Guardians Still In This Series, But Need A Win Tonight

Former Browns’ coach Marty Schottenheimer used to say no game was “must win” unless if you lose you are eliminated from playoff consideration. On that basis, today’s game three of the American League Championship Series isn’t that, but it’s pretty darn close.

The Guardians are down two games to none in the series, but it’s a best-of-seven series, so they aren’t dead yet, but you can get out the shovels if they can’t win tonight at home.

The big weaknesses that plagued the regular season, starting pitching and the offensive are again the culprits in dropping the first two games of the series.

In the post-season, the Guardians are 3-0 when they scored four runs or more and 0-4 when they tally three runs or less. They’ve put up just five runs in the first two games of the ALCS.

As for the starters, we knew Steven Vogt would rely heavily on the bullpen throughout the playoffs, but in game one, Alex Cobb pitched just 2.2 innings and Tanner Bibee went just 1.1 in the second game. That has caused the skipper to use guys in higher leverage situations than he wanted too.

That has caused some hiccups. Rookie Joey Cantillo came in game one and threw four wild pitches. For those questioning Vogt for going to Cantillo that early (and we were one of those people) understand he likely would have had to bring Cantillo in at some point. He used his best four relievers to the max in the last two games of the Tigers’ series, and no doubt they needed an extra day off.

And in game two, the bullpen was forced to cover 6.2 frames, and it could’ve been 7.2 if the Guards had taken the lead. He correctly used Cade Smith with the bases loaded trailing by two in the second to get out of the jam, which he did allowing just one more run to score.

The point is if either starter could get through four innings, it’s a much better situation for the bullpen. It’s that simple.

As for the offense, Cleveland has just three players with more than one hit in the two games: Brayan Rocchio, who continues to have a tremendous playoff, Steven Kwan, and Josh Naylor. New York has five.

The Yankees have seven extra base hits, the Guardians have just two, the home runs by Rocchio and Jose Ramirez. Cleveland hitters have struck out 21 times, New York hitters just 16.

The Guardians have problems in right field, where Jhonkensy Noel and Will Brennan have combined to go 2 for 25 with one walk in the seven games. And at catcher, Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges have combined to go 0 for 23.

We know Bo Naylor is struggling but pinch hitting for him early in a game just means more at bats for Hedges, who is on the roster for defense and leadership, but is a terrible hitter.

It’s not that the offense hasn’t had opportunities, they were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on in game two. Someone, anyone, needs to come through with a big hit.

Let’s be clear. Right now, this series is not over. A win in game three put the Guardians right back in it. There is pressure on Matthew Boyd to provide some innings and with four days off, no doubt, Emmanuel Clase is prepared to get Vogt at least five outs.

The Guards need a spark offensively. Kwan and Rocchio have gotten on base. They need someone to step up and drive them in.

Stop Putting Blame Elsewhere. It’s The Browns’ Defense

We think it was former Browns’ coach Marty Schottenheimer who was the first to say play calling is overrated. What he meant (we think) was if you execute the play correctly it will work, no matter what you call.

We bring this up because it seems to be the focus of Browns’ fans, especially because they lose close games. Kevin Stefanski’s squad has lost three games by a total of six points.

People are focusing on how many touches Nick Chubb is getting, and why he wasn’t in for the last three offensive plays in last Sunday’s 30-28 loss to the Chargers. They have valid questions, but they are also missing the point.

The reason this football team is 2-3 is quite simple. The defense isn’t playing up to par.

We watched Dallas, without Dak Prescott, raise their record to 4-1 beating the Rams after the Cleveland loss, and in viewing the game, thought the Cowboys are doing exactly what the Browns’ game plan was supposed to be after Deshaun Watson was suspended.

They are running the ball, playing good defense, and creating turnovers. Dallas is 7th in overall defense (by yards). The Browns are 19th. The Cowboys are tied for 13th in creating turnovers. Cleveland is tied for 26th.

We know the Browns can run the football. Chubb leads the league in rushing, and the Browns lead the NFL in running the ball. That’s not an issue.

The Cleveland defense has allowed over 200 yards on the ground each of the last two weeks, dropping from 5th in the league against the run after three weeks to their current rank of 28th.

The defense isn’t stopping the run, they aren’t putting pressure on the quarterback either, ranking 23rd in sacks, and as previously mentioned, they are forcing turnovers.

Other than that, they are playing just fine.

Another reason for the losses is key turnovers by QB Jacoby Brissett in the 4th quarter. Overall, Brissett has played well, heck, the Browns are averaging 26.6 points per game, and only five teams have scored more.

We will excuse the interception at the end of the Jets’ game because there was so little time left, but he threw critical picks late in both the losses to Atlanta and Los Angeles, giving up chances to put key points on the board.

However, Brissett is as advertised. His completion percentage ranks just 17th among all passers (64%) and his average yards per attempt is 25th in the league. It was said prior to the season that he would be efficient and avoid mistakes, but in the last two weeks, he’s made critical ones.

But the big factor remains the defense. GM Andrew Berry traded for LB Deion Jones from Atlanta and signed veteran DT Tyeler Davison, who last played for the Falcons, to the practice squad. It would be no surprise if both were in uniform last weekend against the Patriots.

Even though it’s become a passing league, in the NFL, if you can’t stop the run, you are going to have a big problem winning. The fact each of the last two games have been winnable should tell us the Browns are still capable of turning it around.

That Berry is focusing on fixing this area of the team should show everyone where he puts the blame thus far. If the defense doesn’t start playing better, it’s not going to matter when Watson returns to the field.

Remembering Marty

It was sad to hear of the death of former Browns’ coach Marty Schottenheimer. A man who won 200 regular season games in the NFL, but unfortunately never got to the Super Bowl despite all that success.

Schottenheimer’s first two attempts to get to the title game ended in heartbreaking fashion, the first known as “The Drive”, the second known as “The Fumble”.

We wanted to share our impressions of him from a fan’s point of view, our point of view. We didn’t know the man, although we met him once, sitting next to him at a Cavs’ game in the late 80’s. He had his son with him, and we remember Marty reminding a young Brian Schottenheimer that he lived in Cleveland and should root for the Cavaliers.

Our thought was wow, he really is as intense as he was portrayed.

Schottenheimer ranks fourth in Browns’ history in wins as head coach, behind Paul Brown, Blanton Collier, and the man he replaced in Sam Rutigliano, but overall, you would have to rank him as the third best coach in Cleveland history, behind Brown and Collier, both of whom won NFL titles.

By the way, Kevin Stefanski is tied for 10th in wins after one season at the helm.

Schottenheimer took over a 1-7 team in 1984 and guided them to a 4-4 record, one of the losses was in overtime, the rest of the season.

The next season was the beginning of the last halcyon period in the history of the franchise.

Paul McDonald was replaced at QB with veteran Gary Danielson, and they drafted Bernie Kosar in the supplemental draft in the first round. GM Ernie Accorsi took advantage of the USFL folding to bring in RB Kevin Mack, and CB Frank Minnifield and the Browns improved to 8-8 and won the AFC Central Division.

After building a 21-3 lead over Miami in the first half of the playoff game, the Browns played very conservatively behind the rookie, Kosar, in the second half, and Dan Marino led the Dolphins to a comeback 24-21 victory.

That was kind of the beginning of what came to be called “Martyball”.

What followed was three more playoff appearances in a row, two of them coming as a result of AFC Central Division titles.

In 1986, as the story goes, Kosar pleaded with the coach to be aggressive in a divisional showdown vs. Cincinnati in the second last game of the year. Kosar won the argument, hitting Reggie Langhorne with a long pass on the game’s first play, and the Browns wound up winning 34-3 to take the division title.

We won’t forget our feeling in the AFC Championship Game at old Municipal Stadium when Kosar connected with Brian Brennan for a 48 yard TD pass to give the Browns a 20-13 lead with just over two minutes to go. Surely, Cleveland was going to make their first Super Bowl appearance.

John Elway and the Broncos felt differently.

At the time, many fans and media wondered about switching to a prevent defense after bottling up Elway for 58 minutes. But Schottenheimer’s background was on defense. He played linebacker in the old AFL and was a defensive coach and then coordinator. He wanted to put the game in the hands of the unit he felt most comfortable with.

The following year had the Browns with a 10-5 record, and they once again advanced to the AFC title game, this time in Denver. The Broncos got off to a 21-3 halftime lead, and after the Browns scored first in the second half, the defense allowed an 80 touchdown pass to make it 28-10 Denver.

Kosar rallied the Browns back and had them on the doorstep of tying the game when Earnest Byner fumbled, another crushing defeat.

It was the last time the Browns were that close to playing in a Super Bowl.

Schottenheimer and Art Modell had some disagreements about the makeup of the coaching staff after the ’88 season (10-6 and a wild card berth despite injuries to Kosar and his backup, Mike Pagel) and resigned.

He went on to the Chiefs for 10 seasons, winning 101 games, before coaching Washington for one year, and the Chargers for five seasons, has last year there producing a 14-2 record.

Although the Browns got to the conference title game in 1990, Marty got there once more as well, with the Chiefs in 1993, losing to Buffalo, 30-13.

However, 200 NFL wins is an incredible career. It places him 8th all time, 6th among men who coached after the merger. The names ahead of him read like a who’s who of NFL history: Don Shula, George Halas, Bill Belichick, Tom Landry, Curly Lambeau, Andy Reid, Paul Brown.

RIP Marty. And thank you for leading the Browns the last time they were a yearly power in the NFL.

Is Dorsey Really A GM If He Can’t Hire The Coach?

It occurred to us today that although John Dorsey’s title is General Manager of the Cleveland Browns, he really isn’t a GM at all.

The title infers the Dorsey is managing the football operations, but as it stands right now, he is in charge of procuring players either via the waiver wire or the draft. That would make him a personnel director, not a GM.

This is because of the crazy management set up by ownership, where the Dorsey and coach Hue Jackson both report to Jimmy Haslam.

This organizational chart just invites a power struggle. And Haslam should be very familiar with this because it literally just happened.

When Sashi Brown was put in charge of the 53 man roster and Jackson was brought in as coach shortly thereafter, they claimed to be on the same page, apparently Jackson was okay with stripping down the roster and going with a total rebuild.

As the losses extended into year two of the regime, Jackson bailed on the plan, and started throwing Brown under the bus. He complained about the players, saying he didn’t have enough talent to win games.

Obviously, when we had Haslam’s ear, he kept telling the boss Brown’s plan wasn’t working and the Browns needed to bring a “football guy” in here to speed up the process.

We have no way of knowing if Sashi Brown bad mouthed the head coach in his meetings with the owner.

The disturbing thing is why would Haslam think the very same thing won’t occur again with the Dorsey/Jackson coupling?

The national media have a high opinion of Jackson, assigning him no blame to him for the horrible 1-29 record for the franchise over the last two seasons.

Locally, more and more people are realizing that Jackson is not taking the necessary steps to win football games. Better use of the running game, which would take pressure off a rookie quarterback, would be a good start.

The Browns throw more passes of 20 yards or more than any other team in the NFL, certainly not taking the pressure off DeShone Kizer.

If Dorsey is truly running the football operations, he must be free to hire his own coach. That would ensure there would be no backstabbing, and that the coach and Dorsey would be on the same page. They would have a shared vision.

Another benefit of the harmony could also be no more leaking stories of unhappiness and discord within the organization to the national media. We think we know the source of that information.

It’s a perfect time to make the move too. The Browns will likely be picking a quarterback with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft this spring. You could have your new GM, new coach, and franchise QB all coming aboard together.

This seems to be a constant issue for this franchise. Remember in the 80’s when Art Modell picked Marty Schottenheimer over the guy, Ernie Accorsi, who accumulated the talent for the teams that made three AFC title games in four years.

After a few years, Schottenheimer fell out of favor and was replaced by Bud Carson. In a matter of four years, both Accorsi and Schottenheimer were gone.

If you are going to bring in a “football guy”, then give him control of the whole shooting match. That’s the best chance to get this organization out of the malaise it has been in for over 20 years.

Super Bowl Sunday? Browns Still Don’t Know

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.

It is also a day that fans of the Cleveland Browns have never been excited about. In the 51 years of the Super Bowl era, the Browns have never taken part in the game, let alone win the Lombardi Trophy.

Cleveland hasn’t been close to getting to the ultimate NFL experience since the 1989 season, 27 long and mostly dreadful years.

However, in the first 24 Super Bowl years, the Browns got to the what would now be the conference title game five times.

We all know about the game’s most famous upset in Super Bowl III, when the Jets, led by Joe Namath, beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7. What is forgotten is the Colts got there by hammering the Browns 30-0 in the NFL title game.

The Colts avenged their lone regular season defeat that day.

Coach Blanton Collier’s crew got to the brink of the Super Bowl the very next year, losing to the Minnesota Vikings, who then lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the last AFL/NFL championship tilt.

That was the last success for what was really the remnants of the Paul Brown era in Cleveland, although the Browns made the playoffs in 1971 and 1972, but didn’t advance in either year.

In ’72, they did put a scare into what turned out to be the undefeated Miami Dolphins, leading in the fourth quarter before a blocked punt turned the game around and Don Shula’s team escaped with a win.

Cleveland didn’t win a playoff game again until 1986, although they did have a brief period of excitement when Sam Rutigliano was the head coach and the Browns became one of the first teams to emphasize the passing game.

In 1980, the Browns won the AFC Central and lost to Oakland in the famous “Red Right 88” game where Brian Sipe threw an interception with the team in point blank range for a game winning field goal.

To be fair, the conditions were horrible that day, and kicker Don Cockroft misses two extra points early.

The closest the Browns got to the Lombardi Trophy was 1986, with the AFC Championship in Cleveland, and Marty Schottenheimer’s squad took a 20-13 lead over Denver in the 4th quarter after Bernie Kosar hit Brian Brennan for a 48 yard touchdown strike.

Watching that game, we felt the Browns were going to get to their first Super Bowl. But then John Elway orchestrated the drive and Cleveland lost in overtime, 23-20. Denver lost the Super Bowl to the Giants.

The following year the same two teams matched up again, and again a bitter disappointment greeted Browns’ fans as Earnest Byner fumbled as he tried to score the game tying TD.

What made that game particularly galling was that Cleveland came back from a 28-10 deficit to the brink of tying the contest.

Denver again went on to lose the Super Bowl to Washington.

The last time the franchise got close was two years later, when they again lost to Denver, this time with Bud Carson at the helm.

Kosar’s finger was injured and the Browns got thumped in Denver, 37-21, and once again the Broncos got obliterated in the Super Bowl, this time by the 49ers.

Since then, the Cleveland Browns have won one playoff game, with one of today’s Super Bowl coaches, Bill Belichick, patrolling the Cleveland sidelines.

That’s been it.

Now, the Browns have started its most ambitious building process in the history of the franchise. They gutted the roster, purging most of the veterans and are now starting to build with a boatload of draft picks, which they hope will turn into a franchise quarterback, and a host of good young players they hope will lead the team back to the playoffs.

And eventually, into the first Super Bowl Cleveland has ever been a part of.

There aren’t many franchises that haven’t been to the Bowl, and the only two who pre-date the game itself are the Lions and Browns.

So, Browns fans will watch the game today without the experience of ever being part of the festivities.

But it is worth reminding everyone that the team has come close a few times, and in the early years of the game, the Browns were a contender to get there.

That was a long, long time ago unfortunately.

On Modell’s Passing

Growing up in the 60’s, the Cleveland Browns were the arguably the hallmark franchise of the National Football League.

My father would point out with pride that the Browns were the winningest team in NFL history in the late 1960’s. Cleveland played in the championship games in 1964, 1965, 1968, and 1969. Wins in the last two games would have put the Browns in the Super Bowl.

At that point, the city of Cleveland loved Art Modell. He owned the Browns! The Indians weren’t too far removed from their winning days of the 50’s, but they weren’t contenders either.

The Cavaliers did not exist.

The Art Modell that owned the Browns during from 1970 until he ripped the hearts out of the city was a little different.

This is how we remembered Art Modell as he died early Thursday morning.

His obsession with winning a Super Bowl caused him to meddle with personnel moves, and he fell in love with anyone who gave him a glimpse of hope, and turned on them quickly when that hope started to vanquish.

Sam Rutigliano was an unknown at the time, and in his third year as coach, 1980, led the Browns to the playoffs, the ill-fated “Red Right 88” game. He immediately received a new contract.

In 1984, without Brian Sipe, who left for the USFL, the Browns got off to a 1-7 start and Rutigliano was fired.

Modell brought in Ernie Accorsi as GM, and he was very aggressive. Raiding the crumbling USFL for talent such as Kevin Mack and Frank Minniefield, working some magic to get the rights to Bernie Kosar, and building the foundation for a team that went to three AFC title games in four years.

However, Modell liked his coach, Marty Schottenheimer, and when the coach wanted more power, including the draft, the owner gave it to him and forced Accorsi out.

Schottenheimer was gone after the second title game loss, but not before he got rid of LB Chip Banks, and drafted the “mad dog in a meat market” in Mike Junkin.

Sometimes Modell tried to fancy himself as a “football man” and make personnel decisions that he wasn’t qualified for. He needed a QB to replace Bill Nelsen in the late 60’s and fell in love with Mike Phipps, trading Hall of Famer Paul Warfield to get him.

He did the same thing for Bill Belichick in the 90’s when he wanted a wide receiver and spent big money, cash he didn’t have, to get Andre Rison, who turned into a bust.

Owning an NFL franchise is basically a license to print money, but it wasn’t that way for Modell, who had major financial problems.

That’s what led him to move the team to Baltimore. He was broke, but couldn’t see himself clear of selling the franchise, which was always supported by the fans, to someone who would keep it in Cleveland.

The other NFL owners came out in support of Modell’s place in the Hall of Fame because his work on the television committee and his move to Baltimore (and the many new stadium deals it spawned) put a lot of money in their pockets.

That doesn’t mean he should be enshrined in Canton. As owner of the Browns, he came up short. The team had many more droughts from 1970-1994 than it had successes.

His heart was in the right place in those days, but he couldn’t let the right people run the team. Heck, he even fired Belichick after they got to Baltimore.

No one can blame the people of this city for their opinion of Art Modell. He hurt Cleveland badly, and he could have done it differently and had an entirely different legacy.