Browns Right in Not Going Crazy in Free Agent Market

It is hilarious to us that people, both fans and media alike, are criticizing the management of the Cleveland Browns because they don’t expect them to do anything during the NFL’s free agency period, which starts today.

The bulk of that criticism comes from a comment made by owner Jimmy Haslam earlier this year that he doesn’t expect the team to be involved heavily in free agency.

Apparently, that was translated that the Browns won’t do anything.

Last night, the Browns did make a move, signing former Ohio State WR Brian Hartline. The Canton native is just a year removed from back-to-back 1000 yard receiving seasons, catching over 70 passes in each of those seasons.

He also fulfills the native northeast Ohio/Ohio State player requirement that some Browns’ fans have.

Last season, Hartline dropped to 39 catches. Did he lose the ability to get open or did Ryan Tannehill simply find a new favorite target?

He was targeted 26 times in the Dolphins first four games, grabbing 16 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown in that time span.

He was only thrown to more than five times in a game twice the rest of the season, one of those games being the season finale, when he caught five throws for 94 yards. In most of the other games, he seemed to be an afterthought in the game plan.

At the very least, Hartline is a bigger target for whoever is throwing passes for Cleveland next season, at 6’2″ and 180 pounds. The only receivers bigger on last year’s Browns’ roster were the currently suspended Josh Gordon and current free agent Miles Austin.

So, Hartline is worth taking a gamble on.

As for NFL free agency, you have to understand that most of the players who are eligible are past their prime, or perhaps are at the peak of their ability, so teams will be paying them for dimishing returns.

That doesn’t mean they can’t make an impact, though. Certainly, Donte Whitner and Karlos Dansby made a positive impact on last year’s team lending experience and knowledge of professional football that was invaluable.

And both played very well too. The Browns missed Dansby when he was injured at the end of the year, and Whitner wound up making the Pro Bowl.

That said, we wouldn’t be opposed to seeing GM Ray Farmer pick up an experienced lineman, both defensive and offensive to help the depth in those areas. They can probably get both types of players at a reasonable price.

And as we keep saying, we would also like to see the team get another quarterback, one who can challenge Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel for a starting position. If you don’t have “the guy”, then why not have some options and depth.

It wouldn’t or shouldn’t be a problem to bring in a Jake Locker or Mat Moore to compete for a starting spot.

And it can be done and still keep the organization very flexible with the salary cap. Remember, the Browns came into free agency around $50 million under the cap.

However, knowing the Browns’ fan base, unless they sign Tom Brady to play quarterback, the front office is going to take a hit for not doing enough. Let’s wait until the off-season is over before panicking on what Ray Farmer didn’t do this spring.

Hoyer Era is Over, Now Browns Need to Get Better at QB

Yesterday, Brian Hoyer formally announced he can now be referred to as “former Browns quarterback” Brian Hoyer.

Thus ends the “should the Browns resign Hoyer for the 2015 season” debate.

His supporters will point to his record as the Cleveland starter, which is 10-6, better than any Browns’ passer since the team returned to the NFL in 1999.

His detractors, which we would fall into that category, would point out his career passing rating, a mediocre 76.8, and his four start span after Cleveland reached 6-3. His best rating in those four starts was 61.2, and that came in a critical home loss against Houston, in which he completed just 20 of 50 throws.

We have long advocated that GM Ray Farmer needed to get better at the quarterback position, whether they brought Hoyer back for this season or not, and also whether or not, Johnny Manziel is the heir apparent at the spot.

Hoyer’s record is the result of the Browns finally starting to turn the corner in terms of talent.

Although the team’s record of first round draft picks is deplorable, Tom Heckert and Farmer have brought in many good to very good football players over the last three or four years, and those guys have made the team better.

After the 2013 season, the Browns had five players selected to the Pro Bowl and this year had three. And even though Joe Thomas and Joe Haden made the squad each of those years, Alex Mack, Donte Whitner, Jordan Cameron, Tashaun Gipson, and Josh Gordon have made appearances as well.

Prior to the last couple of seasons? It was pretty much Thomas traveling to the game alone.

So, signing Josh McCown essentially swapped him out for Hoyer in 2015, but Farmer still needs to upgrade the signal caller for the upcoming season, if the brown and orange want to improve on their 7-9 record and get to the playoffs.

We would look for another QB when free agency starts next week, and the Browns should have their eyes on Jake Locker and Matt Moore to bring in to compete with Manziel and McCown.

Locker has a career rating of 79.0, but in two of his four seasons, he has had ratings of over 85.0. His problem is staying healthy, having played just 30 games in his four seasons. Perhaps with the Browns’ offensive line, which is solid despite what the critics say, and his coaches telling him to stay in the pocket, he can stay healthy and be productive.

He will be just 27 years old this season.

Moore is a veteran who has been around, he will play this season at 31 years old, but hasn’t started since the 2011 campaign.

He had an 87.1 QBR in that last season, before Miami drafted Ryan Tannehill and installed him as the starter.

In that season, he started 12 games for a Dolphin team that finished 6-10. He completed 60.5% of his throws with 16 touchdowns vs. nine interceptions.

Since then, he has tossed just 29 passes in the regular season.

He isn’t a household name, but he could be a guy like Hoyer was in the beginning of last season, meaning he avoided mistakes and put his team in positions to win.

In our opinion, that would upgrade the spot behind center coming into the season.

Now, if Farmer stands pat with McCown, Manziel, and Connor Shaw, then fans and media alike have a right to be outraged. Then, they are going with the same situation they had going into last season.

That’s not good enough to make another step forward.

Here’s Hoping Browns Aren’t Reaching for QB

It is becoming an annual rite of passage for football fans in Cleveland, Ohio.

The season ends, and the Cleveland Browns are looking at the quarterbacks who are entering the NFL from the college ranks, and the national pundits are talking about the Browns moving up in the draft to take yet another signal caller.

Last season, GM Ray Farmer resisted the temptation to use the fourth overall pick to take a passer, but succumbed to pressure from around the city to find one and moved up to pick Johnny Manziel with the 22nd choice.

Now, NFL insiders are saying that Farmer is enamored with another Heisman Trophy winner, Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, and the Browns are looking to move up to get him.

Adding fuel to the flames is the man who appears to be Cleveland’s next quarterback coach, Kevin O’Connell, is currently working with Mariota, preparing him for his personal workouts with pro teams.

While the Browns certainly have to upgrade the quarterback position, we aren’t sure that picking another guy out of college is the answer, particularly this year.

Most scouts say the most talented passer coming out this year is Jameis Winston from Florida State. However, Winston has a lot of baggage and after coming off the Manziel circus, do the Browns want to deal with that again?

Mariota has the size, but is he ready to step in and play at the NFL level? His offensive system at Oregon was gimmicky, trying to catch the defense off guard by running plays quickly. That’s not going to happen at the professional level.

And this isn’t to say we wouldn’t take either guy. If one or both fell to the Browns’ first pick at #12 overall, or even further to #19, you would have to think about drafting either player, but we would also bring in a veteran, not necessarily Brian Hoyer, to compete for the job.

We just wouldn’t sacrifice a draft pick, or perhaps multiple choices to move up in the selection process to get either.

Why? Because even though quarterback is a most important position, it’s not the only hole the Cleveland Browns have to fill.

They could use a wide receiver. They could use another offensive lineman. They could use defensive line depth and another linebacker as well.

If a quality player is available at one of those positions, Farmer should use the picks he has to fill one of those spots. Don’t reach for a quarterback yet again.

We say that because in our opinion there aren’t any signal callers available who are worth the price of trading an extra high draft choice. So, basically you would be expending the pick you traded for plus another pick, probably in the first three rounds of the draft.

If we thought either Winston or Mariota was an Andrew Luck type player, then the Browns should do what they have to, but that’s not the case.

So, Farmer and the front office should simply sit tight, and draft the best player available, and continue to build a strong team around whoever plays QB when the regular season starts in September.

It’s about time the Browns learn from their mistakes.

Overreaction to Browns’ So-Called Mess.

A couple of years ago, the Cleveland media regarded pro football writer Jason La Canfora as a mouthpiece for Browns’ executive Michael Lombardi. These people never liked Lombardi from his days here in the Belichick regime, and so most of what La Canfora wasn’t taken seriously.

However, his column yesterday was treated like it was gospel judging by the conversation on sports talk radio yesterday.

This isn’t to say there isn’t some grain of truth in what he wrote yesterday, but it seems to have exploded throughout the city and fan base, and we think everyone should take a step back and ease up a bit.

First of all, there are no names mentioned, just unnamed sources or people within the organization. This probably means former team president Joe Banner or Lombardi or people who they know that still work there who may be disgruntled.

It is also likely that some stuff came from former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who was referred to as the “lone bright spot on offense” and a “talented assistant” within the article.

The decision to draft Johnny Manziel was also panned, with Brian Hoyer being praised. Remember that Hoyer’s biggest advocate within the organization was Lombardi. We have said this before, Brian Hoyer is a decent NFL passer, no better, no worse, and the Browns should still be working to upgrade at that position.

This isn’t to say that the Browns’ organization is a well oiled machine, nor are we saying that Haslam isn’t making decisions that he shouldn’t be making, which would mostly be on personnel.

However, we are saying people need to consider the source of this blistering review of the entire organization.

On the other hand, it has been reported that Mike Pettine wanted to hire John DiFilippo as offensive coordinator last season, but was overruled because Shanahan had more experienced. If the head coach wanted him in the first place, then what is wrong with getting him now?

His hand-picked defensive coordinator, Jim O’Neil, looks like a keeper. So, let’s give Pettine the benefit of the doubt on DiFilippo.

As for the coach’s film review with Haslam and team president Alec Sheiner, perhaps those two simply want to learn what the coaching staff looks at, and asked Pettine if they could watch with him.

We understand that might be a stretch, but it is a plausible scenario.

La Canfora also referred to the Browns having a huge amount of high draft choices and significantly large salary cap space had they traded Josh Gordon and not signed the free agents brought in, and had a front office who loved Teddy Bridgewater and Odell Beckham Jr. Doesn’t anyone see that is a blatant endorsement of the Banner/Lombardi regime?

He pans Haslam for vetoing a possible Gordon deal. That’s probably because Gordon was one of the team’s best players and you can’t keep going down that road. Most of the fans and media alike were against making that deal at the time.

And Bridgewater’s stock took a huge hit after his terrible pro day, and he wound up being taken with the last pick in the first round.

It’s much easier to judge players after the fact.

Look, we aren’t saying the Browns’ front office is stable and doesn’t make puzzling moves. However, would you believe a story about a restaurant from someone who just got fired? You would have to view the tale with a jaundiced eye.

That’s all we are saying here.

If Hoyer’s Not Hurt Last Year, Is Pettine in CLE This Year?

In a weird way, Browns’ coach Mike Pettine owes his current job to Brian Hoyer, and not because of the quarterback’s performance this year in leading the Browns to a 7-4 record thus far.

Let’s go back to last season, when Cleveland got off to a 2-2 start going into a week five matchup with the Buffalo Bills, who coincidentally are the brown and orange’s opponents this Sunday.

We all know what happened in that game, Hoyer tore his ACL and was out for the season, forcing then head coach Rob Chudzinski to have to use Brandon Weeden, who didn’t play well in a week one loss to Miami or a week two loss to Baltimore.

Later, Chudzinski went to Jason Campbell and back to Weeden because the former got hurt.

The effect we took away from the season was the Browns were a decent, competitive team when they received competent quarterbacking play, which is what they received from Hoyer in wins against Minnesota and Cincinnati.

Notice we didn’t say great QB play, just decent play. That’s how close the Browns were to respectability in 2013.

We decided to test our theory, and used the average passer rating from last year, which was the 87.0 mark posted by Andrew Luck. We arrived at this figure because there were 37 QBs who qualified for the rating and Luck ranked 18th, right in the middle.

Weeden achieved a QBR higher than 87.0 just twice last season. He posted a 95.3 rate (13 for 24, 197 yards and a touchdown) in the game he relieved Hoyer in a 37-24 win over the Bills, and a 94.8 rating in a 32-28 loss to the Jaguars (24 of 40, 370 yards, 3 TDs and 2 interceptions).

Campbell had three games in which his rating was above 87.0. He posted a 105.4 in a 23-17 loss to Kansas City, who was unbeaten at the time (22 of 36, 293 yards and 2 touchdowns), a 116.3 in a 24-18 win over the Ravens (23 for 35, 262 yards and 3 scoring throws), and a 116.8 in the heartbreaking 27-26 loss to New England that probably cost Chudzinski his job.

Campbell had three games with ratings of under 70, while Weeden had four such games. As a point of comparison, Hoyer has had three games all year with a rating under 70, two of those coming in the last two weeks.

Hoyer did have a rating of under 70 in the first of his two starts last season, that being in the win over the Vikings in which he threw three interceptions.

This means last year, Browns’ quarterbacks had eight games, half the schedule, in which they received poor quarterbacking play.

Based on Hoyer’s performance this season, you would have to think Cleveland would have won two more games (23-10 loss to Miami, 14-6 loss to Baltimore, 24-13 loss to the Jets?) if their quarterbacks had done even a decent job in those contests.

If that occurred, the Browns would have finished 6-10 and the improvement from the season before perhaps keeps Chudzinski is in the job, and Pettine planning how to stop the Browns as Buffalo’s defensive coordinator.

On the other hand, two of those losses came before Hoyer took over as the starter, so maybe if Chud would have picked the more competent guy in the first place, the season would have started differently.

Nevertheless, Hoyer’s injury against the team Pettine was coaching sent the Browns into a death spiral, as they won just one more game the balance of the year.

If Brian Hoyer doesn’t get hurt, Mike Pettine may not have his current gig, and he’s right now a contender for AFC Coach of the Year.

It’s funny how things have turned out.

Extentions For Players? Depends on Your Perspective

Contract extensions are in the news in our fair city with many debating about Browns’ QB Brian Hoyer’s status and other speculating whether or not the Indians should offer one to Corey Kluber.

Hoyer was offered a deal in the spring by the Browns, one that would have paid the quarterback very handsomely, but with the money based on him being a backup signal caller. Hoyer would have received more money than he is making now, but he chose, as is his prerogative, to bet on himself.

His gamble so far has turned out to be a great one so far. He is playing very well, has his team sitting at 3-2 on the season, and has guided the brown and orange to over 21 points in each of the games, the first time that has occurred in Cleveland since 1969.

With every win, his price tag only increases, so while he is still betting on his own performance, he is also making it very difficult for the front office not to take care of him.

Let’s say Hoyer guides the Browns into the playoffs, their first visit since 2002. Do you really think the team will not do everything it can to reach an agreement with a hometown hero that guided the team to the post-season?

On the other hand, if Hoyer wants to be paid like an elite player at his position, the Browns can’t do that. We would say it is doubtful Hoyer will make such a demand, he simply wants a deal like a starter. It’s probably the only opportunity he will have in his career for a big payday.

In the NFL world of non-guaranteed contracts, some sort of compromise will be met. But if the Browns keep winning, the proverbial cash register will continue to say cha-ching for Brian Hoyer.

For the Indians, their fans tremble with fear at losing good players to other teams who can pay more money. Since winning their last division title in 2007, the organization has dealt two Cy Young Award winners in C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

If Kluber doesn’t win that award in 2014, he most certainly will finish second, so fans and media alike have speculated the right-hander will get a multi-year contract this winter.

We say it would be prudent if the Indians simply waited.

Why? Unlike Hoyer, who has been in the NFL was several years and can be a free agent at the end of the season, Kluber has spent just two full years in the big leagues, and isn’t even eligible for arbitration until 2016.

With the volatility of pitchers, what happens if the Tribe gave Kluber a four-year deal even at modest money only to see him become a back of the rotation starter or worse?

The Tribe should give Kluber another one year deal for 2015 with a good-sized raise and find out exactly what they have. If Kluber has another excellent season, he still is under club control until 2019, so he can’t go anywhere and the Indians aren’t on the hook for a bad deal.

We understand that doesn’t seem fair after his outstanding season, but he also pitched more innings than ever before and no one knows how his arm will handle the after effects of that.

As much as we all love sports, it still is a business for the owners. And although we question the spending habits of the Dolans, there is simply no reason to make a long-term deal with a pitcher until you have to or until the pitcher shows a proven track record.

There is no need to be in a rush for either team, but Hoyer’s impending free agency doesn’t afford the Browns that luxury.

Failure to Add to Lead Costs Browns

After last week’s win over New Orleans, Browns’ coach Mike Pettine said his team could easily be 2-0 or 0-2.

He can now make that 3-0 or 0-3 after today’s last second loss to the Baltimore Ravens, 23-21 at First Energy Stadium.

The Browns had several chances to put this game away, but they couldn’t put any more points on the board after Miles Austin caught a 4-yard pass from Brian Hoyer with 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Two plays into the fourth quarter, Tashaun Gipson intercepted a Joe Flacco pass and returned it to the Baltimore 30-yard line. Flacco was hit by Paul Kruger as he threw the pass.

But, Isaiah Crowell lost eight yards on first down, and Hoyer couldn’t make up the yardage on the next two plays, and Billy Cudiff’s 50-yard field goal attempt hit the upright.

Lost opportunity #1

After the Ravens’ moved the ball on one play to the Cleveland 30, the defense stiffened, stuffing Flacco on 3rd and 1, and then Lorenzo Taliaferro on 4th down, giving the Browns the ball on their own 20.

On second down, Hoyer hit WR Taylor Gabriel for 70 yards to the Ravens’ 9. The ball was under thrown, had Hoyer hit Gabriel in stride it would have been an easy touchdown.

Still, the Browns did have a first down and goal. However, a one yard loss on a run by Terrance West, a sack of Hoyer, and a terrible illegal forward pass penalty on Hoyer (he was way over the line of scrimmage when he threw the pass), forced another field goal attempt by Cundiff, which was blocked by the Ravens.

This time, Baltimore moved it down the field in two minutes and converted a field goal by Justin Tucker to trim the Browns’ lead to 21-20 with just a little over five minutes remaining.

After the Browns got the football back, it seemed like they ignored the run a little bit, trying to run just once on the next three plays, and they had to punt.

The Browns ran the ball effectively the first two games, but tried only 29 runs today for an average of 3.1 yards per attempt.

Cleveland stopped Baltimore following Spencer Lanning’s punt, but after getting the ball back with 2:19 remaining on their own 7, they ran the ball twice, the first a Crowell 5-yard run, followed by a loss of 2 yards.

The key play of the game came with 2:09 on the clock and the Ravens’ out of timeouts. A run that didn’t convert the third down would have resulted in the two-minute warning.

Without much to lose, Hoyer tried to throw for the first down, which if converted would have allowed Cleveland to run out the clock. But Hoyer’s throw was behind Andrew Hawkins and fell incomplete.

A perfectly thrown deep ball to Steve Smith put the Ravens’ in range for Tucker to win the game. Joe Haden was beaten on the pass, but it is doubtful he could have covered it better. It was simply a great toss by Flacco.

Hoyer had a great game statistically, hitting 19 of 25 passes for 290 yards and the TD pitch to Austin. However, four of his six misses came in the fourth quarter.

The run defense is troubling because for the third straight game, the opponents gashed the Browns with the run. The Ravens gained 160 yards rushing, which is way too many if Pettine and Jim O’Neil want to get after the passer.

Cleveland has no sacks today, and in order to really rush the quarterback, you have to keep the opponent in 2nd and 3rd and long situations. If you can control the running game, that is difficult to do.

Another troubling thing is special teams, as the blocked field goal in the fourth quarter was huge. The Browns could have forced Baltimore to score a touchdown to win, but couldn’t do it.

Heading into the bye week, those are things for the coaching staff to work on. It will be a good test to see if they can eliminate the errors in these areas.

Until then, the poorly played fourth quarter will gnaw at the entire organization.

Unlike Other Browns’ Teams, This One Didn’t Quit After Early Deficit.

At halftime, it looked very much like the same ol’ Cleveland Browns.

They were dominated by the Pittsburgh Steelers especially defensively and trailed 27-3 after 30 minutes.

Brian Hoyer didn’t play well in the first half, but the chief culprit for the deficit was a defense appeared to be butter compared to the Pittsburgh hot knife.

But whatever happened during the intermission may have turned around the entire season, and gave Browns’ fans everywhere hope that this season may be indeed different.

This football team didn’t lay down, and didn’t say woe is us. They came out of the locker room determined to get back in the game and that’s exactly what they did.

They scored 24 unanswered points to tie the game before giving up a last second field goal by Shaun Suisham from 41 yards away to drop yet another season opener, 30-27.

They did it by going to a hurry up offense and by running the football to set up the pass, exactly the way the Browns need to play to be successful in 2014.

The Browns rolled up 183 yards rushing despite losing Ben Tate to an injury in the first half, as rookie Terrence West showed he was worth a higt pick by gaining 100 yards on 16 carries, and another rookie Isaiah Crowell showed his performance in the last pre-season game was no fluke, getting 32 yards in five attempts, scoring two touchdowns.

Hoyer wasn’t spectacular, but he was efficient, completing 19 of 31 throws for 230 yards with a touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin.

The running game was so solid in the second half, we would have run it one more time in the fourth quarter.

The Browns had a first down on the Pittsburgh 35 with 5:20 remaining and the Steelers clearly back on their heels. Unfortunately, Cleveland tried three passes, one completed to Miles Austin for three yards, and never gave the ball to West and/or Crowell.

They were forced to punt, and after an exchange of defensive stops, the Steelers got the ball back on their own 43, and moved the ball enough for the winning field goal after a pass to Markus Wheaton when CB Justin Gilbert, who had a rough debut, fell down.

The biggest problem for the offense all day was converting third downs, making just two first downs in 11 opportunities. The Cleveland defense did much better than last year in the opener, stopping Pittsburgh eight times in 12 tries.

Defensively, newcomers Donte Whitner had 12 tackles and Karlos Dansby had the Browns only turnover, a second quarter interception of Ben Roethlisberger, that the offense, struggling at the time, could do nothing with.

After halftime, the defense improved and wound up sacking Roethlisberger four times, with Paul Kruger doing the honors twice.

However, they had problems all day dealing with screen passes, and as we said before, Gilbert struggled in the NFL debut, which is understandable.

The unit got better when it appeared they put veteran Buster Skrine on the outside.

That’s another thing that is encouraging about this game regardless of the result. How many times lately has a Browns’ team failed to make any adjustments to what the opposition was doing.

That didn’t happen today.

One thing that was painfully evident on offense though, is the team really misses Josh Gordon, because they have no one on the outside that can make plays. Andrew Hawkins was the leading receiver with 8 catches for 87 yards, but he plays mostly in the slot.

One of the other receivers simply has to step up to make it easier for Hoyer to throw downfield and to keep the running game effective.

Whatever happened in the second half has to continue next week against New Orleans, because starting 0-2 is something the Browns have to avoid.

As former coach Pat Shurmur once said, progress with victories isn’t progress.

Browns Need to Concentrate on Fundamentals

Most every football fan in American would like their favorite team to be a squad that puts on an aerial circus each and every week.

It’s an exciting and sexy way to play the game.

However, if the Cleveland Browns try to play this way in the 2014 season, it will be a long, long year for coach Mike Pettine and the fans of the brown and orange.

They simply don’t have the personnel to win in that matter.

Part of being a solid coach is knowing what kind of personnel you have and putting together game plans that utilize the talent at hand to win football games. And until we see otherwise, we have to believe Pettine knows what he is doing.

So, here’s hoping fans aren’t expecting an air show every Sunday afternoon from the Cleveland Browns.

We understand that there are a great many fans that want to see Johnny Manziel at quarterback so they are seeing footballs flying around the stadium, but Pettine is more interested in winning games, and if he does that, the fans will be entertained.

Time and again, Pettine has said the Browns want to follow the “Seattle model”, which is based on a strong running game and a very good defense. So, how do you think the Browns will play starting this Sunday?

A tried and true way to win football games having the ability to run the football and also be able to stop the run. When you think about it, this makes total sense.

If you can run the football, you make the defensive unit have to respect both the ground game and the passing game. Too often since the Browns returned in 1999, they haven’t been able to gain yardage running, and that puts the quarterback at a terrible disadvantage. It’s a lot tougher to play when you are consistently in 2nd and 9, and 3rd and 7 situations.

With Ben Tate and Terrence West, if the offense can get four or five yards on first down, it will make Brian Hoyer’s job much, much easier.

On defense, the Browns spent the last two pre-season games playing a lot of zone defense, but that will change in Heinz Field on Sunday. With Joe Haden and Buster Skrine back on the field, and rookie Justin Gilbert playing as well, the defense will play much more press coverage.

And if they are successful at stopping the Steeler running game with an improved front seven, it will make the Pittsburgh offense one-dimensional, and to be sure, Pettine will be dialing up a variety of blitzes to make Ben Roethlisburger very uncomfortable in the pocket.

Really, it’s the way football was played in the 70’s and 80’s, before every rule to help the passing game was put in place.

This style of play will ideally shorten games thus hiding the lack of talent Cleveland has in certain areas.

Pettine doesn’t strike me as a coach who is interested in being flashy and exciting, he wants to win, and if the best way to do that is to dominate on the ground, then that’s how they will play.

And after watching 15 years of futility, putting numbers in the win column should be fine with Browns’ fans everywhere.

Doubt Browns Defense, Offense Will Look Like They Did Vs. Rams

If you look at the final score of Saturday night’s pre-season tilt between the Browns and Rams on Saturday night, you will be disappointed if you are a Browns’ fan. A 33-14 defeat at home cannot be considered encouraging.

While nothing happened in that game to make a supporter of the brown and orange say the Browns should make the playoffs this season, a couple of things jumped out at us during the contest that gives us reason to shrug our shoulders and say that it is not the end of the world.

On defense, based on everything we have heard from Mike Pettine and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil, the Browns’ defense will be an attacking unit. Without Pro Bowl cornerback Joe Haden and last year’s starter Buster Skrine, the defense was anything but aggressive against St. Louis.

It appeared to us the Browns played a lot of zone coverage and the Rams’ quarterbacks drilled them for playing passive. Would it have been a different story with Haden and Skrine? We think so. It would have also put first round draft choice Justin Gilbert on St. Louis’ secondary receiver, which would have also helped the schemes.

It was a good learning experience for Gilbert, and he will get better for going through that on Saturday.

Being able to find receivers quickly because of the zone coverage also meant it was more difficult to mount an effective pass rush. That said, Armonty Bryant still was able to make an impact, harassing Rams’ passers while he was in the game and his hit on Sam Bradford caused a season ending ACL tear for the former first overall pick.

When the Steelers have the football on September 7th, our guess is the Browns will play press coverage on both wide receivers and will get after Ben Roethlisberger in passing situations.

Yes, there was poor tackling up front on a few runs which led to nice gains, but we trust that for the most part, the Cleveland defense will be one of the better units in the NFL with two solid cornerbacks and the ability to rush the passer.

On offense, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan ran the football just 15 times for the game. If the Browns only run the ball that few times on a regular basis, they will be in for a long season. We believe the coaching staff would agree with that.

Shanahan is trying to get his quarterbacks, both Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel ready to go, and he’s also figuring out which wide receivers will make the final roster. So, he is passing the ball, probably more than he would like to.

The offensive coach has a history of running the football in his other stops around the league, and quite frankly, there is no reason to beat up Ben Tate during meaningless contests. He is trying to get rookie Terrence West some reps, but when the whistle blows for real, we can see Cleveland running the ball 25-35 times per game, unless they fall way behind.

We envision the offense being a ground oriented attack with the quarterback using play action to move the ball down the field. This style will also shorten the game, and keep the defense fresh. And when Tate has been given the ball thus far, he has run it effectively.

There is no question Saturday’s game wasn’t enjoyable to watch, but it doesn’t mean that’s what the regular season will look like.

Until they lay an egg in a game that counts, just relax and keep repeating “the game doesn’t count, the game doesn’t count”.