Don’t Look Now, Browns Are In Playoff Picture

After losing 11 straight games to the Baltimore Ravens, the Cleveland Browns talked all week about how this team didn’t lose all those games. That it would be different this time.

They backed up the talk with a 24-18 win over the defending Super Bowl champions, raising their record to 4-5 on the season.

The Browns, who people figured had given up on the 2013 season, are now in a playoff race heading into the bye week. just a game behind the Jets for the sixth and final spot in the post-season.

Same day, the Browns lack of a running game is going to hurt them, but that day wasn’t today, as Cleveland gained just 73 yards on the ground with an average of 2.6 yards per carry.

Willis McGahee carried 21 times for an unbelievably low total of 31 yards, and the Browns inability to punch a touchdown in the closing minutes allowed one more chance for Baltimore.

Of course, the Ravens, who actually rank lower in the league’s statistics in running, managed just 55 yards on the ground, also averaging 2.6 yards per attempt.

The offensive stars for Cleveland were QB Jason Campbell, who provided his second straight effective start, hitting on 23 of 35 passes for 262 yards and three touchdown passes, two to Davone Bess, who rebounded after last week’s horrendous performance.

Campbell made some huge plays to keep possession on the Browns’ last drive, in which they took over the ball with a three-point lead and 6:44 remaining.

First, he scrambled for 12 yards on a 3rd and 3. Then, he converted a 4th and 1 with a cross the body toss to Bess, who made a diving catch, after being chased out of the pocket.

He even showed his backup, Brandon Weeden, how to correctly execute the flip pass, hitting Chris Ogbonnaya for 14 yards after being flushed out of the pocket.

He was efficient and trusted his receivers on a few plays, throwing into tight coverage and expecting his wide outs to make the play.

The first scoring drive featured a throw to Greg Little, who turned it into a 46 yard pick up after the catch. Also, the first TD throw to Bess was made with a Raven defender right on him.

Little had perhaps his best day as a pro, hauling in seven passes for 122 yards. He did leave the game with a shoulder injury.

Campbell also received good protection from the offensive line, who allowed just two sacks on the day after giving up five the first time the two teams met in Baltimore.

This time, it was the Browns who sacked Joe Flacco five times, and once again five different players did the honors (Chris Owens, T.J. Ward, Jabaal Sheard, Armonty Bryant, and Quentin Groves).

Defensive coordinator Ray Horton said the Browns needed to improve on third down situations and they did just that, holding Baltimore to just 7 of 16 conversions. And Joe Haden picked up his first interception of the year.

A fumbled punt set up Cleveland’s third and final touchdown.

With the bye week here, let’s hope the front office can address the team’s inability to do anything on the ground. McGahee is a pro, but outside of the Buffalo game (and he averaged only three yards a carry in that game), he has not been effective.

Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner made it work without a ground game today, but if more meaningful games are played later in the season, it will be necessary to run the ball to protect leads.

Right now, they simply can’t run the ball, which of course makes Campbell’s day even more impressive.

We will say it again, it is amazing what a professional quarterback can do with this offense.

After the week off, the Browns visit Cincinnati, who no doubt will have revenge on their minds after a beating they took in Cleveland in week four.

That game will be bigger than anyone would have thought after the Browns were 0-2 and traded their starting running back.

Browns Version of “What If?”

Monday, September 9th–

After years of losing the season opener, the Cleveland Browns finally got it right, defeating the Miami Dolphins in the opener 24-17.

Since the other three teams in the AFC North all lost, new coach Rob Chudzinski’s team has an early advantage in the division and have an opportunity to put a severe dent in the Ravens hopes with a win next week against Baltimore.

Hometown starter Brian Hoyer led an efficient attack, hitting on 26 of 42 passes for 289 yards and two touchdown throws, one each to Jordan Cameron and the other to Trent RIchardson.

Monday, September 16th–

The Browns’ new regime is off to a flying start and the members of the Dawg Pound have to have thoughts of playoffs dancing in their heads as Cleveland won its second straight game, ruining the Ravens’ opener with a 16-14 win to raise their record to 2-0.

Brian Hoyer had another strong outing, throwing for 286 yards on 24 completions in 33 attempts, including a strike to TE Jordan Cameron for a touchdown. Cameron caught 8 passes for 131 yards as Hoyer repeatedly found him to keep the chains moving.

The Cleveland offensive line provided good protection for the second straight week as Hoyer was sacked just twice by the Baltimore defense.

Of course, this is fiction, but you have to wonder what the Browns record would be if the coaching staff had opted for either of the other quarterbacks on the roster instead of starting the season with Brandon Weeden.

Through the performances of both Hoyer and Jason Campbell in their appearances this year, it is obvious that Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner gave four starts to the team’s third best signal caller.

Let’s face it, the offensive looks much better with either Hoyer or Campbell at the controls, and it is in all phases of the game.

Last Sunday, the fear was the Cleveland passer being sacked repeatedly by a Chiefs’ rush that led the NFL in sacks, averaging five per contest.

Campbell went down for a loss just once.

Why? Because he reads the defense quickly and gets rid of the football. Hoyer’s style was similar when he started against the Vikings and Bengals. The offensive line looked much better than when Weeden was in the game, mostly because of the latter’s habit of waiting and waiting before throwing the football.

All of the quarterbacks have played under the handicap of virtually no running game, as only in the Buffalo game has a Cleveland running back gained over 75 yards.

Browns’ passers have thrown nine interceptions for the season, with Weeden throwing six of those. To be fair, Hoyer threw three in his first start, which he won, and Weeden has played the majority of the games, starting four and playing most of the Thursday night win against Buffalo.

Hoyer and Campbell have more accurate too, hitting for a combined 58.8% of their passes, compared to Weeden’s 52.8%.

Not to degrade the new coach, but you have to wonder why they started the season with Weeden? Is it because he was a first round draft pick? Was it his big arm?

You would have to think the offense runs much smoother with Hoyer or Campbell in practice as well.

Maybe it was the desire to see what Weeden could do under a new coaching staff, just as Chudzinski alluded to earlier this season. If that’s the case, how many wins did the staff cost this team.

What if the Browns had started Hoyer or Campbell right from the start? Would they be 5-3? Or 6-2?

The difference is so dramatic, it makes you pause and wonder.

Browns Overcame Horrid First Half to Come Close

It is too bad the Cleveland Browns thought today’s game with Kansas City started at 1 PM Central Time.

We mean, that had to be the reason for the horrific performance until halfway through the second quarter at Arrowhead Stadium in a game the Browns ultimately lost 23-17 to fall to 3-5 on the season.

That first quarter and a half was perhaps the worst football a Cleveland team has played since they returned to the NFL in 1999.

They couldn’t stop Kansas City on the ground and through the air. The offense couldn’t even get a first down, let alone a touchdown.

And then it all changed.

Jason Campbell hit a pass to TE Jordan Cameron for a first down, and then hit WR Josh Gordon on a flea flicker for a TD. And just like that, the Browns were back in the game.

The Chiefs answered with a scoring pass to Dexter McCluster, but that was about it for the Kansas City offense for the day, as they managed just three points for the balance of the game, and that was because the Browns turned the ball over on downs with a little over two minutes left.

We have written about halftime adjustments before, but today coordinator Ray Horton put pressure on Alex Smith and played man-to-man on the outside with his cornerbacks and shutdown the KC attack.

Smith was sacked five times in the second half, all by different players as Horton brought pressure from different spots. The Chiefs, who converted eight of their first 10 third down opportunities, converted just two of their last nine in that situation.

Campbell was very good in his first start, hitting 22 of 36 throws for 293 yards and two touchdown passes, and overcame four dropped balls by WR Davone Bess, including one on a fourth down that would have given Cleveland a chance to tie or perhaps win the game.

The veteran reminded fans once again of Brandon Weeden’s weakness of holding on to the football way to long. Campbell was decisive with his throws, and because of that, he was sacked just once by the team that leads the AFC in that category.

As for Bess, not only did he dropped four passes, he also fumbled a punt which would have given the offense the ball at around midfield after the defense backed up Kansas City.

That was a momentum changing play to say the least.

We will have to again ask why the front office cannot go out and get another running back to help out, as it was evident once again that the Browns can’t run the ball.

Willis McGahee had nine carries for 28 yards, but had half those yards on one carry. Chris Ogbonnaya had 12 yards on three carries, all of them on one run.

The Browns simply have too many running plays which result in no yards or in negative yards. There has to be someone available who can do better than that.

If this was Gordon’s last game as a Brown, he went out with a bang, grabbing five passes for 132 yards. In the three games he played with someone other than Weeden at the helm, he has caught 19 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns. He caught 13 passes in games Weeden played.

Cameron also played another strong game with four receptions for 81 yards.

There should be no question that Campbell is the starter going forward, and you have to think it may be time to cut ties with Weeden, as it is pretty obvious at this point that the offense problems begin and end with him.

WIth a home game against the Ravens next week, the Browns have reason to hope they can go into the bye week at 4-5 and a chance.

They just need to start playing when the opening kickoff occurs.

Browns’ Front Office Keeps Looking Toward “Next Year”

If you are a fan of the Cleveland Browns, you must also be a fan of the movie Groundhog Day, because you should be used to seeing the same thing day after day after day.

Yes, you did have a brief ray of sunshine watching local product Brian Hoyer win his first two starts, and the Thursday night win against Buffalo actually gave the Browns a winning record after five contests.

But Hoyer got hurt, and it is back to the weekly crapfest on Sunday afternoons.

Seemingly, no one in the front office cares because they are focused on the 2014 season and the almighty NFL draft. Their confidence in that process is probably higher than it has any right to be.

No team, let us repeat, no team, hits on every one of their draft choices.

The Browns have turned into the sign seen in various bars: “Free Drinks Tomorrow!” That’s the mantra in Berea every year: We’ll Be Good Next Year.

Except that so far, next year never comes.

They traded Trent Richardson after the second game of the year for a first round pick in next May’s selection process.

While Richardson has shown to be an average running back at best, and getting a first round pick has to be considered a win, it still left a gaping hole in the running game.

Defenses don’t have to respect the running game when playing Cleveland. That makes it tough on the quarterback. There has to be better players out there than 32-year-old Willis McGahee.

Chris Ogbonnaya is never going to be compared to Jim Brown or Barry Sanders, but he did have some decent games in 2011, gaining 334 yards in 11 games with 4.6 yards per carry average. Why not give him the ball 15-20 times per game?

Because he’s miscast on this roster as a fullback.

Why not bring in a legitimate fullback and let Ogbonnaya get more carries? Because the Browns are going to be good…next year.

After Hoyer was injured against the Bills, management didn’t go out and get another quarterback. If they had, the newcomer would have already spent two weeks learning the offense and would be an option to play perhaps as soon as after the bye week.

What if Jason Campbell plays poorly after replacing Brandon Weeden? What alternatives do Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner have? They can’t possibly go back to Weeden for a third time.

However, there is no alternative on the current roster.

Once again, that’s because the management is focused on 2014, not this season.

Browns’ fans have suffered through fifteen seasons of failure and shouldn’t have to endure any more. Granted, it’s not the current regime’s fault for the past, but they should be cognizant that the fans base is getting disenchanted.

They shouldn’t make moves that could handicap real progress being made down the road. But there are players who could be brought in to play and contribute without salary caps implications.

This front office is clearly putting all of its eggs into picking several impact players in next year’s draft.

However, what is their plan if that fails? Another three year rebuilding plan? The coaches are trying to win every game. It would be nice if management helped them do anything within reason to facilitate putting games in the win column.

Browns Lost This One in First Quarter

If you want to defeat a quality football team on the road, you have to get off to a good start.

With that in mind, the Cleveland Browns lost today’s game to the Green Bay Packers in the first eight minutes of the first quarter.

The Browns have lost two straight and fall to 3-4 on the season with a 31-13 loss at Lambeau Field.

On Cleveland’s first drive, QB Brandon Weeden threw two incomplete passes, the second one on third and nine, sailing at least five yards over Greg Little’s head. It wasn’t even close.

Green Bay fumbled the resulting punt, but Cleveland couldn’t come up with it.

The Packers drove the 40 yards in just four plays, the last one a pass to Jermichael Finley for 10 yards and a touchdown when three Brown defenders had a chance to tackle the Green Bay TE, but failed to do so.

On the next drive, Weeden airmailed another throw to Davone Bess on third down, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave Cleveland a second chance.

After a nice throw and catch for 19 yards to Greg Little, the Browns had a fourth and one at the Packer 37, and Weeden threw an interception on a sideline pass to Bess that was short of the target.

Eleven plays and almost six minutes later, Eddie Lacy scored on a one-yard run giving the Pack a 14-0 advantage.

The Browns could have left Wisconsin right then and there, because this game was basically over.

From that point on, the Cleveland offense resembled the Pat Shurmur version, with runs that went nowhere mixed in with a dink and dunk passing attack.

The Browns gained just 216 yards for the entire contest, with a woeful average gain per pass play of three yards. Weeden hit on just 17 of 42 throws for a paltry 147 yards. He was also sacked three times.

The Cleveland offense gained just 83 yards on the ground, with Willis McGahee leading the way with 39 yards on 11 carries.

Either Green Bay did an exceptional job of shutting down WR Josh Gordon, or Weeden didn’t look his way because he caught only two passes for 21 yards.

A better guess is that it was pounded into Weeden’s head all week to get rid of the ball quicker, so he went with a ton of checkdown throws.

We understand that coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner think Weeden can play at this level, but that may be their coaching egos talking. They have to look at the results and consider some sort of change.

Also, we understand the front office wants to find their “franchise” quarterback in the next spring’s draft, but they should also realize the Cleveland fan base is tired of watching a non-productive offense once again.

Weeden did remember that Jordan Cameron was on the roster, hitting him seven times, but for just 55 yards.

You hate to keep going back to talking about Brian Hoyer, but he showed this offense does have some weapons, particularly Gordon and Cameron, with a splash of Travis Benjamin.

Those weapons are not being utilized by the current starting quarterback.

By the way, Thaddeus Lewis, disposed of by the current front office, hit 21 of 32 throws for 202 yards in leading the Buffalo Bills to a win in Miami. After last year’s game against the Steelers, why would you just release him?

We bring this up because apparently the staff isn’t going to use Jason Campbell no matter what.

Once again, we use the theory of not being able to do any worse. Could Campbell play worse than Weeden did today? Perhaps, but it couldn’t be that much worse.

Next week, the Browns have another tough test, traveling to Kansas City to take on the undefeated Chiefs.

If the offense has indeed reverted to checkdown city, it will be difficult to win another game this season.

Maybe Joe Banner and Michael Lombardi secretly don’t care that much about that.

Why the Disdain for Weeden?

Even though the Cleveland Browns are sitting in a three-way tie for first place in the AFC North, and they are currently on a three game winning streak, you can sense thoughts of gloom and doom among the team’s fans.

Why? Because Brandon Weeden is back as the starting quarterback, replacing the people’s choice, hometown hero Brian Hoyer.

We know about Weeden’s weaknesses. He holds the ball too long, he locks in on his receivers, he’s a statue in the pocket. These things were particularly noticeable after watching Hoyer play in wins against the Vikings and Bengals.

Still, it really was the second year player from Oklahoma State that guided Rob Chudzinski’s team to a win over the Bills eight days ago. And although the special teams and defense put up 14 points in the contest, and Travis Benjamin’s first long punt return led to a field goal, Weeden still was a part of drives that put 20 points on the scoreboard.

And we understand he was terrible in the first two games of the season, losses to Miami and Baltimore. Both of those teams have the same record as the Browns, by the way.

However, sometimes young quarterbacks (in terms of experience) benefit from watching on the sidelines and viewing how another guy handles it, and when they get a second chance at the job, they are better prepared to handle it.

Remember, Weeden was thrown in there as a rookie, without a lot of preseason time, and was expected to perform well right out of the gate. Also, we was running an offense that he was both ill-suited for, and was told not to make any mistakes.

Heck, his own coach frightened him with his constant talk about Ed Reed before a game against the Ravens a year ago.

Part of Weeden’s problem was the success of other passers taken in the same draft class. No one confused the Browns’ choice with Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and even Ryan Tannehill before the draft, and Russell Wilson was picked in the third round.

They all have had some or a lot of success in the NFL. Weeden’s career so far pales in comparison.

Luck is likely this generation’s Peyton Manning. Barring an injury, he could be the next great signal caller in the league.

Wilson had the league’s third best running game on his side. He only threw 405 passes on the season.

Griffin’s Redskins had the best rushing attack in the league. He threw 393 passes in 2012.

Tannehill had a similar passer rating as Weeden (76.9 for the Dolphins’ QB compared to 72.6 for the Browns’ passer), with a 58.3 completion percentage, 12 TDs and 13 interceptions.

Weeden threw 14 touchdowns and 17 picks. He threw 517 passes and missed the last game of the season. That’s over 100 more throws than Wilson and Griffin. Clearly, there was a much greater burden on Weeden than those two.

This isn’t to say Weeden is going to be great or even an average NFL quarterback. It is the point out that the Redskins and Seahawks gave their rookie quarterbacks a much easier starting point than Pat Shurmur did.

Besides, Weeden isn’t horrific. He’s not Ken Dorsey, Charlie Frye, Trent Dilfer, or Doug Pederson.

Those are all guys Browns’ fans have been forced to watch in the last 15 years.

RIght now, the path Brandon Weeden’s career takes is in his hands. Can he take what he learned by watching Hoyer and make it apart of his own game?

If he doesn’t, he will likely carve out a tenure in the league as a back up.

It’s still unfair to portray him as a guy who can’t play in the NFL this soon.

Browns Win and Lose On Same Night

The Cleveland Browns have seemed to be in a state of chaos for the last 15 years.

Just as they seemed to find a diamond in the rough at quarterback in local boy Brian Hoyer, who led them to two consecutive victories, something happens to end the era of good feeling for Browns’ supporters.

Hoyer went down with a knee injury late in the first quarter and is out for the season, and coach Rob Chudzinski is forced to go back to Brandon Weeden, who wasn’t very popular with the faithful when he went into the game.

However, the contrast was very telling. Seeing Hoyer play at the beginning of the game served a stark contrast to the former first round pick.

Quite simply, Hoyer makes quicker decisions and gets rid of the ball faster, which makes the offensive line look better.

Here’s hoping Weeden can learn from the Cleveland native and can translate those things into his game. He admitted he must do that after the 37-24 win, which raises the Browns’ record to 3-2 on the season.

Weeden made some good throws last night, particularly two long bombs to Greg Little and Josh Gordon, with the latter grabbing a 37-yard touchdown strike after the throw to Little just two plays earlier.

One thing that helped Weeden was that the Browns didn’t abandon the running game at any point in the contest. Willis McGahee carried the ball 26 times last night. In the second year man’s first two starts this season, Cleveland ran the ball less than 20 times in the entire game.

Weeden will need to improve if the Browns are going to continue to win football games. He has to develop an internal alarm clock in his head that tells him to get rid of the football after three seconds.

Everyone will talk about the quarterback situation, but the real story of last night was Travis Benjamin, who set a franchise record for most punt return yardage, including a 79-yard return to give the Browns a 17-10 advantage.

Benjamin also had a 57-yard return, which set up a Billy Cundiff field goal earlier.

Once again, the defense did the job. Yes, Buffalo had 155 yards rushing, becoming the first team to reach the century mark against them this season, but 54 of those came on a touchdown run by C. J. Spiller. The balance of the 101 yards came on 30 attempts.

Yes, we know that counts, but what it does mean is that for a majority of the game, Buffalo could not run the football.

The pressure was also there, with Ray Horton’s defense getting four more sacks, and from four different players, most notably rookie DE Armonty Bryant, who recorded his first NFL sack.

And the defense also put the game away on S T.J. Ward’s interception return for a touchdown.

Cleveland gave up 24 points, but the first seven were a result of a horrible pass interference call on Joe Haden on the Bills’ first play of the game.

We have said it before; the NFL simply has to change the penalty for this infraction to 15 yards. On the play in question, there was just as much contact initiated by the receiver. Why penalize only the defense?

The Browns, winners of three straight, have some extra time off before the Lions visit a week from Sunday.

The season is back in the hands of Brandon Weeden, and he must show a lot of improvement if Chudzinski’s boys are to continue their winning streak.

Browns Offense is Offensive So Far

When the Cleveland Browns and Phil Dawson parted way in the off-season, more than one pundit said it wasn’t a big deal because the new coaching staff was going to score touchdowns instead of kicking field goals.

How do those people feel now, as the team fell to 0-2 with a 14-6 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens.

The Browns’ new offense, coached by Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner, looks a lot like the one that performed last season. They’ve scored 16 points combined in the two contests, scoring just one touchdown, and getting three field goals from Billy Cundiff.

Much of the optimism came from the thought that Cleveland had a solid offensive line, but the injuries to guards Shawn Lauvao and Jason Pinkston have weakened that unit significantly, so much that Brandon Weeden has been sacked 11 times in the first two games.

The other thing killing the offense has been third down conversions. Through two games, the Browns are a pathetic 5 out of 29 in trying to stay on the field, a paltry 17.2%. That doesn’t get it done.

Cleveland came out with a big play, a 53-yard strike to TE Jordan Cameron on their first offensive play, getting them to the Ravens’ 7. But two Trent Richardson runs and a third down incompletion had the Browns settling for a field goal.

On their second possession, two consecutive penalties on third down, the first coming on a third and two situation, killed a drive. That cannot happen if you want to play winning football.

Two possessions later, two sacks stopped a drive that had accumulated three first downs.

Sacks, penalties, and the inability to run the football isn’t a formula for winning football. We’ve said for years that the common thread for the Browns in the last 14 years was they couldn’t run the ball, and they couldn’t stop the run.

Although once again, in a game they were trailing just 7-6 going into the fourth quarter, Trent Richardson didn’t carry the ball once in the final stanza. Not once. That’s a head scratcher for sure.

At least these Browns can stop the run. Ray Horton’s defense only allowed 99 yards on 36 attempts to Baltimore, an average of 2.8 yards per carry.

That just plays into our point, though. Just averaging less than three yards per attempt, Baltimore still attempted 36 runs. The Browns? They tried to run the ball just 20 times for the game, and two were runs by Weeden on aborted passing plays.

Until the Browns make a commitment to run the ball, they will continue to struggle moving the ball. They are putting too much of the offense on a quarterback who isn’t prepared to handle it.

Defensively, the Browns pitched a shoutout in the first half, but for the second straight week, the opponent made adjustments and moved the ball better after halftime.

Rookie first round pick Barkevious Mingo made his NFL debut and showed very well, getting a sack and pressuring Raven QB Joe Flacco a couple of other times. DE Desmond Bryant had a half sack (with Jabaal Sheard), giving him 2-1/2 on the season.

Buster Skrine was picked on once again, and was forced to make seven tackles, but opposing QBs are going to go after him because the alternative is Joe Haden.

You can’t argue about the defense though. They allowed just 14 points, and that should win games at the NFL level. In fact, that defensive performance would have won every single early game played on Sunday.

Chudzinski and Turner have to come out and run the football and stick with it even if Richardson isn’t getting five yards per carry. That should take some pressure off the line, making it easier to protect Weeden.

Until that happens, this football team is going to continue to struggle.

Patience Can’t Be Long for Browns Front Office

If you are working for the Cleveland Browns, you can’t be happy with what took place on Sunday afternoon.

After a 3-1 preseason, and two impressive, although meaningless wins at home in exhibition play, the fans of the football team were excited about the changes made in the coaching staff and front office.

After one regular season game, the fan base is crushed, looking at another season of mediocre football.

Now, no one is expecting Joe Banner, Michael Lombardi, and Rob Chudzinski to make wholesale changes after one game, but they can’t sit back and put up with another 10 loss season.

It is nice that progress is being made in terms of upgrading the roster’s talent base, there also needs to be an increase in the Browns’ win total.

Nothing else should be acceptable to the supporters of Cleveland’s pro football team.

That’s why people are confused regarding some of the coach’s comments, particularly those involving G Oneil Cousins, who had four penalties in the opener.

Chudzinski said Cousins was the best option at the position.

Our theory is why not try rookie Garrett Gilkey, because it’s pretty much impossible that he could do worse.

The lack of trying something different, even if it is only one game, makes fans think there is a different agenda here.

We get that perhaps Chudzinski wants to give Cousins another opportunity, because maybe it was just a bad day. However, you have to make a change if he struggles again early in this week’s game against the Ravens.

The same goes for any other position, including quarterback, if the coaching staff cannot get acceptable play.

The time for rebuilding and looking for high draft picks should be over. It is time to start winning football games. Enough is enough.

The front office was very calm this week, despite several media people asking for changes right away. This is probably a good strategy because the organization has to show faith in the players they assembled.

Still, there is a fine line between support for the players and accepting mediocrity. That’s the line that Chudzinski has to walk. He’s got to make clear to everyone in the locker room that another game like last Sunday’s 23-10 loss to Miami will not be tolerated.

We understand that Banner, Lombardi, and Chudzinski aren’t responsible for the horrible record for the Browns over the last 15 years, but they have to understand that the fans base is tired of watching teams that annually compete for the first pick in the draft.

And they also have to realize NFL teams take quantum leaps in terms of wins every year, so it is possible. The Browns’ faithful are anxious because they see teams like the Colts go from two wins to the playoffs in one off-season.

In recent years, they have seen similar turnarounds from the 49ers, Chiefs, and Seahawks. It is a league that lends itself to those situations.

Why can’t the Browns do the same?

Granted, it is just one game, so it is way too early to throw away the season yet. But starting 0-3 or 0-4 is going to have the fans howling at the door in Berea.

Cleveland Fans Want Winner, but Ignore Tribe

While many sports fans in northeastern Ohio are worrying about who will be the back up offensive tackle and who will handle the punting chores for the Cleveland Browns, they are missing a pretty good drama taking place with the Cleveland Indians.

You see, the Tribe is in the mix for a playoff spot. And unlike the other sports teams in the city, who promise winning at some point in time, the Indians are winning.

They currently sit ten games over the .500 mark going into tonight game with the Angels, and are coming home for a weekend series with the Twins before heading out for a brutal trip to Atlanta and Detroit.

To be sure, it would be nice if Terry Francona’s squad would mix in an 8-2 victory from time to time, but the closeness of the games being played nightly only add to the intensity of a playoff chase that seemingly everyone is missing.

As we have said before, part of the indifference is the Indians fault. They spent several off-seasons trying to get talent out of the MLB dumpster until last winter, and the ownership made several odd statements to the fans, alienating more than a few of them.

They also could have changed radio stations last season, but opted to stay on news/talk station WTAM, instead of going to one of the all sports station in the city.

Do you really think 92.3 The Fan would be talking Browns 90% of the day if four hours of their evening programming was the Indians?

The argument that you hear for not taking the Tribe seriously this season is their inability to play well against the Tigers, their rival for the Central Division title.

Do you know what? Who cares!

This is baseball. It doesn’t matter if you beat Detroit just as long as you beat other teams enough to qualify for a playoff spot. The fact of the matter is Francona’s team has won 68 games (the same total as all of last year) so far, and if they qualify for the post-season, that’s all that matters.

In baseball, any team that makes the tournament has a chance, unlike the NBA where the 8^th seed has little chance to take down the team with the best record.

And it doesn’t matter what your record was against any other team was during the regular season once the playoffs start.

In 2007, the last time the Tribe made the playoffs, they went 0-6 in the regular season against the Yankees. They promptly won three of four in the first round series against the Bronx Bombers, eliminating them.

Cleveland sports fans talk all the time about wanting a winner. No matter what the Indians have done in the past, no matter how badly the front office mangled things, no matter how they have played against the Tigers, they are winning and they are in contention to make the playoffs.

And the last time any Cleveland team did that, LeBron James was wearing a Cavaliers’ uniform.

Yes, things are looking up for the Browns and Cavs, but they haven’t done anything yet. Meanwhile, the area’s baseball team is in a pennant race, albeit a non-traditional one.

Unfortunately, most sports fans seem to be missing it for a bunch of petty reasons.