The high-octane offense the Cleveland Browns showed on Monday night against the Giants obviously sprung a leak on the flight to Washington. The reality is this: The Browns have played six games this season, and their offense has played well in exactly one contest. Yesterday, it was inaccuracy by QB Derek Anderson and four more dropped passes by Braylon Edwards, who amazingly admitted the team was a little “lax” in practice this week. Are you kidding????
For some reason, this team, which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2002, started out the season 0-3, and has played one good game out of the first five this season, decided to not take a game against a 4-2 team against Washington very seriously. It makes you wonder about the make up of the players and the respect they have for the coaching staff.
Of course, I’m sure not every player had this attitude. Not perhaps a word from the greatest of them all, #32, Jim Brown should be in order. I would love to hear Edwards tell Brown about his focus in practice.
Meanwhile, back to the game. It is a minor miracle that the Browns had a chance to win this contest after the way the offense performed yesterday. In the middle of the third quarter, Anderson was 5 of 22 passing. If not for his performance against the Giants, Brady Quinn, who is more effective in the short passing game, should have replaced him. Besides the dropped balls, Anderson was horribly inaccurate, missing open receivers all over the field.
At the end of the game, it was Rob Chudzinski that had me scratching my head. After Anderson’s sneak gave Cleveland a first down on the Washington 37 yard line, Chudzinski eschewed short passes which appeared to be open to throw the ball 20 yards downfield. Why not move the ball to the 25 yard line, in certain Phil Dawson range, and then try to go for the kill. Nothing is for certain, but you sure feel better about a 42-45 yard field goal attempt than a 54 yarder. This was definitely a coaching mistake.
Somehow, the defense kept the Browns in the game despite being run over by the Redskins, particularly Clinton Portis, who gained 175 yards on 27 carries. The run defense has not shown improvement so far this season. However, outside of the Dallas game, this defense has allowed the offense to stay in the game, giving up just 78 points in the last five games, and the 24 against the Ravens was aided by turnovers by the offense.
Eric Wright’s outstanding strip of Portis with less than five minutes left allowed the Browns to get within three points, and then the defense forced a three and out to get the ball back with a little less than two minutes to go. However, the offensive got greedy and couldn’t cash in.
We haven’t even touched on Anderson’s on field tiff with fullback Lawrence Vickers, Kellen Winslow’s disagreement with Phil Savage, and disappearance for three quarters of Jerome Harrison. All of which are subjects for another time. The Cleveland Browns are showing themselves to be an inconsistent team, which means they are a mediocre team. There is nothing more frustrating to coaches and fans than that.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 