Browns Should Make Note. Running The Ball Is Getting Back In Vogue

Today’s NFL is a quarterback driven league. The stars of football are the guys who throw the football…Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, C.J. Stroud, Brock Purdy, etc.

They are in commercials and are recognized on a first name basis.

However, we saw over the weekend in the playoff’s divisional round that the running game is still important too. The Eagles beat the Rams behind 285 yards on the ground, led by Saquon Barkley, who gained 205 yards, while the Bills and Ravens played another “old school” game.

Buffalo ran for 147 yards (Josh Allen had just 127 yards through the air), while the Ravens ground it out for 176 running the ball.

As we all know, the Cleveland Browns need a quarterback, but perhaps they can lessen the reliance for getting their guy if they can develop an elite running game.

It is interesting to note of the top ten teams in running the football this past season, many made the playoffs: Baltimore was 1st, the Eagles and Commanders, who play in the NFC Championship game this Sunday, rank 2nd and 3rd.

Out of the balance of the top ten, all but three teams (Cardinals, Colts, and Falcons) made the post season, and even those teams all finished at 8-9. Running the ball keeps you competitive.

The year before, the Ravens (13-4) led the NFL in rushing, and five of the top ten teams in running the ball made the playoffs.

Makes it even more curious the Browns got away from running the football in 2024.

We still agree the Browns should use the second overall pick in this spring’s draft on a quarterback. Why? Primarily because the rest of the Cleveland roster is talented enough that the likelihood of the franchise picking this high again isn’t probably great. You have a chance to take one of the two best QBs coming into the league, so do it.

But there is no question Kevin Stefanski and the front office can lessen the burden on the rookie or preferably the veteran they will bring in as a stop gap until the rookie is ready but getting back to his offensive roots and running the football.

Besides, and we have said this before, running the ball is in the franchise’s DNA, the legacy of the franchise starts with Marion Motley, Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly and leads all the way to Nick Chubb.

Use the Eagles as the model. They ranked 29th in passing yards this season and are playing Sunday with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Is that model sustainable? Probably not, but it does buy time for whoever Cleveland drafts to get used to the NFL game and become a productive NFL QB.

While the Browns’ defense may not be at the level of the 2023 season, that side of the football is still pretty good. Rebuilding the offensive line and drafting a solid running back so you move the football and protect the quarterback isn’t the worst idea.

And it might just speed up the clock to getting back to being a playoff team. We would all love to have Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Jackson, etc. at the helm for the Browns. That doesn’t mean the organization should just give up if they don’t have one of those guys.

Browns Win, Still Have A Pulse

The Cleveland Browns live for another week.

A loss on Sunday to Tampa Bay would have pretty much put the final nail into the coffin representing the 2022 NFL season, but because David Njoku made a tremendous catch to send the game into overtime and the defense kept Tom Brady off the scoreboard in overtime, the Browns won it in the last minute to go to 4-7.

Now, nothing is for certain because it’s the NFL and you know, “Any Given Sunday”, but with the woeful Texans coming up on the schedule Cleveland should be able to get to 5-7, and then it’s a matter of winning division games if Kevin Stefanski’s squad have any chance at a playoff spot.

Again, the odds are heavily stacked against them, but there still is a chance.

Cleveland was able to win because the Buccaneers decided not to run the ball, probably because they have Tom Brady. In the first half, they had success (most teams do) on the ground, not ended the game with only 96 yards, albeit on just 20 attempts. So, they averaged almost five yards per carry. It was a situation similar to the first 20 minutes of the Buffalo game until the Bills remembered the Browns can’t stop the ground game.

They were able to dial up pressure on Brady in the fourth quarter. Myles Garrett, who some feel (we do not) doesn’t get “important” sacks, came up with one and a half late in the game and also drew a penalty for an offensive lineman having his hands in Garrett’s face.

He came up big in this one for sure.

Oh, and by the way, he now has 68.5 sacks in 78 career games. Since we go by the ProFootballreference.com statistics, that puts him 4th on the team’s all-time list behind Bill Glass (94 games), Clay Matthews (232 games), and Jerry Sherk (147 games).

They won because Martin Emerson played a tremendous game, holding Mike Evans to just two catches for 31 yards.

Last week, Denzel Ward took Stefon Diggs out of the game against Buffalo. Could the defense be beginning to realize their best option is to play man-to-man on outside receivers?

And they won because Nick Chubb was, well, Nick Chubb, gaining 116 yards on 26 carries, including a big run on the game tying drive.

It pushed Chubb over 1000 yards for the four straight year. The last Cleveland runner to do that? Try the GOAT: Jim Brown. He’s now 4th on the Browns’ all-time list behind Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Mike Pruitt. It’s not a stretch to think he could be #2 by the end of next season if he stays healthy.

Cleveland has six games left and likely needs to win all six, or at least five, but then the tiebreakers become an issue, and the Browns don’t have a lot, if any, advantages there.

The three non-divisional games are at Houston (1-9-1), home vs. New Orleans (4-8) and at Washington (7-5). And remember, Deshaun Watson is back for next week. The Browns have the talent to win those games, but the question remains as to whether or not they can.

And of course, there are the three divisional games, with Cleveland already at 2-1 against the AFC North. We know from the past, all of those games will be a dogfight.

It has been a disappointing season to say the least, but now they have their franchise QB back, a guy they committed a boatload of money to, and a player we believe is a top five quarterback in the NFL.

Could the Browns run the table? Probably not, but they have a chance, something they wouldn’t have without Njoku’s catch, Chubb’s running, and a defense that stepped up.

First Step To Help Guardians’ Attendance? Have Fun!

The Cleveland Guardians’ organization is very good in soliciting opinions. As a former season ticket holder (we guess), we are on their mailing list and we get surveys all the time regarding our feelings, usually about the experience at Progressive Field.

We have a confession too. We are probably not the demographic they really want to hear from. At the end of each questionnaire, we are asked for our age. Let’s just say, our favorite player growing up was Sudden Sam McDowell, so we bet our answers go into the “he’s get off my lawn” guy file.

We are often critical about the “game experience” at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, mostly because (we know, this is silly) we go downtown to watch a baseball game.

Most of the surveys have to do with the different types of food or beverages at the ballpark, although recent ones have dealt with the renovations which will occur over the next few years at Progressive Field and the latest had to do with game experience and the franchise name change, a bit late on that one, no?

The attendance for Cleveland baseball spiked under two separate times: The late 90’s when the team was dominant and the Browns did not exist, and the late 1940’s when yes, the franchise won its last World Series (1948) and it was owned by Bill Veeck, who was in touch with things people liked and was willing to take risks.

Many times in sports, the answer is right in front of you.

For instance, the Browns were successful in the late 50’s through 1970 with a running attack led by the great Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly. The current edition of the team is following that path with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt (no, we didn’t forget D’Ernest Johnson).

The late 80’s Browns’ defense had two shutdown corners. The current organization is trying to do the same, although it’s a plus having Myles Garrett.

We doubt the Guardians’ front office can put together a lineup with potentially six Hall of Famers (Jim Thome and Eddie Murray are already there, and you can make very good cases for Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, and Omar Vizquel, while Manny Ramirez would be there if not for PEDs), so why not go the Veeck route in an effort to boost attendance.

Veeck spoke to the fans, asked them what they liked and what they didn’t, and then put that into action. Instead of announcing giveaway days and special promotions, he just did them, so fans didn’t know when they showed up if someone special was going to happen or not.

We greeting fans when they arrived and spoke to them as they departed. He was like a host at a party who wanted to make sure everyone had a good time.

We understand Paul Dolan doesn’t seem to be comfortable doing this sort of thing, but he could hire people who can do it.

This is not to say all of the folks who work at Progressive Field are uncaring robots. Many enjoy the people who attend the games, but it has to be universal.

Once you create fun, then allow people to experience it, lower ticket prices, which are among the highest in the sport. Get rid of dynamic ticket prices. Have ticket deals for the times when the weather is less than ideal in Cleveland.

Alternative jerseys? Fans love them, Cleveland hasn’t done this. When was the last time the franchise celebrated a former player by putting them in the team’s Hall of Fame? Those are just simple things? Why doesn’t the organization do them?

We have said it many times over the past few years, there is interest in the major league baseball team here, the television rating show it. Why don’t folks come downtown? That’s what the ownership should be trying to find out?

It’s not rocket science, but it is about fun. Make it fun to attend a Guardians’ game.

Maybe the front office doesn’t know what fun is?

Running The Ball Well Is A Tradition For The Browns

There is a theory that everything comes back into style eventually, and the Cleveland Browns are putting that axiom to the test.

Throughout the late 1950’s through the early 1970’s, the Browns featured a crushing running game. Starting in 1957, when Jim Brown was drafted in the first round, the brown and orange finally shifted from a passing team with Otto Graham at the helm, to a team that dominated on the ground.

They finished second in the NFL in rushing that year (the Rams led the league) and went to the NFL Championship Game, losing to Detroit.

The following season, Cleveland drafted Bobby Mitchell in the 7th round, and the combination of Brown and Mitchell, both Hall of Famers, vaulted Paul Brown’s team to the top of the heap running the football.

Mitchell was traded to Washington prior to the 1962 season, for Heisman Trophy Ernie Davis, who never played for the Browns due to leukemia, and Cleveland dropped in the running game. But outside of the ’62 season, Cleveland was in the top three in running the ball every year Brown was on the roster, until he was forced into retirement (by Art Modell) after the ’65 season.

Their record in that span was never worse than the 7-6-1 mark in ’62. They were always above the .500 mark, and won nine or more games (in a 14 game slate) five times.

When Brown retired, Leroy Kelly picked up the slack, and Cleveland led the NFL in running the football in 1966 and 1967, and finished third in the league in ’68. They won nine, nine, and ten games in those seasons.

That’s a 12 year period where the Cleveland Browns had a devastating ground attack. And they were winners.

Now, let’s flash ahead to 2020. The Browns are currently third in the league again in running the football, behind just the Patriots (2-1) and Green Bay (3-0). Note the Packers are running the ball even though they have perhaps the game’s best passer, Aaron Rodgers behind center.

Cleveland features Nick Chubb, who finished second in the NFL in rushing yards a year ago, and Kareem Hunt, who led the league in the same category with Kansas City in 2017.

Chubb trails the current leader, Tennessee’s Derrick Henry by 27 yards this season, despite the latter having 31 more carries in the first three games of this season.

Hunt is 13th in the NFL and none of the players he trails have less carries than he does, as Hunt only averages 13 carries per contest.

So, Cleveland has two of the top 13 runners in terms of yardage after three games. The only other team with two players in the top 20 is the Arizona Cardinals, who have Kenyan Drake (9th) and their quarterback, Kyler Murray (18th).

We know that new coach Kevin Stefanski has always been a proponent of running the football during his time as an offensive assistant in Minnesota, but the franchise is also reaching into its past as to what was successful when the Browns were an NFL power. And this may come as a shock to those under 30 years old, but they really were on of the best teams in the NFL from 1950-1972.

And let’s not forget where the Browns play. When it gets cold and the weather is less than ideal in November and December, this offense should still be effective, and it also takes pressure off the defense, because they should be able to control the clock.

People say you should learn from history. Finally, someone in the Cleveland organization looked at the proud tradition of running the ball in northeast Ohio and has decided it’s a good idea.

It may lead to winning football again, and that would be a welcome sight.

MW

The Browns Used To Be Good. Real Good.

With no sports on the docket right now, we have become quite nostalgic about the state of Cleveland sports.

Today, we turn our attention to the Cleveland Browns.

Our first remembrances of the Browns was the 1965 season, a year in which, get this, Blanton Collier’s squad were the defending NFL Champions.

At that point in time, the Browns had been in existence for 20 years and had one losing season, a 5-7 mark in 1957.  To that point, they had won four NFL and four more AAFC (All American Football Conference) championships.

They were arguably the crown jewel franchise of professional football, something my father said often and with pride.

We remember the ’65 title game, played in the mud at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, with the Browns coming up short, 23-12, in what proved to be Jim Brown’s last game in the NFL.

We watched at an aunt’s house, and she had a color TV, which was rare at the time.  Talk about a great memory.

At that time, you won the Conference and you went to the championship game, they did have something called the Playoff Bowl, which matched the second place team in each conference.

Why?  Who knows.

Even when the Browns didn’t win the Eastern Conference, they were still very competitive, finishing second three years, usually behind their hated rivals, the New York Giants, and finished third twice.

After dropping the title game to Lombardi’s Packers in ’65, the Browns finished second in ’66 to Dallas, and the following season, the NFL went to a four division set up, and the Browns won three straight Century Division (why?  who knows) titles, advancing to the post-season.

They got lambasted 52-14 by Dallas in 1967 in the Eastern Conference playoff, but gained revenge, beating the Cowboys the next two seasons to advance to the NFL title game.

Jim Brown retired, but Leroy Kelly replaced him and became one of the top runners in pro football.  Frank Ryan, the QB who led the Browns to their last title, was replaced by Bill Nelsen (acquired in a trade from Pittsburgh, of all teams), and he led Cleveland to within one game of the Super Bowl in ’68 and ’69.

Unfortunately, the Browns weren’t competitive in either contest, losing to the Baltimore Colts 34-0 in the first year, and then to Minnesota 27-7 the following year.

They still had one of the best receivers in the game in Paul Warfield, but the defense was mostly bend, but don’t break.

There was a reason the Browns played in the first Monday Night Football game in 1970.  They were good, damn good, and for the most part, year in and year out.

Before that season, with Nelsen aging, the Browns traded Warfield to Miami so they could be in a position to take Purdue QB Mike Phipps, who finished 2nd in the Heisman Trophy voting, and followed NFL stars Len Dawson and Bob Griese in college.

Phipps never became what the Browns envisioned.

Cleveland finished 7-7 in 1970, the first year of the merger when they voted to the AFC to be in the same division as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Houston.  For those younger readers, the Browns, Steelers, and Colts agreed to join the existing AFL teams.

Nick Skorich, the new coach, got the aging Browns into the playoffs in ’71 and ’72, the latter year with Phipps at the helm, but they lost to the Colts and the Miami Dolphins (with Warfield and on their way to an undefeated season).

Even then, they never collapsed.  Yes, they finished 4-10 in 1975 and 3-11 in 1976, but by ’78, they were a .500 team at 8-8.

By the time the Kardiac Kids had their heyday in 1980, the Browns had played 30 seasons, and had just four losing seasons.

Hard to fathom that right now, isn’t it?

MW