Tag: josh mc cown

Errors By McCown, Pettine, Run Defense Kills Browns

If the Cleveland Browns pulled a victory out of their collective rear ends last week on the road against Baltimore, today was probably the gods of fate evening things out, as Cleveland dropped to 2-4 on the season with an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos 26-23.

Denver out gained Cleveland 442 to 298, so it would appear the Broncos dominated the game, but it was several mistakes by Mike Pettine’s team, including one by Pettine himself, that cost the Browns the contest.

Josh McCown was the reigning AFC offensive player of the week, but he made two colossal errors to aid Denver’s cause.

The first was a pick six by Aquib Talib on the second play of the second quarter.  McCown was looking for Travis Benjamin on a short pass to the sideline and apparently never saw the Denver cornerback, who stepped in front of Benjamin and went 63 yards for a score to make it 10-0 Broncos.

The second was with the game tied at 23-23 with a minute to go in regulation with the ball in Denver territory.  McCown was trying to throw the ball away, we guess, and instead was picked off by David Bruton on the 31 yard line.

Instead of having a chance to win, Cleveland had to sweat out a final drive by Peyton Manning.

The coach’s mistake was chasing points.

After Karlos Dansby picked off Manning and returned the ball 35 yards for a TD to give the home team a 20-16 lead, Pettine decided to go for two.

We are sure there is some idiotic chart that says to do that, but there was really no point there.  If the Browns converted, they would have a 22-16 lead, one that still would have been erased by a Denver touchdown.

And to the people saying they would have went for two after a TD, why would they?  It would have been 23-21 with a kick and a field goal would have still tied the game.

And those people are assuming the Broncos would have made it, which the Browns didn’t.  That point haunts the Browns in a game that went to overtime.

Last, but not least, the horrific run defense came back to rear its ugly head.  Jim O’Neil’s unit gave up 152 yards on the ground again, including 34 on the game winning drive in OT.

Ronnie Hillman wound up with 111 yards on 20 carries, his second effort of that type this season, but in that one (vs. Minnesota) he had a 72-yard run.

The defense also continued its annoying practice of not being able to protect a lead.

After Dansby’s pick gave Cleveland a five, four point lead, it took the Broncos just one, that’s right just one play to take the lead back after a 75-yard strike from Manning to Demaryius Thomas.

You cannot be a winning football team if you cannot hold leads.

What is particularly troubling is that this is Pettine’s supposed area of expertise.  Here’s hoping Pettine isn’t becoming like his mentor, Rex Ryan, who seems more and more to be good at talking, but not so good at results.

Other thoughts…

Barkevious Mingo had an interception in overtime which gave the Browns a short field they couldn’t capitalize on.  Last week, he batted a pass away near the goal line.

The guy may not be worth the sixth overall pick, but he is an athletic freak, and we would like to know why the coaching staff can’t find a way to use him.

Travis Benjamin continues to impress, grabbing 9 passes for 117 yards.  Maybe the Browns have a #1 wide out on their roster after all.

The three running back (Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson, and Robert Turbin) combined for 99 yards on 30 carries, a solid day on the ground.  Hopefully, that’s an area of the team that will continue to improve.

Now it’s on to St. Louis for a date next Sunday with the Rams.

The Cleveland Browns can’t make many mistakes if they want to win football games.  They made too many today to get it done.

JD

QB Obsession For Browns By Media is Out of Control.

We’ve reached a new record with the Cleveland Browns in terms of the sports talk industry.

Yesterday, we heard hosts and fans discussing the 2016 NFL Draft in terms of what quarterbacks are available, even before one game of the 2015 NFL regular season has been played.

Craziness.

The media and some fans are simply obsessed with the position of quarterback, making it the end all, be all, regarding success of a pro football team.

Isn’t Atlanta’s Matt Ryan a very good NFL QB?  The Falcons went 6-10 last season.

New Orleans’ Drew Brees once led the Saints to a Super Bowl title.  Yet, his team went 7-9 a year ago.

On the other hand, Andy Dalton has led Cincinnati to the playoffs each of the last three years, and the Bengals went 10-5-1 in 2014.

The Houston Texans used Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mallett, and Case Keenum as quarterbacks last season, and that squad went 9-7.

Is having a good quarterback important for a football team?  Of course.  Does it guarantee success in the NFL?  No.  Does not having one doom your team to a 3-13 record?  It does not.

We have even heard some talk show hosts suggest the Browns should tank the season so they can get their franchise passer in next spring in the draft.  Here is a list of QBs taken in the top five picks in the draft over the last 10 years–

2014–Blake Bortles (#3 overall)
2012–Andrew Luck (#1 overall)
2012–Robert Griffin III (#2 overall)
2011–Cam Newton (#1 overall)
2010–Sam Bradford (#1 overall)
2009–Matthew Stafford (#1 overall)
2009–Mark Sanchez (#5 overall)
2008–Matt Ryan (#3 overall)
2007–JaMarcus Russell (#1 overall)
2006–Vince Young (#3 overall)
2005–Alex Smith (#1 overall)

Out of those 11 signal callers, how many would you call an elite player?  Certainly, Luck qualifies, and Ryan would certainly be in our list of the top ten quarterbacks in the NFL.

And you can make an argument that Newton and Stafford should be in that group as well.

That means four out of 11, (36%) of passers drafted in the top five become very good players.  Not exactly a reason to throw away a season.

Two of these guys (Russell and Young) can be considered out-and-out busts, while Smith and Sanchez would probably be placed in the “journeyman” category.  Griffin and Bradford have been hampered by injuries throughout their career, and it is too early to evaluate Bortles.

What kills us is the Browns know they need to upgrade the position, but unfortunately, the NFL isn’t going to cancel the season until they do, nor does the team want put its fans through a 2-14 season either.

So, they are trying their best to minimize the amount of influence the quarterback has to the team’s success.

We have documented before that when the Browns get decent play from their QB, they can win football games.  That was certainly on display last year, when Brian Hoyer led Cleveland to a 7-4 start, before he started turning the ball over on a regular basis.

We are also not claiming that Josh McCown is going to be the second coming of Johnny Unitas nor that Johnny Manziel will be the next Brees.

If the Browns get lucky, they will get average, decent play out of the position.

However, we aren’t going to obsess about not having Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisburger either.

Slowly but surely, we think the Cleveland Browns are building a very good football team.  Their roster is in far better shape than it was three or four years ago.

That should be the story going into this season.  As Gene Hackman said in Hoosiers, “we hope you judge us on who we are, rather than who we are not”.

JD