Just 50 Carries in, Trent Richardson is a Leader in Cleveland
September 25, 2012Browns vs. Ravens – Reader Survey
September 26, 2012While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“With the hopes of a competitive team, potentially one approaching the .500 mark, the Browns have yet again pulled the rug out from under a fan-base believing progress would be something viewed in the 2012 season. The early issue is, the Browns are a more talented team than a season ago. Added were potential dynamics with the names of Richardson, Weeden and Gordon, the remaining problem is there are issues within the roster and/or coaching staff which leaves much to be desired on game-day.
The youth of the team is an easy scape-goat for what ails the Cleveland Browns. But, when I look at the performance of the team, I see something other than the youth being the issue holding back the team.” [Lane Adkins/The OBR]
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A must-read feature on former Indians slugger Al Rosen: “He had hung up his own glove by the time I was eight and sleeping snugly with my own. But the former All-Star third baseman had nevertheless become guardian angel of my baseball ambitions. After nine years with the Indians, Al Rosen had retired — perhaps even been gently nudged out the door — and become a full-time Cleveland stockbroker. I would glimpse him – repeatedly, with fascination and awe — in black-and-white footage, hitting the same unidentified home run over and over again.” [RD Rosen/SB Nation]
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Stay classy, Steelers fans [WFNY Facebook Page]
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The case for Greg Little: “In thirteen drives on Sunday, the Browns offense managed to cross the Bills’ 44-yard line exactly twice. On a staggering seven of these drives, they couldn’t move the ball more than 9 yards. Six of them were three-and-outs or worse, and eleven of the thirteen ended in punts (9) or interceptions (2). […] On the other side of the ball, the defense was as resilient as a wet paper towel for long stretches, including the entire first quarter, and in the fourth when it mattered the most. But Greg Little is the one we’re going to come down hard on today because he dropped one short pass in Browns territory.” [Cleveland Frowns]
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Leading up to conference play: “The Buckeyes, deficient as they looked on Saturday against their 37-point underdog visitor, are still in line to accomplish all of their goals. However, one has taken on more value over the last few weeks of nationally-ridiculed B1G bloodletting: Ohio State’s absence in the B1G title game looming menacingly over Jim Delany’s crown jewel is no longer a potential embarrassment. It’s now the conference’s only shot at salvation. It’s that simple. The Buckeyes have to steal the virtual conference title.
 Ohio State’s tentatively-scheduled but mandatory title game forfeit has been on the books since last November. Finishing atop the Leaders Division and sending a runner-up in its place didn’t suddenly emerge as Plan B for a season abbreviated by NCAA sanctions. Â
But the circumstances have changed. Simply rebounding from that 6-7 aberration has taken on less importance now that the conference has already piled up over a dozen losses. The B1G might actually be worse than you’re willing to accept.” [Ramzy/Eleven Warriors]
28 Comments
Frowns, I’m afraid that your article is very disappointing.
Nobody — and I mean NOBODY — is saying that Greg Little is THE problem. What everyone is saying — correctly — is that Little is A problem.
How can you not understand the difference?
I agree… I also think it is important to see what the percentage of the dropped passes. Dropping 2 passes when you are thrown to 5 times is a lot different then dropping 2 passes when thrown to 15 times….
When the Plain Dealer makes Greg Little’s drop its headline story on the Monday after a thorough three-phase beatdown, the Plain Dealer is in fact saying that Greg Little is THE problem, or at least the most important one, or the most “headline-worthy” one, if you want to be technical about it. That’s just bad journalism, which is the main point.
And when Shurmur fails to give an obvious answer — e.g., “we need to hold onto the ball, just like we need to do a lot of things better” — that would have prevented the paper from turning this non-story into a headline, he makes things worse on his team, even if only at the margins.
I’m sorry that I disappointed you by pointing this out.
Am I the only one who considers this season a success if we ge rid of Randy Lerner? Everything on top of that (Weeden maybe kinda sorta developing into a goo QB hopefully maybe? Keeping TRich healthy, developing the O-Line and back 7 on D) is gravy.
We were never going to the post season this year. 7-9 was a pipe dream, the best case scenario. Being 0-3 isn’t much of a surprise.
Use the rest of the year to find out what we have Mr. Haslam, and get a plan together that allows the team to maximize those pieces next year while using the off season to add to our talent pool, and most importantly, please find us a coach who knows it is better to adapt to what he has to work with instead of expecting everyone to learn “his” system,
Here’s an off the wall candidate- Brad Seely. I know many people are going to point to the big available names like Gruden and Cowher, but I doubt either of them want to leave their cushy announcing gigs. Hiring the next hot offensive or defensive coordinator rarely works, mainly because I believe they are too busy trying to prove their “genius” in their area of expertise that they often neglect the other two phases of the team.
John Harbaugh was a special teams coordinator, and although I can’t find the interview right now, I remember him once saying something to the effect that having a special teams background gave him the ability to view the offense and defense more objectively, and realize that they were equally important to his teams success, and further he has to coach the entire team on gameday, getting too caught p in one side of the ball or the other means he is not coaching he team.
Whatever…Randy is going, going, back back to Aston Villa. We are coming out ahead in January
I sort of like that he’s challenging Little. Not sure how else to get through to him, so we’ll see if this works (like the infamous Parcell’s calling Terry Glenn ‘she’ in interviews lit a fire under his butt)
And, Greg Little IS a problem. Only a marginal one and I don’t mind you pointing out that he isn’t as big of a problem as he’s made out to be (as he is not).
Hopefully, we have happier things to discuss on Friday.
A commenter pointed out that the military has a motto: “Praise in public, criticize in private.”
I’ll be shocked if the Ravens offense doesn’t go pinball on Jauron’s D. I think the best we can hope for is a decent showing by the offense and something like a 34-21 final but I’m not holding my breath for that, either.
I think you misunderstood my first part of my comment: I agree with you. 🙂 I was just curious about the other stats. I can’t stand when stats are reported to make a point but the whole picture is not given. That is like saying I went a entire game without dropping a pass (but no one threw me the ball.)
My reply was to Mr. Cleaveland. Agreed re: stats.
as long as we have top-to-bottom trust and direction moving forward, then i am good with it. if that happens with just removing Holmgren (writing on the wall), then they better truly trust everyone else. if they clean house, then just get it over with.
as far as the current staff, I think people are forgetting how bad things were last year against any half-competent team. Tenn and Oakland were destroying us. We have been ‘in’ the game more these first 3 weeks. We need to figure out a way to finish and not panic at the end (as Weeden seemed to do — common rookie QB trying to put the superman cape on and throwing INTs instead)
i agree with that motto, but when it doesn’t work, i also understand why trying the current method. some players need the motivation.
i agree everything is against us this week. short week favors veteran teams that don’t need as much prep-time, their offense is setup to kill the biggest weaknesses on our D (and there are many right now), and our OL hasn’t seen a team that plays like Baltimore yet (even 4 man rushes being disguised).
it’s all hope and prayers to even think we’ll be competitive, but i’ll at least try to cling to those for now.
That OBR piece expressed my feelings exactly.
The comments at the end also gave me a chuckle.
Bill Cowher OMG!!!
Yes on Lerner but no on the rest especially Seely. The last thing this team needs is another first time head coach haven’t there been enough of these disasters the last 13 years?
Butch and Mangini were not 1st time HCs. Yes, Butch was “only” a college HC, but so was Jim Harbaugh.
We haven’t had success no matter which way we have tried. Pitt doesn’t seem to mind having a 1st time HC, nor does GB, SF, Baltimore, Houston (took awhile there though).
Did I say all of the past head coaches were first timers? But I should have used the word “professional” before head coach because I know how alot of you like to live in the grey zone. Not the red zone or end zone but the grey zone!
eh, you said the last thing we need is another 1st time HC. my point remains that if you hire the “correct” 1st time HC, it works. if you hire the wrong guy, then it doesn’t matter where he came from.
I hear ya, and I’e been there for a very long time myself. The only thing that makes me think Haslam is going to go “out of the box” is that he was just involved in the Steeler organization, and he saw he hiring process of Mike Tomlin, who, if I remember correctly, was completely off most everyone else’s radar when he go the job. Also, he Ravens did the same type of “outside the box” thinking when they hired Harbaugh.
I’m not saying that’s necessarily he best idea. If it were up to me we’d run Bill Parcells through the flux capacitor, take him back about 15 birthdays and not have to worry about it. I like the idea of having a guy that has done it before. I just think Haslam and Banner may not necessarily feel that way, and if they do not, then I hope Seeley gets a look
Is Dick Jauron really a better HC candidate because of his failures in Buffalo and Chicago? What’s Jim Fassel up to? Tomlin and Harbaugh have worked out ok, they weren’t head coaches.
I think the main reason for the problems over the years was the process was flawed from the top down. Like any other system, the rule is “Garbage in, garbage out”. Yes, inexperienced head coaches and failure have become synonymous with one another in Cleveland since 1999. As a result, I used to think exactly like you. Now I realize perhaps it was the process with which decisions were made in Berea that was flawed. Some experienced coaches are bad, some inexperienced coaches can be awesome. There is no hard and fast rule. That’s why it is imperative those making the decisions have a well constructed plan that they follow without worrying about ghosts of failures past.
LoL my comment gets downgraded and ‘bodes upgrade really, seriously people? Seems to me what he posted was kind of rhetorical but hey keep hiring the first time head coaches maybe one day you’ll find gold.
The little thing you seem to overlook is the stability and success that Baltimore and especially Pittsburgh enjoyed prior to the respective hirings of both Tomlin and Harbaugh. Both franchises had won Super Bowls the football team in this city can’t even win a playoff game.
that’s what I was trying to say (in my typically verbose manner)
Like flipping a coin, past results have little to no bearing on future results. My contention is that the likely case for poor hiring decisions in the past was more to do with the guy at the top making those decisions, and therefore we should not automatically be scared off of otherwise qualified candidates because they do no fulfill an arbitrary requirement that only serves to limit the pool of qualified applicants based upon the flawed decisions of the deposed former decision makers.
That sounds to me like allowing Randy Lerner’s poor decision making record affect us even after he is no longer the teams owner. No, thank you.
I don’t down vote anyone, but I think you may have an admirer who down votes any and everything you post. Which is a compliment, really. Isn’t it ironic? Like rain on your wedding day or something
I never vote on your comments, but decided to vote this one down. For complaining. There’s no crying.
That’s it Owen your on my list!!!
I would be nothing without my fans!
*you’re
C’mon man! We’ve been over this! Get it together, man. Get. It. Together.
Stop, please. That song is like nails on a chalkboard. Not one ironic thing mentioned in the whole song. Not one.
I couldn’t disagree more with your first statement. As to the rest I think it’s far to easy to pin everything on the soon to be former owner but completely agree that his departure should be a positive. The reason I say it’s far to easy to pin everything on him is because this excuses what Holmgren and Heckert have accomplished the last three years. Lerner in effect gave them the keys and honestly I would think he would be the kind of owner these guys would love. He’s completely MIA, doesn’t speak to the media and just signs checks. Clearly Haslam will not be that kind of owner. Unfortunately for all of us we’ll have no choice but to continue to go along for the ride and hope this time is different. As long as this time is different I’d prefer to see someone with experience hired as the new head coach and quite possibly a new GM.
Did you think that was an accident? Bwahahahaha u stepped right into my trap!
#FEEDMEMORE!!!