Last season, the Cleveland Browns failed to score an offensive touchdown in their last six games. However, at that point in the season, they were playing the third and fourth string quarterbacks in Ken Dorsey and Bruce Gradkowski. What’s their excuse this season?
The Browns did score an offensive touchdown today, but the philosophy and results when they have the football continues to be an out and out joke. Their passing game is a total embarassment for an NFL team as once again, Derek Anderson had a horrible game. After completing just two passes in the first half, Anderson was not replaced for the third quarter as the coaching staff apparently was watching a different game than the rest of us.
Anderson wound up hitting on just 6 of 17 throws for 76 yards and two interceptions before being mercifully removed in the fourth quarter after having his last pass returned for a Chicago touchdown by Charles Tillman.
Yes, there were dropped passes and fumbles, but Anderson’s second throw was a short pass (maybe about 5 yards) that was behind Lawrence Vickers and that set the tone for his day. His passer rating was 0.0 at halftime and improved to 10.2 by the end of the game. Is it possible that this guy went to the Pro Bowl just two years ago? He should have started his last game as quarterback of the Browns barring some sort of injury.
It should be noted that the touchdown scored yesterday was put on the board without the aid of the passing game. They took over the ball on the Bears’ 30-yard line and used all running plays to move it into the end zone.
After the game, owner Randy Lerner said he was dissatisfied with the performance of the team, and hinted changes will be made over the bye week. The first change should be to have a new person calling the plays two weeks from tonight against the Baltimore Ravens. Brian Daboll has been terrible in this area, and needs to be replaced.
What will be done? There have been hints that Lerner would like to bring in someone to run the football operations right away. Whether that person is Bernie Kosar or someone else, bringing in a football man would seem to mean than Mangini doesn’t have a lot of job security right now.
One good thing about the game was the performance of the defense, which was aggressive before running out of gas due to the poor performance of the offense. They were on the field for over 37 minutes yesterday. They put pressure on Jay Cutler most of the day giving him different looks, and held the Bears to three field goals despite great field position for Chicago.
Rob Ryan’s unit continues to work hard, and his feisty demeanor is refreshing. He jawed at Cutler when the Bears couldn’t score on a 1st and goal situation from the one in the fourth quarter. Cutler is one of those guys who isn’t as good as he thinks he is, and Ryan was probably telling him that.
Thankfully, there will be no action on the field next week, and hopefully there will be some action off it. Jamal Lewis said he’s had enough after the season, which is more problems for the coaching staff since he is a captain. Perhaps, this dreadful season finally makes the owner admit he needs someone to run the football operations, and let that man hire a coach. It hasn’t worked with Butch Davis, Romeo Crennel, and Mangini.
Browns fans deserve a good product, and movement forward. There was no reason to take a step backward after last year’s 4-12 fiasco, but this year looks like it could be a tough time hitting that mark in 2009.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 