The Cleveland Browns celebrated Thanksgiving week by giving their fans a huge turkey of a game. The team and coaching staff made just about every mistake you could imagine in a 16-6 loss to the Houston Texans. Once again, the brown and orange failed to capitalize on the momentum of Monday night’s win over the Bills, driving their coaches and fans crazy. There is plenty of blame to go around, but if I were Phil Savage this morning, I would have a hard time justifying not making a coaching change.
First is Romeo Crennel’s strange benching of Brady Quinn. Quinn was not having a good game, but one could argue it was better than at least three games Derek Anderson had earlier in the campaign where no quarterback switch was made. It is obvious that Crennel did not agree with the change to the former Notre Dame QB, so he got Anderson back in at the first opportunity.
Quinn’s first interception was a terrible throw in which he didn’t see the defender. However, the second was a slant route where Braylon Edwards didn’t get in front of the defensive back. Rich Gannon, a former quarterback and the analyst for the game, blamed Edwards, saying he quit on the pattern. At the least, Edwards should have interfered with the play. After that throw, Quinn was benched.
The head coach seems to be coddling his wide receiver, seemingly blaming everyone but him for the inordinate amount of passes he is dropping. I understand they don’t have a lot of options, but shouldn’t there be some penalization of Edwards for his laundry list of mistakes.
Offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski called an odd game to say the least. The Browns averaged almost five yards per carry running the ball, but Jamal Lewis had just 10 carries. Lewis averaged almost six per attempt, but did fumble twice, the first times in over 400 touches. It’s hard to blame someone as reliable as Lewis, but why didn’t the offense run the ball more, especially with the tough day the quarterback was having.
Joe Thomas had a difficult time with Texans’ DE Mario Williams, but where were the rollouts that Chudzinski used in Quinn’s first two starts to buy more time? Isn’t it the coaches’ job to minimize weak points?
Defensively, there is no truth to the rumor the Browns have decided to count to “five alligators” before rushing the passer.
In the first half, Sage Rosenfels and the Texan offense went through the Browns like a hot knife through butter. If it weren’t for some penalties by Houston, they would have scored three touchdowns in the first half. WR Andre Johnson is whom Braylon Edwards wants to be when he grows up. But, it looked like a game of pitch and catch with the Houston QB and their receivers.
In the second half, the defense allowed only a field goal, but that was due to two interceptions off of poor throws by Rosenfels, who apparently stopped channeling Johnny Unitas at halftime. Why do the Browns refuse to put any pressure on the passer? You have to change up the defense by dropping guys into coverage and then blitzing at times. You don’t confuse anyone by dropping seven or eight into the secondary on every play.
Savage and Crennel need to meet and get on the same page for the rest of the season. I understand Crennel wants to win as many games as he can to try to keep his job. However, playing the veterans isn’t working, particularly on defense. Savage wants to see Quinn, Beau Bell, Travis Daniels, Martin Rucker, etc. and the head coach isn’t allowing it. If Crennel doesn’t want to do this, perhaps the GM has to bite the bullet and make the change now.
This team is a total mess, filled with players who can’t maintain focus from week to week. The culture in Berea has to change, and the players have to stop being coddled. If the team wants to see if Brady Quinn can handle the job, he has to work through his struggles. Crennel made the wrong move in pulling his QB, it’s the final nail in his coffin as head coach of the Browns.
JD