Mood Swings

Cleveland Browns fans have always been prone to mood swings based upon the latest evidence on the field. But this season more than most, those mood swings have been more dramatic, as if the entire fan base is on anti-depressants and occasionally forgets to take its meds.

Just a week ago the fans were essentially celebrating a loss to the New York Jets. They were buoyed by the play of rookie quarterback Colt McCoy. They were enthralled that the team seemed to be able to not just take a punch but deliver a few as well. There was also the context of a particularly 4 tough weeks against arguably the league’s 4 best teams and the Browns emerging from it 2-2.

Sure there was the usual grousing about cornerback Eric Wright who is in the midst of the worst free agent season on record. But that was tempered by the overwhelming positives, the usual comment being that this team is fun to watch again.

Fast forward a week and the pendulum has certainly swung in the other direction. The fans still like McCoy (what’s not to like?) but for the love of God how do you get 6 turnovers and lose the game? The grousing about Wright and the rest of the defense grew more vocal as it let Jacksonville’s Maurice Jones-Drew turn an almost meaningless screen pass into a 75-yard run. The run game sucks again and Brian Daboll is also, again, an idiot.

Time for some perspective:

This team is neither nearly as good as the fans thought a week ago nor is it as bad as it appeared to be on Sunday. This is a team that simply doesn’t have enough talent to win more games than it will lose.

The criticism of Daboll and his play-calling on Sunday is actually a good jumping off spot for this larger point. Terry Pluto and Tony Grossi gave voice to the frustration that many later expressed when they both wondered in print why Daboll kept running Peyton Hillis despite the fact that it wasn’t really working. Hillis had 21 carries for 48 yards on Sunday so there is some support for the premise.

The answer is simple. Let’s start with the micro view.

The Jacksonville defensive line hadn’t played like that at any other point in the season. They are mediocre at best and have the statistics to back that up. Moreover, a running game doesn’t develop in just one play or one series. It often doesn’t develop in just one quarter. Often times those 3 and 4 yard gains early in the game turn into 6 and 7 yard gains later in the game. To get to that point you have to demonstrate a level of commitment.

Hillis has run well all season. His style is such that at any moment he’s likely to break through the usual arm tackles and take off chunks of yardage with each carry. Moreover, Hillis did have 6 receptions for 95 yards, so that demonstrates in some fashion that he was causing problems for the Jacksonville defense. That kind of running would make any offensive coordinator continue to stick with running Hillis into the line and around the edges.

Now for the macro view.

The real story is that the game plan looked like it did because what options did Daboll really have? Sure there are guys on the roster that have certain titles, like running back and receiver. But that doesn’t mean they actually perform those functions. You could put a helmet on Fatty Arbuckle and call him a running back but that doesn’t mean he’s going to gain you any yards.

Daboll really had no one to rely on other than McCoy and Hillis in the first place. Hillis’ replacement, Mike Bell, may be the worst running back I’ve ever seen play in the NFL. The Browns got him when they traded Jerome Harrison to Philadelphia in a deal in which it was suggested that all either player needed was a change of scenery.

I don’t know about Harrison, but Bell doesn’t just need a change of scenery, he needs a change of vocations. The Browns would be no worse off running Shaun Rogers into the line occasionally to spell Hillis.

And Bell is the second best back on the active roster! Behind him is Thomas Clayton, a practice squad pickup from New England, and someone named Clifton Smith, a player whose status is so tentative that the team hasn’t even assigned him a permanent jersey number. The injury to Montario Hardesty was a bit of a blessing for the development of Hillis but it absolutely ruined the running back depth on this roster and hence the options that come with that.

Then there was the fact that the best receiver on the roster is Josh Cribbs, a converted kick returner still learning the job. He carries the moniker of someone who is dangerous when he gets the ball, but he can’t get it often enough to be considered a consistent weapon, someone other teams have to worry about every play. Besides, he was out Sunday further limiting Daboll’s options.

In his place were Chansi Stuckey, Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie. Stuckey and Massaquoi are essentially the same receiver, just different names. Neither has the top end speed to ever be a number one receiver in the league. Indeed neither has the speed to be the number two receiver on most teams. That relegates them to what on other teams would be the third option. But on this team they are the first option which means that each week the other teams’ best cornerbacks are essentially doing the work of a typical nickel back instead. No wonder they can’t get open.

As for Brian Robiskie, I like him for what he did at Ohio State. But it doesn’t look like he’ll be anything other than a decent college player. As a professional opposing teams don’t take him seriously because he doesn’t appear to have the requisite quickness off the line to gain an advantage on whatever linebacker or defensive back is put on him. Indeed, our own quarterbacks don’t take him seriously. It’s almost as if he’s an avatar, existing in theory but not reality.

That leaves the tight ends and there the Browns have a decent complement. But the reason they stand out this season has everything to do with the fact that the Browns don’t have a decent complement of receivers. Ben Watson is a nice option as is Evan Moore. Robert Royal has mostly been a disappointment. Still, in terms of offensive options, this group ranks second behind Hillis.

What you have then is a quarterback who can throw and the only ones open tend to be tight ends in the middle of the field and Hillis out of the backfield. In that scenario it almost doesn’t matter who is calling the plays. The options are painfully limited.

The real lesson here is that you can let the moods swing all you want but in context the fact that this offense has scored as many points as it has demonstrates that Daboll is hardly the problem. Arguably he’s gotten more out of this offense then fans have a right to otherwise expect. It’s just that the fans are too angry at the moment to realize it.

Holding Their Ground

The game may have ended up as most expected, but at least the Cleveland Browns didn't go down without a fight. Playing with their third string quarterback against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that would blitz a team quarterbacked by Dick LeBeau's mother just because they can, the Browns nonetheless held their ground for most of the game before coming up short in a closer-than-it looks 28-10 loss.

The storyline going into the game may have been the return of Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger from a league-imposed suspension for unsavory personal conduct he still denies, but the overarching storyline for Browns' fans was Colt McCoy's first start in a season where Browns' management had hoped he'd just be a passive observer.

But McCoy gave a good accounting for himself, hanging tough in the face of relentless blitzing from one of the league's best defenses, throwing accurately and getting his first NFL touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Having survived this game pretty much in tact, indeed after having gained confidence as the game wore on, no one associated with the Browns need fear McCoy's next start, which irrespective of the health of Seneca Wallace, should be next week against New Orleans.

On the day McCoy was a very respectable 23-33 for 281 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.

The record book will reflect that McCoy's first touchdown pass went for 12 yards to tight end Ben Watson with just over 4 minutes in the game. But this was no preseason, 4th quarter garbage time touchdown. It brought the Browns' back to within 11 points just after the Steelers had taken the lead on a touchdown following a muffed fair catch by Chansi Stuckey (more on that in a moment) with just under 6 minutes remaining in the game.

True at that moment the game was effectively over, McCoy nonetheless put together a tidy 70-yard drive in which he went 4-5. It featured a 28-yard pass to Evan Moore and the touchdown pass to Watson. Given how he had been knocked around all game, it was as pleasant a surprise as it was unexpected. Browns fans are used to seeing their quarterbacks just crawl back into a shell when the going gets that tough.

The Browns, though, were showing some spunk. They tried and failed at an onside kick, looking to make the score even closer. After the Steelers punted, McCoy went back to work but threw his second interecption, this time to Lawrence Timmons. Three plays later, Roethlisberger connected with Mike Wallace for a touchdown and the final margin of victory. It was Roethlisberger's third touchdown pass of the day and second to Wallace.

If this Browns' season is all about tracking progress, then here's a statistic that will make fans feel better. For the 6th straight game, the Browns had a lead, this time an early 3-0 on Phil Dawson's franchise record 235th field goal. But the counterpoint, unfortunately, is that for the 5th time in those 6 games, the Browns permanently relinquished that lead and now find themselves pretty much where they were a season ago, 1-5 with injuries mounting more quickly than subpoenas at a Cuyahoga County commissioners meeting.

At least they didn't lose another quarterback. Well, sorta, they did and it's a loss that could prove to be far more difficult for the team to absorb if kick returner, receiver and part-time quarterback Josh Cribbs is out for any extended period of time.

Cribbs, running from the wildcat formation early in the second quarter, collided with former Kent State teammate James Harrison and was knocked cold. Cribbs was able to leave under his own power but was taken into the locker room and didn't return. If T.J. Ward is the barometer then Harrison should get an nice letter from the NFL and a strongly worded request that he donate part of his salary for what amounted to a helmet-to-helmet hit on Cribbs. Oddly, with an official right there and watching Harrison lead into his tackle of Cribbs with his helmet, he didn't bother to throw a flag.

But Harrison was hardly through. A short time later and for good measure, Harrison also blasted a an essentially defenseless Mohamed Massaquoi in the helmet as well and likewise wasn't flagged. The hit knocked Massaquoi out of the game yet didn't garner a penalty, either. If the league lets the Cribbs hit go it will only be because they won't let the Massaquoi hit go. In truth, Harrison deserves double the Ward fine.

With two starting receivers out, Stuckey became the primary receiver and the putative punt returner, which is how he got into a position to muff a return in the first place. Stuckey did catch 4 passes for 46 yards. Watson, though, was the leading receiver with 6 catches for 88 yards and the touchdown. Running back Peyton Hillis also had 6 catches, for 49 yards.

With Cribbs no longer an option of any sort, the entire burden of facing the Steelers fell to McCoy. It's a similar dilemma that more than a dozen or so other quarterbacks for the Browns have found themselves in over the last decade and if nothing else, McCoy proved he wasn't overwhelmed, which gives him a leg up on most of the others already.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll helped out by simplifying the game plan a bit. There were plenty of runs that featured misdirection and a number of screens designed mostly to keep the pressure off McCoy. When McCoy did drop back, he showed a mostly accurate arm while also absorbing a beating at the hands of a blitzing Pittsburgh defense.

McCoy's day didn't get off to the kind of start that anyone outside of Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs wanted. After taking the opening drive and moving into Steelers' territory, McCoy threw into heavy traffic and saw the ball tipped and then intercepted by safety Ryan Clark.

The Steelers, though, couldn't capitalize. With Roethlisberger and the hard running of Rashard Mendenhall, who had 84 yards on 27 carries for the day, the Steelers offense was putting together an impressive drive. It ended abruptly however on 3rd and 4 from the Cleveland 14-yard line when Roethlisberger overthrew Wallace and into the waiting arms of cornerback Joe Haden. It was Haden's first career interception and his 62-yard run afterward was easily the most exciting run of the Browns season, returning it 62 yards. It led to the Dawson field goal and the 3-0 lead.

That lead lasted as long as the Steelers' next drive. Roethlisberger then went to work, hitting Emmanuel Sanders on a 22-yard pass and then, under pressure from linebacker Matt Roth, hitting Wallace for a 29-yard touchdown. Wallace had turned cornerback Eric Wright the wrong way near the end zone a for the score. It gave Pittsburgh a 7-3 lead.

Despite Roethlisberger looking mostly like he had been playing all season, the Browns' defense still kept the game close. It's hard to know, certainly, but a case could certainly be made that the game may have been even closer if defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was just a little less reckless.

His schemes tend to keep opposing quarterbacks guessing. The linebackers, particularly Matt Roth and Scott Fujita, are playing better than any group of linebackers in the last 10 years. As a unit, the Browns' defense hits hard. Yet, Ryan's love affair with his cleverness continues to cost this team.

Every Steelers big play came on a Browns blitz. Roethlisberger's first touchdown, a 29-yarder to Wallace, came on the heels of a blitz that left, guess who, Wright flailing once again. Roethlisberger's second touchdown, an 8-yarder to Hines Ward, came on an all out blitz that again left Wright exposed. Ward caught it short of the goal line but Wright was out of position and whiffed on the tackle. Had it been made, the Steelers would have had to settle for a field goal and the game would have been that much closer.

The reason the Steelers can get away with blitzing so often is that they have talented defensive backs that can cover and tackle. The reason the Browns can't ever seem to get away with blitzing is that they have a patchwork defensive backfield that features two rookies, a 9-year veteran, Sheldon Brown, who has lost a step and 4th year player in Wright who hasn't taken the next step in his development that most expected.

Things don't get any easier next week for the Browns as they travel to New Orleans. Drew Brees will have 6 weeks of game films to study all the various blitzes that Ryan will throw at him and, if Cribbs doesn't return, the Saints' defense will spend most of their day covering tight ends. For good measure, they won't have to worry much about kicking away from the Browns' return teams, either.

It's far from the best case scenario for the Browns, but then again, when was the last time the best case scenario fell the Browns' way anyway? Exactly.

Don't Let the Door...

The news broke that the Cleveland Browns traded disgruntled (and I mean really disgruntled) receiver Braylon Edwards to the New York Jets and even before I knew who and what the Browns received in return I couldn’t help think about Lenny Dykstra’s quote when the Philadelphia Phillies traded Von Hayes to the Indians years ago, “great trade, who’d we get?”

And that’s the point, isn’t it? Does it really matter who the Browns get in return for Edwards? Isn’t this the ultimate addition by subtraction trade?

There was an entry on the message boards at The Cleveland Fan that saw this trade as somehow being engineered by Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry as his way of ensuring that LeBron James won’t end up in New York. Good thought.

As it turns out the Browns received linebacker Jason Trusnik, a 4th year player out of Nordonia High and Ohio Northern who came into the league as an undrafted free agent, wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, a 7th round pick of the Jets in 2007 out of Clemson, and two draft picks. That makes a good trade even better. The Browns actually received real live players and Mangini’s favorite currency, draft picks, in return, although the level of the picks hasn’t been disclosed.

Trusnik is mostly a special teams player and Stuckey is the Jets’ number two receiver on a team with very average wide receivers. For his career, Stuckey has 43 catches for 479 yards and 4 touchdowns. He missed all of 2007 with a foot injury. He’ll bring some experience but an undistinguished resume. No matter. If he can just catch the ball more than he drops it then he’ll be an immediate contributor. More importantly, this trade should at least put a permanent end to second round pick Brian Robiskie’s days as an inactive bystander on game day.

What makes this trade important from a Browns’ perspective is not what the Browns received in return but the statement that it makes to the rest of the players. To put it charitably, Edwards was a problem, not just for head coach Eric Mangini but for Romeo Crennel before that. Edwards was the center of his own universe and playing for a coach who only wants the planets revolving around him and no one else. Edwards always had his own agenda and while he tried on occasion to talk a good game his actions spoke volumes about where he placed himself in the team dynamic.

Edwards was a rock that was headed for Mangini’s windshield during the offseason. It’s not secret that Mangini tried to trade him in the run up to the draft but couldn’t quite work out a deal with the New York Giants. This time Mangini found a fit and a sigh of relief is being breathed city-wide.

Certainly Edwards’ latest problem, the near brawl he allegedly started early Monday morning, was the precipitating factor in his sudden departure. But this was a move that was coming sooner or later. The Browns could have retained Edwards by making him a franchise player at the end of the season, thus effectively keeping him from signing elsewhere. Practically no one thought that was a likely scenario.

What was always far more likely was a trade such as this that keeps the Browns from facing the difficult decision of having to either sign Edwards or let him go for nothing. Argue all you want (as I would) that letting Edwards go for nothing is still a plus for this franchise, but take it on a leap of faith if you must that other teams would have thought the Browns were crazy had they let that scenario play out.

Indeed, the fact that Mangini and general manager George Kokinis were able to get two active players and two draft picks for Edwards tells you that others in the league still have the outsider’s view that Edwards has value. It’s what’s called the greater fool theory in business. No matter how deep you may have stepped into it there’s always a bigger fool out there willing to bail you out. Count this is just the latest mess made by the former regime that Mangini is extricating the team from.

If you want a baseball comparison, think Milton Bradley. Teams like Oakland and the Chicago Cubs thought that they had the secret recipe for keeping Bradley, a talented malcontent, motivated and engaged and so they showered him with millions. The Cubs sent Bradley home before this season ended because he’s such a disruptive source and they are surely regretting the multi-millions they guaranteed him before this past season started. Someone will take Bradley off their hands, though he may be running out of chances.

Edwards is Bradley a few years removed, with the Jets proving the point. The Jets, like the Browns, are very thin at wide receiver and wouldn’t a former Pro Bowler look just great? Despite their good start, they don’t look to go anywhere fast with such a weak unit even as strong-armed rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez lights up Broadway.

Undoubtedly the Jets see Edwards as the 2007 Pro Bowl receiver and already have more than rationalized away the faults that dominate Edwards’ profile in Cleveland. You don’t have to attend the Jets’ press conference to know that they will attribute Edwards’ troubles in Cleveland to the unsettled nature of the franchise, the constant changing of the quarterbacks, and his having 4 different offensive coordinators in 5 years. But how does any of that explain why Edwards dropped a ball that was right in his hands on Sunday?

There will be those on the Cleveland side that will be disheartened by the Edwards trade because he represented one of the few potential playmakers on this team. But just as the team as a whole won’t progress until it can consistently perform, Edwards is in the last year of a 5 year contract under which he rarely was as consistent of a performer as his talent might suggest. Fans who wanted to keep Edwards around are in a distinct minority.

As for what this signals for the Browns going forward, if there were any doubts that Mangini or owner Randy Lerner were taking a long term view toward rebuilding this franchise this trade quashed them. With a very young and very unproven receiver corps before the trade, Mangini has further depleted the limited potential this team has to score. A high draft pick next spring is a certainty.

Still, that’s probably not a bad thing. This team needs more of nearly everything and whatever contributions Trusnik and Stuckey can make, particularly to the dynamic Mangini is trying to build, the team will be better off for it. As for the draft picks received, Browns’ fans have no expectations in that regard. Year after year of fruitless drafting will wear down even the most ardent optimists.

Now Edwards is New York’s problem. Surely he doesn’t see it that way. He’ll see it as the world’s biggest stage and maybe that’s what he needs. But whatever success he may end up having just know it would never have happened in Cleveland. Edwards’ couldn’t get over the fact that this is LeBron’s town and even if James doesn’t stay in Cleveland many will always be grateful that before he left it was he all along who was holding Edwards’ exit door.