Should we really just start treating the Cleveland Indians like some sort of sitcom?  That might be the best way to approach the team, who will be gathering in spring training a little over a month from now.

The moves they are making are for laughs, right?

The other day, The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes said the Tribe would like to get an experienced starting pitcher, but they likely spent the cash they allotted to free agents when they signed OF Austin Kearns to a $1.3 million deal last month. 

First, CSP said at the time that the Indians needed Kearns like a proverbial hole in the head, because Shelley Duncan is a better alternative as a right handed hitter than Kearns against southpaws.  Yes, there is no question that Kearns is a better defensive player, but with a projected starting outfield of Shin-Soo Choo in right, a healthy Grady Sizemore in center, and Michael Brantley in left, it’s not like Manny Acta will be needing a defensive replacement very often.

Trevor Crowe is also currently on the 40-man roster, and is a decent defensive outfielder as well. 

Once again, it appears to be a case of the Indians could sign Kearns, so they did.  They think it showed their fans that they are willing to spend money. 

At the time, we said the front office would be better off putting whatever cash it had available into the starting rotation, or at the very least the pitching staff as a whole.  Spending on an outfielder should have been well down the list of needs.

The comedy in Hoynes’ article was that apparently the Cleveland Indians set aside about $2 million to spend on free agents.  Kind of like taking a knife to a gun fight. 

If that’s all the ownership can muster up in their efforts to improve the team, then they need to find a buyer and soon, because their idea of comedy isn’t very funny to their fans.

Now it is said the Indians are looking at moving Jason Donald to 3B, so they can keep Jayson Nix at 2B, where he is adequate defensively.  More laughs at the fans expense.  Seriously, what kind of blackmail evidence does Nix have on the people who run the Tribe?  He’s a stiff.

Nix hit .234 with 13 HR and 29 RBI with a 705 OPS on the season.  His OPS after the All Star game was 653, a mediocre figure at best.  And we are moving other people around so this guy can start?  No wonder this team has lost more than 90 games the past two seasons. 

Donald probably isn’t good enough to start at 2B on a contending team (wait it gets better…we got him for Cliff Lee!), but he could keep the hot corner warm for when Lonnie Chisenhall is ready.

But if you are going to move him, move him so either Cord Phelps (.308 with 8 HR, 54 RBI, and an 825 OPS at AA and AAA last year) or one of the organizations top three prospects, Jason Kipnis (.307 with 16 HR 74 RBI, and an 878 OPS at A and AA last year) can move in at second base.

One of the reasons the Tribe gets off to bad starts each year is they keep marginal (read: terrible) aging major leaguers on the roster to start the season, guys like Jamey Wright and Mark Grudzielanek.  They are looking to do this again with veteran SS Adam Everett, who main skill is with his glove. 

Everett will be 34 by the time spring training begins, and is a career .243 hitter with a lifetime OPS of 642.  Basically, he can’t hit his way out of a paper bag.  However, it seems the Tribe is hellbent on keeping him on the 25 man roster to open the season.

They keep making the same mistakes over and over again.  It’s not funny. 

TV shows which are hilarious draw large ratings.  People build their evening around watching these shows.

No one does this with the Cleveland Indians.  The organization is more of a tragedy at this point.

MW

It appears the rumors are true and it is likely the Cleveland Browns will have a press conference tomorrow to announce Pat Shurmur as the team’s next coach.

Already, the paranoid fans of the team are upset with the hire because Shurmur has no previous head coaching experience.  The Browns’ last coach, Eric Mangini, had three years experience as an NFL head man.  How did that work out?

Some people are still pining for Jon Gruden, who said he wasn’t ready to come back to coaching.

Others are complaining about the choice made by team president Mike Holmgren.  Why should trust be put in him?  Shurmur is the same kind of hire as Chris Palmer or Romeo Crennel.  Except that he’s not. 

Why?

Because the hire is being made by a football man.  Owner Randy Lerner signed off on the last few head coaches:  Mangini, Crennel, and Butch Davis. 

Lerner is a guy who is passionate about the Browns and has a boatload of money, but he really only knows the game as a fan.  He’s hasn’t spent the majority of his life coaching football players the way Holmgren has.

That’s a huge difference.  It’s also why it was important for Lerner to hire a guy like Holmgren. 

He’s brought in a guy like GM Tom Heckert, who based on last year’s draft, is off to a promising start in his Cleveland career.  Holmgren has also brought in guys to handle the salary cap, new scouts, etc. 

He saw what was here when he was hired, and decided to bring in people who have worked in the NFL before.  This organization needed experience, and experience from other teams that have had success.

As for criticism regarding faith in Holmgren picking the right man for the job, it is true that the president has not hired a head coach before. 

However, during his tenure as a head coach, he hired many assistants for his staff.  Among those he hired in those roles were Gruden, Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci, Ray Rhodes, and Mike Sherman.  All of those guys went on to be head coaches in the NFL.

Obviously, he saw something in those guys to indicate they could coach in the NFL.  Why wouldn’t the same ability to recognize people who could be good assistant coaches translate into finding a good head coach?

Shurmur has coached under Reid in Philadelphia at the pro level, and he was an assistant at Michigan State under Nick Saban, who won two college national titles.  He’s been around winning.

So, part of the allure for The Big Show is that the new coach comes from his coaching tree.  That means everyone in Berea will be on the same page when it comes to how to win football games.

It will be important for Shurmur to bring in offensive and defensive coordinators with experience.  That’s the formula for success used by Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Atlanta when they hired younger guys who had never been head coaches in the NFL.

Look, Mike Holmgren is the first successful football man the Cleveland Browns have had running the show for a long time.  We have to trust the decisions he is making. 

It’s the nature of sports fans in this city to look at the downside of any move made by one of its teams.  Whether or not Pat Shurmur is the guy to lead the Browns back to the playoffs, only time will tell.

However, you have to trust Holmgren.  He has a winning record as a coach, and he’s hired some assistant coaches who have done real well in the NFL.

JD

You can already hear the panic in Browns fans. They are uneasy about the rumors that Rams’ offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur is being reported as the front runner for the team’s vacant head coaching position.

The fans had their hearts set on Jon Gruden, and anything less is a disappointment to them.

No one has any idea on whether or not Shurmur will emerge as a great head coach or not, but it is unfair for him to be dismissed because he doesn’t have a high profile.

Did anyone hear of Mike Tomlin before Pittsburgh hired him? Was John Harbaugh a household name prior to being hired by Baltimore? What about Mike Smith in Atlanta? Not many people knew of him before he was hired in Atlanta. All three have turned out to be pretty good head coaches in the NFL.

Also, being an outstanding coordinator is no guarantee of future success as the headman. The NFL coaching scrap heap is loaded with guys who were the “coordinator du jour” once upon a time, but their success on one side of the ball didn’t translate to wins and losses.

Let’s remember that one of the Browns’ better coaches in the post-Blanton Collier era was an obscure assistant with New England and New Orleans back in the 70’s. That would be Sam Rutigliano, who along with Don Coryell in San Diego, was among the first coaches to feature a high octane passing attack.

It really comes down to whether or not the new man can command respect in the locker room and get the team together for one common goal…winning. It’s not all X’s and O’s. It’s how you handle people.

Look at Tomlin during Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension early this season. He refused to make excuses and instead told everyone on the roster that he expected to win, just as if the starting quarterback was there. They started out 3-1, and won another division title.

That’s what the Browns need from their next leader.

There are very few sure things as head coaches. The Gruden disciples forget that he was 4-12 in 2006 before finishing at 9-7 in his last two years in Tampa.

In fact, after winning the Super Bowl in his first year there, he won more than ten games just once afterward, an 11-5 mark in ’05.

We’d all take 9-7 for the Browns based on the last three seasons, but it is not like the Buccaneers were a perennial playoff team with Gruden in charge.

And it would be a great thing for the franchise if Gruden agreed to become the Browns’ next head coach. He’s won a Super Bowl and has made multiple playoff appearances.

It’s just that there is nothing for sure when it comes to picking a head coach.

If you trust Mike Holmgren to run the football operations of the Cleveland Browns, then you have to trust that he will pick the right guy. It’s not picking the hot coordinator and who can put together the most sophisticated offense; it’s about choosing a man who can work with the front office to win here.

When all is said and done, coaching is a people business. It’s about getting players to follow where you are leading. It’s not getting the best name; it’s picking the best man for the job.

JD

The Cleveland Cavaliers are nearing a place among the worst teams in NBA history.  Only an overtime victory at home against the New York Knicks is saving the wine and gold from a 20 game losing streak. 

The Cavs are now 8-28 on the season, have lost nine in a row, and with four games against pretty good to very good teams on the balance of a five game west coast trip (Suns, Lakers, Nuggets, and Jazz), the losing skein will likely extend to 13 straight, and 23 losses in 24 contests. 

As many hoped, this team is headed toward getting a lot of ping pong balls in the springs annual draft lottery.  However, how many true impact players are available in the 2011 NBA Draft?  Right now, it doesn’t look like a lot of franchise turning players. 

The answer is to get some other young developing players with a lottery pick in order to start winning again.  Can new GM Chris Grant get that done?  It remains to be seen.  The Cavs are trying to use the trade exemption received when LeBron James left for Miami to get some extra first round picks, as depending on what day it is, they are either involved in a possible Carmelo Anthony deal or not involved at all.

What is clear is that the team must get better on defense.  The Cavs are eighth worst in the league in allowing points, fourth worst in opponents’ field goal percentage, and worst in defensive three point field goal percentage.  That’s the profile of a bad defensive team.

Outside of Anderson Varajao, who is nursing an ankle sprain, the Cavs do not have one player who can guard their man straight up. 

The guards cannot stop penetration, which forces the inside players to help out, thus leaving their men open for dunks and layups.  When the ball is entered to the post, the guards have to drop down and help out, leaving wide open perimeter shots, many of them from behind the arc, leading to the horrible performance against the three pointer.

Until Cleveland defenders can handle their own men, or least more than one can, this is going to continue to be a problem. 

Another problem with the defense is that the non-post defenders aren’t quick enough to get back and contest the outside shot.  Coach Byron Scott seems to be trying to combat this by using more athletic wing players, such as newcomer Alonzo Gee, and rookies Christian Eyenga and Manny Harris in these positions. 

There has been plenty of speculation as to what the next moves should be to start the rebuilding process, and they should involve improving the defense.  Most nights, the wine and gold score enough points to win games in the NBA, but they can’t stop their opponents. 

Mo Williams was a key contributor on teams that had the league’s best regular season record two straight years, but he isn’t a good fit here anymore.  The Cavs need a point guard who can stop penetration and take care of the basketball.  This basketball team still makes way too many unforced turnovers, which lead to layups and dunks on the other end of the floor.

If the Cavaliers are going to recover from the horrible season, winning the draft lottery isn’t the only cure.  Look at Washington.  They got the #1 pick in John Wall, and they are still 9-26.  The Clippers have sensational Blake Griffin and they are at 11-24. 

Other things have to be done, and it starts at the defensive end.

JK

Happy 2011!  This sports year in Cleveland has to be better than 2010, only because it could hardly be worse. 

The city’s best hope going into ’10 was the Cavaliers and we all know what happened there.  That Tribe skipper Manny Acta is now the longest tenured coach/manager among the three professional sports teams here is all you need to know about the state of sports in Cleveland. 

Thank goodness for Cleveland State’s basketball team, which has started out its season 15-1.  At least they deserve out interest.

All this being said, here is the state of the franchise’s on the north coast going coming into 2011—

Browns.  Right now, the Browns would have to be on top of the heap among the franchises here in terms of having good leadership at the top.  Mike Holmgren is a football man and his hire of GM Tom Heckert was outstanding based on the latter’s first draft here.

Holmgren does have a huge decision to make on who will coach the team in 2011, and he gave former coach Eric Mangini an opportunity for a second year after four straight wins to finish the 2009 season.  He no doubt will hire a head coach with an offensive background, one more in step with the president’s ideas on how to play the game.

Another draft like last season by Heckert will put the Browns in contention for a playoff spot next season.  Yes, next season!  Remember, he draft three starters in ’10.  Other holes will be filled through free agency, particularly bringing in some younger guys to help an aging defensive front seven.

Cavaliers.  The wine and gold took the biggest hit in 2010 when LeBron James left via free agency (technically, it was a trade, but we know what really happened).  The best things the franchise has going for them is an owner who professes that he wants to win, and coach Byron Scott, who has built two teams (New Jersey and New Orleans) into contenders.

However, they have an inexperience GM in Chris Grant, who thus far hasn’t made an impact move despite his team losing 16 of their last 17 contests.  The minor moves the team has made have increased the athleticism of the team, although it hasn’t translated into wins.

The hope for the Cavs is the NBA draft lottery, where they should have a good chance for a very high draft pick.  The downside is that many teams are yearly participants in the lottery and never show considerable improvement.  You still have to make the right moves, and Grant is unproven at this point.

Indians.  It is telling that the best thing to happen to the organization recently was the induction of former Tribesmen Bert Blyleven and Robbie Alomar to the Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately, Blyleven’s last season here was 26 years ago, and Alomar’s was 10 seasons past.

Otherwise, things at Progressive Field continue to be a mess with the ownership hacking away at payroll and sitting and basically watching the entire Hot Stove season, making several very minor moves to try and improve the team.

The farm system is being built and is well stocked, but there isn’t an impact type player in the system that everyone thinks is a can’t miss prospect. 

The worst part for the organization is the apathy of the fans.  There’s no outrage about the horrible state of the team since their last playoff appearance in 2007. 

2011 couldn’t be worse than 2010.  Or could it?

MW

Patience is out the window in today’s NFL. 

There are no more five year plans, no time given to a young coach to put in his system.  It’s funny when people bring up the Steelers giving Chuck Noll three years before his first winning season because that was 40 years ago! 

When Noll left and was replaced by Bill Cowher, the new coaches first three seasons were 11-5, 9-7, and 12-4, with all three years making playoff appearances.  It’s easy to have continuity when that happens.  Mike Tonlin’s first three years resulted in 10-6, 12-4, and 9-7 with the second year being a Super Bowl champion year. 

The NFL today has one last place team from the year before making the playoffs the next season virtually every year.  It happened to Kansas City this season.  So, every owner and every GM, as well as every fan wants to know why that same kind of turnaround can’t happen to them. 

Heck, Marvin Lewis took Cincinnati to the playoffs just a year ago, and it looks like the Bengals will not try to negotiate a new contract with him.  The Vikings went to the NFC title game last year and Brad Childress got the gate before the current season ended. 

There is no more patience in today’s NFL. 

That’s the NFL we live in today and that’s one of the reasons Mike Holmgren fired Eric Mangini as Browns’ coach today after two straight 5-11 seasons. 

Another reason is today’s professional football is played in the air and Holmgren wanted his franchise to join the 21st century in that regard.  Mangini’s emphasis on running the ball and stopping the run is important, make no mistake about that, but today’s game is played through the air.  Look at the NFL’s elite:  New England (Tom Brady), Pittsburgh  (Ben Roethlisberger), Indianapolis (Peyton Manning), New Orleans (Drew Brees), and Atlanta (Matt Ryan).

The league’s leading rusher this season was Houston’s Arian Foster.  The Texans finished 6-10. 

The team president wants someone to come in with the same passing game as the big boys in the NFL.  Whether he is correct or not, The Big Show feels the wide receivers on the roster aren’t terrible, they are just part of an archaic offensive system.  How many crossing routes did you see the Browns run this season?  That’s a staple for many teams in the National Football League. 

Holmgren will bring in somebody he is familiar with, something perhaps he should have done last season.  However, he gave Mangini a chance and you can’t fault him for that.  Holmgren has been in the league a long time with many branches on his coaching “tree”.  No doubt, someone he has worked with before will be the new coach of the Browns. 

Speculation will run wild that Jon Gruden will be a leading candidate, but Holmgren said he is open to all candidates and wants to find the right man to make the Cleveland Browns relevant in today’s game.

It is telling that all the assistant coaches were told they still have a contract for 2011 with the Browns.  This could be because the front office wants to keep defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and special teams coach Brad Seely. 

In the end, the Browns didn’t win enough football games and Eric Mangini paid for that with his job.  A generation ago, he would have been given more time to put his plan in place.  Now, he didn’t turn it around soon enough.

JD

Apparently, many of the Cleveland Browns thought the season ended last week after the loss to the Ravens. 

That would explain today’s utter humiliation of the brown and orange by the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The Browns had been the only team in the NFL not to give up 30 points in the game this season, but they allowed 31 in the first half today in route to a 41-9 drubbing by Pittsburgh.

The game was reminiscent of the 41-0 beating administered by the Steelers on Christmas Eve a few years ago.  Maybe the Browns can ask the NFL schedule maker not to play Pittsburgh around the holidays again.

In a season filled with bizarre offensive game plans, today was just another.  With RB Peyton Hillis limited with a rib injury, Cleveland decided to not run at all early in the game, as the first eight plays were passes.  This totally flies in the face of what the coaching staff has preached all year long. 

Maybe Eric Mangini was just showing team president Mike Holmgren that using the forward pass doesn’t work as well as Holmgren thinks it does.

Without any sort of running game, QB Colt McCoy was harassed all over the field by the Steelers defense, particularly after his first interception, a deflection off the hands of TE Benjamin Watson into the hands of Steeler All Pro S Troy Polamalu. 

The next play, Ben Roethlisberger hit Mike Wallace for a 56 yard touchdown pass and the rout was on.  That pass showed the difference in philosophy between the two coaching staffs.  Remember the six picks the Browns had in Jacksonville, and the reluctance to throw even a short pass after each one?

The defense had no answer for the black and gold offense as well.  Pittsburgh didn’t even punt until midway through the third quarter.  So much for the pride defensive coordinator Rob Ryan talked about early in the week.

What’s even worse is the Steelers pouring it on in the second half.  Running a gadget play up 31-3 early in the third quarter?  Yes, this is professional football and it’s up to the defense to stop the opposition, but here’s hoping every member of the Browns’ organization remembers that play when the two teams get together next season.

Unfortunately, that kind of pride doesn’t exist anymore in professional sports.

So, the watch is on in Berea, as it is expected that Mangini will be relieved of his duties. perhaps as early as tomorrow.  The four consecutive losses to end the season clinched that outcome.  For those fearing another rebuilding process, with Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert in place, it will not be that. 

It will be a continuation of what happened on draft day when Heckert picked these players:  Starters  Joe Haden, T. J. Ward, McCoy, and a guy who should start next season in G Shaun Lauvao. 

For Mangini, his team didn’t show any improvement from last season’s 5-11 mark.  And what was even more damning was this team defeated two playoff teams back to back in New Orleans and New England, and took the Jets to overtime the following week.  However, they followed that up a few weeks later with losses to woeful teams like Buffalo and Cincinnati.

A 2-10 record within the division didn’t help either.

The improvement of teams like Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and St. Louis also showed it doesn’t have to be a long process in the NFL.  Those teams all had records worse than the Browns last season and in the case of the Chiefs and Buccaneers, won 10 games this season, and the Rams could make the playoffs.

It was a sad ending to a season which showed so much promise in the middle of the season.  After the Jets game, Cleveland entered a stretch of five winnable games (Jacksonville, Miami, Carolina, Buffalo, and Cincinnati) which could have put them at 8-6 going into the last two games of the year.  They were in every game, but came up with just one victory.  A disappointment indeed.

However, we did see some talented new players and may have found a quarterback as well.  The last two games should not shake anyone’s opinion of McCoy, provided he gets some wide receiver help and decent game plans.

It’s never a good thing to see someone lose a job, but for the benefit of the franchise, Holmgren will start looking for a new coach soon.

JD

Very quietly, the Cleveland Cavaliers have started their transformation.  A couple of subtle recent moves have indicated that coach Byron Scott is looking for a little more athleticism on the roster.

This is something sorely lacking on the Cavs’ current roster, which is one of the least athletic in the league particularly at the big guard and small forward spots, where virtually every NBA team has a guy who can run the floor and hammer dunks.

The release of F Jawad Williams allowed the team to bring in the 2010 D-League Rookie of the Year in Alonzo Gee, who most recently had been playing for the Washington Wizards, playing sparingly in 16 games, averaging 2.1 points per contest. 

Gee is a big guard, at 6’6″ and 220 pounds out of Alabama, and is regarded as a guy who can get up in the air. 

Williams’ game is that of a three-point shooter, who seemed reluctant to put the ball on the floor and struggled defensively.  He hit three shots from beyond the arc in his last game as a Cav, probably his best game of the season, but he was more effective on a team with LeBron James than he was this year. 

Scott also indicated that former first round draft choice, Christian Eyenga, who has been playing in the D-League for Erie, could be brought back to Cleveland soon.  Eyenga is another guy who can flat-out jump, and is 6’5″ and 210 pounds.  There is no question the team needs size in the backcourt, where outside of Anthony Parker, who is now playing small forward, the biggest backcourt player getting any time at all is Ramon Sessions at 6’3″.

And there are rumors all over the place that the New York Knicks are interested in Sessions, who seems to still be a shoot first point guard, and hasn’t really fit in with the wine and gold.  The Cavs might be interested in getting back another athlete in 6’11” power forward Anthony Randolph, who is just 21, but has fallen out of favor with coach Mike D’Antoni. 

Randolph is regarded as a player with a whole lot of potential to be a standout player in the NBA.

The wine and gold also sent rookie F Samardo Samuels to the D-League to get some court time, which could signal an enhanced role when he returns.  Backup C Ryan Hollins’ playing time has been dwindling, and Scott needs some size in the frontcourt. 

The coach has commented that he needs a post player on offense, and that Samuels has a low post game.  Plus, he’s another guy with the dreaded “P” word–potential.

The head coach has to look at his team, which currently sits at 8-23, and realizes it’s not going to get much better using the same guys he is using now.  He is giving his starter heavy minutes since the change in the starting lineup, which brough Daniel Gibson and Antawn Jamison onto the first unit, and knows he has to get some contributions from his bench. 

Why not go with young, athletic guys to get some production?  After all, they may just get better with the experience.

The way the season has gone thus far, with 14 losses in their last 15 games, there is really nothing else to do.  Give these young guys a shot.  Perhaps they can put some life into a team is a desperate need for a jolt.

JK

Clevelanders are too soft when it comes to their sports teams. 

We should demand more of the owners of our professional teams, instead it seems like we settle for mediocrity.  All of our teams play in facilities built with our tax dollars.  Is it too much to ask the people running the teams to put a good product on the field or court. 

Not every once in a while, all the time. 

Sure we understand rebuilding, every team, outside of perhaps the New York Yankees have to go through this from time to time, but it’s been 46 years since a Cleveland team won a major professional championship. 

What’s worse, only four times in those 46 years has a team from our city played for a world championship:  the ’65 Browns lost to Green Bay, the “95 and ’97 Indians got to the World Series, and the ’07 Cavaliers went to the NBA Finals. 

However, it seems like we accept this.  There is apathy with regard to the Indians, patience when it comes to the Browns, and hope for the Cavaliers because we believe their owner, Dan Gilbert wants to win as much as we do.

The goal of every team should be a title.  Not being competitive, not hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, not a continuous rebuilding project.  A championship, nothing less should be what is strived for. 

In turn, every move a franchise makes should be done with the express goal of winning the whole thing. 

Take Eric Mangini, there is considerable debate as to whether he should stay or remain as the Browns’ head coach.  The question should be:  Can Eric Mangini get the Cleveland Browns to the Super Bowl?  That should be the only thing that matters.  He’s been the coach for two years, and it appears both seasons will end with the same record.  That’s not progress.

Also, Mangini has been a head coach in the NFL for five seasons and has had losing records in three of them.  Had he taken two teams to the Super Bowl in the past, you could give him the benefit of the doubt, but that’s not the case.

The situation at Progressive Field is a mess.  The Dolan family has owned the team for ten years and has produced two playoff teams.  The first one coming from players acquired and developed during the Jacobs’ ownership. 

The Mark Shapiro led front office has produced two good teams since 2001.  The ’07 team which got the ALCS, and the ’05 squad which missed the post-season by one game.  That’s it.  And it’s also not acceptable for fans.  The lucky thing for the Indians is they have made themselves insignificant.  No one cares any more.

Still, you have some people telling us about “the process”, and the amount of time it takes to build a competitive team.  Does anyone remember the Tribe was within one game of the World Series just three seasons ago?  It seems to me you had a good team, you decided to dismantle it.

As for the Cavs, the big hope is Gilbert, who at least says the right things about winning.  No excuses from him like you hear from Shapiro and Dolan.  However, his basketball team has lost 14 of their last 15 games, yet no roster changes have been made.  A lack of action is perceived as a lack of caring about winning.

With 2011 on the horizon, this should be our resolution as Cleveland sports fans:  Stop accepting losing!  We’ve had enough!  We need to demand positive results from our professional sports teams.  Four opportunities for a title in 46 years isn’t getting it done. 

MW

This month, the Browns games are looking like the movie “Ground Hog Day” with Bill Murray.  Each game looks remarkably like the game before.  Can’t run the ball?  Check.

Can’t stop the run?  Check.

Strange use of the clock by the coaching staff at the end of the first half?  Check. 

This is not the formula to winning football, and that was proven again today as Cleveland fell to the Baltimore Ravens, 20-10, and fall to 5-10 on the season. 

A loss to Pittsburgh next week means the Browns will end the 2010 season with the same record as last year, despite having better talent.  That can’t bode well for Eric Mangini’s future here. 

Let’s go back to the fiasco right before the intermission when the Browns scored a field goal to bring them to within three points at 13-10. 

First, they left two timeouts on the board.  Does the head coach think he can turn those in at the end of the season for coupons or something? 

Following the two minute warning, Colt McCoy hit RB Mike Bell for 24 yards, putting the ball on the Ravens’ 28 yard line with three timeouts left!  The Browns did not run another play until 1:16 was remaining, and that play was a 1 yard run by Bell.  The next play came with :31 left, and it was a pass play, but McCoy was flushed out of the pocket and ran for 7 yards. 

Cleveland then went to the wildcat formation and Josh Cribbs, who look healthy today for the first time in weeks, picked up the first down at the Baltimore 13.  It was then that the Browns used their first timeout.  So, they went 15 yards and used about a minute to do it all the while being in scoring territory. 

The Plain Dealer’s Tony Grossi said it looks like the Browns go into these situations looking for a field goal, not a touchdown.  It certainly looked like that today. 

Then, the Browns tried an onside kick to start the second half and it failed when Phil Dawson only kicked it eight yards, instead of the required 10.  Not going to blame Mangini for the aggressiveness, even though it seemed a bit forced.  However, why not go for broke inside the Ravens’ 30 at the end of the first half?

McCoy played like a rookie for the first time this season, hitting just 15 of 29 passes for 149 yards and throwing three interceptions.  The first one was excusable as WR Mohammad Massaquoi could have made a better effort to knock the ball down instead of letting Ladarius Webb pick it off.  The other two picks were by Ed Reed, who is probably going to the Hall of Fame.

By when you give up 161 rushing to the opposition and you only get 102 yourself, it makes it difficult to win.  Mix in four turnovers, and you have a recipe for defeat. 

In a statistical anomaly, the Browns actually out gained the Ravens, 280 to 258 yards on the day.  And McCoy was not sacked by the Ravens’ defense either. 

Rookie CB Joe Haden had another solid effort, intercepting his sixth pass of the year, and he also had a sack of Joe Flacco, the only one recorded by the Browns.  He looks like he can be a cornerstone on this team.

Cleveland’s only touchdown came on a trick play, a 29 yard pass from Massaquoi to Brian Robiskie, his second TD catch in as many weeks.  Massaquoi had a mixed game because he also fumbled after a catch in the first half, and didn’t break up McCoy’s first pick.

There is one more game is this season, and the Browns are ending it in an opposite manner than they did last year when they won their last four contests.  Unless they upset the Steelers, they will finish with the same record and four straight defeats. 

Also, a loss next week means a 1-5 record in the division, which is unacceptable if you intend to compete in the AFC North. 

The big news won’t be the game, it will be what follows, when we all find out Mike Holmgren’s take on the team and its coach.

JD