Mondays with Grossi: The Post Cincinnati Chat

Published on October 5, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

Good afternoon Browns fans, and welcome to today’s podcast with the Plain Dealer’s Tony Grossi.

As always, comments in regular text are paraphrases of Grossi’s commentary; comments in italics are my thoughts. I’ll tell you at the start that this is a great chat, so many weird noises and sounds in the background — dogs, kids, music. Really incredible stuff. Also, what’s the over / under on Rey Maualuga references? Only one way to find out . . .

Date: 10.4.10

Moderator: Dan

Guest: Grossi

*Grossi says it’s good to talk about a win for a change.

* Dan asks about this effort as opposed to the first three. Grossi says the win yesterday represented a progression — “they finally played the 4th quarter.” The offense wasn’t dynamite, but good enough. The Browns held the lead in the 4th and made some plays on defense — the sack by Matt Roth, coverage on 85. Those were the deciding plays.

* First weird sounds in the background. Sounds like kids at Grossi’s home. Either Grossi has young children, or he’s a pedophile. Odds are even money. The sounds continue throughout Grossi’s answer to Dan’s question about Eric Wright. Grossi says Wright did not bounce back and struggled again. Browns did double 85, but at one point in the game, Palmer targeted wherever Wright was. Sometimes that was Shipley, sometimes that was TO, and once it was 85. “I thought Eric Wright struggled again.” Baltimore and Cincy both have pretty good receivers; and Roddy White is next. “There’s no hiding Eric Wright on the field” because the Browns only have 3 bona fide CBs. Haden is already getting a lot of reps and if a team has a slot receiver, Wright will cover them. “He’s just got to pick up his game.” QBs will continue to target him. The kids get louder in the background.

* OOOOH — question from the CHAT ROOM !!!! Of course, it’s about the TJ Ward hit. All the bozos at the bar yesterday cheered the hit — “who cares if it costs us the game, man, what a hit!”  These are likely the same people who cheered for Brady Quinn. Was the hit cheap? No, not a cheap shot — a cheap shot is premeditated, and TJ’s hit was instantaneous. He hit Shipley and thought he got there as the ball got there; was probably a milisecond late. Also, TJ appeared to lead with the shoulder, not the helmet. But didn’t appear premeditated. With any big hitter, there will be the occasional hit like that — a little too late, and a little too high. He got flagged for it and will probably get fined for it. But that’s what happens. Fine line between big hit and cheap shot, but Grossi doesn’t think TJ’s hit was cheap.

* Is it worth it to deliver that kind of hit to strike fear into opponents? A dog barks in the background. As long as a hit isn’t cheap, then those hits are worth it. Establishes an intimidating presence. If Ward had knocked the ball out with that kind of hit, we’d all be praising him. So, this was just a matter of milliseconds. Very loud noise from a child at 4:52; you can here Grossi falter in his answer as he shooshes the child quiet. This kind of hit shows up on film and teams will see that and be cognizant of TJ, and it might cause a receiver to “short arm a ball in the Falcons game.”

* Is TJ Ward the best draft pick of 2010? Haden is playing pretty well, but right now “Ward is definitely the guy.” We haven’t seen Shawn Lauvao yet and he might make an immediate impact, although Womack is playing well at right guard now and might block Lauvao. But right now, TJ Ward is the star of this draft. Haden is proving to be a good player, too.

* HILLIS WOO BABY. Should the Browns keep riding him while he’s hot? “Absolutely.” Might be in the middle of a 1000 yard season; or might just be hot right now. But “I’m sure he’s the guy and he’s gonna be the guy until further notice.” Dog barks and children making noise. Grossi is apparently neglecting both his children and his dog in order to do this chat. Good for him.

* Jerome Harrison — what’s up with him going forward? He “looks to be in the dog house” — Grossi doesn’t know why — loud shriek from the child at 7:01 — could be the fumbles, could be his comments last week, but whatever it is, he’s “clearly in the dog house.” Hillis played 63 plays on offense, and only came off the field in the kneel-down formation. That must have been a message to Harrison, sending him in on the kneel-downs. Child noise growing more steady, louder.

* Vickers — how good was he yesterday, and how tough is it for defenses to stop the Vickers / Hillis combo. Dog barks. “It’s pretty tough to stop” — not unstoppable, but hard. Persistent dog barking. If the team had a passing game it could really take advantage of the running game, but the offense isn’t rounded enough for that. Grossi calls Vickers the best blocking fullback in the league. At around 8:30, you can start to hear some strange piano music in the background. Very clear at 8:45. I think Grossi might be shooting an illicit porno movie at his home. Very bizarre. Vickers will only get his due recognition if the Browns win games. Loudest dog bark yet. Dan tries to ignore it.

Grossi with an unidentified local pervert.

* The receivers — MoMass still invisible — is it him or Wallace or what? We’ll see when Jake gets back what the deal is. Grossi thinks the problem might be Wallace. MoMass usually lines up left and Wallace doesn’t look left much. He throws there when he scrambles, but his natural instinct appears to be to look right. Grossi wonders why the Browns don’t move Momass to the right to give him more opportunities, and the Browns did that at least once yesterday. That’s one way of getting him the ball more. If Jake is in there, he tends to look to the whole field better than Wallace.

* What’s up with Robiskie’s injury? Hamstrings could be one week, could be four weeks, and anything in between. Intermittent piano in the background. Robiskie is getting treatment but obviously coaches weren’t comfortable activating him.

* Has the defense met expectations? The secondary has certainly been disappointing the last two games. Grossi thought all along that the defense would perform better than it did in the preseason. Several things haven’t happened yet — the Browns have been really short-handed on the defensive line. Kenyon Coleman had a big game after not practicing much, but Shaun Rogers isn’t really a full-time player yet. Need him on the field as a full-time player to line him up at end, next to Rubin. The Browns basically play with 2 defensive linemen on the field, sometimes three on first down; but on passing downs, it’s two D-linemen, and then all linebackers. So, need a healthy defensive line and an improved secondary going forward. Defense also needs to keep Marcus Benard on the field — he didn’t have any sacks yesterday but he chased Palmer all around the field.

* Is Rogers in shape? An emphatic NO from Grossi. “Doesn’t look in shape, nope.” His reps are limited as a result. Grossi says Rogers was in much better shape last year.

* Was the play-calling better yesterday, or was that just a product of Hillis’ good game? Grossi says it wasn’t about Hillis, because he wouldn’t have gone over 100 until that last drive. “It was a better game for Daboll.” Also a better game for Wallace. And Hillis was “exceptional again.” Dog barks. More persistent. It’s a sign of a good offense when you can keep the ball and not give it back to the other side, and that happened yesterday. “Listen, they won, everything was a lot better on the coaching end and the player’s end.”

* What is the mood in the locker room — did the team believe in itself even after 0-3? “Absolutely . . . That was the difference between this 0-3 start and last year’s 0-3 start.” Last year, got blown out by wider margins, and the team had no identity. And in fact, last year’s 0-3 team was largely disassembled. The current team really believed itself to be a competitive team, right from the start. And they have been competitive. Still, losing three fourth-quarter leads is tough for any team to take. But the Browns needed a win and they got it, and now “we can get this 0-f0r-whatever behind us, and just go game-to-game and see if this team can grow now, like it did last year” after the Pittsburgh win. Grossi’s not expecting six wins in a row or anything, but this was a “hump win.”

* The right side of the line — is it stabilized and how big a help is that? That’s one of the reasons this team is better. Grossi had projected Lauvao and Pashos there; right now it’s Womack and Pashos. But that’s still a big improvement over last year. Womack was playing well last year. St. Claire was the problem last year. Hillis ran right at least 3-4 times on that final drive, including his big run. Grossi thought the offensive line would be a team strength when the right side got stabilized; and it is now, and it is a strength.

* Does Jake need to be 100% to go against the Falcons? “Yea, I would think so. You can’t bring him out there when he’s hobbling. You have to get him 100%.” Jake wasn’t nearly 100% in practice last week. Important that Jake start practice on Wednesday this week, if he’s going to play. He didn’t do that in the lead-up to Cincy. He’s been off three weeks and needs a complete week of practice to get going again. But Grossi does expect him to play on Sunday unless there’s a setback. If he comes out there and starts throwing picks, the Browns will have to make a change.  Maybe not a permanent change, but will have to play to win the game, even if that means Wallace. “Delhomme clearly is the starter,” but if you have a capable backup and need a change of pace, you have to do it. It would be different, say, if it were a young QB out there — you wouldn’t yank Sam Bradford after two picks, for example. But this team has to do everything it can to win, even if that means pulling Jake. And probably, if the Browns had to do it over again, they’d probably have yanked Jake in the second half of the Tampa game.

* Will Mangini keep the starter quiet leading up to the game? Sarcastic response from Grossi — every now and then he lets his anti-Mangini bias come out. “OH, WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Mangini will definitely keep it quiet, but if Jake is practicing on Wednesday, everyone will expect to see him on Sunday. They’re two different types of quarterbacks, but Wallace hasn’t really been running around a lot, so defenses probably won’t have to alter their preparation much either way.

* Can the Browns get a second win before the bye? Grossi laughs. The relevance of yesterday’s win is to get rid of this kind of talk. No one in Baltimore is wondering if they’ll be 3-4 heading into the bye. The Browns have to get over that, and the team needs to get the fans over it. Grossi has the same thought when he looks at the schedule — will they be 1-6? But it will take a second win, like last year’s win over Pittsburgh, to really turn the corner; once you get that second win, fans will start to expect wins.

* Question about D’Qwell’s injury. Dan says he meant to ask this question last week but forgot. OOPS! What was the deal with the injury? The pec muscle was partly torn in August; he tried to come back and, in doing so, might have completely torn the muscle, enough to require surgery. But he now has two torn pec muscles, and those are important parts for LBs. Hopefully when he comes back, whrever he is — because he’s unsigned after this year — hopefully it won’t be a problem.

* Dan tries to wrap things up. As he’s closing the chat, Grossi interrupts: “Hey Dan.” Well, now, this has to be a Maualuga reference, right? We couldn’t have gone through an entire Bengals chat without one, could we have? But no — Grossi wants to mention the special teams. “I thought this was the first game of the four . . . where they clearly won their battle . . . terrific coverage on same dangerous returners . . .  and we saw signs of Josh Cribbs breaking a longer return.” The blocked field goal was important. The Browns need special teams to perform well to win, and that happened Sunday.

HOPE: Cleveland 23, Cincinnati 20

Published on October 4, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

The Browns probably should be 2-2. They actually could be 3-1; hell, they could probably even be 4-0 right now. But a win is a win, and yesterday, the Browns got their first one of the season. Bang bang.

If there’s one lesson we can take away from the first quarter of the season, it’s this: the Browns can play with any team in the NFL. I’ll say it again: the Browns can play with any team in the NFL. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to go 13-3, or make the playoffs; it doesn’t even mean we’ll win 7 games. But at this point last year, the Browns had been blown out by Baltimore, had lost by three touchdowns to Denver, and had been mandhandled by Minnesota. This year, they’ve had a 4th quarter lead in every game. We just may be the best goddamn 1-3 team every to play in the NFL. And so, yes, Atlanta and New Orleans and New England and Pittsburgh look daunting on the schedule, but there’s no reason to believe that this team won’t compete in those games; and there’s no reason to believe that the Browns can’t poach a few wins over the next six weeks.

OK, on to bullet points:

* At a couple points throughout the game, I got text from various people along the lines of “you owe an apology to Peyton Hillis.” Yea, well, I basically said this last week, but I’ll say it again: Peyton Hillis is running the ball like a legitimate # 1 running back. I was wrong about him. He has shown me over the last two weeks that he can carry the load for this Browns team. Late in the 4th quarter yesterday, when the Browns got the ball back, I actually had confidence that Hillis could run out the game. And he did.

Now, it’s not just him. Lawrence Vickers is again showing why, as Grossi has said for years, he is one of if not the best fullback in the league. I can’t think of any backfield combination in the league that packs as much punch as Vickers / Hillis. Those are two big, strong guys; they deliver hits to defenders like defenders deliver hits to other offensive players. It’s pretty fun to watch. Instead of thunder and lightning, the Browns have thunder and thunder. Part of it, too, is the offensive line. Tony Pashos has been excellent in the two games he’s played since returning from injury. With Pashos in there, the Browns have shown an ability to run both left and right. All of this without Shawn Lauvao.

OK, so Hillis is the real deal. That doesn’t mean, of course, that I’m happy that Jerome Harrison has become a ghost. I still believe there is a role for Harrison on this team; he represents an excellent change of pace from Hillis. Just to be clear, Harrison was active yesterday — but he didn’t get on the field until the last two minutes of the game, when the Browns knelt the ball on three consecutive plays (a formation which I forgot the Browns had in their playbook). I don’t know what Mangini has against him, but I do believe that Jerome Harrison can still help this team.

* Here’s the play-by-play from the Bengals last offensive series of the game:

1st and 10 at CLE 38 (No Huddle) C.Palmer pass incomplete deep middle to A.Caldwell.
2nd and 10 at CLE 38 (Shotgun) C.Palmer pass short middle to A.Caldwell to CLV 31 for 7 yards (M.Benard).
3rd and 3 at CLE 31 (Shotgun) C.Palmer pass incomplete short right to C.Ochocinco. PENALTY on CIN-C.Ochocinco, Offensive Pass Interference, 10 yards, enforced at CLV 31 – No Play.
3rd and 13 at CLE 41 (Shotgun) C.Palmer sacked at CLV 45 for -4 yards (M.Roth).
4th and 17 at CLE 45 K.Huber punts 34 yards to CLV 11, Center-C.Harris, fair catch by J.Cribbs.

Many of the people I was watching the game with were shocked that Mangini accepted the pass interference penalty; by accepting the penalty, the Bengals faced 3rd and 13 from the CLE 41, instead of 4th and 3 from the CLE 31. I don’t think the decision to accept the penalty was an easy one, by any stretch. Given the way Palmer had been throwing the ball, there wasn’t a whole lot of faith in the Browns ability to stop the Bengals on 3rd and 13. But Matt Roth made an excellent play, sacked Palmer, and knocked the Bengals out of field goal position. Credit to Roth, of course, for the sack; but credit to Mangini, too, for believing in his defense and playing for the win, not the tie.

* Eric Wright had another difficult game, but unlike many Browns fans, I’m not quite ready to burn him at the stake. Three things need to be pointed out about Wright’s performance over the last two weeks: (1) he has been covering world class receivers in Boldin and TO; both of them might end up in the Hall of Fame. (2) the Browns blitzing schemes are ANEMIC and do the defensive backs no favors. Fine, Rob Ryan loves the blitz, but I am getting incredibly frustrated with the fact that our blitzers not only don’t record sacks, but almost never even hit the quarterback at all. The blitzes aren’t working; quite the contrary — they are opening up the secondary for huge plays. Almost all of yesterday’s sacks were “coverage” sacks, not blitzing sacks. So, as long as the blitzes fail to pressure the quarterback, the CBs are going to keep getting burnt. (3) the Browns were doubling 85 yesterday, and as such, the burden often fell on Eric Wright to cover TO one-on-one. That’s not an easy assignment. Yes, TO put up huge numbers, but the defense held 85 to 3 catches. When one receiver gets doubled, the cornerback in single-coverage on the other side is going to look bad. And Eric Wright did. But he also made some key plays, including breaking up a third-down pass at the goal line, saving four points.

* We’ve been asking for more diversity in the passing game, and we got it. Chanci Stuckey had 5 catches for 56 yards after being basically invisible for the first three weeks of the season. Evan Moore caught a great touchdown pass. And Ben Watson continues to be the most reliable receiving option on the team. That’s the good news. The bad news is that MoMass had one catch for five yards, and was basically responsible for Seneca’s only interception of the game. I don’t know if MoMass isn’t any good or doesn’t have any confidence or if Seneca just doesn’t look for him, but it’s impossible to call him this team’s #1 receiver with a straight face.

Also, I still have no idea why Brian Daboll views the Wildcat as almost-exclusively a goal line package. Peyton Hillis’ third-quarter touchdown was preceded by Cribbs, out of the Wildcat, on a first and goal from the 5. The whole point of the Wildcat is that Cribbs has the potential to break off a big play, that he can create offense in space. Well, there is no space on 1st and goal from the five. So why use the Wildcat there? Brian Daboll’s relationship with the Wildcat is simply baffling.

* Alright, that’s all for now. Come back later for a good, old-fashioned GROSSI chat. . .

Mondays with Grossi: The Post-Baltimore Chat

Published on September 28, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to today’s chat with the Plain Dealer’s Browns beat writer, Tony Grossi.

As always, words in regular font are loose transcriptions of Grossi’s commentary; words in italics are my comments.

Date: 9.27.10

Moderator: Dan

Guest: Grossi

* Grossi is on his way back from Baltimore during the chat.

* Dan says some fans look at this team and see 0-3; others look at the team and see great improvement over last year — which does Grossi see? “I think both statements are correct. They are better, but they’re still 0-3, and you don’t get those games back.” No moral victories in the NFL. The closeness of the game demonstrates that the team is better, but also not good enough to win. The team is making strides, but not making strides in the same way Kansas City is, and KC was in worse shape than the Browns last year.

* Stupid question — at what point does winning the football games matter? Grossi says there’s no such thing as a 5-year plan in the NFL anymore. Again cites Kansas City. I guess that’s going to be his thing now, endlessly comparing the Browns with the Chiefs. The new Maualuga? San Francisco is 0-3 and it doesn’t matter how they’re playing; records matter. This is an 0-3 team and only wins will get the fans off Mangini and Daboll’s cases.

* Should Mangini have switched Wright off Boldin? Grossi calls Wright’s performance “shockingly bad,” and wouldn’t be surprised if something came out to explain that performance. “There had to be something involved there, and hopefully we’ll find out.” But the Browns only have 3 CBs on their roster, so who do you replace him with? The Browns can’t hide a vulnerable CB, so replacing Wright wasn’t an option. The Browns switched Wright to Mason, and then Mason made some catches. The Browns need to develop another CB quickly or get another CB on the roster, because they’re going to run into some 4-receiver sets down the road. Grossi tries to take credit for identifying this roster problem during training camp.

* Is the loss 100% on Wright? “Maybe 96% on Wright.” Grossi slams the blitz packages that get no pressure on the QB; and says there was some miscommunication between the safeties on one touchdown. But from the press box, Boldin was open from the snap of the ball to the end of the route, on every TD. Even on the first pass to Boldin, Wright interfered to prevent a TD. “We were all shocked” by Wright. He’s not a Pro Bowler but he’s better than that.

* Question about the blitzing and the lack of pressure on the QB — how does that get fixed? Grossi says Marcus Benard was missed. The Bengals didn’t blitz Flacco last week and still got 4 picks by staying in coverage. Grossi doesn’t know why this team blitzes so much — must be a “gene in the Ryan family.” But this is not a good blitzing team. Sarcastic Grossi: “Blitzing is fun and everybody loves the aggressiveness” but not if you don’t hit the QB. This team often blitzes and then stops at the line. Flacco got hit twice in the game — the first play of the game, by Roth; and Fujita hit him later in the game. Other than that, “the blitzing is horrendous.”

* Question about the offensive scheme — was it more balanced this week? “Not really.” It was successful because the team committed to the run and Hillis and Vickers controlled the game. But the pass selection “was once again mind-boggling.” Grossi starting to get pissed off again. “You CANNOT WIN in the National Football League when you . . .” Pauses to collect his thoughts. Can’t win in the NFL by throwing to your #1 receiver one time throughout the game; and throw to only one receiver — Cribbs — throughout the game. Yes, the Browns won games that way last year, but those wins were mostly against crummy teams. You have to throw to your WRs to win these games. Grossi “doesn’t buy” the “down on the receivers thing.” Take that, Shuty. The play selection is “horrendous;” the QB doesn’t even look at Massaqoui. Wallace didn’t throw to the left side at all and Baltimore caught on to that. The “coordination of the offense again is mystifying.”

* Why is Wallace having trouble with the deep ball? Grossi says they should stop calling those plays and then rails against the 3rd-and-2 playcall. “3rd and 2, with 4 minutes to go, and he throws the deep ball to Cribbs and throws it out of bounds. Come on. Jeez. You can have rookie QBs do that.” This is exactly what I wrote earlier. YOU TELL ‘EM, GROSSI. But if it’s so obvious to me and Grossi, why isn’t it equally obvious to Brian Daboll and Wallace? The WRs must be banging their heads against the wall; must be supremely frustrated. Again, no short passes to the receivers to give them a chance to make plays.

* Will Jake be back next week, and would he have made a difference yesterday? Grossi thinks Jake would have made a difference. Wallace isn’t making plays with his legs as promised. These go-routes aren’t working. But Jake is a little bit better at distributing the ball to the open guy — Wallace hasn’t been impressive in that regard. The Browns need a QB that can change plays at the line. Wallace hasn’t shown an ability to do that. Ultimately, though, Jake “won’t have a significant difference” on the product.

* QUESTION FROM THE CHAT ROOM !!!!! What’s up with the mistakes — the pitch, the Matt Roth offside? Grossi takes a shot at Mangini, maybe his first of the year: “At least we won’t have him crying about turnovers this week.” No such thing as a perfect game Baltimore had dumb penalties, too. The Ravens had a 2nd and 18 after penalties by Oher and someone else, but then got the first down. Very heavy dose of sarcasm here: “You don’t throw up your hands and say, ‘oh no, we fumbled, oh man, there goes the perfect game.’ That is such a coaches cop-out. They are not going to have a game where they commit zero penalties and zero turnovers, but yesterday was as close as you could ask for — no turnovers.” But the Browns still couldn’t move the ball when they needed to, on the last two series of the game. Grossi getting very frustrated. Again cites the go-route on 3rd and 2. “That’s more on the coaches than the fumbles and the offsides.” Those things happen, but “don’t stand up there after a game and tell me that’s why they lost.” He’s exactly right here. The focus on no penalties, no turnovers — that’s fine, but how about instead of running laps for penalties, we try to figure out how to get some first downs?

* Hillis question — does he get an expanded role after yesterday? “Oh, yea . . . Sure.” 144 yards against the Ravens hasn’t been done by the Browns before. But what happens if he fumbles again, will he be back in the doghouse? More frustration from Grossi: “The other thing is, and I keep saying this, and, you know, it falls on deaf ears, but you need some speed on that field.” Can’t win games running Hillis 22-25 times and throwing to him another 7 times — especially against the teams coming up on the schedule. The Ravens and Steelers probably laugh at the Browns’ offense.

* Good question from Dan: Would Mike Holmgren be able to live with an offense that centers around running the ball and takes the QB out of the equation? “If Mangini does it, and they win, Holmgren won’t mind.” But Holmgren has said you can’t win, consistently, with that game plan. The Browns have had the lead in the 4th quarter in every game. You can applaud the coaches for that as much as you want. Running successfully will keep you in the game. That was Marty-ball in the 1980s. You can beat lousy teams that way. But you won’t graduate to “Offense 201″ by doing that. Grossi doesn’t blame Mangini. The coaching staff seems torn between pleasing Holmgren and staying true to itself. But if Mangni is going down, he’ll go down doing what he believes in. “Running the ball with Hillis right now is the only way they can move the ball, so good luck. Do it. Try to win a couple games that way.”

* Question about Cribbs’ failure to bust any good returns so far. Grossi says its a factor — our offense needs an impetus from the special teams. Throughout most of the game yesterday, the Browns won the special teams tug-of-war. But Cundiff had two big touchbacks late in the game, and those were big contributions. Forced the Browns to start at their own 20; and this offense is hopeless from there.

* Is the season lost at this point? No, not lost. The drama is about to increase: “At which point does Holmgren step in?” That’s coming. He doesn’t want this season to go down the tubes, and the offense is awful. “It is AWFUL.” There’s no logic to the passing game. The receivers are frustrated. The QBs must be frustrated. All the Browns can do right now is run it.

* Kevin Kolb — are the Browns interested and can they acquire him? Grossi thinks the Browns made a call. Definitely made a call back in March. Thinks the Eagles told them to forget about it. But Grossi does believe the Eagles are exploring the market for him, and if Vick keeps playing well, Kolb could get traded. The Browns have to decide where they want to go offensively, and when they want to do it. If they trade for Kolb, does it even matter in this offensive system? Heckert might like Kolb as the franchise QB. But you couldn’t put him in this offense — you’d have to change this offense on the fly. Grossi doubts all that will happen, but the Browns will look at it — at some point, they need a young QB on this team. But they also must decide what they’re doing with this offense. So weird, it seemed like we did have it figured out in the preseason, didn’t it? Maybe that’s just preseason; or maybe that has a lot to do with Jake. But it seemed like Mangini and Daboll had come to terms with an increased passing role in the preseason, and now it’s down the shitter, with everyone’s shit.

* Would the Browns give up draft picks for Kolb? Lots of people don’t think the Eagles will give him up, especially given the amount of punishment Vick takes. Trading him would be dumb, for the Eagles. In the middle of his answer, around 22:40, it dawned on Grossi what the question actually was, and how stupid it was. “Would the Browns give up . . . well they’d have to give up draft picks. That’s what draft picks are for, to get players.”

* Weird question — should the Browns have drafted Mark Sanchez? Grossi says not drafting him was a mistake; but the Browns had DA, Quinn, and a new coaching staff. It would have been a bold move to bring Sanchez into that mix. Sanchez is going to be a winner. He’s already showing poise in high pressure situations. Henne is showing the same thing. Some people in the Browns organization loved him, too, when he came out. Henne is a big, strong-armed guy. Both Henne and Sanchez are better than what the Browns have here. Browns have passed on a lot of playmakers. Look at Clay  Matthews III.  Sanchez. There are lots of playmakers coming out of college and the Browns aren’t selecting wisely. When you look at what the Browns got in return for the Sanchez pick, it’s Kenyon Coleman, Abe Elam, Alex Mack, and David Veikune. Grossi said at the time that, if you’re giving the Big Apple a franchise QB, you better win that trade. And the Browns got “demolished” in that trade.

And we’ll see you next week, Tony.


RECAP: Baltimore 21, Cleveland 17

Published on September 27, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

What the hell was that, Seneca?

Well, that’s why 2-0 was so important. If the Browns play the exact same game they did yesterday, but instead of falling to 0-3 are 2-1, then the entire tenor of the season is different right now. Instead of talking about being 0-3 for the third straight year, we’re talking about how the Browns pushed one of the best teams in the AFC to the limit and nearly stole a huge road win. Instead of talking about Eric Wright’s “coverage” and the blown 4th quarter “pitch” to Peyton Hillis, we’re talking about all the goad that the Browns did yesterday. But as Grossi wrote several years ago, in the NFL you are what your record is, and the Browns are 0-3. Again.

* I guess I should start with Peyton Hillis. As has been recorded on this blog, I’ve been a pretty big Hillis critic; but the guy just ran for 144 yards against the Ravens. Repeat: 144 yards rushing against the Ravens. He still doesn’t have the kind of explosive speed you want in a #1 running back. Evidence of that came on his 48-yard run late in the 3rd quarter. A faster, more explosive running back takes that to the house. But obviously, if he can run off 144 yards against the Ravens, then he’s doing something right. That’s the kind of performance this team needs to win games this season, and he gave it to them. He ran. He hit. He didn’t fumble. I’d have to guess that he has locked himself in as the #1 back for the rest of the season. He’s earned 15-20 carries per game. And if Jerome Harrison gets healthy and can give 8-12 carries himself, the Browns rushing attack will be potent.

* So, having said all of that, having praised our bruiser running back for punching one of the best defenses in the league in the mouth, you have to wonder why, on 3rd and 2 late in the 4th quarter, the Browns decided to throw a 30-yard deep-ball down the sideline to Josh Cribbs. That made NO NO NO NO NO NO sense at all. First of all, Seneca Wallace has shown in the last two games that he can’t throw the that particular ball. I’ve seen him do it maybe 5 times now, and every time it’s at least five yards out of bounds. He throws that ball almost as badly as Brady Quinn did. He either can’t make that throw or he doesn’t trust our receivers to go up and get it. Either way, it’s the absolute wrong call on 3rd and 2, with the game on the line.

But even if he could make that throw, the call still makes zero sense. Give the ball to Peyton Hillis, twice if you have to, and let him and Lawrence Vickers and Joe Thomas get you those two yards, like they had been doing all day. If we convert there, it doesn’t of course mean we win. But Brian Daboll has to give the Browns offense a realistic opportunity to convert there; deep down the sideline to Cribbs doesn’t cut it. Please, please, please stop calling Hillis up the middle on 3rd and long and Cribbs deep down the sidelines on third and short. It’s the exact opposite, Brian.

* Boy, do we have problems in our receiving corps. I guess we all got fooled in the preseason, when MoMass and Chanci Stuckey and Brian Robiskie were catching balls all over the field. But either those guys can’t get open, or the quarterback has no faith in them, or both. In either case, the total inability to complete passes to wide receivers makes the Browns makes the Browns offense almost comically one-dimensional. I do like seeing Josh Cribbs getting targeted, but we need more production from our receivers.

On a similar one-dimensional note, is Seneca Wallace afraid to scramble? Yesterday: 1 rush, 0 yards. Against KC: 1 rush, 4 yards. All we’ve heard about this guy is that his legs give him an extra way to attack the defense; and I swear there have been plays where he’s had room to run. But he doesn’t. Someone on the coaching staff needs to tell him that he should be getting 25-50 yards on the ground, every game. Because he should be. Of course, that would require an offensive coordinator with some level of vision, and I’m not sure we have that.

* Speaking of which — I’m done talking about the Wildcat. The one time Josh Cribbs lined up under center yesterday, he took the ball 19 yards to the Ravens 4-yard line; and he made it look easy. And that was the only time the coaches used that formation. That Cribbs doesn’t get 5-10 snaps under center every game makes no sense, but we’ve been saying that for a year and the coaches don’t seem to agree, so I guess we just have to accept the fact that our offensive coordinator refuses to use that formation. He’d rather try to get Josh the ball on a 30-yard heave down the sideline.

* This might be way-too-positive, but I thought the defense was a mixed bag yesterday. Eric Wright was obviously horrible. I don’t understand what was going on with him, and based on his post-game comments, neither does he. But I have to believe his performance was an anomaly, that he’s not really that bad. Let’s hope. Similarly, the pass rush was terrible. We knocked Flacco down twice and had zero sacks. And man, did TJ Ward blow a big opportunity on the first play of the game. He probably should have had a  . . .

. . . but he dropped it, and the Browns left 6-points on the table. See, that’s the difference between 2-1 and 0-3: both Tampa and KC turned Browns’ interceptions into touchdowns; the Browns had the same opportunity and dropped it. And so we’re 0-3.

The Browns defense did, however, do a nice job of containing Ray Rice. That’s something of a hollow victory, since the Ravens obviously felt comfortable throwing on the Browns at will, but there were a couple of plays where our defense made tackles on Rice that wouldn’t have been made last year. It’s not much, but it’s an improvement.

* That’s all for now — but of course, check back later today for the GROSSI CHAT.

Hangover: Final Notes on Kansas City

Published on September 21, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

* After the Browns lost to the Steelers in the playoffs in January 2003, having blown a 13-point lead, I remember Butch Davis saying after the game something along the lines of: “Gee, I wish we hadn’t played as much prevent as we did there in the second half.” Nothing, and I mean nothing, angers me about a head coach more than that sort of comment. And so I was extremely disappointed to read the following from Coach Mangini yesterday, when asked about using Josh Cribbs in the Wildcat only once against Kansas City:

“I would have used it more yesterday . . . With him, they may load box, they may do a lot of different things, but he’s got a chance on any play.”

You “would have” used it more yesterday? Would have, but for what? I “would have” used Josh more, too, but, you know, I’m not on the sideline during the game. Listen, Eric, here’s the thing — you’re the Head Coach. If you’re sitting there during the game and you think you’d like to see more of Josh Cribbs in the Wildcat, this is what you do: you get on your headset, and you say to Brian Daboll, “Hey, Brian, on the next drive use Josh out of the Wildcat.” Shit, you can even tell him how many times you want to see the formation; you can even tell him whether you’d like to see Josh run or throw, or who else you’d like to see in the formation. YOU ARE THE HEAD COACH. YOU ARE BRIAN DABOLL’S BOSS. TELL HIM TO RUN THE WILDCAT IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT. Don’t tell MKC after the game that you would “would have” liked to see more Wildcat; during the game tell that to your freaking offensive coordinator.

I guess on the one hand it’s good to hear Mangini acknowledge that, when the offense is as comatose as ours was in the second half, using Josh out of the Wildcat has zero downside. It’s good to hear the coaching staff recognize what all of us thought during yesterday’s game. But, man, that’s an ADJUSTMENT he should have made during the game. And maybe if he makes that ADJUSTMENT, then perhaps we’re 1-1 and not 0-2.

* As we heard in Grossi’s chat yesterday, Jake was in a boot during the KC game, and it’s unclear whether or not he’ll play on Sunday. The PD is expecting an update on Wednesday.

* Braylon Edwards, arrested for DUI in  NYC. Say, we have DUIs in Cleveland, too, Braylon! You could have done that just as easily here as you could in NYC.

Modays with Grossi: The Post-KC Chat

Published on September 21, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

Below is a summary of Tony Grossi’s post-Kansas City chat with Cleveland.com. Words in regular text are a loose transcription of Grossi’s commentary; words in italics are my own thoughts. So, without further ado . . .

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today’s chat with Plain Dealer Browns’ Beat Writer Tony Grossi.

Date: 9.20.10

Moderator: Dan

Guest: Grossi

*Can the Browns get a win before the bye week? “Not right now I’m not, no.” Grossi is a little bit surprised by the 0-2 start, since he had projected the Browns at 2-0. Browns are similar to Tampa and Kansas City; both games could have gone either way. They’re both 2-0 and the Browns are 0-2; it’s a small margin for error and the Browns erred. We all expected the Browns to be at least 1-1 at this point. “Very frustrating.”

* Dan asks about Mangini’s ability to make “ADJUSTMENTS” (DING!) in the second half . As I said in my post earlier today, “adjustments” seems to be Grossi’s new buzz word. I have the over/under of number of times that word, or its derivative, is used in this chat. So, we’re at one right now. Is that a fair criticism of Mangini? “I think it is. Sure it is. These games are so close that an ADJUSTMENT (DING!) is the difference sometimes.” We aren’t see those from the Browns. Both of KC’s scoring opportunities in the first half were from turnovers. The coaching staff, at the half, seems to be only concerned with eliminating the mistakes. But when the other team comes out and mounts a drive or improves in the second half, “you’ve got to ADJUST (DING!) on the fly,” and that hasn’t happened so far. Yes, I’m making fun of the adjustment thing, but I mostly agree with him here. The Browns do seem overly concerned in the second half with not making mistakes, to the point that they’re afraid to take any sort of chance in moving the ball. That’s one major reason why the offense looks so comatose out there. You can’t lose what you don’t put in the middle, but you can’t win much, either.

* Should Hillis have got more carries yesterday? “No, no.” Hillis’ role is as the 3rd-down back and the short yardage back. “I don’t know what was up with Jerome Harrison yesterday.” He got the ball enough times to do more; he also fumbled again. The offensive line is struggling compared to a year ago. The line is not performing like it did at the end of last year; it’s not up to par. But Grossi can’t say that Harrison should be benched.

* Disappointed in Wallace’s play? “He wasn’t awful, but he was less than I expected.” Had a nice pass to Cribbs and got some help from Ben Watson. But Wallace wasn’t getting the ball to the wideouts; and he didn’t even try to yesterday. MoMass had three passes thrown to him; Robiskie, two. This is a problem with the scheme; the Browns have to scheme to get the ball to the wideouts more. Grossi is “not convinced” that the wideouts are the problem. Why no inside slants? Why no quick routes? Yesterday was a bunch of slow-developing go routes. Why not get the ball to the receivers early and then let them make a play. The Browns receivers are better with the ball in their hands, especially Cribbs; the distribution of the passing game is bad. Agreed. I see it. Grossi sees it. Mike Holmgren must see it. So why doesn’t Brian Daboll?

* Would the Browns benefit from a shorter passing game? Yes. The Browns have to mix up their offense. Get Robiskie the ball on some inside routes. Give him and MoMass the chance “to separate after they have the ball in their hand . . . shorter routes, quicker routes.” Grossi was impressed by the tempo of KC’s offense — all of the routes were short and the ball was out of Cassell’s hands quickly. The Browns need more of that.

* Any upgrades at WR out there? The Browns passed on TJ Housh; Vincent Jackson is available and it doesn’t look like the Browns are looking at him. But if both those guys were on the team, MoMass would be the third receiver. And that’s a better roster right there. Grossi is starting to second-guess his previous position about not upgrading the receiver position; maybe the Browns should have been more aggressive there. None of the current receivers are making any plays.

* DABOLL. “Anything on offense goes on Daboll. He’s the coordinator.” He’s under a “ton of pressure.” The Browns have to fix their second half problems. You can’t win without scoring touchdowns. The object isn’t to develop, or move the chains — it’s scoring touchdowns; and the coordinator has to figure out how to do that.

* QUESTION FROM THE CHAT ROOM!!!! Was Hardesty’s injury a major game-changer for the offense? Hardesty would have been the feature back. The Browns thought he could score TDs and make big plays, and he’s not out there now. But there was supposed to be depth at the RB position. Can’t blame the offensive situation on Hardesty not being there.

* How do you rate the defense? The defense is where Grossi expected it to be. He wasn’t worried about the defense in the preseason. But the two-long drives KC engineered in the second-half yesterday were bad. KC earned the win by hammering out two field goal drives in the second half. The Browns defense has to make stops on third downs, which they failed to do yesterday. But there is potential for this to be a top echelon defense — Brown, Ward, Haden all will get better. Same with Gocong and Fujita. “I feel good about the defense.” But they need to “step it up, too.”

* How would you rate Marcus Benard’s play? “Excellent.” Same with Rubin. Benard and Rubin are getting more snaps. Benard is the only LB with speed. Rubin saw more passing downs than he usually does. Benard and Rubin are the present and the future. Marcus Benard has sort of become the Rey Maualuga of this year’s podcasts. Grossi is in love with the guy.

* Dan asks about the secondary’s performance yesterday. “Very good.” Sheldon Brown made an athletic interception. Ward hits “from the first game of the play to the last.” Haden tackles in a way members of our secondary could not last year. There are some positives out there, and the secondary is one of those; the way the young guys are playing is encouraging in an otherwise frustrating start.

* What’s a realistic expectation level for this team, given the lack of offensive talent on the roster? Grossi thinks it was realistic to expect a win in these first two games. Grossi gets sarcastic and says you can’t just throw your hands up and blame turnovers. These weren’t shootout-type losses, so the lack of offensive playmakers can’t be an excuse for these losses.

*What can we expect against the Ravens? Grossi says the Browns have to get the special teams going. The special teams have to jumpstart this mediocre offense. The special teams unit is a victim of its own success “because every team now just gameplans against the Browns’ special teams extra hard. And there’s another ADJUSTMENT (DING!) to be made there. They’ve got to ADJUST (DING!) to that.” The Browns can’t just let the other team pooch kick around Cribbs. Browns will also have to force turnovers against the Ravens. Flacco can be rattled and confused, and the Browns should be able to get to him. But Baltimore’s defense against the Browns’ offense is a scary matchup. The offense will have to figure out a way to score some TDs.

* What is an acceptable record heading into the bye week? Grossi groans in pain. “Oh, gosh.” Grossi says two wins heading into the bye would probably make people happy, given the schedule. They should be 2-0 now and probably could have been 4-3 after 7 games; now 2-5 is more of a goal. They look a lot better than last year in some areas, but worse in others. But we could be talking about the lack of offensive playmakers for 17 weeks.

* Should we expect to see Jake out there on Sunday? Grossi doesn’t expect that. He was still in the boot on Sunday, and that’s not a great sign. It’s obviously more than a mere sprained ankle. Maybe it’s a high ankle sprain or a fracture — we don’t  know, but “he doesn’t look like he’s close to going on the field.” Grossi says it’s not really life and death, since there’s not much drop off between Jake and Seneca. “It’s not like you’re waiting for Tom Brady to come back.”

* If the team is winless at the bye and beat badly in NOLA, could Mangini survive that. “Boy, I don’t know.” They’d be 0-7. Holmgren would have to wonder then if a coaching change would help; would almost not be worth the bother if they’re 0-7. But “there’s a step in between that could be made.” Holmgren has 3-4 of his old coaches in the building, and there might be an interim move of having one of them take over the offense.

* Dan asks what the deal is with Holmgren running things, Gil Haskell hanging around — how unique is this? Grossi says he’s never seen anything like it. “It’s a major storyline of this season.” Holmgren is going back and forth on whether he wants to return to coaching. Grossi doesn’t think he wants to. But he has surrounded himself with his own guys. The offense is struggling. Gil Haskell is his offensive guy. So connect the dots. We hear about Daboll talking to Haskell, getting advice from him. Is Daboll a “coordinator in training?” If so, we’re not going to have a strong offense. The Browns created this situation by bringing in all of Holmgren’s guys. But if these struggles continue, there will be no interest in this team. Grossi also questions whether Holmgren should continue to keep a distance from Mangini. He doesn’t want to make it look like he’s hovering over Mangni. But “on the other hand, he’s loaded with all this offensive expertise. He’s a coach for 30 years. He’s got instant credibility. So, at what point do you use that, and press the button, and say we’re paying you a lot of money, let’s see this other side of you contribute to the product now? What good is hiring a Mike Holmgren if you’re not going to use his offensive expertise?” Yep, he’s exactly right here. I couldn’t have said it better. Holmgren and his guys meet with the coaching staff after every game and ask pointed questions. And if things don’t change, they’ll have to make a move. This kind of situation was unavoidable; this is really why no one thought Mangini would be brought back. Two wins right now would have made these questions avoidable, but not now.

* Grossi tells Dan he better ask better questions next week.


Kansas City 16, Cleveland 14. Goddamnit.

Published on September 20, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

* That was familiar. A strong start. An early long-touchdown pass to a wide receiver. A soul-crushing interception, leading to a touchdown. A comatose second-half offense. A loss. 0-2. The same frustrations and questions that arose during the Tampa game were present during yesterday’s loss to Kansas City.

The Browns’ coaching staff has to figure out how to run an offense in the second-half. Grossi is calling the Browns’ second-half offensive woes a failure to adjust. That could be it. Whatever the reason, the Browns’ second half-offense in these first two games is like a turtle hiding in its shell — holding onto a slight lead, the offense decides it’s going to do everything it can not to lose the game, not to throw interceptions or fumble or make a mistake, just pray that the defense can hold onto the lead. Well, that’s not working. The defense has done everything it can to win these last two games, but the Browns are going to have to score points in the second half in order to win games. It’s ridiculous that I even have to type that last sentence.

* You know what might have helped us win these last two games — how about some field goals? I swear, I’m not just writing this because Phil Dawson is my fantasy kicker, or because he shanked his 42-yard attempt yesterday. But what’s with the lack of field goals? Given how ineffective our offense has looked in the second half, why not engineer drives with three in mind? Give Phil Dawson the opportunity to put points on the board, and he usually will. It’s emblematic of how bad our offense has been in the second half that we can’t even get into field goal range. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.

But, yea, would have been nice for Phil to have hit his attempt yesterday.

* I don’t understand why it’s taken opposing teams so long to figure out not to kick to Josh Cribbs, but it seems they finally have. That’s another affront to our offense — opposing teams are willing to have the Browns start drives at the 30, the 35, wherever the ball lands out of bounds, rather than risk a Cribbs big play. And until the offense capitalizes on this good field position, we aren’t going to see much of Josh returning the ball.

Predictably, Brian Daboll hasn’t figured out how to use Cribbs in the wildcat. The 65-yard touchdown pass from Wallace to Cribbs was a great strike, and shows that Josh is emerging as a legitimate NFL receiver. But he NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS to get the ball more on offense. NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS. Throw him screens. Throw him quick outs. Line him up under center and let him run; line him up under center and let him throw. Hand the ball off to him. But in the second half, since we’ve shown absolutely no ability to move the ball otherwise, it should be an absolute imperative that Josh touch the ball at least 5-10 times, in some way or another. He had 1 rush, for 1 yard yesterday. That is simply unacceptable on a team like ours. Brian Daboll is on very, very thin ice.

* Jerome Harrison is either struggling, or the four-game binge to close out 2009 was a fluke. I think it’s probably a little bit of both. But part of the Browns’ second-half problems could be fixed if Jerome made some plays. Jerome got 16 caries yesterday and managed only 33 yards. Peyton Hillis carried the ball 8 times for 35 yards. Part of the reason I’ve been so hard on Hillis here is because I’ve believed that he takes carries away from Harrison, and I used to think that was a bad thing. Now, I’m not so sure. If Jerome Harrison can’t gain yards like a primary back should, then maybe he shouldn’t be getting primary back carries. Yet another reason to think about giving Josh Cribbs some carries.

* Congratulations to the defense; Rob Ryan and his men have done just about everything right these first two games. They have played well enough for the Browns to be 2-0. T.J. Ward outplayed Eric Berry yesterday. Marcus Benard continues to show energy and make plays. The linebackers are doing their job. The next two weeks against Baltimore and Cincinnati will be more challenging tests. But the defense’s performance so far is the only reason I have even the slightest hope that the Browns will avoid an 0-4 start.

* That’s all for now. Come back later today for Mondays with Tony. His chat should be very interesting. Over/under on his use of the word “adjust” is 6.

Mondays With Grossi: The Post-Tampa Chat

Published on September 14, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to today’s chat with the Plain Dealer’s Tony Grossi.

Date: 9.13.10

Moderator: Dan

Guest: Grossi

* Grossi has just returned from Tampa, which he says was “bug-infested.”

* First question — of all the opening day duds we’ve seen from the Browns in the new era, where does this rank. Grossi says it’s right up there.  This loss “sets a tone.” Teams that win their first game are twice as likely to make the playoffs. The Browns made the playoffs in 2002 despite losing the Dwayne Rudd game. But this loss sets a “tremendously negative tone” for the season. Freeman had a broken thumb; that makes this loss all the more damning. The defense only gave up one play, really. This puts the team in a “big rut” to climb out of.

* Delhomme question — how much did his injury affect  him? Grossi says the TV coverage made a huge deal of it, but there was no evidence of an injury after the game. Delhomme and Mangini downplayed any injury angle after the game. Delhomme didn’t need any medical attention, as far as Grossi knows. TV made a big deal of it, but folks at the game were surprised to hear it was an issue. It didn’t appear to anyone in the press box that the ankle injury affected anything. This is not the way Delhomme wanted to start — he needed an error free game, like he did in preseason, and he didn’t do it. The first INT “changed everything” — but that’s things Favre does and you shrug it off. A guy who is 35 and has been in the league as long as Delhomme, in that situation, shouldn’t try to be a hero. Just go down. That was “horrible” and set up everything that happened afterwards.

* Jerome Harrison question — were you surprised he was used so little? Grossi says he’s starting to not be surprised by anything with the Browns; seems like every loss the Browns have had recently, these type of questions spring up, and there’s no logic. Seemed like the intent was to start with Hillis and pound the ball, and that was pretty effective in the first half; and then they stopped pounding the ball. After Hillis’ second fumble, with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter, the Browns “did not make a single play on offense.” They turned into a “dink and dunk team” and the field seemed compressed — the Browns didn’t attempt to lengthen the field at all. Grossi thinks the Browns only threw one time to a wideout in the second half.

* Evan Moore question. “I like what they did with him yesterday.” Moore had the only two plays of more than 10 yards in the second half. But where was Ben Watson the whole game? He was kept in check and should have been a bigger factor in the offense.

* QUESTION FROM THE CHAT ROOM!!!! What up with Robiskie? “Well, two catches were out of bounds, that’s for sure.” He obviously needs to work on sideline awareness. Neither “catch” looked particularly close. All questions about the wideouts are unanswerable at this point. Grossi starting to get a little pissed off on the subject of WRs: “Don’t tell me we’re going to be in for another season of this dink and dunk bullshit, because that’s not going to fly.” He actually said “stuff,” not “bullshit,” but he might as well have said bullshit. YOU TELL ‘EM, GROSSI. How great would it be, though, if he laced these podcasts expletives? Delhomme distributed the ball well to the wideouts in the preseason, but that didn’t happen here. Not every pass has to be 50-yards to the wideouts — why does this team only use the wideouts on deep throws? “They’ve got to put together a better offensive strategy” . . . which leads to . . .

* Our first Brian Daboll question, less than 10 minutes into the first Grossi chat of the season. This, my friends, is not what any of us were hoping for. Dan asks how short Daboll’s leash is.  Grossi doesn’t think we’re looking at a Maurice Carthon situation, but Daboll is “under tremendous pressure. . . I don’ t think Holmgren and his assistant Gil Haskell are just going to sit back and watch this season go down the tubes because of a coordinator-in-training.” Daboll will be under more scrutiny, and the meetings on Monday with Holmgren and Haskell will be interesting. But an in-season change is “drastic” and Grossi thinks the Browns will do everything they can to avoid that. I stand by what I said earlier — if this team starts off 0-4, and the offense looks as poopy as it did yesterday, Daboll is toast.

* Question about Cribbs’ performance yesterday. Tampa had the second-best special teams in the league last year, which partly explains their ability to contain Cribbs. Cribbs caught a kickoff seven yards deep in the endzone and ran it out; Mangini supported that decision after the game, and Grossi agrees. But with this team, if special teams doesn’t do anything “special,” the Browns will likely lose.

* Hillis — do the fumbles affect his role with the team? An exasperated Grossi, with a sigh: “I don’t know what they’re going to do on offense from week-to-week, I really don’t.” Hillis has become a cult hero, but Grossi wants “faster legs” out there, because there’s no speed on this offense. There’s a place for Hillis, but the Browns can’t fall overly in love with him.

* Haden and Ward question. Grossi says that these two are two of the best players the Browns have, already. The TD catch, where Haden got burnt, happens to all cornerbacks, even Darrelle Revis. Grossi pronounces his name “Darryl.” Darryl Revis. Haden isn’t “Darryl Revis” just yet. Abe Elam was the key blitzer on the Haden TD pass and Elam didn’t come close to the QB. When Ward blitzed, he put Freeman on the ground. So Grossi would like to see someone challenge Elam’s job, and see Sheldon Brown move to safety. But since there are only three cornerbacks on the team, that’s going to be hard to do.

* Say, what did you think of the pass rush, Tony – -was it enough? “Absolutely I thought it was.” The pass rush was fine. The defense gave up one play that hurt them. The defensive line had Tampa mixed up and confused. More shitting on Elam.

*Question about the decision not to use a time out and 4th and 3, on the second-to-last drive. Grossi “doesn’t even recollect that situation.” What the fuck? That was a pretty big moment in the game. Dan tries to remind him of the play by telling him about the false start penalty. Grossi is still confused and says they probably should have called a timeout.

* Positives from yesterday’s game? Haden and Ward. The offensive line held up very well, but it appeared to Grossi that the offensive line ran out of gas in the 4th quarter. Everyone in the locker room denied such after the game. The line was short-handed without Lauvao. Grossi was “surprised” we didn’t see much of Pashos. But mostly the O-line did well. Evan Moore was generally positive. Marcus Benard should be on the field more, on the early downs.

* Is KC now a must-win? How big is that game? “It’s huge. It’s bigger than it should be.” Baltimore and Cincinnati aren’t unwinnable games in Week 3 and 4; we shouldn’t jump to conclude that, simply because we lost to Tampa, we won’t be able to win down the road. But KC becomes “must win” to keep everyone’s spirits up. Grossi is interested in seeing KC play tonight. KC has made a lot of changes and has a lot of new young players. Most national folks will embrace KC more than Cleveland this year. Matt Cassell can throw the ball well and was victimized by a lot of drops in the game against the Browns last year. Grossi expects KC to be a lot tougher than Tampa Bay. “I don’t know what to expect from the Browns from week-to-week. Who knows — they could come out with three tight ends and Vickers” — snicker — “Sunday and try to pound the ball.” Grossi also think there will be some movement from the fans for Wallace to get more snaps. Delhomme can’t just throw the season away. Holmgren said Delhomme was brought here not just to manage games, but to win games. So, he better win games. This is going to be a recurring theme, I think, from Grossi — he really seems to have a thing for Wallace.

Recap: Tampa Bay 17, Cleveland 14: It’s a Process

Published on September 13, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

* At some point in the middle of the second quarter yesterday, with the Browns in control of the game and cruising toward an opening day victory over the Bucaneers, I decided I was going to lead this recap with praise for the swagger the Browns’ secondary was showing. TJ Ward had made a few plays; Sheldon Brown and Joe Haden had both just broken up passes and done a little trash-talking afterwards. I like that — I’m not some guy who thinks players should do all their talking on the field; I want my players to run their mouths a little bit. That’s probably why Kellen Winslow, Jr., has been my favorite player of the new era. So, at the point in the game, I was truly excited about the way our new secondary looked — they can tackle, they can cover, they can blitz.

Obviously the trajectory of the game changed shortly thereafter, but before I get to the bad stuff, I figured I still wanted to comment on the secondary and how encouraged I was by their performance. Yes, Joe Haden got burnt on Josh Freeman’s second touchdown pass, but otherwise I saw a lot to like from Haden, Ward, Brown and Wright. I realize, of course, that Tampa Bay is a poor offense, and that Kansas City will present a greater challenge, but if there’s something positive to say about yesterday’s performance, it’s that the secondary looks vastly improved from last year.

* Ahem. Well, that’s out of the way. A few broad comments first. We gave the game away yesterday, plain and simple. I know it, Grossi knows it, the players and coaching staff must know it, too. The Browns had a chance to start this season off with a good, convincing win; to go into the home opener with some momentum, some promise, something for the fans to hang their hat on. And then they pooped it away in a miserable second half.

* Sure, the Jake Delhomme interception late in the first half was terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Jake is 35 and has been in this league for 10 years — if he hasn’t learned not to make that throw to Ben Watson by now, then he’s never going to. Okay, fine. We all knew the guy was going to throw a bonehaded interception at some point this season, right? So, while the interception itself was terrible, I can live with it because, when Jake Delhomme is your quarterback, that’s going to happen. Fine. It happened. The Browns still walked off the field in the first half with a 14-10 lead, in control of the game, set to receive the ball at the start of the second quarter. So, what really bothers me about the interception isn’t necessarily the play itself, but how the Browns COMPLETELY folded after that play. It was as if the team — both the players and the coaching staff — were just waiting for Jake to make some kind of mistake like that so that they could use it as an excuse to start playing like a 5-11 team again. After that play, Daboll went into a shell and got conservative. Jake had no confidence. Hillis couldn’t hold on to the ball. Josh Cribbs was nowhere to be found. Brian Robiskie forgot he was in the NFL and thought a reception was good if he dragged one foot in.

Basically, the team lost its balls after the first Delhomme pick. That can’t happen in the future. Jake will throw more interceptions; some of them will likely be as mind-blowing as what we saw yesterday. The team MUST learn how to respond to those kind of mistakes; it must realize that it can win games like yesterday even when Jake makes that kind of play. If they don’t, it’s going to be a very, very long season.

* I gave my thoughts about Peyton Hillis here: I said, basically, that I wasn’t ready to buy into the hype, that a guy often gets labeled “tough” when he has otherwise marginal skills. Yes, he does some nice things (see his first down run in the first quarter yesterday). But there’s a reason he has never been a feature back in the NFL. His second fumble yesterday was more costly than Jake’s interception, in my opinion. Hopefully the Hillis hype-machine that’s been building in Cleveland throughout the preseason will slow down after yesterday.

Which brings me to the following question — did Jerome Harrison bang Mangini’s wife or something? Did he introduce her to Delonte West?

There must be something, because even after last years’ 500-yard binge to close the season, and even after the injury to Montario Hardesty, Mangini still won’t use Harrison as this team’s feature back. Hillis does some valuable things and should get some carries; but he can’t make big plays as well as Harrison can. And we saw that yesterday — on his second or third carry, Harrison broke off a 35-yarder that almost went for a TD. If he’s healthy, Jerome Harrison MUST get more carries than Peyton Hillis. And it’s not just because of Hillis’ fumbles, because I think those were an anomaly. Rather, it’s because Jerome Harrison is one of the few guys on the offensive side of the ball who can legitimately be called a playmaker, and thus he needs to be on the field a lot more than he was yesterday.

* Some of yesterday has to fall on Mangini. The team came out in the first half ready to play and dominated the early portion of the game; for that, Mangini deserves credit. But when a team melts down in such a way as the Browns did yesterday, and the coach can’t figure out a way to stop the melt down, then he is partly responsible for it. The offense completely stalled out in the second half. Mangini and Daboll needed to figure out a way to get some first drives — whether that meant some short passes to Harrison, some more Cribbs / Wallace, whatever — they needed to figure something out. All my fears about Brian Daboll — that he’s over his head, that he isn’t good enough to figure out how to use Wallace and Cribbs effectively, that he can’t call a game when it’s close and late — resurfaced yesterday. I can’t imagine Mike Holmgren was all that impressed by what he saw out of the offense in the second half yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see if he makes any public comments in the next day or two (assuming he’s not golfing at Highland Park). Even if the team starts out, say, 0-5, I don’t see Mangini getting fired; but if I’m Brian Daboll, and the offense continues to look as inept as it did in the second half yesterday, then I start to worry about my job.

* I already said a few things about the defense, but overall, very little to complain about on that side of the ball. They got to the QB, they tackled, they broke up passes. Really, with the exception of Josh Freeman’s 35-yard scramble and the fourth-quarter touchdown pass, the defense didn’t really do much wrong. But their task gets harder against KC, and then much, much harder after that.

* KC sort of becomes a must-win game. Isn’t that sad? I said in my season preview that I wouldn’t consider a 1-1 start to be a disaster, and I still won’t. But losing that game yesterday after appearing to be in such control in the first half makes gives this loss particular sting.

OK, that’s it for now. Be sure to check back later today for the GROSSI CHAT TODAY AT 2PM !!!!!!

Prediction Time

Published on September 9, 2010 in Uncategorized. Closed

A lot has happened in Cleveland since the Browns last took the field for a regular season game. Mike Holmgren officially stepped into his role as President of the team. Eric Mangini kept his job. Josh Cribbs cleaned out his locker and then had to put everything back a few weeks later. Brady Quinn and DA got moved out of town; Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace moved in. LeBron James took his talents to South Beach; Jim Brown took his to Highland Park. And so here we are, only days away from the start of the 2010 NFL season, only days away from the official start of the Mike Holmgren Era.

I have high expectations for this Era — I wouldn’t have given this site its name if I didn’t believe that Mike Holmgren could turn the Cleveland Browns organization into a winner. And truthfully, I expect the turn-around to happen on an accelerated schedule. The Browns should be in the playoffs by 2012, at the latest.

That’s the long-term forecast. Here, in this post, I’m going to work through my prediction for the 2010 NFL season. I’m going to break the schedule into four-game quarters, and build up to a prediction that way. For each quarter, I’m going to offer three guesses: (1) my prediction — what I think the Browns record will be; (2) “water into wine” — the absolute best case scenario for the Browns; and (3) the worst case scenario. Here goes:

Games 1-4: (1) at Tampa Bay; (2) Kansas City; (3) at Baltimore; (4) Cincinnati

A lot has been said about the importance of starting out 2-0. I agree that 2-0 would do wonders for the morale of this team and this city. But let’s be realistic — while the games against Tampa Bay and Kansas City are both winnable games, I don’t think there’s a single team in the NFL against whom the Browns can or should be considered locks. Yes, 2-0 is realistic — but it is NOT going to be easy. The Browns are underdogs against Tampa Bay, and that should tell you everything you need to know about how people around the league view this team.  So, yes, 2-0 would be great; but I don’t think people should be shocked or disappointed at 1-1.

Having said all that, I’m predicting wins against Tampa and KC. Tampa is bad, and their starting quarterback might miss the game. I think the game against KC is the more winnable of the two, simply by virtue of being at home. Games 3 and 4 are against teams that have a legitimate chance of making the Super Bowl; yes, the Browns could take one of those two, but I’m not going to predict it.

Predictions, after 4 games:

My Prediction: 2-2

Water into Wine: 3-1 – this would require the Browns to steal one of the divisional games, probably Cincinnati at home. Not likely but also not impossible. If this team starts 3-1, then I think we’ll start to have legitimate discussions about making the playoffs this year. That would be pretty sweet.

Worst Case Scenario: 0-4. It could happen. Nothing is guaranteed this season. I think a more realistic worst case scenario is 1-3, but honestly, if the Browns were to start off 0-2, this season will get very ugly, very quickly.

Games 5-8: (5) Atlanta; (6) at Pittsburgh; (7) at New Orleans; BYE; (8) New England

Whatever gratitude we as Browns fans owe the schedule-makers for giving us Tampa and KC to start, we owe them an equal amount of anger for this stretch. Brutal. Four teams that could very likely make the playoffs. The defending Super Bowl champions, on the road. “Bill must go” back in Cleveland. Big Ben’s first game after his rape — errrr, misconduct — suspension. Lot going on this stretch.

BILL MUST GO!

Even if the Browns are playing exceptional football after the first four games — even if they were to come into Atlanta 3-1 — they’d be fortunate to take one of these four games. I almost think game 6, at Pittsburgh, is the most likely opportunity for a win — there will be so much hoopla around the Steelers ahead of that game that the Browns might be able to steal one on the road. Ultimately, I’m going to have the Browns one win in this stretch — it could be Pittsburgh or Atlanta; slim chance it could be New England; no chance it’s New Orleans. So, 1-3 over this stretch.

Predictions after 8 games:

My Predictions: 3-5

Water into Wine: 5-3 – at BEST, the Browns go 2-2 in games 5-8.

Worst Case Scenario: 1-7 – I can’t see the Browns being winless after 8 games; so even if things go completely off the rails, they can’t start off 0-8? Right? GULP.

Games 9-12: (9) New York Jets; (10) at Jacksonville; (11) Carolina; (12) at Miami.

Here’s my bold prediction for the season — the Browns are going to beat the Jets in Week 10. Why? Well, first, I believe the Jets are overrated; Mark Sanchez will be a liability for them this year. Second, and most importantly, Mangini is going to be ready for this game. I can’t even begin to think of how many cans of dip he’s going to run through in advance of this one. If you asked Mangini whether he’d rather be 1-15 (but beat the Jets) or 15-1 (but lose to the Jets), he might choose the former.

But even if the Browns don’t beat the Jets, there are at least two wins in this stretch — both Jacksonville and Carolina are games the Browns could go into favored, or only slight dogs. At Miami could be tough, but here’s an interesting fact about that: The Browns play at the Dolphins on December 5th. LeBron James and the Heat play in Cleveland on December 2nd. To me, if the Browns are 1-10 going into the Dolphins game, then LeBron James will be in serious danger at the Q. If instead the Browns are, say, 5-6 or 6-5 and in the Wild Card hunt, then maybe Clevelanders won’t be so angry. Basically, LeBron James’ fate is in Mike Holmgren’s hands.

In sum — I’m giving the Browns three wins here: Jets, Panthers, Jaguars. That’s too optimistic but I’m doing it anyway.

Predictions after 12 games:

My predictions: 6-6

Water into Wine: 8-4 – 3-1 could happen; 4-0 can’t.

Worst Case Scenario: 3-9 — There are two winnable games in this stretch, even if the Browns are playing like crap.

Games 13-16: (13) at Buffalo; (14) at Cincinnati; (15) Baltimore; (16) Pittsburgh

Here’s where predicting things get particularly difficult, because it matters whether the Browns are 6-6 or 3-9 at this point. But, I’m going to assume they’re 6-6 here. If that’s the case, or even if the Browns are 5-7, that means they’ll likely still be alive in the Wild Card hunt. Thus, given the difficulty of the final three games, at Buffalo sets up to be something of a must win for the Browns. If there’s even the remotest possibility of the playoffs going into Week 14, it will be snuffed out by losing to Buffalo. But I don’t think that happens — count a win over Buffalo.

Obviously, the last three games are divisional games; on the road against the Bengals and then at home with Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Wouldn’t it be great if those games have some real meaning — if, say, a win against the Ravens would keep the Browns alive in the playoff hunt? That’s all I want, really; I don’t even care about a Super Bowl anymore, I just want Week 16 to have some meaning. And I think it will this year. But given how good Baltimore and Cincinnati are likely to be, and with the Steelers being the Steelers, I can’t in good conscience predict any better than 1-2 over this final stretch.

2010 Final Predictions:

My Predictions: 8-8. The difference between me and Grossi is probably the Jets game.

Best Case Scenario: 10-6 – Better than 2-2 is probably not possible over the final four games

Worst Case Scenario: 4-12 – that’s a win over Buffalo and then three straight divisional losses. If this happens, Mangini is gone.