Cleveland Browns Game 11: Winners and Losers
November 26, 2012“It” Doesn’t Have to be Pretty
November 26, 2012
There were no mixed feelings about the result, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a whole host of things to talk about as the Browns beat the Steelers this Sunday. Scott and Craig opened the mics on Sunday night to break it all down.
- Was Pat Shurmur confident on Sunday and how did it come across on TV?
- Was Trent Richardson over-used and effective enough?
- Pat Shurmur’s victory speech and CBS studio talking heads’ response
- Browns rookies are perfect against the Steelers
- Should Pat Shurmur have let Colt McCoy throw even a single pass?
- Jimmy Haslam and the white flag promotional cancellation
- Jimmy Haslam and Mike Holmgren’s early exit
- Browns questions from Twitter
- The NFL draft
- What is the fate of Dick Jauron if Shurmur goes?
- Is Trent Richardson healthy?
- Is Weeden “the answer?”
Listen at Stitcher
—————-
Subscribe on iTunes
7 Comments
Scott, I’m a little surprised that you can’t at all understand how Browns fans would be at least a bit disappointed with the way we won that game. We were possibly one blown call by the referees (the T-Rich fumble that wasn’t called right) away from losing a game where we were +7 in the turnover margin. If you had told me that before the game, I wouldn’t have even been able to fathom how that could happen.
But it worked. Why hypothesize the alternative when you have reality at your disposal?
Sure, they should have won by 14, but they won. When it was obvious that Pittsburgh was overmatched on offense, Shurmur was wise to let his strengths take over — field management and defense with a dash of run game. I can see the benefit of analysis, but and negative criticism is simply for criricism’s sake.
I guess I just don’t see it that way. I think about it like this… if Tristan Thompson takes a long 3-point shot with 20 seconds left on the shot clock with a defender in his face and he banks it in, is that a good shot? I think Byron Scott would still let TT know “that’s not your shot” and he’d be critical about it. Personally, and this is where I think you would beg to differ, I see Shurmur trying to run down the clock with 8.5 minutes left against the #4 run defense as the same thing. I saw it as winning in spite of bad decision-making. Make no mistake, I am plenty happen to win, but I do think I can be critical of Shurmur for the way he won while praising the players for the way they fought hard and snatched the ball out of the Steelers’ hands time and time again. Very proud of our boys in Brown.
All fair points, but as I said in a comment on my column from today, you play who you play. I don’t see the Steelers or Ravens not counting all of their respective wins against Derek Anderson, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Frye, Ken Dorsey and Seneca Wallace — also not starting quarterbacks. You just have to hope that a game against a stronger opponent would have been called differently. While it wasn’t pretty, hypotheticals are just that. If TT hits that shot and it’s a game-winner (a la Andy a few seasons ago), it’s completely situational. If Shurmur feels he can stall and still win the game, it’s completely situational.
Sorry, Scott, but Pat is absolutely right.
The fact that I got the turkey carved doesn’t mitigate the fact that it looked like road-kill when I was done.
Word. I can understand that mentality… just don’t have it. Regardless of the opponent, my thinking is that the NFL’s rules are set up to favor the offense over the defense and what Shurmur did is never a good idea with 9 minutes left in the game whether it’s Charlie Batch or Tom Brady at QB.
Pat, you are right. When our defense gets 8 turnovers and we barely win, there’s a serious problem on offense.
Here’s a comment from an excellent SI article about how games turn out with different numbers of turnovers:
“The Browns . . . . barely won a game Sunday that is virtually impossible to lose, clinging to victory in a favorable situation that a competent team would ride to a massive blowout.”
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/kerry_byrne/11/27/browns-steelers/index.html#ixzz2DZOSDCCF
We couldn’t sustain drives and converted only 18% of out 3rd downs. For example, we went 3-and-out at the end of the half and gave the ball back to Pittsburgh with a little time left. They moved the ball and scored a TD.
We could barely score with a short field. And needed the ball on the Pittsburgh 10 and 31 yard line to get our touchdowns.
The Defense played great! The Offense still nearly lost the game.