those coaches have been abject losers. Actually, that isn’t even close to being true. Wade Phillips was 29-19 in his three seasons. In fact, in those 12 years, the Bills have only approached Browns-like territory once, in 2001 when they were 3-13. Otherwise, they’ve mostly just bounced around just below .500.

Wilson is one of the league’s great complainers about competitive balance but it’s fallen mostly on deaf ears in a salary-cap construct. Buffalo is small market, like Green Bay, but it’s got an equal chance as New York. The owners share revenues and the draft can’t be manipulated by the draftees to ensure they end up with large market teams with the wherewithal to pay them.

Yet the Bills hade no hope of finding a someone as their coach. They’ve been turned down by Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan. They’ve also been turned down by the next lower tier-- Brian Schottenheimer, Russ Grimm and Jim Harbaugh. By hiring Gailey, I guess they did find an anyone.

If you want to understand the state of the Bills’ franchise, that’s it. As Jerry Sullivan, a sports columnist for the Buffalo News aptly put it, “it’s a second rate franchise struggling to hire a second-rate coach.”

Say what you will about the Lerner family’s stewardship of the Browns, but it’s only been a second rate franchise in terms of results on the field. Lerner may be a fool for other reasons, but a meddling fool he’s not. He hasn’t been afraid to toss his money around like confetti as a trail of fired coaches and administrators would attest. He’s worked hard to enhance the game-day experience as best he could, at least on the periphery. Indeed, the only place he’s failed is when it comes to hiring the right people to get the right football results.

About the only time the Browns really had trouble attracting a coach was in its first years back and with good reason. The Browns were saddled with all sorts of league-imposed impediments to getting up and running and most potential coaches could see that results would be years off.

But since then, even as coaches have been run off in droves, others have been willing and eager to step forward and fill the breach. Debate all you want the merits of the coaches that have been hired, but the fact remains that the Browns generally got the person they targeted. The only problem is that their aim has been awful, but that’s a far different issue.

Another part of this whole equation is the fans. This isn’t to get into a pissing match with anyone over whose city has better fans, but the fact remains that Browns fans enjoy a somewhat exalted status within the league. Team owners, head coaches, able assistants throughout the league know that the Browns have a deeply loyal fan base that ultimately will put whatever differences divide them aside when game day arrives.

The best proof of that lies in the swirl around Eric Mangini. When the Browns were wallowing at 1-11, he was essentially the devil incarnate. His every flaw was magnified and most fans couldn’t wait until Mangini’s siege was over. They vocalized it loud and long.

But a simple 4-game winning streak became an intoxicating tonic. Fans didn’t care about the quality of the wins or the competition. They just cared about the wins themselves, especially the one against the Steelers.

As each win built upon the next, a large portion of the fan base altered its view of Mangini. It’s not that they became convinced that he’s a misunderstood genius. They just felt that he had achieved enough in that last month of the season to warrant another look and voiced it just as loudly.

That kind of passion is a heady motivator to the kind of A-type personalities that are attracted to positions of power in the first place. In short, the Browns fans show up week in and week out, good news or bad, win or lose, coddled or abused.

The question in Buffalo at the moment may be why anyone would want that job. It’s a pretty long list of reasons. The question in Cleveland always has been, why wouldn’t someone want this challenge? At the moment, it’s hard to think of one reason, which is probably how Holmgren arrived at his answer so quickly in the first place.

Running Counter to Theory

Entering Sunday’s game, the Cleveland Browns and the Buffalo Bills were the football equivalents of Patty and Cathy Lane, one pair of matching bookends, but hardly different as night and day. Statistical twins in all but record entering the game, they exited it with that flaw corrected as the Browns beat the Bills 6-3, in a game that set football back to at least the time when The Patty Duke Show was a primetime staple.

History will show that the Browns won it on an 18-yard field Billy Cundiff field goal with just 26 seconds remaining in the game. How they got there was the story of the entire game.

With the game tied 3-3 and just over 7 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Browns Dave Zastudil had his 7th punt of the day downed by defensive back Mike Adams at the Bills’ 4-yard line. It was Zastudil’s 3rd punt of the day downed inside the 5-yard line. The Browns’ defense looked to have forced a punt three plays later but defensive lineman Corey Williams was flagged on a very iffy roughing call on Bills’ quarterback Trent Edwards. That gave the Bills an automatic first down.

The Bills were eventually forced to punt but were no longer backed up. Brian Moorman’s punt sailed into the end zone and the Browns took over at their own 20. Three plays later Zastudil was punting again. But the break of the day came when returner Roscoe Parrish tried to field the ball as he was backing up. He fumbled, just as the Bills had done all day, and Blake Costanzo jumped on it at the Bills’ 16-yard line with three minutes left.

With the Bills out of timeouts, the Browns were content to milk the clock, getting the ball down to the Bills’ 1-yard line before the Cundiff game winning kick.

All the missteps and misadventures of that sequence was a microcosm of what was truly a miserable game.

Going in, the Browns figured to run given that their receiving corps was in great flux, the Jamal Lewis was returning to the starting lineup, and the Bills have a very suspect defensive line. It’s exactly what they did, repeatedly running Lewis into the line series after series.

What it didn’t yield in points it did at least yield in yards for Lewis. He had 31 carries for 117 yards, the second straight week a Browns’ running back went over the 100-yard mark. Jerome Harrison retreated into his previous role as change-of-pack back and had 8 carries for 21 yards.

But the Browns, counter to theory all year, couldn’t use the run to set up the pass. Derek Anderson had about as bad a game as a quarterback can have and probably sent head coach Eric Mangini into the film room immediately after the game trying to figure out whether to start Brett Ratliff next week.

When Anderson wasn’t overthrowing his receivers, he was under throwing them. On the few occasions where he got the ball where it was supposed to be the receivers dropped it. Beneath the wreckage read a line that was as ugly as a last second prom date: 2-17, 23 yards and 1 interception and a rating of 15.074.

On the Bills side of the ball, sporting much the same game plan for much the same reasons, almost nothing went right. They didn’t run particularly well and when forced to pass quarterback Edwards didn’t do that very well, either. Marshawn Lynch had 17 carries for 69 yards and Freddie Jackson added 30 yards on 13 carries. Edwards was 16-31 for 136 yards, 1 interception and a rating of 49.933. It was hardly enough to make Browns’ defensive coordinator Rob Ryan eat his words.

Though each team had some success on the ground, that was hardly the story of the game. From almost the opening kick to the final play, the game featured enough pratfalls and missteps to make another ‘60s staple, Lucy Ricardo, proud.

The Browns’ first drive was illustrative of most of the game. Lewis ran up the middle on the first four plays. On 3rd and 5, in a 4 wide receiver set, Anderson went, where else, but to his tight end, Robert Royal. The pass was low and the Browns punted.

It was a pattern that was repeated, often.

The Bills, playing Cathy Lane in this sitcom, did much the same thing. On their first drive they too came out running up the middle with Lynch. But a procedure penalty, a sack and a short pass on 3rd and 14 by quarterback Edwards came up short. Throw in a personal foul on center Geoff Hangartner after the play was over and the Bills punted. And that’s pretty much how it went, at least until the Parrish fumble that cost the Bills the game.

It would be too haughty to suggest that a game this insignificant was a chess match. With offensive ineptitude the order of the day, Mangini and his counterpart, Dick Jauron, played the field position game like two old timers playing a strategic game of checkers outside of Floyd’s barbershop.

On this count, the Browns were the first to advance across the board and get their queen, in the form of a 24-yard Cundiff field goal in the first half. The back story to this field goal unfolded like the 7,683rd repeat of that Lucy episode with the conveyor belt.

After a mind-numbing array of punt exchanges, Adams downed a Zastudil punt at the Bills’ 1-yard line. The Bills’ offense went into immediate false start mode, their third of the half and costing them all of 6 inches. This led to an Edwards’ quarterback sneak on first down, thus leading to speculation that Brian Daboll, the Browns’ offensive coordinator, was calling plays for both teams. A short run on second and a short pass to the tight end on third forced the Bills to punt again and this time the Browns really did have good field position, or so it would seem.

With Moorman punting from deep in his own end zone, Cribbs was able to field the ball at the Bills’ 42-yard line. But a holding penalty pushed the ball back on the Cleveland side of the field. The comedy of errors and ineptitude continued unabated.

The Browns would have blown the field position if not for an untimely offside penalty by the Bills defense on a third down sack of Anderson. It gave the Browns another chance and Cribbs took the handoff from Anderson and sprinted down the left sideline 31 yards. But two short runs and another missed pass forced a 24-yard Cundiff field goal giving Cleveland a 3-0 lead.

The Bills then took over and put together their best drive. It still wasn’t good enough. After driving down to the Cleveland 11-yard line the Bills had two penalties and a loss on a run, pushing them back to the Cleveland 31-yard line. On 4th and 24, Edwards was flushed out of the pocket and through deep toward Owens and into at least double coverage. The ball was batted down by Brodney Pool and Cleveland held on to its 3-0 lead as the half ended.

The Bills finally got on the scoreboard with a field goal of their own, a 36-yarder by Rian Lindell, to open the second half. But true to the Bills’ roots, it was a drive of one distraction after another getting there. Beyond the obligatory false start penalty, their 833rd of the day, the drive almost died until Lynch took a short pass on 3rd and 9 and turned it into a 35-yard gain aided greatly by some very poor tackling. The drive eventually did die, as expected, a few plays later forcing the Lindell field goal attempt.

With the score tied 3-3, it looked to be a return of the infamous Snow Bowl, except it was a bright, sunny day in Buffalo and the game was being played by two teams with rosters full of players that will be out of the league before either team makes the playoffs again.

The Browns did their part in acting like it was the elements, yea the elements, by continuing to mostly run Lewis. On Anderson’s best pass of the day, he had tight end Royal down the left side with a step on the defender but the ball clanged off the gloves Royal apparently was willed by Braylon Edwards before he left town. Steve Heiden was then called for an illegal crack back block Anderson threw poorly to Harrison who, had he caught it, would have been well short of the first down anyway.

About the only other excitement of the second half came on the Browns’ next possession, when Anderson, already just 2-12 for 23 yards, threw his perfunctory interception. Looking for Massaquoi running deep, Anderson misfired and safety Jarius Byrd laid out for the interception. He would have been down right there except that Massaquoi, the nearest Browns player, was busy complaining about something. Byrd got up and ran it back 14 yards.

No matter as Edwards bailed his counterpart out a few plays later. Edwards, scrambling as he was most of the day, looked for Owens down the left side line but found Eric Wright instead. But three run plays later and now officially fearful that Anderson would throw another interception, the Browns opted for the punt. Fielding the ball at the Bills 40 yard line, Parrish proceeded to run 15 yards backwards. It was the game’s signature play.

The Bills then went about making matters worse. On 3rd and 3, Edwards threw what could charitably be described as a screen of sorts to Lynch who was tackled immediately and short of the first down. Lynch, crashing into the Browns’ sidelines, got up and gesticulated furiously. The referees apparently didn’t know what to make of it all and flagged Lynch for unnecessary roughness. It was their 11th penalty of the day. The subsequent punt by Moorman, into the wind, gave the Browns the ball at their own 47-yard line.

Yes, it was early in the 4th quarter, but this had the feel of the Browns’ best chance to break the tie and keep this game from inflicting further pain on its patrons by going into overtime. It wasn’t and but for the Parrish fumble a few minutes later the game might still be going on.

There was nothing about the Browns’ performance, outside of Zastudil, that signaled anything other than it was a week full of upheaval and distraction. But again running counter to theory, all of the ineptitude and retreat resulted in Mangini’s first win as head coach of the Browns. Go figure. He’ll probably celebrate, but just barely.

As for the Bills, it’s hard to know what excuse they’ll use. Outside of an inability to block on offense, tackle on defense, line-up onside or listen to a snap count, they were a study in discipline and precision. If Jauron survives the season, then there ought to be a Congressional investigation.

With the win, the Browns now head to Pittsburgh. The Steelers are struggling a bit out of the gate this season but, unlike the Bills, they’ll know how to pile on the points if the Browns and Anderson have another day like they had on Sunday.

Spitting in the Face of Destiny

Staring the kind of destiny squarely in the eye that could have had ramifications well beyond this season, it was the littlest players that came to the Browns’ rescue Monday night against the Buffalo Bills.

Faced with the possibility of blowing their third straight lead of at least 13 points, something no NFL team has ever done, running back Jerome Harrison came out hibernation just long enough and kicker Phil Dawson hit a 56-yard field goal, his fifth of the game, with 1:35 remaining to give the Browns a 29-27 win. The Browns still had to wait out a final missed field 47-yard field goal by Bills’ kicker Rian Lindell that sailed just wide right with 35 seconds left before finally putting an end to their current two-game losing streak and keeping themselves out of the wrong chapters of the NFL’s record book.

The win improved the Browns’ record to 4-6 while the Bills sunk to 5-5 after starting the season at 5-1.

The Dawson field goal was the difference, but if not for some late heroics by Harrison that helped make Dawson’s field goal the game winner the finger pointing inside the Browns locker room would have taken on a fever pitch. On the first play of the fourth quarter and the ball at the Browns’ 28-yard line, Harrison, on only his second touch of the game, took a handoff from Quinn, broke one tackle at the line of scrimmage and then scampered virtually untouched for a 72-yard touchdown run that momentarily turned a precarious three point lead into a 10-point margin at 23-13.

It was the Browns’ longest run from scrimmage in three years and was certainly an unexpected and welcome change of pace for a team that was working hard to blow a 13-0 lead they had acquired early in the second quarter. It would have been nice change, too, if it had lasted even a series. Leodis McKelvin, who had nearly broken two other returns earlier in the game, immediately took the Dawson kick off, cut left and then right across the field for a 98- yard touchdown return that again brought the Bills back to within three at 23-20. It was the third time the Bills had cut a Browns’ lead to 3 points. This time though it was with momentum that more than suggested that the Browns’ date with destiny was inevitable.

Except this time it was the opposing team, in the form of the Bills, that was doing all it could to make sure that didn’t happen. Lindell’s ensuing kickoff, one of the worst if not the worst in the league this year, went out of bounds at the Cleveland 43-yard line. Harrison ran for 9 yards line with 15 more tacked on when he was hit out of bounds. That put the ball at the Bills 33-yard line. Harrison then caught a crucial third down pass from quarterback Brady Quinn for 21 yards that took the ball to the Bills’ 9-yard line. The Browns couldn’t punch it when a Lewis run fell short and Quinn overthrew both tight end Kellen Winslsow and receiver Braylon Edwards in the end zone. It led to a Dawson 26-yard field goal and another precarious six point lead, 26-20.

With Bills’ quarterback Trent Edwards afraid to throw it down field, thanks to three first quarter interceptions, the Browns’ defense mounted one of their few challenges to the Bills’ running game forcing them to punt with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter. With a 6-point lead, it gave the Browns the opportunity to control their own fate late and put the game away which is what good teams do and 3-6 teams can’t.

It’s why what happened next was a surprise to virtually no one. Bills’ linebacker Kawika Mitchell, blitzing Quinn without any resistance from any member of the Browns’ offensive line, forced a rainbow throw that seemingly floated into the waiting arms of safety Ko Simpson. But head coach Romeo Crennel challenged the call, his first of the season, and was rewarded for his patience. The pass was ruled incomplete.

Given a second chance, Quinn hit Winslow for a first down. It was only the second third down conversion of the night for the Browns. The excitement was short-lived. Quinn nearly hit a streaking Edwards at the Bills’ 35-yard line but he was well covered. On the next play, a key third and 6, Quinn did hit Edwards for an apparent first down, apparent because, naturally, Edwards dropped the ball, his fourth drop of the game, forcing the Browns to punt. Rosco Parrish fielded the Zastudil punt at his own 15-yard line and returned it to the Cleveland 48 with 5:13 remaining. It was as good a chance as the Bills could want to run out the clock and grab the victory.

The Bills only got one of two of those correct, and until the Dawson field goal and Lindell miss, it seemed like the right one. Running back Marshawn Lynch, who along with fellow back Fred Jackson, spent most of the game shredding the Cleveland defense on the ground, ran for 29 yards and then followed it up with a 28-yard run that took the ball to the Cleveland 1-yard line. Edwards, in a bit of redemption considering the breadth and depth of his mistakes early on, snuck it in for the touchdown that helped give the Bills the 27-26 lead with 2:25 remaining. A freezing Ralph Wilson Stadium was suddenly the hottest place on earth.

Without wanting to resort to the trite cliché, it was nevertheless the quintessential gut-check moment for a team on the brink. Josh Cribbs was able to take the Lindell kick back to the Browns’ 32-yard line. Quinn hit Edwards at the Browns’ 45-yard line for a first down. Two plays later he hit Winslow for 16 more yards, taking it down to the Bills’ 39-yard line at the two-minute warning, inching ever closer to Dawson’s field goal range. Quinn was then nearly picked off on a poor throw to Donte Stallworth and then overthrew Winslow and Edwards on consecutive plays to set up the Dawson game winner. Though nearly blocked, the kick sailed through the middle and cleared the cross bar with room to spare that gave the Browns the final margin of victory. Still, there was 1:35 remaining.

Not wanting to kick to McKelvin, Dawson bounced the kickoff into the waiting arms of Jackson, who merely took it to the Bills’ 44-yard line. Edwards, still in the throes of a confidence crisis, now had no choice but to throw and he did, immediately, naturally putting the Bills in field goal range by hitting tight end Robert Royal with a 22-yard pass down to the Cleveland 34-yard line. Three straight running plays took it to the Cleveland 28-yard line with 43 seconds remaining as Cleveland was forced to use their final time out to preserve, if necessary, a last chance. It wouldn’t be necessary. Lindell, playing the part of Scott Norwood, but in a game with far less meaning, went wide right and with it went the Bills’ last chance.

The flurry of activity, intermittent scoring and actual excitement in the second half belied a sloppy, inartistic mess in the first half. The Bills’ Edwards was doing his part to try and give the Browns every opportunity for a blow-out, a gift the Browns continually declined.

On his first play from scrimmage, for example, Edwards saw his pass batted at the line of scrimmage by Shaun Rogers and intercepted by Kamerion Wimbley at the Cleveland 44-yard line. It was a theme that was preceded by another theme. The Browns weren’t able to convert. Quinn’s first pass, for example, was dropped, naturally, by Braylon Edwards. Good field position, three plays, Bills’ ball.

The Bills and Edwards tried to re-gift on their next drive by throwing this time to linebacker Andra Davis. Three Edwards passes, three complete, two to the Browns. This time the Browns capitalized, in the most expected way, a Dawson 40-yard field goal. As it’s happened too many times this season, it was a drive that initially promised so much more. It featured a new play, a quarterback bootleg that Quinn took for 11 yards. It also featured a perfect pass to Edwards at the 5-yard line, which he dropped, naturally, as a thousand angry fans blasted the message boards on TheClevelandFan.com in response.

On their next drive Bills’ offensive coordinator Turk Schonert showed the savvy of the back-up quarterback he was. He took the ball mostly out of Edwards’ hands and put it in Lynch’s hands instead, except for two very safe screen passes, also to Lynch. It was the best decision the Bills made all game as it ended up giving them their best chance to win.. In this instance, it was successful in the sense that there wasn’t a turnover. It proved far more successful later on as Lynch, first, and then Jackson, found hole after hole in a very porous Cleveland line.

But something should be said for Schonert. Apparently not convinced that the running game was the answer, he let Edwards thrown down field one more time. Schonert was rewarded for his confidence with Edwards’ third interception of the game, this time to the beleaguered Brandon McDonald who took the ball to the Bills’ 12-yard line. But perhaps Schonert knew what was to come. A failed reverse to Stallworth was good for a 4-yard loss. Another drop by Edwards on second down (three passes, three drops) and an incomplete pass to a well-covered Winslow led to a 33-yard field goal by Dawson. Three interceptions, six points and only one touchdown away from being behind in a game they should have been dominating.

But of course, the Bills were on the same offensive pace that they were in last year’s 8-0 loss in Cleveland. McKelvin took the Dawson kickoff back to the Bills’ 49-yard line. Edwards didn’t throw an interception this time, but neither was he able to move the team to a first down. This time it was the Bills that punted brilliantly, downing the ball at the Cleveland 3-yard line. But in a break that proved to be larger than any of the three interceptions, Quinn threw long to Winslow on third down. Clearly interfered with, the official instead signaled for illegal contact. Though it led to a Cleveland first down, it was only a 5-yard penalty. Then Quinn went to work.

He hit Winslow on a nice crossing pattern at the Browns’ 29-yard line. He then hit Edwards at the 49-yard line. This time he held on and a thousand exasperated fans blasted TheClevelandFan.com message boards to collectively say “about time.” But Edwards wasn’t done. He then caught another Quinn strike at the 32-yard line. A deep pass in the end zone to Stallworth was overthrown, but Edwards held on to a quick slant for another first down at the Bills’ 22-yard line. Jamal Lewis added 16 more yards on an end around that gave Cleveland a first and goal at the Bills’ 2-yard line. Sprinting around end, Cribbs took the handoff from Quinn, cut it back inside for the touchdown that helped extend the Cleveland lead to 13-0.

It was just enough of a lead to make the fans back on the message boards say “hey, I’ve seen this movie before.”

Whatever one thinks of Trent Edwards, the one thing he’s not is Jay Cutler and thus the movie didn’t quite have the same ending this time. The three first-quarter interceptions all but guaranteed that Edwards would be tentative the rest of the night. He was. But Lynch and Jackson were not. Jackson broke through for a 19-yard run and then followed it up with a 17-yard run. Meanwhile, with an opportunity to throw downfield, Edwards repeatedly opted instead for the outlet receiver, usually positioned safely near the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, one of those outlet receivers was Lynch. Grabbing an essentially lateral pass at the Cleveland 18-yard line, Lynch then finished the drive, braking tackle after tackle on his way to a touchdown that helped bring the Bills back to within six points at 13-7.

It seemed to wake up the rest of the team. The Bills’ defense forced a quick Cleveland three-and-out. Taking over with just under 5 minutes left in the half, the Bills used Jackson and Lynch to continually hammer the Browns’ defense with one punch after another. A direct snap to Jackson here, a great catch and run by Lynch there and the Bills again were quickly deep in Cleveland territory. Luckily Edwards was still tentative. With plenty of time to throw, Edwards instead opted for an ill-advised run that forced Buffalo to call their last time out with 15 seconds left in the half and the ball sitting at the Cleveland 7-yard line. Edwards threw perfectly to safety Brodney Pool who should have had the Browns’ fourth interception of the half. Scared by that possibility Edwards then danced around in the pocket for nearly the rest of the quarter, finally throwing out of bounds with three seconds left. Lindell hit the 24-yard field goal that brought the Bills to within 13-10 at the half. For those counting at home, that was 10 straight Bills’ points.

If the Browns had any notion of stopping the bleeding this time, they’d have to do something heroic even on a smaller scale, such as converting a third down, something they didn’t do in the first half. That would take a few more series. Meanwhile, the Bills seemed poise to at least tie it on their next drive but McDonald knocked the ball loose from Jackson as he tried to squirm for extra yardage at the Cleveland 28-yard line. The loose ball was picked up Ahtyba Rubin who took it to the Browns’ 37-yard line. It was the first time anybody covering a Browns’ game had to type Rubin’s name all season. It proved to be a good enough omen to at least allow Quinn a chance to lead the team into field goal range, which he did, and to actually help the Browns stop the bleeding.

Alternating between 10 and three point leads for most of the rest of the second half, the inevitable seemed poised to happen. Despite a plethora of turnovers and a quarterback who probably is still hearing footsteps, the Bills managed to remain within striking distance the rest of the game. It was the classic set up of one team unable to put another away only. Indeed, when Edwards’ temporarily gave the Bills their only lead of the game, that’s exactly what the lede to this game story looked like. But this time it was another team that couldn’t hold a late lead and now the Browns, while not exactly resurrecting their season, at least gained some measure of respectability since the game was on national television, as the thousands who watched can attest.

Other than Dawson’s five field goals and the Harrison 72-yard run, there was nothing particularly spectacular about either the Browns’ approach or their execution. It’s just that wherever they fell short, the Bills fell justthismuch shorter. Quinn, in his second start of his career, was able to get a better outcome this time despite playing a far more uneven game. Facing repeated blitzes, Quinn avoided turnovers, but barely. The Bills easily should have had two interceptions. But the constant pressure and an offensive line that seemed to have never learned how to pick up a blitz led Quinn to a less-than-impressive 14-36 for only 185 yards and no touchdowns. Still it was far better than his counterpart with the Bills. Edwards was 14-26 for only 149 yards, most of which came on 1-yard passes that Lynch repeatedly turned into decent gains, and 3 interceptions. He also had one touchdown, to Lynch, naturally.

In what is now a firmly established recurring theme, season after season, another set of running backs had their way with a Cleveland defensive front seven. This time it was Lynch and Jackson. Lynch had 119 yards on 23 carries, his first career 100-yard game, and also had 58 yards receiving. Jackson added another 60 yards on the ground. The Browns had 161 yards on the ground, including 80 by Harrison on just 3 carries, 65 by Lewis and 18 by Quinn on two bootlegs. The Browns’ Edwards, despite four more drops, had an otherwise solid night catching 8 passes for 104 yards.

With the victory, the team that seems to play better (if not well) when shrouded in controversy returns home to face the Houston Texans, who stand at 3-7. It’s a golden opportunity for the Browns to get ever closer to the mystical .500 mark. But unless a little controversy, contrived or otherwise arises, it’s an opportunity that the rhythm of this season suggests has every chance of being squandered.

Lingering Items--Bills Edition

One of the great things about playing a football game in adverse conditions is that it tends to expose whatever flaws your team may have. Indeed, in some ways, adverse conditions can be the best way for a general manager to judge the relative strengths and weaknesses of his team.

Thus, equally as important as the Browns victory Sunday was against the Bills was the fact that it highlighted where both teams need work if they have hopes of becoming among the elite in the NFL. But since this isn’t a site dedicated to the Bills, we’ll let that team and its fans figure out its shortcomings, but here’s a hint: defensive line. Here’s another hint: offensive line.

As for the Browns, Sunday’s game revealed the same litany of strengths and holes that, frankly, have been present all season. On the plus side, as good of a season that quarterback Derek Anderson has had, his passing success owes a debt of gratitude to the continued threat of a strong running attack, led by Jamal Lewis. Dumping Reuben Droughns, who is now mostly an afterthought with the New York Giants, has turned out to be a brilliant move.

Droughns certainly isn’t a bad running back, but he simply never seemed to possess the combination of speed, strength and toughness that made opposing teams respect the Browns running attack week in and week out. I suppose, too, that it’s a fair point that Droughns ran behind an inferior offensive line while in Cleveland. But there’s no question that neither Denver, which did have a good offensive line and from whom the Browns acquired Droughns, nor general manager Phil Savage felt that Droughns had that “it” factor, even if running behind the kind of line Lewis now has.

But Lewis is a much different story. Even before coming to the Browns, he had compiled enough credentials to qualify him as an elite back. But the way he was seemingly cast aside by a Baltimore Ravens team desperate for offense fed the common perception that Lewis was an “old” 28 years of age whose better days had passed. In fact, the whispers were that Lewis had basically turned into a back like Larry Brown, the former Washington Redskin from the early 1970s who was a Pro Bowler three of his first four seasons. At that time, Brown seemed well on his way to a Hall of Fame career, but just as suddenly fell off the map as the result of all the hits he had taken during those early seasons. He had been prematurely beaten up and rendered ineffective.

What the Bills game proved in particular and the season has proven in general is that Lewis is far from being done as a running back and is, indeed, with the season he’s put together this year is unquestionably a legitimate Hall of Famer when his playing days do end. The conditions on Sunday begged for exactly the style of running that Lewis has perfected. The fact that he delivered so impressively leaves no doubt that teams cannot simply key on one aspect of Rob Chudzinski’s offense. In other words, the Browns already clearly have a playoff-quality offense.

The defense, though, is a much bigger story. The fact that Marshawn Lynch had 82 yards rushing wasn’t much of a surprise for two reasons. First, the Bills mostly ran until the last drive. Second, it’s not as if the Browns defensive line has been able to really stop anybody all year anyway. On the year, they are giving up over 128 yards rushing per game. Saying, again, that the defensive line needs to get fixed is as obvious as noting that there are some parental issues that need to be addressed in the Spears family.

But a disturbing trend of the last few weeks most certainly was how the defense, collectively, seemed to nearly fall apart with the game on the line against beaten teams with inferior offenses. Both were remarkably similar. Two teams that hadn’t been able to do much over the course of 55 minutes suddenly turned into the New England Patriots in the last 5. Passes suddenly got completed, running lanes opened and the defense seemed helpless, missing tackles and blowing coverage.

It’s too easy to simply conclude that a lack of talent is responsible and time to focus at least some attention on defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. The schemes he’s calling late in the game, which feature three down linemen rushing and maximum protection back in order to stop big plays, aren’t working. By getting absolutely no pressure on the quarterbacks, even the likes of Kellen Clemens can eventually find someone breaking open. And when you get to the playoffs, the quarterbacks won’t be stiffs.

But if this trend continues, the only real hope that the Browns have of advancing in the playoffs is if they are clicking on offense and doing just enough on defense to keep the game from getting out of control. Unfortunately, of the potential teams they might meet in the playoffs, all have defenses that are in the top half of the conference, which makes that a difficult task. Further complicating it is the fact that the converse is true as well; of the potential teams they might meet in the playoffs, all have offenses that are in the top half of the conference. In other words, this is the time of year when the biggest flaws get revealed. The Browns lack of balance between offense and defense is the threat to whatever comes next.

***

In case anyone was looking for additional reasons why at least one if not more of the Browns offensive linemen should have been in the Pro Bowl, consider how little Anderson has been sacked. He’s started 14 games and played half of another and has been sacked only 12 times. That ties him with Drew Brees for the least sacked starter, just ahead of Brett Favre.

Plenty of credit for this goes to Anderson because of his quick release. The ability to make a decision quickly is the key to avoiding sacks. Quarterbacks looking to always make the perfect throw tend to find themselves picking themselves up off the turf more often than not. For proof, look no further than Charlie Frye. In one half of one game, he was sacked five times, with the same offensive line that has basically kept Anderson’s uniform clean all season.

But as much and probably more credit for the lack of sacks goes to the offensive line. If not for Frye’s five sacks in the first game of the season, they would be tied with New Orleans. Yet, no offensive lineman from the Browns made the Pro Bowl while Alan Faneca will start at guard and Jonathan Ogden will start at tackle. Clearly, those are reputation picks because the performance this year is clearly lacking. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked an astounding 43 times, second most only to Jon Kitna in Detroit, while Ravens quarterbacks have been sacked 35 times. It’s always difficult, of course, to really know how well an offensive lineman is performing. But this certainly looks like a good place to start looking.

***

While were measuring the effectiveness of the Browns offensive line, take note of the story in Wednesday’s USA Today where Sean Leahy writes that 60 different players have started at quarterback in NFL games this year, the most in the 32-team era. The Browns contributed to that statistic when they sent Frye off to Seattle to carry a clipboard, but that’s misleading.

Most of the changes that have come across the league relate to injuries, naturally. The rest relate to ineffectiveness. Ultimately, though, it all traces back to the offensive line. When your quarterback isn’t constantly being harassed, he’s less likely to get injured. And if he’s not getting harassed, he has a decent chance to be effective. It’s really a pretty simple, tried and true concept, which has taken the Browns only about two decades to learn.

***

Proving that players can learn from other players, the kneel down by the Eagles Brian Westbrook at the one yard line late in the fourth quarter Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys demonstrates clearly that sometimes scoring isn’t always the right play. Indeed, it almost cost the Browns against the Jets.

As I noted last week in the Jets edition, the chaos near the end of that game was due, oddly, by Jamal Lewis’ terrific 31-yard touchdown run. Had he not scored but rather been tackled after gaining the first down, the Browns could have run out the clock since the Jets were out of time outs.

The exact same scenario developed in Dallas. Westbrook, like Lewis, broke through and was headed for a touchdown. But instead of scoring, he dropped to the ground at the one, allowing the Eagles to run out the clock because the Cowboys likewise had no time outs.

It was a heady play by Westbrook, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean that Lewis made a bonehead play either. Given how the defenses were playing in both those games, a touchdown at that point, with just over a minute left, should have closed out the game anyway. The fact that the Browns defense fell apart, while predictable in theory, didn’t seem possible in context. Live and learn.

***
Proving that coaches don’t learn from other coaches, in that same game Eagles coach Andy Reid called a time out to determine whether or not he wanted to challenge a play. He did and lost. Two time outs blown. Fortunately, it didn’t cost his team like it did Browns head coach Romeo Crennel. Live and don’t learn, I suppose.

***
Questions to ponder: Why is Rich Rodriguez, who ran out on his team, his alma mater, with a BCS bowl game to play, not being raked over the coals in the same way as Bobby Petrino?
The New York Yankees on Tuesday fired traveling secretary David Szen. Does that mean that George Costanza will finally get the promotion he’s so richly deserved?

Let it Snow

If it wasn’t quite destiny, it was inevitability. When Browns kicker Phil Dawson nailed an improbable 49-yard field goal just before the end of the first half, in that one brief moment in the entire half when the wind and the snow stilled, there wasn’t a person watching who didn’t know right then and there that the Browns were heading to the playoffs. And when they get there, which they will, the 8-0 victory Sunday against the Buffalo Bills couldn’t have served as a more fitting entry pass. The Bills, on the other hand, will be left to ponder “what if?” when the playoffs start as they sunk to 7-7 on the season and in need of more miracles than Tiny Tim.

It would be hard to overstate the impact Dawson’s kick had on the rest of the game. The fact that the Browns even tried it was a questionable call. The score was only 5-0 at that point and a miss would have given the Bills good field position with 1:25 and all three time outs. The smart money was on a pooch punt which clearly would have sent the Browns into halftime with the lead anyway.

But give head coach Romeo Crennel credit. By taking that chance, given the stakes, he was just as clearly sending a message to the beleaguered defense that he had confidence that they could make a stop if necessary. When the kick cleared the upright byjustthismuch, hitting Dawson’s new best friend—the center support bar—in the process it provided a lethal one-two punch of emotion that effectively lifted the Browns above the elements, above the competition and, most likely, on into the playoffs. We’ll know more next week as Tennessee prevailed late against Kansas City to deny the Browns from clinching with two games remaining.

The 8-0 score at that point had to seem like at least a two-touchdown lead to the Bills. And, as it was, it mostly was. Of course, the Browns and their fans had to endure the now common late charge by a team on the ropes. The only real bullet the Browns had to dodge in the second half came on the Bills very last drive. In 1:51, the Bills were able to move the ball better than they had all day and better than even they had a right to expect.

The key to the drive was Bills quarterback Trent Edwards’ 20-yard pass on fourth and 10 that took the ball to the Cleveland 15. Edwards was forced to spike the ball on first down to stop the clock, leaving three plays, 20 yards and a two-point conversion between his team and overtime and the possibility of salvaging their dwindling playoffs hopes.

But on fourth down and five from the Cleveland 10, the Bills elected to try for the first down instead of the touchdown. Edwards tossed a swing pass to Freddie Jackson that linebacker Chaun Thompson and safety Sean Jones snuffed out immediately, holding Jackson to no gain. The Browns took over with three seconds left. Anderson took a knee and the Browns found themselves sitting at 9-5 and tied for first in the AFC North with Pittsburgh, which lost at home to Jacksonville, 29-22. And though it had no playoff implications whatsoever, the Dolphins winning their first game of the season at the expense of the Baltimore Ravens was just as satisfying.

In retrospect, Crennel’s gutsy call in the first half was mostly informed by the fact that the Browns were able to move the ball effectively enough throughout that half, the score notwithstanding. Give offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski credit on that one. The elements were irrelevant to him. The Browns stuck to a balanced attack, running 16 times and passing 18 times in that first half, keeping the Bills off-balance throughout. With the poor conditions refusing to let up, a heavy dose of the ground game in the second half was expected.

It helped, of course, that running back Jamal Lewis ran like a Browns running back has to run late in the season. He carried the ball 15 times for 80 yards in that first half, pushing him over the 1,000 yard mark for the sixth time in his career. This running gave Anderson enough time to find Braylon Edwards and Joe Jurevicius just often enough to keep drives alive long enough to keep the ball out of the Bills’ hands.

While the near collapse at the end created enough anxiety to make one forget about the blizzard swirling about, it wasn’t enough to take the shine off all that had taken place to that point. In particular, the drive the Browns and Lewis put together with 6:04 left in the game and the ball sitting on their own three-yard line evoked memories of the actual good ‘ol days, pick your era.

On first down, Lewis ran for 13 yards. On the next play, he gained another nine. On the play after that, he got another first down with a five-yard run. Not finished, he ran for three more yards on the next play. Then, for good measure, Jason Wright ran for 10 yards and another first down. Eventually, though, the Browns found themselves stalled with the ball sitting on the Buffalo 48-yard line, one-half yard short of the first down and two minutes remaining.

For a moment, it looked like Crennel was in full gambling mode, sending Anderson and the offense back on the field. A first down and the game would be over as the Bills were out of time outs. But it was a ruse, Anderson trying his level best to draw the Bills offside. He could not and was forced to call time out. Out trotted Zastudil, who hit a line drive that returner Jim Leonard fielded and brought back to the Bills 30-yard line for that last final drive.

There would be no faulting Crennel for punting at that point. In fact, attempting to gain the first down, even as well as the Browns ran all day, would have been reckless, particularly given how poorly the Bills offense had played all day. But sometimes the right call can cost you as much as the wrong call. Fortunately, it wasn’t this time.

It was pretty clear early on that this wouldn’t be a day for padding the stats, at least from Anderson’s perspective. The wind was blowing at near gale force throughout the game. Balls sailed high. Others fluttered. Most were off target. Anderson was 7-18 for 109 yards in the first half and completed only two passes in the second half, finishing with 137 yards and no touchdowns. But more important than all of that was the lack of interceptions, even though two of Anderson’s first three passes could easily have been picked off. Several others were close. In fact, for as miserable as it was, neither team turned it over, which actually is pretty incredible.

But it was a day for Lewis to pad his stats. He carried 33 times for 163 hard-fought yards. As important as each yard was, even more so was the attitude he displayed in the process. Time and again, he punished the Bills defenders with his runs and never even came close to losing the ball. It was exactly what general manager Phil Savaged envisioned when he signed Lewis in the off season.

It was also a day for the defense to pad their league worse stats. Going into the game, opposing teams were averaging over 27 points a game and 390 yards. But on this day, the defense, aided greatly by an inept Buffalo offense, pitched a shut out and yielded only 232 net yards. For perspective, going into that final drive, Edwards was only 9-21 for 64 yards. On the final drive he was 4-12 for 60 yards. Those four completions in the final drive accounted for more than 25% of the offensive output for the day.

It may not be enough to pull the Browns defense out of the cellar, statistically, but at 9-5 and poised to get into the playoffs, they clearly have bragging rights over the Bills and the Detroit Lions, the two teams the Browns defense have been alternating with all season for that bottom spot on the statistics page.

With two games remaining, the Browns take their act on the road to Cincinnati, which lost to San Francisco on Saturday night. That loss, along with Baltimore’s loss to Miami, greatly raised the odds that the AFC North will have two new head coaches next year. The Browns then come home for what will hopefully be an early New Year’s Eve party against San Francisco.

The Steelers have a fairly easy road as well, although they have a quick turnaround this week with a game Thursday night at St. Louis. It’s on the NFL Network, which always raises the question: if a game is played on a network that no one gets, did it really take place? They finish at home against the Ravens in what should be Brian Billick’s last game. Tennessee, which can’t afford a loss, plays the Jets and finishes up against Indianapolis, with Peyton Manning likely watching from the sidelines.

All of this, though, can be rendered irrelevant if the Browns can just finish what they started. And for good measure, let’s hope for a weather repeat of this week. Everyone, in unison: Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.