Hello, Trevor? This is Mark Shapiro…
November 12, 2008Bengals Fans Get Billboardy
November 12, 2008
Now, I don’t know what exactly this says for Herm Edwards and the Kansas City Chiefs, but Bill Simmons has named the Cleveland Browns #25 in his latest rankings calling them the “worst-coached half-decent” team in the league. I guess that makes the Chiefs the “worst-coached borderline-awful” team.*** I am sure there are a fair number of Simmons haters out there. I am not one of them, but even I get annoyed with the man on occasion. That being said, he couldn’t be more dead on when talking about the Cleveland Browns right now.
If you don’t think this is the worst-coached half-decent team in the
league, you didn’t see the Browns blow a 10-point lead Thursday night
to an atrocious defensive team that was down to a backup fullback as
its only running back. (Actually, you probably didn’t see it — you
could see the game only on the NFL Network. Great.) I remember this
past Sunday when Fox’s Rich Gannon said, “You can’t second-guess Romeo
Crennel here.” I won’t even tell you the context. Just know that, yes,
at all times we are allowed to second-guess Romeo Crennel. Even if he’s
single-handedly disarming three gunmen during a bank robbery as I’m
lying on the floor with my hands behind my head.
Now this is a good reminder for fans everywhere and especially for me.You see, in the heat of the season as I get bogged down looking at players and positions and schemes, I sometimes forget that the Browns have the worst coach in the entire National Football League. I know that there is some stiff competition out there with some awful coaches, but I think most would agree that Romeo takes the cake, apparently sometimes quite literally. (Ba-dum SPLASH!)
Seriously, though, I need to remember this. When I am getting all crazy about Kellen Winslow or Derek Anderson or not seeing Jerome Harrison, I need to remember that the Browns have the worst coach in the league. I am most likely rushing to judgement unfairly on all these players. It would be like watching someone use the NY Giants on Madden and conclude that they aren’t a good team when the guy utilizing the controller has no thumbs. It would be like saying Batman sucks after seeing George Clooney sink the franchise. It would be like saying “Hey Jude” is an awful song when hearing it perfromed by a guy with a cancer kazoo.
So, I will try to keep this in mind moving forward. I will do my best to not get caught up in hyper-analyzing this team as long as Romeo Crennel is the captain of this Titanic. Then again, I have been drifting in and out of comprehension since the Maurice Carthon days, so I can’t say that my memory will be good enough that I won’t slip back into it. All I can do is try.
(*** No, I am not talking about Herm’s decision to go for it against the Chargers this week trailing 20-19 with a chance to send it into overtime. That was a good idea. The Chiefs had a chance to run one play from the two yard line to beat the Chargers outright. Who is to say they would have had any better chance after tying it up and flipping the coin for overtime posession?)
13 Comments
put herm edwards in cleveland… what’s our record this year?
For a while, I didn’t think Romeo was as bad as other Browns fans made him out to be; I wouldn’t have opposed him getting fired but I didn’t think he was that bad. After the past two weeks, it’s official; Romeo is that bad.
Now, he’s not the reason Anderson is the most inaccurate QB in the league and he’s not the reason Braylon Edwards can’t catch a ball despite being paid millions of dollars, but it’s clear the team isn’t responding and I’ve seen enough clock management blunders this season to last a lifetime.
The bottom line is that there is no way this team should be 3-6. And that has to fall on the head coach.
Good coaching wins the close ones…
Pittsburg, Washington, Baltimore, and now Denver
We could have 7 wins right now.
I think it is important to look at the dichotomy of coaching in the NFL. One is player development – making players better and making a team gel, etc. on this I think Crennel has been pretty good, we’ve got a lot of young players, he needs to get them to shut their mouths, but I’d say we are more of a “team” than we were before Crennel et al.
The other, which our staff is horrible at, is the in-game coaching. Their vomit inducing clock management, the uncanny ability to get field goals off of turnovers that we start inside the opponents 5. The inability to adjust in the 3rd and 4th quarters which leads to 5 or more “3 and outs” in a row (even after Cribbs gives us the best field position possible drive after drive)
Get someone in there who knows how to manage a game, we are past the player development stage.
I was at the Bronco’s game, when a plain clothed gentleman who obviously won his tickets from a radio station asked me, after 5 straight Jerome Harrison runs:
“Who’s that #35?”.
That’s Jerome Harrison.
“Has he always been on the team?”
What, you mean all great coaches don’t flip a coin to determine the starting quarterback?
So no one probably wants to say this but I am going to ask it anyway. If we had a white coach, would he be fired by now? Obviously that shouldn’t have much to do with anything, but it could. It seems that Marvin Lewis is in the same situation too, and I heard some Bengals talking about it. There are not a lot of black coaches in the NFL, and pitifully less in the NCAA, so at times it seems they can be given a longer leash. There was backlash at Notre Dame when Willingham was fired, but after being terrible again at Washington, no one is saying anything with him resigning.
I just wonder is all. We have already seen coaches fired this season, and a few more should happen this offseason. I just wonder if we had a fat white guy, would he be gone? It is obvious he is over his head and not capable of doing his job.
Careful, all this talk seems to be hurting someone’s feelings….
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3698275
Jeff, it is an interesting question, but I don’t know if there is much weight to it in Romeo’s case.
The Browns suffered along with Romeo and then Savage stepped in (presumably) with the firing of Mo Carthon and the hiring of Rob Chudzinski. Then the Browns go out and win 10 games and all seems right with the world.
This season will determine the amount of leash Romeo has because the team is finally underperforming when there were expectations. So, I think you are a bit premature thinking that race is a factor. While I would have fired Romeo after the Carthon debacle, many might argue that Romeo is being given a chance that he has earned based on last year’s performance.
He earned his chance last year and he’s blowing it this year.
I don’t necessarily think he only is keeping his job right now because of his race, I just wonder if it will factor in at season’s end. If there is a chance to get Cowher or someone else this offseason, will they pull the rug out from under RAC? I have no idea, but I do know he shouldn’t still be the coach at years end. I think that is evident by his reaction to what Lewis and Cribbs said. I think they were pointing at the coaching staff and we probably just need a clean slate.
What I love is that for all the Simmons haters out there, they sure seem to know EXACTLY what his last piece was about.
I like Simmons and am not sure why there are so many haters out there. He has made some of my family turn into more Boston fans though and that is annoying. He did the opposite with me, I can’t stand most of the Boston area teams now thanks to his constant articles and love for them. But I find him funny, like his weird references to things, and listen to his podcast. Why all the hate?
Well, I admittedly go hot and cold on him sometimes. Simmons’ book was impossible for me to read and I found all the footnotes really self-indulgent like when Adam Duritz changes up all the vocal melodies of famous Counting Crows songs live in concert. See, I can make pop culture references too.
I am just being a jerk. I love Simmons when he isn’t talking specifically about Boston. I love his mailbag. I love when he does email exchanges with other writers. I only occasionally sour on him, but I almost always read him.