Tribe Weekend Recap: Three of Four, Thome Galore
September 26, 2011Ahtyba Rubin: Leading by Example
September 26, 2011Despite the 17-16 win over the Miami Dolphins this past Sunday, the 53 men who comprise the roster of the Cleveland Browns as well as their coaching staff will be in Berea for a quick meeting on Monday.
Under Eric Mangini’s watch, wins – all 10 of them – were followed by a player of the coach’s choice yelling “See y’all on Wednesday” to the rest of his teammates before they hit their respective showers. A “victory Monday,” as they’re called in the business are an extra day of rest provided as a reward to the winning team, allowing for additional recuperation – both mental and physical – following a hard-fought contest. But with the Browns heading into their final game before their Week 5 bye and not exactly looking as sharp as a tack on Sunday afternoon, head coach Pat Shurmur neglected the day off, telling his team postgame that he would get the “in and out” as fast as possible.
Per Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, Shurmur opted to corrall his players for a quick meeting to get a head start on the team’s upcoming contest against the Tennessee Titans; not being a familiar foe, the head coach wants to maximize the preparation. Also per King, “not a peep” was heard from the players regarding the lack of a hopeful day off.
Of the three Rust Belters [Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo] not accustomed to feeling so good on a Sunday,” King writes, “Shurmur’s idea was not only the right one, but one his players embraced. And that’s the kind of team that can grow into something.”
No word on if the team still uses their old send-off following wins this season, but the fact of the matter is that this current Browns team is largely comprised of players in their first, second or third seasons; highly-drafted players who are contributing each game. While the wins against New England and New Orleans in 2010 were exciting and allowed for considerable praise through the middle of the season, even talk of playoffs at one point, no longer is this Browns team banking on a career game from players like David Bowens or Ray Ventrone. They’re tallying wins against teams which they should have a chance to beat. As Shurmur said post-game, it doesn’t have to be pretty. Fact is, this team has looked a lot better in some contests over the last two years and have failed to come out on top.
Ten of the team’s starting 22 players on Sunday’s depth chart were selected by Tom Heckert within the past two drafts. Gutting the roster of aging veterans and replacing them with young, capable talent who refuse to give up is the quickest way to instill a winning culture within a city that has not seen one since the mid-1990s. This team may have played like “garbage” (to quote Colt McCoy) through the majority of the first 58 minutes of football on Sunday, but when it counted – during the final two minutes of play with the game on the line – they stepped up and did what was needed to come out victorious.
“Multiple reasons why that’s an important game,” said receiver Muhammad Massaquoi. “You don’t want to go into a bye with a loss, and you want to be sure you keep a good thing going. We still have work to do here.”
The current crop of Browns players know that there will be plenty of other Mondays to take off as long as they continue winning. For now, it’s about correcting mistakes and continuing to improve with a 3-1 start well within reach when the Titans visit Cleveland this coming Sunday.
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Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
17 Comments
1. A “Victory Monday” should not be automatic. It should be reserved for special circumstances.
2. With the lockout and all, the Browns need all the practice time they can get. We looked awful yesterday.
3. I’m as geeked as anybody over yesterday’s win (I just bought tickets for Sunday’s game), but let’s keep in mind that we beat two 0-3 teams and lost to a 1-2 team. So the players shouldn’t go nuts. They should spend today just enjoying what they earned — while at practice.
Why do the ads on this site slow my computer to a crawl? Nobody else’s ads do this. I keep having to “force quit” to get out of here.
Hey Scott, since you’re out at Berea all the time, beer me this: any sighting of Jordan Cameron anywhere? Any word about how he does at practice?
Understand there’s a log jam at tight end but we don’t even hear his name mentioned. Seems almost like every draft pick is getting some PT at his own position but him.
I’m all for them working today as well seeing as they looked terrible for 58 minutes on offense.
Getting to 3-1 is huge not just for itself and for the confidence gained, but the placement of the bye week is great for the team, too: Right before a cross-country trip to play a good team in Oakland. If they can use the extra week to be prepared and beat such a team, that would be amazing going into a few lighter teams that come up immediately afterward.
I hope that the meeting was called solely to berate Ray Ventrone in front of the entire team. That punt that Miami downed near our own goaline was nearly the end of the game for us. When the ball was bouncing around, waiting for them to down it, why in the world did that moron come flying in and try to recover it? I’ve never been so mad watching the Browns as I was right then.
@ Clown Baby:
THAT’s the maddest you’ve ever been watching the Browns??
Please send me some of whatever anger-control medication you stopped taking yesterday morning!
@ 7 – I can’t explain it. I’ve been able to shrug off a lot of other ridiculous things the Browns have done, but that was the nearly the brain farts of all brain farts. I think because I was frustrated all day and to nearly blow it like that….man it wasn’t pretty.
@Harv Cameron was inactive yesterday. Don’t take his absence as a sign that this team doesn’t believe in him. The fact is that he showed a whole lot of flashes early in training camp before he started to deal with some nagging injuries. Ultimately his “ceiling” is still really high, but he is certainly a project that is pretty far from being ready to contribute on Sundays. Although injury can pretty well help anyone find the field. Just ask Armond Smith, right?
As for us providing you coverage from Berea, we were shut out as soon as training camp ended and the regular practices began. We’ll try to give you the best coverage we can, but we won’t be able to give it to you first-hand as we would like to do.
Thanks, Craig. Made wrong assumption about WFNY access to the team after Scott or someone reported about Peyton’s bad body language in Berea when contract talks stalled. Maybe you guys get in the locker room but not on practice field. Never understood how that worked.
I agree with Ezzie. The bye week after this one makes it much more important to get the win, go 3-1 into the bye and come out firing.
I hope Shurmur told them they could have their ‘victory Monday’ as an extra off-day during the bye. No reason to pull back now.
Harv – that was reported via the video of his post-practice interview. Unfortunately, the Browns have a line of delineation right now with regard to preseason versus regular season access. For now, we can only cultivate relationships with those who have access or we are forced to curate and go from there. Hopefully, next season will be different.
I LOVE that they are going back to work today. I feel like Off-Day Mondays should only be reserved for decisive wins. Yesterdays game if anything, showed that they have the ability to win but, have a ton of work if they want to do it consistently.
I hate everything about Miami. My god, they can’t even take a loss without cheap shots at Cleveland.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/26/2425100/even-cleveland-browns-able-to.html#disqus_thread
Love Shurmur’s stance, the players’ response. They still have a lot of work to do..
@14 – That was a joke of an article. Instead of criticizing the local team, he decided to pile on the team who just WON the game. That article seemed like a high school newspaper.
@ Clown & Garry –
I almost shot out of my house like a rocket on Sunday when they threw the flag on for excessive celebration on the winning touchdown. At first, I was pissed at the players for their selfish act, but when I saw the replay I was pissed at the NFL for the most ridiculous call of excessive celebration Ive ever seen. That too, was one of the maddest Ive ever been watching a Browns game.