Indians 9, Mariners 1: A Tail of Two Games
August 16, 2010What LeBron Can Teach Us About Eric Mangini
August 16, 2010How about that first drive on Saturday? The Browns, led by Jake Delhomme just marched right down the field. Two 17 yard passes to open the series- the first to Moore and the second to Massaquoi. After a decent Harrison run Delhomme found Evan Moore again for another first down. Four plays and three first downs? To start a game?
The drive suffered it’s only hiccup as Hillis ran for 2 yards, followed by Delhomme’s only incompletion. On third and 8 Delhomme found Massaquoi again, but he failed to get the first down setting up a fourth and short. Mangini elects to keep the offense out there, but instead of having Delhomme try to push forward for the first down, he let’s it rip and Jake finds Massaquoi again with a 12 yard strike. Three plays later the Browns were in the end zone. Going for it on fourth down was a good call. Letting Jake throw downfield was a better call. But this isn’t why I am congratulating Mangini this morning.
When Rubin knocked the ball out of Grant’s hands, I was obviously elated. Browns ball again? Yes please. And then Senneca Wallace came trotting onto the field. What?! I was dumbfounded. Delhomme just completed 6 of 7 passes for 66 yards and engineered a length of the field touchdown. We were told that Delhomme and Wallace would each get around a quarter, not just a drive. Why in the world would you ruin the momentum the Browns had just created to go to a cold QB with the ball on Green Bay’s 21?
As it turned out, Wallace would find Robiskie in the corner of the end zone after the two failed to connect on first and second down. The Browns jumped out to an early 14-0 advantage. But here’s the thing- even if Wallace had failed to connect on that touchdown, pulling Delhomme was the smart move. And it has nothing to do really with protecting him from injury.
I congratulate Eric Mangini for pulling Delhomme at the right time. Could Jake have punched the ball in the end zone from the Packer’s 21? Of course. The offense also could have short-circuited. Worse yet would have been a pick. Regardless of what could have happened the offense had to be full of confidence in Jake and itself after marching right down the field and scoring so efficiently. And of course all of this happened without Josh Cribbs touching the ball. The Pack brought pressure a few times and Jake made the right reads and throws. He targeted Moore twice, Robiskie twice (including his only incompletion) and Massaquoi three times.
Does this mean I’m changing my tune on Delhomme? Not exactly. It was a nice drive. Mangini did well do make sure Jake ended the night on a positive note. There will be ups and downs with Jake. Saturday was a good day.
5 Comments
I think we all need to congratulate the equipment manager for bringing back out the white pants.
That’s the entire reason we won the game. White pants = win.
I’m still not happy with his retaining Daboll as OC.
I’m starting to see that Daboll may have been severely inhibited by his QBs last season. Here’s hoping to see a LOT more of what we saw in Green Bay as the season progresses!
this post is going to get the back-handed compliment of the week award for sure.
alternate title:
‘congratulating Mangini for not allowing Jake to self-combust’
mgbode- you may just be right about that.