NFL News: Ravens say Greg Little is “trying to be a tough guy”
November 3, 2013
Cleveland Browns Week Nine: Winners and Losers
November 4, 2013
Cleveland sports fans are waiting. Thus, while we’re all waiting, the WFNY editors thought you might enjoy reading. Because you never know how long we might be waiting. So here are assorted reading goodies for you to enjoy. Send more good links for tomorrow’s edition to tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“It’s just one win, but it’s the banner win for this newest new regime, one that might or might not matter in the scheme of 2013 but could mean plenty in the big picture. These Browns have been so bad for so long — not generally by accident — and just haven’t done much of anything well with any consistency. It wasn’t just the 11-game losing streak to the Ravens but what that stood for; how the Ravens have only changed coaches and quarterbacks once in five years and that combo had been to the playoffs every year, been to the mountaintop once and beaten the Browns every time they’d played.
Every. Stinking. Time.” [Jackson/FSO]
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“While it makes to temper the enthusiasm just a bit as Ohio State tramples inferior opponents, what should be noticed is how focused this team is on a game by game basis.
Yes, Meyer talked about how he wasn’t overly pleased with the pregame prep and therefore he rattled their cages in the locker room shortly after but sometimes I think that stuff is just Urban working to keep his team on his toes. The group also committed six penalties yesterday, one of which negated a touchdown but the bottom line is the players did not overlook the competition and go through the motions.” [Lauderback/Eleven Warriors]
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“Campbell doesn’t fix everything wrong with the Browns, either, but he gives them a shot that Brandon Weeden never did. At 4-5 with a very strong defense, it’s fair to wonder what this season might have wound up being in Cleveland if they hadn’t waited so long to call his number. If they return from the bye with everything clicking, there might not even be a reason to wonder.” [Alper/PFT]
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“That all sounds pretty awful, as he was noticeably down in all three aspects of the game. It turns out Bourn was basically an average player this season, which is better than the rest of this may have made him sound, and better than many fans probably think he was. FanGraphs has him with 2.0 WAR, Baseball-Reference with 2.4. Still, while average isn’t bad, it’s a far cry from he was from 2009 to 2012, when he was worth an average of 5 wins a year.
Some believe the decline was due to changing leagues, having to learn new pitchers, new pickoff moves, and new ballparks. I can believe there’s something to that, but I can’t be convinced that explains more than a small part of his drop in production. Bourn is young enough yet (31 come Opening Day) to bounce back, but speed tends not to stick around long after 30, and Bourn’s game is built on speed, so it seems likely to me that what we saw in 2013 is what we’re going to see in 2014 as well.” [Lukehart/Let’s Go Tribe]
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“The Browns enter their bye week two games out of first place in the AFC North at 4-5 behind conference-leading Cincinnati at 6-3 and ahead of the Ravens at 3-6 and Pittsburgh at 2-6.
The Browns won a must-win game Sunday for not only this season, but for the attitude of this franchise. The kid brother grew up Sunday thanks, in large part, to his new mentor, Rob Chudzinski.” [Delco/The OBR]
16 Comments
I know it’s not yalls article (last one), but I guess when the Browns beat the ravens, they get 2 losses.
2-1 vs AFC North!
“At 4-5 with a very strong defense, it’s fair to wonder what this season might have wound up being in Cleveland if they hadn’t waited so long to call his number.”
I don’t even think it’s Campbell, so much as the question is: why did they give Weeden the start from the beginning? How could he have looked *that* much better in training camp than the two guys who look LIGHT YEARS better than him on Sunday? I know Weeden had good pre-season numbers, but come on… the difference hasn’t been hard to see; it’s been pretty freaking stark. Starting Weeden for four games is the difference between this team being 4-5 (amazingly) and possibly 7-2 (Miami, Baltimore, Detroit).
i wouldn’t complain 🙂
Weeden has a really good arm, so I don’t doubt that he looks great in practice and in lower-pressure situations like training camp.
Yeah, when he’s just reading his first two targets and letting fly against basic man coverage he’s great. He hasn’t been able to exploit a zone, though, because it takes him too long to recognize it and find the weak spots. When the defense tries to confuse him it’s generally been successful, too. What he seems to have the most trouble with is pre-snap reads. He doesn’t always recognize pass rushers and set blocking assignments properly, and he doesn’t see before the snap the most likely place to exploit the defense – hence the 5-7 seconds before he throws the ball.
That said, it seems clear Weeden has regressed rather than grown this year. I don’t know if it’s the pressure or just that this offense asks more of a QB mentally and he’s struggling with it, but despite decent arm talent and willingness to stand in the pocket and take a hit if necessary, he just can’t run it.
Chud has thus far shown every inclination to win games and protect his own position. I think the Weeden thing goes like this: some QBs just play different when they’re under real pressure, but you don’t know that until that pressure is applied. To quote Mike Tyson in his prime, “Everyone’s got a plan until you hit them in the mouth.” Weeden may be as brave a guy as there is, but only now are they sure his play does not adapt well to getting hit in the mouth. They wanted one of the best in the biz to coach him up to make sure that was so before spending very significant assets next off-season to find the real deal.
I’ll tell you what it signals. It signals none of us having any sort of productivity at work today. This is the danger of the Browns ever becoming good: An already horrendous economy, especially in Cleveland, will take a hit every Monday.
Bourn had a disappointing year for a variety of reasons, but he still looked pretty fast to me. It’s true that he should probably lose a step over the next few years, but it’s not unreasonable to think he will rebound at least partially.
Still, average to slightly above average players are expensive on the FA market – especially when you’re a Midwestern team with poor attendance and a terrible record the last few years. Everybody who groused that Bourn and Swisher were terribly overpaid and we should have been able to get somebody just as good on the cheap should take a good hard look at the 2012 stats of Johnny Damon, Brent Lilibridge, Aaron Cunningham, and Casey Kotchman, who combined for a -1.7 WAR last year. Not every discount pickup works out, and good players don’t actually grow on trees. Bourn’s WAR was good for 6th on the team, behind only Swisher and young talent who would certainly cost more if they were free agents right now. He certainly ranked higher than less expensive pickups like Raburn, Aviles, and Stubbs. Sure we got stupid lucky on Gomes, but you can’t count on that happening every year. (though it appears the new moneyball is to only trade with Toronto)
I really wish we as a fan base wouldn’t feel the need to do this any/every time we manage to get a win we may not have been expecting. Beating Baltimore yesterday, while exciting and satisfying, does not and should not have to suddenly be imbued with some larger meaning. It was a win we really wanted, and it felt damn good. Perhaps years from now it will, looking back, have been something more meaningful. But let’s allow this franchise to actually prove something by getting better over the rest of the season and not rush to judgement, lest we end up even more crushed than usual by them failing to show up in Cincy–something that would not exactly be out of the ordinary for this team after a seemingly “franchise-altering” win. Take the win and enjoy it for what it is–one win in a 16-game season.
well, the Cavs are playing the Twolves tonight. would love to give that team it’s first loss. really need Kyrie to start being Kyrie again, Bennett needs to score a bucket to break the lid, Andy needs to keep being Andy, TT needs to keep rocking the right, and hopefully Bynum sees some floor time so we know that Saturday was just a day of rest.
larger meaning is giving us a legit chance to go over .500 in the division. how many times since ’99 has that happened?
Well, never, of course. But they’ve managed .500, and each time they have it’s led to talk of “they’ve finally arrived” and “this is it this time”, and they’ve fallen back almost immediately. I just think it would be better for the collective fan psyche to enjoy the now and not always insist on projecting more meaning onto wins than warranted, that’s all. And if this ultimately is a step to a regularly competitive and competent franchise, then we can look back and remember all of this fondly. At least that’s going to be my approach with this team, because the let downs have gotten tiresome. To each his own.
hey, that is fair and likely wise. I just really want to burst that bubble to 4 division wins in the same season (man, that is sad) and am willing to hope and project 2-1 can lead to 4-2. It’s hope!
especially after watching Pitt the last 2 weeks. Rewind has been worth it just to get to watch them self-destruct.
Yeah, the bar here is…well, it’s barely off the ground. But yes, 4-2 would be sweet, made sweeter by beating the burgh twice. Most of my NFL viewing has been of the Red Zone variety, and the fact that seeing the steelers there generally means they are about to be scored on has been glorious.
it took great efforts (and benching Weeden – TWICE) to get that bar off the ground.