Tag: New England Patriots

Winning Is Habit Browns Have To Develop

The bye week is over and the Cleveland Browns return to the gridiron rested and ready to go this Sunday.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is they play the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, who also happen to be undefeated this season.

The narrative surrounding the Browns seems to change every week, and since they were off last Sunday, the discussion is how can Freddie Kitchens’ team dare compete with the Baltimore Ravens, who sit atop the AFC North standings at 5-2.

After all, the Ravens beat Seattle on the road, a Seahawks team that came into the game at 5-1 after beating the Browns in Cleveland the week before.

Apparently, people have forgotten the Browns’ 40-25 beating of the Ravens in Baltimore just a few weeks before.  We guess the Ravens improved by leaps and bounds in that three week span.

We aren’t taking away anything from Baltimore’s win in Seattle, it was damn impressive.  However, not overreact to that contest either.

NOTE:  We understand because football is played just once per week, there is a natural overemotional reaction to every game.

We were thinking though, what would the Browns’ record be if they had played the schedule Baltimore has played to date?

The Ravens opened up with the Dolphins and Cardinals, the latter in Kyler Murray’s second professional start.  It’s easy to project wins in both games for either Baltimore or Cleveland.

Baltimore’s next two games were against the Chiefs and the Browns, so there is one loss in there, and those were followed by division games vs. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.  Since the Steelers were using their third string QB and the Bengals are bad, it’s not a reach to think that’s two wins for the Browns.

And again, credit to the Ravens for beating Seattle, which the Browns couldn’t do, even at First Energy Stadium.

So, the Browns would be 4-3 at least if they had played Baltimore’s schedule.

However, the biggest thing the fast start did for Baltimore is provide confidence.  Winning early in the season breeds confidence.  You saw that in the second half of the game in Seattle this past Sunday.

In the same vein, the Browns’ 2-4 start has the players and coaching staff questioning themselves a bit.  That plays in close games late.

Remember how the team (and the fans, for that matter) felt last season after Hue Jackson was fired and they started to win.  Suddenly, the big plays are made when they are needed.

And no doubt, it helps the Ravens that John Harbaugh is one of the five best coaches in the NFL.  That is no slight on Freddie Kitchens.

Yes, the Ravens’ schedule gets tougher.  Four of their next five games are against the Patriots, Texans, Rams, and 49ers.

After this Sunday, the Browns will have played three of those teams already, and they don’t have Houston on the slate.

But let’s say Cleveland loses this week to fall to 2-5 (which isn’t a stretch).  Yes, they play Denver on the road, which is a winnable game, but it would be coming off a three game losing streak.

That means it will not be easy.  It’s more difficult for teams to break losing streaks, particular for a group of players that hasn’t won together, or a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.

So, let’s not pencil in a bunch of wins in the second half just yet.

Winning is a learned skill.  The early schedule, and the early performance have not helped the Browns education.

MW

Zebras Help Browns Drop to 4-9.

Usually on Sunday night, we dissect the Browns game played earlier today and talk about the reasons why the team won or loss the contest.

Cleveland lost today a game they had every right to win, dropping a controversial 27-26 decision to the playoff-bound New England Patriots.

Jason Campbell returned to quarterback and played a marvelous game, hitting 29 of 44 throws for 391 yards and three touchdown tosses.  Josh Gordon continued his All Pro play by catching seven balls for 151 yards, including an 80-yard catch and run for a touchdown.

TE Jordan Cameron returned to the offense, catching nine throws for 121 yards and a TD that gave Rob Chudzinski’s team a 26-16 lead with 2:39 remaining in the game.

Future Hall of Famer Tom Brady threw for 418 yards, but was picked off by LB D’Qwell Jackson and was sacked four times by a tenacious Cleveland defense.

The Browns drop to 4-9 on the campaign with just three games remaining.

That’s about all we are going to say about the actual play on the field, because the officiating in this football game was the main story.

We have said it before and we will say it again today…NFL officials are the worst in professional sports.  We say this because they like to make an impact on games, and sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for the calls they make.

Certainly, the pass interference call which set the Patriots up for the winning touchdown was terrible and even the national media and a former supervisor of officials said so.

While Brady may have led New England to a touchdown anyway, the call put the ball on the Cleveland 1 yard line, basically giving the Pats a victory.

The professional game needs to adopt the college rule, making defensive pass interference a maximum 15 yard penalty only.  In most cases, the contact involved is so incidental and/or being initiated by the offensive player to penalize a team more than 15 yards for the infraction.

However, that was only the last horrible call made by this crew.

They bungled the intention grounding rule twice, once allowing Brady to throw a ball away inside the tackle box while being pressured without a call, and then when Campbell escaped from the pocket, scrambled outside the hash marks, and threw a pass while being hit that bounced perhaps five yards away from Chris Ogbonnaya, he was flagged for 10 yards and a loss of down.

To prove this is not sour grapes, the Browns converted the first down on the next play anyway with Campbell hitting Gordon for a first down.

Another missed call was on Julian Edelman’s 2-yard TD catch with 1:01 remaining.  Jordan Poyer was flagged for the hit on a defenseless receiver when he clearly (according to replays) hit Edelman in the shoulder with his shoulder.  It was a hit designed to jar the ball loose, and he did not lead with his helmet, nor did he hit Edelman in the helmet.

The flag allowed the Patriots to try their onside kick attempt from the 50-yard line instead of the 35.

New England was on the short end of officials deciding the game earlier in the year, when officials cited the rarely called helping a teammate by pushing them forward penalty.  That call resulted in the Jets getting another attempt for a field goal after a miss.  The kicker made the second try and won the game.

The NFL is football on the highest level, and the players have a great deal riding on every game, since there are only 16 of them.  The league needs to let the players decide the outcome.

The officiating is a problem that needs to be addressed.

JD