Crazy Crex?s Musings: *WRITE* Here we are and its Hangover Tuesday Lounge Houndz? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand were back at the bottom. *HELP* Agreed Injuries are piling up and thinning the Browns ranks. A lack of quality depth is one thing that has been the Achilles heel for the Browns in the past. I had hoped that Farmer would and could do a better job of signing that depth to the roster and the coaches doing a better job of grooming it. We have to hope that the next guy up steps in and gets the job done. Agreed, that some of the younger players aren?t living up to expectations. They have got to step it up. What concerns me more is that after playing like they did in Cincy on a short week, they come out and play like they did against the Texans at HOME. *WALL* If the reports are remotely true that they weren?t prepared for the Texans, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. *REF* You had an extra 4 days to prepare for them and then play like that. *ROSE* Did Pettine and the rest of the Browns party all week and forget that they had a game to play on Sunday? *SCRATCH* One week at a time one game at a time you can?t look past any opponent in this league. It will be nice to have Gordon back this week. That will be a shot in the arm that the offense needs. Though, it won?t fix everything. Still not sure I?m ready for JF yet, but it would appear that his time is coming sooner rather than later. Not sure how many more of those let downs I can take. The good is that the Browns are still in the hunt. Not ready to talk anything draft yet. Still too much season left and we still have a chance. Although, the snowball is getting closer to the furnace. Whether they stay there or fall to pieces and crap out the rest of the year will be up to them. Spoiler Els, tell your buddies jump on in the water is warm. Just warn them to be careful about drinking too much kool-aid. It tastes great and has a kick, yet the hangovers have a tendency to kick your arse for a week or two.
Injuries are taking a toll on a unit that is giving up big chunks of yards on the ground. BEREA, Ohio?The Browns defense is hurting. Last week, Phil Taylor was lost with a season-ending knee injury and placed on injured reserve. It appears the Browns are down two more starters as Karlos Dansby and Jabaal Sheard went down in the loss to the Texans. Earlier this season, Armonty Bryant was placed on injured reserve and John Hughes was placed on injured reserve. Hughes could return, but not until the final game. On Monday, Mike Pettine confirmed what was feared. Dansby is expected to miss at least a month, while Sheard could be lost for the season. ?(The time) is not definitive,? Pettine said. ?They?ll both be some time. Dansby was a knee. I don?t think his season is over, but I don?t think we have the exact window, could be upwards of a month. ?Sheard, I think we?re still waiting on, an injury to his foot,? he said. ?I think that?s potentially a little more serious than Dansby. There is a possibility he could be done (for the season).? Reports are that Dansby sprained the medial cruciate ligament in his knee. Pettine said he didn?t know if Dansby needed surgery. Craig Robertson is expected to step in and call the defensive signals. ?That?s the short term,? Pettine said. ?We also have Tank (Carder) who did come in and take some reps. In a number of positions, our depth has been affected. (GM) Ray (Farmer) and his group upstairs, I know, are weighing all the options, and we?ll be looking to bring some guys in, bring some guys up. We?ll have a better sense by the end of the (Monday) what the plan is for all those spots moving forward.? Pettine admitted the injuries are a big blow to the defense. ?It is,? Pettine said. ?It?s a shame that he?d been playing at a high level and that it is more than just ? as you said ? the playing, his ability on the field. It?s how he?s been in the meeting room, locker room, out on the practice field, just the intensity, the energy, the leadership. That?s all part of it.? After allowing 213 yards rushing to the Texans--minus Arian Foster--the Browns have dropped to 31st in the NFL in defending the run. The loss of key players isn?t going to help in that department. ?It?s difficult,? Pettine said. ?It?s something that we have to find a way to overcome. We don?t want to overdo it scheme-wise and start to zero-blitz people to stop the run because then you?re going to give up big plays. It?s a consistency-thing. ?We could make a cut-up of some of the runs yesterday where we played the run extremely well, then other ones where we had a breakdown - a guy got cut on the backside and couldn?t get back to his feet or just a guy making a mistake and they found him,? he said. ?It?s something we need to press forward with. There?s no magical answer to it. You look at it. It?s all wrapped up in the little details. Sometimes we do it well; sometimes we don?t. It has to become more consistent no matter who?s in there.? Pettine said that the Browns might have to adjust their scheme with different personnel. ?We?ll see as we kind of piece the plan together and see where we are with it,? he said. ?I know that there?s not much help coming from the outside this time of year. That?s something that we?ll likely discuss tonight as we start to game plan and probably get into it a little bit heavier tomorrow.? Notebook Gordon?s Back: WR Josh Gordon is back and able to begin practicing with the team when they start their preparations for the Falcons this Sunday. Pettine thinks it?s unfair to put too much pressure on Gordon to immediately solve the problems on offense. ?I do because I think that we?ve accomplished a lot with the group that we have,? he said. ?I don?t think it?s time for those guys to just step back and turn and say, ?OK, here?s a guy that?s going to come in and be a savior,? so to speak. We?ve played a lot of good football. I think that group has done an outstanding job. Whether it?s Miles (Austin), whether it?s Hawk (Andrew Hawkins), (Taylor) Gabriel, Travis (Benjamin), I think they?ve all done exceptionally well throughout the year. ?They?ve all had their moments making big plays,? he said. ?They?ve blocked well in the run game. It?s been a complete group. As far as a group exceeding expectations, of any one-position group, I would think you?d have to say it was the wide receivers. I think we?re looking for more of the same from them, and again, it?ll be a process with Josh. We?re going to be smart.? Gordon has missed the first 10 games serving a suspension for an illegal substance. His season long suspension was reduced to 10 games before the season began. Gordon does not count against the 53-man roster until he?s activated.
Monday, November 17, 2014 Monday leftovers The Browns need to hire a psychologist to find out just what makes this team tick. It has turned into a team with a split personality right before our very eyes. It has reached the point in the 2014 season where you never know which team is going to show up and play a game of football on any given Sunday (or Thursday night). Will it be the team that raced out of the gate in the first five games with some very impressive offensive numbers that opened up the eyes of the rest of the National Football League? Or will it be the team that pretty much mailed it in the next three games against the dregs of the league and escaped with a pair of victories? Then again, maybe it will be the team that went down to Cincinnati on four days rest and humiliated the Bengals in front of a national television audience with their best performance of the year. And just when a lot of fans began to believe that team was the real Cleveland Browns, they come out and lay a gigantic egg Sunday in front of the home folks against a team with a rookie running back and a quarterback making his professional debut as a starter. What in the world is going on here? Just when you think the Browns have finally figured out how to win games and winning six of the first nine certainly qualifies for that label they resurrect the old expansion days with a pitiful display against the Houston Texans. Hire that psychologist now. Pay him whatever he demands. There are still six games left in the season. All is not lost. Someone has to figure out what makes this team tick because the coaching staff certainly cant. Sundays loss to the Texans in submissive fashion is solid proof the Browns arrived at the ballpark ready to play a game of checkers. Or chess. Or badminton. Football was not uppermost in their minds. Defensive end Desmond Bryant as much as admitted it after the game. I dont think we were really prepared the way we should have been, he said. What a damning indictment on the coaching staff. We may have been sitting back a little bit, kind of catching more than we were delivering. Added linebacker Paul Kruger, Our overall mentality was just not where it needed to be. Dont need to read between the lines to understand what they mean. All afternoon, the defensive game plan clearly appeared to give Houston quarterback Ryan Mallett way too much respect. Rarely did the Browns blitz. And when they did, it was never more than five men. The Houston offensive line had no problem blunting what little effort was put into making Mallett uncomfortable in the pocket. It was as though the defensive coaching staff for the Browns invited a loss with its peculiar game plan and the Texans obliged. Defense is all about aggression. And the head coach whose nickname supposedly is Blunt Force Trauma hes also the man who oversees the defense left that aggression at home. He either needs to apologize to Browns fans that expected a lot more from the defense this season or at the very least explain why they have been forced to watch something entirely different. Some fans think the latest loss was as bad as the one down in Jacksonville several weeks ago. Uh, no. Not even close. The Jaguars stink. Houston is a pretty good team with quarterback problems that just might have been solved in Cleveland. * * * Speaking of quarterback problems, lets take a detailed look at the body of work for Brian Hoyer this season. See if you can spot where the problem lies. This will be broken down into seven categories (team and individual) based on how he played in the first five games of the season and then again in the second group of five games. The only commonality is that the Browns were 3-2 in both periods. In the first five games, the Browns scored 134 points (all but seven by the offense) , an average of 26.8 a game. They accumulated 111 first downs (22.2 a game), 1,224 yards (244.8 a game) and converted 22 of 61 third downs (36.1%). Individually, Hoyer completed 90 of 149 passes (60.4%), threw seven touchdowns passes and was picked off only once. In the next five games, the Browns scored 82 points (16.4 per), accumulated 92 first downs (18.4), compiled 1,318 yards (263.6) and converted 21 of 74 third downs (28.4%). Hoyer threw 176 passes and completed 91 (51.7%), tossed four scoring passes and was intercepted four times. Found the problem yet? Virtually the same cast for the first 10 games on offense (with the exception of Alex Mack, who was injured in game five, and Jordan Cameron, who has missed the last three) and the numbers are significantly worse in the second group of five games. The Cleveland offense has scored 52 fewer points, recorded 19 fewer first downs and saw the third-down conversion rate, which wasnt anything to proud of to begin with, dip 7.7%. Individually, Hoyer threw 27 more passes and completed only one more, threw three fewer scoring passes and four times as many interceptions and saw his completion percentage drop nearly 10%. So if youre wondering why the Cleveland offense in the last five games in no way resembles what we saw in the first five games, youve now got your answer. Start pointing fingers of blame in the direction of the quarterback. These statistics do not lie. They tell a tale that is not going to get any better. The main reason the Browns knocked off the Bengals a couple of weeks ago is the running game, which was largely responsible for the offenses success in the first five outings then disappeared for three games, Rip Van Winkled. It fell back asleep against Houston, leaving Hoyer all alone to try and save the game. He is not capable of carrying a team by himself. Those numbers above more than prove that. * * * Mallett, who had problems with touch at the collegiate level, appears to have solved that problem. His 2-yard fade to defensive end J. J. Watt in the left corner of the end zone produced the games first touchdown and was a thing of beauty. When Watt entered the game, the Texans all but announced over the public address system what they were going to do and the Browns still couldnt stop it. Mallett made a great throw, dropping the ball perfectly into Watts waiting arms despite solid coverage by Cleveland linebacker Chris Kirksey. It was like lobbing a hand grenade into a small bunker and squarely hitting the target. Hoyer doesnt make that throw. Despite his size (6-5, 290), Watt showed the grace and athleticism of a wide receiver, managing to make the catch and keep his feet in bounds. * * * Hoyer on the loss: We were just outplayed. We just realized were not there yet. Weve got to get better. Not certain where there is. If there is the playoffs or playoff worthy or playoff-bound, then yes, the Browns arent there yet. Offensive tackle Joe Thomas, ever the optimist, on the loss: Were 6-4, so the season is not over. . . . Were still in control of our own destiny. Not if you and your teammates continue to play as you all did against Houston. * * * Notebook: Rookie Houston running back Alfred Blue, who bruised the Cleveland defense for 156 yards, couldnt contain his glee after the game. It was fun out there, he said. It was really like playing in the backyard. Embarrassing stuff. . . . Kind of the opposite of what Cincinnati rookie running back Jeremy Hill said after the loss to Cleveland. Remember this? Theyre not that good . . . Theyre probably worse than I thought. . . . This is how bad the Cleveland offense was at the beginning of the second half: In their first 18 plays, they gained 18 yards. . . . Now that theyve knocked off the Browns, lets see if the Texans can go back home and do the same to the invading Bengals Sunday. . . . Lost in the postmortem: Marlon Moores 104-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that was wiped out by a holding penalty on tight end Ryan Taylor, who wasnt on the roster a week ago. Its nothing more than a footnote. Posted by Rich Passan at
Well, the mystery of who is going so Gordon can join the team appears to be over.... The Browns have waived Ben Tate today.... thoughts? Personally, I'm fine with it, Crow and West seem to have a BRIGHT future!
%) WOW, I did not expect that... I don't mind in the least, the run game was at it's finest while he was hurt. Now, he felt entitled and it seemed as if he may have been a weak poison in the locker room as he was unhappy with his role. Now, he can slither back to Houston or join another team in need...I just hope it isn't the Ravens!!
The Cleveland Browns cut running back Ben Tate on Tuesday, deciding to go with rookie running backs seven months after signing Tate to be their veteran starter. Tate had fallen out of the starting lineup in recent weeks and his production didn't match that of third-round rookie Terrance West and undrafted rookie Isaiah Crowell, who made his first start last weekend. "With all the transactions we make while constructing our roster, it will always be our intent to do what is best for our football team," Browns general manager Ray Farmer said in a statement. "This move is no different and we wish Ben the best going forward." All players are subject to the NFL's waiver system after the trade deadline, meaning Tate is not a free agent. Tate started six of the eight games he appeared in this season with the Browns. He signed for $1 million guaranteed this season and got a $1.5 million signing bonus in March after four years with the Texans. He rushed for 333 yards with four touchdowns and added nine receptions for 60 yards but averaged just 2.2 yards per carry over the last six games. The Browns have a third rookie running back on the roster, Glenn Winston, though he does not have a carry. Winston was acquired via waivers at the end of the preseason.
go out and sign someone who can phuquing tackle . someone with a nasty attitude is what we need for this puzzy defense . tired of this team getting run over smacked in the mouth on the ground *KISSING* . where was Gilbert last Sunday ? was he in Cleveland ? if he was I didn't see him . undrafted rookie Williams is playing over our # 9 draft pick . the other supposed draft find Desir looked like crap in pre season and hasn't been active yet . might as well cut the loses now and sign someone Farmer as you do better with un drafted players than you do with your draft picks other than Bitonio . *WALL*
put a foot in the coaching staffs ass Jim Bob . not prepeared to play last Sunday with first place on the line at home in front of a rowdy crowd ? NO EXCUSE for that BS !
I just heard about the Tate cut. Personally I don't mind it. Hind sight is 20/20 but West/Cronwell will do the trick. Irish again you are right on man with the draft. Me, you and everyone and their grandmother knew that last year was the year to get a WR. Gordon is 1 puff away from being done! With that 1st pick it should of been Watkins. Yes I wanted Robinson 1st but when Watkins was there at #4 I was happier than chit. Then the trade. I like you thought Gilbert would be better than he is. Drafting like that has been 1 of the many reasons we have been terrible for so long. Bitonio, West and Kirksley were true finds. I also know that Manziel wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the trade down. How good he is, is yet to be seen. Next off season we are going to have to draft or sign a WR. After next year Gordon is a FA. He could walk. With Austin being an UFA we have to replace him anyway. So just in case Gordon walks or is stoned we have replacements. Hell I would draft one and sign one. I fell they have to let Gilbert grow. Or see if he does. But he is looking like a Richardson pick right now.
Steelers waived RB LeGarrette Blount. That didn't take long. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported early Tuesday afternoon that Blount would be disciplined for leaving the field before the conclusion of Monday's win over the Titans, and the Steelers have decided to do so by cutting ties altogether with the insubordinate back. Blount hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt over a career littered incidents, both big and small. The fact that he was averaging just 4.09 yards per carry behind breakout star Le'Veon Bell was the nail in his Steelers coffin. Blount has proven useful as a power runner in timeshare backfields, but has always been overrated in short-yardage situations, and offers nothing in the passing game. Throw in his constant troublemaking, and you have a back unlikely to draw much interest on the open market, especially with Ben Tate also available. One month shy of his 28th birthday, Blount is running out of time in the league.
Let's take a collective breath here bluez... Cutting a rookie loose after 10 games of his first season does nothing for the team, or the player. Instead of getting pissed that Desir hasn't been active and Gilbert hasn't become a first year All Pro(although, I personally believe he has gotten better every week), be thankful that the reason Gilbert can't get more playing time is because K'Waun Williams came out of nowhere and is playing starter quality ball. I don't care if a player is signed from free agency after 6 straight years of Pro Bowls or signed 5 days after undrafted free agency began and no one else wanted him, if a guy is playing to the level of Williams, I simply feel lucky we didn't overlook him one single day longer and now he is part of this team. He is growing weekly and I fully expect both the drafted rookies to get better from now till next training camp. If that happens, we could easily have one of the stronger defensive backfields in the league, whether or not Buster Skrine finds greener pastures elsewhere. I feel right now, we could by pass CB in the draft and be fine going forward with what we currently have. I would like to draft a CB, but I don't think it is a necessity if another player position is ranked higher.
Irish . . . you got me to thinking when I read this post. What a great idea for an article! Then I started the research. I broke the season (so far) into the first five games when we still had our full compliment of D-Line personnel and the last five games. [After the fifth game (PIT), we saw Armonty Bryant go on IR (10/14/14), John Hughes go on IR designated to return (10/27/14), Phil Taylor go on IR (11/17/14) and then lost Karlos Dansby just this week for an unknown period of time (4 weeks?).] Guess what happened on the way to the word processor? o For the first five weeks, opponents averaged rushing for 149.6 yards/game. For the last five weeks . . . 134.6. o For the first five weeks, opponents averaged rushed for 4.95 yards/attempt. For the last five weeks . . . 4.26. o For the first five weeks, opponents passed for an average of 269.0 yards/game. For the last five weeks . . . 210.2. o Per Game average rushing TD's for the first five weeks = 1 . For the last five weeks . . . 0.4. o Per Game average passing TD's for the first five weeks = 1.6 . For the last five weeks . . . 1.2. o Opponent's Average Time of Possession for the first five weeks = 31:48. For the last five weeks . . . 31:00. Add in that the Defense has been on the field for an average of 7 more plays per game and its amazing to me that we matched the 3-2 record in the first fives games with the same 3-2 record in the last five games. Maybe coach Pettine and coach O'Neil are a ton better than even we gave them credit for. However, to continue on with only five warm bodies to rotate through three D-Line positions is suicide. Something will have to be done there. (perhaps that will be the opening created by the departure of Tate - who knows?) We also started the season with a combined LB corp of eight and are now down to seven with the loss of Dansby. {edit} Obviously the level of competition in the first five games versus the last five games factors into this but - they get payed to play as well.
Bluez, we are only a week removed from one of Cleveland's most dominating defensive performances in ages. The only reason we didn't get the shutout in Cincy is because Leanard fumbled a punt return in the Bengals red zone.... We've won 4 of our last 6 games and in one of those wins was a thoroughly dominating effort against Big Ben and the Steelers.... Injuries and consistency have been problems, but I wouldn't call this a "pussy" defense....I would call Mike Pettine a knucklehead for not going after Mallett with extreme pressure Sunday, but he just flat got out-coached all day and in all phases by Bill O'brien....The guy is a good coach and he schooled the Browns. Gotta give him credit....
Adam Caplan @caplannfl 3m 3 minutes ago #Browns are expected to sign DE/OLB Scott Solomon to their practice squad. Fits in at OLB in their 3-4 defense.
