Cowher Power

The Browns coach has a nickname, "Blunt Force Trauma". Nice. Pettine is intelligent, well-spoken, bald and kind of menacing looking. Nice. He speaks of ownership, accountability and learning from adversity. Nice. Too bad none of this translates to the team's on field performance. Its all an illusion.
There is a maddening disconnect from all the platitudes and self-help garbage and a team that self-destructs in every way imaginable at every opportunity.

Cleveland is a blue-collar town. We haven't been consistently competitive since the 80's. We have a hardcore work ethic. We believe in tradition. We love an underdog. We have had patience. We have survived heartbreak and loss. We deserve a winner. The time is past due.

We don't need a "up and coming" coordinator. We don't need a reclaimed retread, We need a proven winner. We need a head coach/GM so the personnel match the vision. We need a fiery leader that will call a spade a spade and bench ANYONE that isn't performing. We don't need a plan..we need results.

We need Bill Cowher.

There I said it. Let the laughter and howling begin. He STARTED as a backup linebacker for the Cleveland Browns...he is rough, he is nasty, he takes no prisoners. He is BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA for REAL. He also makes money without the stress of coaching in the NFL. A LOT of money. He wouldn't consider a return without total control of personnel decisions. So be it.

Haslam needs to break out that big checkbook and pay the man. Can you IMAGINE the rivalry with the Steelers if we got Cowher back? It would be heavenly. They would totally HATE it and we would become relevant almost instantly. The time is now...energize the fan base. Back up the Brinks truck to his door.

I'm in for the Chin.

The Crushing Weight on all Browns Fans

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Johnny_Manziel_2015.jpg&imgrefurl=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Manziel&h=3672&w=3216&tbnid=PYpNu2--0NfOWM:&tbnh=186&tbnw=162&usg=__y8mJftbvPFbXIwTaZwpHjr_6Wjk=&docid=SKkx3Vz4RIpgBM&itg=1 We suck....again. 2-7 with no hope in sight. The yearly collapse came sooner in 2015, saving us from the inconvenience of watching Browns games during the holidays. Thank heaven for small favors, I guess. A football team is built position by position, and when we examine these one by one, the total lack of clarity and vision is disheartening. QB- McCown is serviceable but old. Manziel is probably a capable NFL backup. Austin Davis might be the best in the room. GRADE C RB- Full of promising role-players. Crowell is decent and Duke Johnson is dangerous out of the backfield. GRADE C WR- Full of smurfs, has-beens and a pothead with a world of talent. GRADE D TE- Barnidge has been a revelation and Bibbs might be decent in the future.GRADE B- OLINE- Over-rated with possible departures coming soon.GRADE D DLINE- Over-rated with another missed 1st round pick in the middle and age on the ends,GRADE D LB- Outside is not generating a rush. Inside is rapidly aging with unproven back ups.GRADE D DB- Full of pro-bowlers who cant stay on the field or perform when they do. GRADE D SP- Good punter and decent kicker GRADE A COACHING- Weak leadership with no ability to avoid stupid mistakes or adjust on the fly. GRADE D- FRONT OFFICE- Deer in the headlights...completely over his head. GRADE D- NOT a lot to be hopeful about after two years of this regime...time to blow it up

Coaching Errors Nearly Cost Browns Victory

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/mike-pettine-browns.jpg Thanksgiving week is upon us and Browns fans have a lot to be thankful for. Josh Gordon's BACK and looks great. The team is 7-4 and in the hunt for a playoff berth. Brian Hoyer has been much better than many expected and the rookie running backs made Ben Tate expendable. All is not right in Elf-land however. Injuries continue to pile up to the point where sooner or later, the wheels ARE going to fall off. Today we lost potential all-pro safety Tashaun Gipson to a potential serious knee injury. A win is a win...and I will gladly take this one over the Falcons...BUT the coaching staff really dropped the ball today on several fronts. WHY, right before halftime, after a 60-yard field goal attempt (that missed by a mile) was nullified by a Falcon time out, did the Browns try it again?? While we are at it, did NO ONE notice that Devon Hester was BACK there to try for a runback? Ala Auburn/Alabama ? Game ball to Joe Bitonio for saving the team's bacon with the HUGE hustle play to tackle him. WHY did we keep forcing the ball deep to Gordon when that has NEVER been Hoyer's game. They SAID pregame that they wouldn't force it,,,then went out and did just that. The picks were a direct result this. WHY, late in the 4th quarter, did we go away from the running game? Crowell was a STUD all day and might have been able help us avoid the need for another cardiac kids finish...I know, everyone is growing and learning, coaching staff included. But JEEZ...that was weak.

Coaching us to the Promised Land

JImmy Haslam wrote a letter to the fans...He says he is committed to bringing in a winner to coach our Browns. Someone who can take the youngest team in the NFL, has five Pro-Bowlers, tons on cap room AND great draft positioning to the promised land. I will let him speak for himself, "We have purposefully been very methodical in our approach. We believe it is very important to stay disciplined to this process and to interview all of the candidates on our list. We are strongly committed to finding the right person to coach the Cleveland Browns." Jimmy Haslam. Thorough and methodical sounds ok to me....SO why not at least SPEAK to Jim Tressel? He has won multiple national championships at two levels. He preaches solid fundamental football where you don't beat yourself with mental mistakes and penalties...AND he likes running the ball. As great as Gordon and Cameron appear to be...we all know you can't win in the AFC North in November and December if you can't run the ball. We are searching under rocks at this point to see what's squirming...and looking dangerously like we are placing all our eggs in the Gase basket. What if we interview him and its not a fit? Or even worse, if he declines an interview with our rather impatient front office? We better have something else lined up then an unknown coordinator at that point (like our last SEVERAL coaching hires) Talk to Tressel!! I bet they make Orange and brown sweater-vests somewhere. Hell I will KNIT him one myself. GO BROWNS!!

Credibility? Not So Much.

As our Browns version of the Three Stooges keep paddling the canoe around in circles in hopes of hiring a new coach, I have some observations to make... There is a perception that no self-respecting coach will come to the Factory of Sadness. This is wrong. I am sure there are coaches with enough self-confidence to believe that they can achieve where all others, in all other regimes since our rebirth have failed. It's called brash over-confidence, and lots of coaches have it. Don't worry the Stooges will beat it out of you inside of a year. Josh McDaniel is smarter than I thought...he decided to exercise patience and avoid our giant dumpster fire of a front office. We are once again in a position of "settling" for a young coordinator, yet another unproven commodity to pin our hopes on. Banner and Lombardi have exactly NO margin for error with the fans...this is it, last chance to fix it, if only because THEY sure didn't give Chud any votes of confidence, or chances to learn from his mistakes.. What goes around comes around. Haslam really wants to win. I do believe that. I just fear he doesn't have the front office personnel in place to help him do it. " Flatly denying any interest in the "Sweater Vest" or Stoops was short-sighted and very poor public relations. It allowed us no room to pursue them after McDaniel said thanks but no thanks...Lombardi has a egg the size of Texas on his face. His man crush on McDaniel was there for all to see. The ONLY way the Stooges can fix it is to make a HUGE, UNEXPECTED SPLASH with the new hire. Some one with a big name and instant respect in league circles. I'm talking Chuckie, Cowher, Tress, Stoops etc etc,,,they have PROVEN they will not allow a new coach time for on the job training and that the time to win is now. So go get a proven winner to fix it. They will NEVER do that...and in 2015 or 2016 we will be doing this all over again. The Factory is working three shifts at the moment... GO BROWNS!!

Confidence an the QB position

Back from hiatus...had to take a break from the old blog due to the fact that the team has been in such a funk that its difficult to write anything positive. Now that I have completely given up on the season once again I am past that emotional roadblock, not necessarily a good thing. Quarterbacks express confidence in many ways. "I'm confident I can lead this team to success." "I have confidence in this group of guys" We don't NEED that type of confidence...the qualifying kind. We need a qb to come in and put it on their shoulders and say, "I WILL lead this team to success" NOT "with a bit of luck" or if "we all work together" just I WILL DO WHAT IS NEEDED FOR US TO WIN" Confidence is like layers of an onion. Outer layers are peeled and discarded as adversity rears its ugly head. Once you get to the CORE is where the rubber meets the road. We have had "surface leaders" who were outwardly confident but crumbled under the pressures inherent to the N.F.L...Weeden and Derek Anderson come to mind. We need confidence on a much deeper level. As I already said, I don't think Weeden has it. Campbell may have it,, but his age and injuries have left him physically unable to follow up on it, except as a temporary back-up. On the current roster, that leaves Brian Hoyer. He may very well have it. Unfortunately for him and Browns fans everywhere, he blew out his knee. The fans are talking about a return for spring practice but if the example of RG3 teaches us anything, its that a player returning from an ACL is not immediately the same one that left before the injury. I hope he is, but it will probably take a while (like all of next season) for him to be completely back. We have had quarterbacks in the past that had it. Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar both come to mind. That deep inner confidence is what allowed them to lead us to so many improbable come from behind victories. Yesterday we played AGAINST one with it...and the combination of Brady's confidence and some home-cooking by the zebras sent us home with our tail between our legs yet again. So come draft time? I say go ahead and go get Johnny Football. The kid is so full of confidence it just drips off of him. He may very well be full of something else too...but aren't we all on some levels? That way we can go with Hoyer or Manziel depending on Brian's rehab, Johnny's ability to pick up the offense and Chud's gut feeling. Best case, Hoyer leads us to the playoffs while Manziel handles clipboard duty for a couple years....but we all KNOW Cleveland Browns football is never about best case scenarios. Go Browns!

What is HAPPENING to the game?

When I first started watch the NFL in the 70's, the hits were nasty and plentiful, concussions were left untreated and players with knee injuries usually had to retire. I am GLAD they now treat concussions to attempt to protect the players and that medical science has advanced to the point that torn knee ligaments can usually be repaired. But I miss hitting. Basically every line of defense has morphed into the size of the next one up since the 70's. Jack Lambert was a nasty linebacker who played at like 210 pounds...as a MIDDLE LINEBACKER. Safeties are around that size in today's NFL. The Browns picked up Paul Kruger from Baltimore in free agency to play outside linebacker...Kruger weighs 270! In the 70's that was standard defensive lineman size. Joe "Turkey" Jones, famous defensive end for the Browns, played at 250 pounds. Back in the day, it was the rare player on either line that tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds. Now EVERY offensive line in the league AVERAGES that or more. Playing weighs of 340 to 350 are common place. All this added size has been complimented by even more speed. 4.4 forty yard dash times used to be the fastest you would see. Now some players run 4.2's. All this added girth and enhanced speed does result in more violent collisions. The powers that be however appear to want to turn the game we love into two-hand touch. Basically if you breath on the quarterback they will throw the yellow flag. DON'T hit them in the head, DON'T hit them in the lower leg, DON'T hit them on the follow through of attempting a pass! The defense has no chance. If the defender launching himself to hit a receiver or ball-carrier and the offensive player ADJUSTS his body and you hit him in the head...penalty on YOU. I don't know HOW the NFL thinks these guys can go full tilt and then magically chance their trajectory in mid-air. Two plays as examples... Quinton Groves flies through the air to tackle Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford late in the 4th quarter of a close game. Stafford released the ball AFTER Groves launched, Groves hits him and spreads his arms to not drive him into the ground. He actually put both palms on the ground on either side of Stafford...and got a roughing the passer penalty that kept the drive alive. Tashaun Gipson hits Green Bay tight end JerMichael Finley HARD...with his SHOULDER PAD. Finley ducks down INTO the hit and ends up motionless on the field. Finley ended up needing neck surgery and I wish him all the best, but GIPSON got penalized and did NOTHING wrong at all. The game is violent and people get hurt, they always have and they always will. UNLESS the league insists on going to even more ridiculous rule changes in the name of protection. Why not go seven on seven? Fire ALL defensive lineman, the NFL could start an American Sumo League for them I guess. Or put the quarterbacks in red jerseys and declare them off limits...the Super Bowl would be So exciting if the final score was 121-97 wouldn't it? Maybe...but I wouldn't be watching. I would be watching old NFL films of the game I used to love more than anything. GO BROWNS!