Watch: Gary Barnidge making another amazing catch
October 25, 2015Johnny Manziel has not spoken to NFL, will cooperate fully with investigation
October 25, 2015You can get upset about Sunday’s Cleveland Browns’ loss to the St. Louis Rams if you want, but you should have seen this one coming. It’s one of those weeks where everything we saw on the scouting report came true. The Browns’ offense was sure to struggle against the Rams defense. They did. Todd Gurley would surely have opportunities for big plays against a Browns defense that is notorious for allowing big plays. He did. Josh McCown would likely hold onto the ball too long as he believes in his arm and elusiveness to the point of his own detriment. Checkmate. The only way the Browns might have been able to win on Sunday is if they canceled the game for a kicking competition between Travis Coons and Greg Zuerlein, who missed twice. Unfortunately for Mike Pettine and the Browns, they had to play a real NFL game instead. That real NFL game was won pretty handily by the Rams, 24 – 6.
The Browns offensive line had an especially bad day as it felt like every time you saw yellow flag indicator Josh McCown and his chums were walking backwards. Joe Thomas heard his name called a couple times with a false start and a hold. I stopped counting when the Browns had racked up nine penalties for 83 yards with the entire fourth quarter to go. Rams fans could have legitimately been irritated as well with the multitudes of offsides penalties the their team piled up, but the Browns made sure they did everything they could to win the category.
The turnovers were obviously an issue as well. McCown got lucky that wide receiver Travis Benjamin played defense on what should have been an easy interception in the first half, but other than that, the Browns were all too happy to give the ball away. Four lost fumbles, starting with Josh McCown who succumbed to the allure of holding the ball just too long against a blitzing Rams defense twice. Then two receivers â Benjamin and Taylor Gabriel â put the ball on the ground after making catches. Gabriel’s fumble occurred early in the game and really put the Browns behind quickly as the Rams went up 7-0 with just three minutes gone in the still-young game.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but the big play was an issue for the Browns. The sparse Rams crowd was chanting “GURLEY” throughout the game. He had a long run of 48 yards, a 16-yard TD run, and a catch of 24 yards as well. Kenny Britt had a 41-yard catch. Tavon Austin had a 21-yard catch and a 20-yard run. The Browns defense was able to catch Nick Foles holding the ball a bit too much on occasion and sacked him a couple times, but when you can occasionally rip off huge gains, you’ll take some negative plays like sacks on your QB.
It was pretty easy to see this one coming. The Rams were coming off a bye week with a pretty ferocious defense. The Browns defense played pretty well against Denver, but still managed to come out of that big game with an “L.” The Rams offense hasn’t been great this year, but they have some weapons like Gurley that are starting to come into their own and they had to be drooling at the prospect of gaining yards in chunks against the Browns.
And of course, we couldn’t just finish an ugly game without Josh McCown going down injured to give way to Johnny Manziel. McCown was just generally beat up, but on his last fumble, he was hit on his right arm which he let hang by his side like a string of sausages as he walked to the locker room. There were about three minutes left when that happened, so it wasn’t a big deal other than it gave the announcers a chance to use all their Manziel talking points at the end of the game.
Life’s about to get really bad and we just might be talking about the NFL draft soon. The Browns are 2-5 in the standings as they head to a meat grinder beginning to November having to play the first-place Arizona Cardinals who play the 1-5 Baltimore Ravens on Monday night. After that game on Sunday, the Browns have a super short week before playing the Bengals on Thursday night. Two NFL games in five days isn’t a good thing for anyone, and probably worse for the team with less talent on the field. That’s who the Browns are right now in pretty much any matchup. The November 22 bye can’t get here soon enough for this team. Although I’m not sure what I expect them to do other than rest.
If you didn’t know by now, 2015 is going to be a long year for the Browns.
Watch out for that wall.
88 Comments
No that would be Football Nazi-ism.
You know many quality, experienced HCs who will willingly come to this flaming dumpster of a franchise? Not going to happen. Unproven coordinators seeking their big break, college guys desperate for any shot at the next level, and failed retreads are all we have to choose from. Best of luck.
Best case? Maybe Pagano (who has been submarined by a pitiful GM) wants a project. And as poorly as he’s handled his stud QB this season, I’m not sure he’d do much of anything here.
Pre-game said he was in? Did they just not rotate him in?
The fact that Barnidge is all of a sudden a monster is because 1) McCown is pretty good and 2) Barnidge is taller than 5’4” and weighs more than 165. It is impossible to throw to the midget receivers we have. At least we signed Dwayne Bowe, though…
Tackling was sooooo bad.
I’d like David Shaw from Stanford. But yea, doubt he’d want any part of this cauldron of nothingness
You raise a great point. With Bowe inactive and Hartline working on his disappearing act, the average receiver on this team is definitely under 6 feet and about 180 lbs or less. The wrong evaluation on Bowe combined with the undersized options that remain should be enough to earn Farmer some serious scrutiny.
Not having at least one big receiver is like not finding a half decent punter. There’s too much football talent in the world to tell me you couldn’t find just one.
So glad someone else notices that Haden and Thomas are just not getting it done anymore.
Yep. I would love to see McCown with Gordon. He knows how to throw to the big targets.
Top college players, winning teams, awards…blah blah blah.
That philosophy is no better than scouting the right player for your organization.
Where did Jerry Rice come from? It’s all pretty evenly divided out there.
Secondly, development takes time. If you want to throw out players within 2 years of drafting them, then you have a revolving door of immature talent n the team.
Go back and read I clearly said unless you can draft players like that I didn’t say draft players like that it’s called comprehension!
If you think the Cleveland Browns can draft anyone remotely close to a Jerry Rice then you clearly are a delusional Browns fan and have your head buried under the sand. Ray Farmer doesn’t even like to draft WRs so clear that hurdle first.
Yea there was a pic on Twitter before the game.
The thing I’d like to know is where are those veterans who went to management this offseason to ask that there be no changes made to the coaching staff because the way the veterans have played I don’t see them doing their coaches much service.
You suggest that drafting college players with a pedigree
will help the situation. Really? Thanks for the insight Einsteino!!
I am saying it does not matter where they come from as long
as it fits what you are trying to do as a team.
Mentioning Jerry Rice backs up my point that a great player
does not have to come with a pedigree or from a great school. When you understand drafting pro football
players you will be allowed to comment on the subject. Capiche?
Let’s take a look at all that has transpired in the past few years in the Cleveland Browns organization…
1.) The Browns have had 4 1st round draft picks in the past 2 years. 3 of them don’t start, and one has been an absolute non factor thus far.
2.) Dwayne Bowe was paid $9 million dollars and has yet to play a down since being signed. Manziel is nothing but an enormous distraction on and off the field.
3.) The front office REFUSES to draft a wide receiver, claiming that the current sub-six foot receivers we have now “haven’t let us down yet.”
4.) Andy Moeller parted ways back in September after a domestic abuse.
5.) Farmer has a power struggle with Pettine and Haslam, sending text messages to the head coach about who he thinks should start.
6.) Haslam drafted Manziel to sell jerseys and merchandise, disregarding the absolute lack of NFL talent and maturity he has. He is a crook, just like when he was ripping off his Flying J customers.
7.) The team passed on Watkins, Bridgewater, Mack, Carr, Cooper, and a myriad of others in exchange for Gilbert, Manziel, Shelton, and Erving
8.) Not to mention, the team has had 20+ starting quarterbacks sine 1999, and 3 different head coaches in the past 2 years.
And we all wonder why they lose on Sunday, the occasional Thursday, and the rare Monday night games
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/fgks.gif
Peyton Manning?
I agree mostly, but not at looking back at who was “passed over” at the draft. 30 other teams passed on those players, too. You’ll find heartbreaking passes every year if you want to, but not everyone can get Peterson or Luck or Julio Jones…oh wait.
Seriously though, you have to look at the talent you have and judge from there, not who you didn’t get.
I like McCown – seems like a good dude but at this point (2-5) playing McCown any longer is a waste of time. It is well past time to tell Johnny “good times” Football to get out there and prove he’s got it or he can just go away like the rest and we will try again.
I hope our OC stays, but our DC, GM and HC need fired. I wish we could fire Haslam too. Our defense can’t tackle to save their lives, seriously, if their life depended on it, they’d all be dead.
Our running game sucks, our receivers are too small. Farmer should be canned now for the Bowe debacle. Put that KC cast off on the field and tell him to earn his money or release him, he is just sucking up a roster spot for no reason. He hit the lottery…ok fine. Play him or cut him loose.
And 1 question, why on earth does Marlon Moore not play at receiver? I know he was primarily a special teams guy in Miami and has been here too but he is listed as a receiver, I have never understood why he is rarely in at receiver. Do we really know what he can do? Can the guy not catch the ball?
Anti-shurm-itism
Cavs.
Tomorrow.
http://i.imgur.com/5jKGMTV.gif
Why would Peyton come here? You don’t think are about 30 other teams (Pats don’t want him) that would snap him up as a GM in a second?
Jimmy Haslem, Tennesee connection…oh wait hahaha
If he hits the guys in stride we would be ok. A good QB would get it to the guy when he is open, not throwing behind him or throwing too late. Big WR are great if you have them, but if not, you have to hit the guys when they are open. Hit the small windows.
Exactly.
Haslam: Hey, you played for that school I gave a lot of money to! Want to come to a dysfunctional perennial loser team with 0 talent and… fix it I guess? I should point out we cannot attract or retain free agents or coaches and we are in the toughest division in the AFC.
Manning: That sounds really cool and all but I think I will go work for the Colts collect a few more rings and then retire from football completely on an upswing.
he has 20 catches in 5 years. Has to be a reason for it.
hi JM … i think thomas is still playing at a high level. and he hasn’t missed a single snap in his career … he just goes about his job. he shut-down von miller last week & that’s no easy task … yes, he is now heading toward the downside of his career.
i don’t know , man … recent 1st round picks : 2011 p.taylor – 2012 richardson & weeden (holmgren) – 2013 mingo (banner & lombardi) – 2014 gilbert & manziel (farmer) … everyone has had their hands on this thing. pettine would probably have a better team to work with if we weren’t continually whiffing on 1st round picks … heck , even savage & heckert did the same thing.
hi TRS … banner & lombardi hired pettine. nobody wanted to come here after listening to these 2 knuckleheads … but , do they dare let farmer hire the next guy ??
i still hope we go against the grain & keep both farmer & pettine … give ’em at least one more draft & one more season.
hi SCRIPTY … it makes me wonder if they even work on tackling at all ?? do our coaches just assume they should know how when they get to this level ?
‘zup tb2…there probably isn’t a past successful head coach alive who would want to come to Cleveland to coach this team and that’s the problem. I was really hoping Sean Payton and the Saints would fall out of love and if he became available I’d be all over him like white on rice. I’d let him bring in his own front office people and the like. He turned around the Saints, well, lets see if he could do it again. Unfortunately it appears New Orleans isn’t as bad as I thought which means forget about my fantasy.
As for waiting another season I guess that’s no worse then firing all of them and starting over especially when you’ll still have the same owner.
I keep hearing Peyton’s name floated around by everyone but honestly how does a recently former quarterback with no NFL operations experience just starting his role attract the best head coach?
I mean I guess it can’t hurt but I don’t think it helps as much as people would think.
I really hope we aren’t setting ourselves up for another let down. I just can’t shake the feeling of OIC and I blame all ya’ll as well as having lived in Cleveland for to long. I need to get back to the East coast I think.
Wait wait wait wait wait….you’re suggesting that the reason Barnidge is producing is because he has good hands and Quarterbacks prefer to throw to someone they can actually see?
Does Farmer know this? đ
That’s fair, that was meant to be more directed at Haden.
well , since 1999 nobody has been given more than 2 years … they should try it , just once.
The problem is I’m not liking what I see or hear on and off the field. I see absolutely little to no improvement almost everywhere and then add in things with certain players plus a head coach who I think looks like he’s about done. Oh and a GM who has disappeared for the most part despite not being on suspension. Oh and an owner who is doing his Randy Lerner impersonation as well. I’m not advocating to see or hear from Jimmy Haslam it would just be nice to know he’s alive and interested. I don’t want him to start poking his nose in day to day operations other then to possibly take roll call.
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