Report: Manny Acta to Become Indians Manager (Updated)
October 25, 2009While We’re Waiting… Browns Lose Again, Sabathia ALCS MVP, Tribe Names New Skipper
October 26, 2009No excuses this week for the Browns. The team had injuries to D’Qwell Jackson. They had an infestation of the flu bug. Still, the way they lost this game against the Packers 31-3 is beyond excuses. This team was just completely awful in every phase of the game. As a result, every single member of the Browns team must take a piece of this blame this week. Without further ado, the bullet points. As always, keep in mind that these are not meant to be comprehensive. I am sure I will miss a great many things. Help me out in the comments.
- Even with the loss to the Steelers last week, I thought there were phases of the game that could be used as signs of progress. Not so this week against the Packers AT HOME.
- The Browns need to use their homefield advantage for something. As of right now, considering this week’s performance, I don’t think we can even call Cleveland Browns’ Stadium an advantage.
- Speaking of which, I was hoping for a decent showing today so there might be a chance that games aren’t blacked out this year. After seeing today’s showing, I am guessing there is no such luck. Start scouring your remote internet links for the blackout weeks people.
- Derek Anderson was horrendous. After going 5-5 to start the game (I think) he then found a way to end up 12-29 with a dismal 36.4 QB rating.
- The Brady chants were heard loud and clear over the television today. I am sure Mangini has some kind of reason in his mind for not going back to Quinn. Some of you confused my financial analysis last week as justification. I am trying to figure things out just like the rest of you. I am sure there is some reason in Mangini’s mind that he can’t go back to Quinn. At this point, I have no idea what that might be. Could he be that bad in practice?
- DA’s numbers were bad, but the visual evidence was equally awful. He was off target a lot. His long throws were long, but didn’t end up in the arms of Mohamed Massoquai.
- DA targeted Brian Robiskie 5 times for zero completions. One of the interceptions seemed like either the wrong route or the completely wrong read to Robiskie. That being said, even if it was the wrong route by Robiskie, DA threw it almost a full second or so after Robiskie made his break in the other direction. It was completely disjointed, and DA should have been able to eat the ball if the route was wrong.
- This week as a team the Browns had only 58 yards rushing, so you can’t use the excuse that DA’s big arm set up the running game. You could have argued that in previous weeks.
- At times I have smashed the coaching staff, and at times I have defended them for being creative and trying new things. This week they were awful across the board.
- The Browns were without D’Qwell Jackson, but as we know that shouldn’t be an excuse not to put pressure on the QB. Rodgers had been sacked 25 times coming into the game. Leaving the game today, Rodgers has been sacked… (wait for it) 25 times.
- I have defended Rob Ryan a lot so far this season. He has been fiery and has dialed up pressure on numerous occasions. How is it that his defense doesn’t record a single sack against a team that, coming into the game, was giving up 5 per game?
- Oh and don’t get me started on the big plays. The Browns drive me nuts when they give up long drives. They drive me even more nuts when they do it by giving up giant plays.
- Aaron Rodgers and Ryan Grant are good players. They aren’t nearly as good as the Browns made them look on Sunday.
- Brian Daboll regressed this week. I thought maybe it was rock bottom against Buffalo. I thought the playcalling improved against the Steelers with the Wildcat, etc. This week, it wasn’t as bad as Buffalo, but it was bad. “Execution” of those plays certainly contributed as well. (see Anderson, Derek)
- To follow up on that, Jerome Harrison had 3 carries and Josh Cribbs had 1 carry, if you need ’em.
I think that is enough for the bullets today. It is only going to get more negative from here. I don’t think all hope is lost, but we are learning a lot. The Browns have no playmakers on either side of the ball. In previous games, the Browns had played some reasonable team defense which forced some turnovers against the Steelers. Without putting any pressure on the quarterback, the Browns had no chance at causing a turnover today.
On the other side of the ball, the Browns don’t appear to have any good weapons. Then again, when your quarterback fails to give them the ball, step up in the pocket, or stop overthrowing them for an entire game, it is tough to tell what you have. Again, I don’t want to call this horrendous thing a QB controversy because I vote “No Confidence” in both at this point. But seriously, what joke did Brady Quinn tell about Mangini’s mother in the locker room? Is it all the financial stuff that I talked about earlier this week? Does he really look that bad in practice? Even the conspiracy theorists who thought we would have seen Brett Ratliff by now have to be dissatisfied in the QB play. Then again, we know QBs take too much credit and blame. Maybe it wouldn’t matter who was playing QB for this team. Still, it seems hard to belive, doesn’t it?
I said it on Twitter during the game, and I will say it again. I wonder what Bernie Kosar was thinking during today’s game?
35 Comments
Ronnie Brown was 0/1 passing today.
His passer rating was 3 points higher than Anderson’s.
Just sayin’
wow. that is awful.
I have no problem with the team not winning games right now; the overall organization is a mess from the top to the bottom. I’m not convinced Mangini and Kokonis and anyone else brought in is the right answer but at the same time I’m not ready to throw them under the bus yet either. They deserve a fair chance to try and turn this ship around.
And yes I know what will be said.. there’s been plenty of chances to turn it around and I agree but anyone that believed Mangini inherited an average team was really kidding themselves. There is some talent on the team but this team is very marginal at best in the overall scheme of things.
With all that said however, what I *DO* have a problem with is a team that just simply looks like they don’t even belong on a high school football team. I know Green Bay is good and we’ve played some good/great football teams this year but seriously… can we just put forth a little more effort? It really just looks at times (more often than not unfortunately) that our players just seem VERY outmatched on the field.
Again, I know we’re not even close to as good as a lot of teams but there’s got to be ways to get better play on a much more consistent basis out of these guys right? It is really baffling.
It’s hard to take your eyes off an actual trainwreck, too. The Browns scored a perfect 0.0 in all phases of the game for the first time, rounding up. Usually we can count on something positive from the special teams. When the biggest positive is making a chip shot that hits the upright, I count that as a zero…but at least it’s not a negative.
Someone I was chatting with after the game: “What do they need?”
Me: “A QB, WR, RB, TE, RT, couple LBs, more Dline, CBs, safeties”
Other person: “At least they have a decent fullback”
It’s all simply awful and it’s getting to a point where Lerner better start thinking because his business is producing a terrible, terrible product and traditionally businesses like that don’t fare too well – even with a highly devoted and brand loyal customer base.
Hey, the Cavs start the season on Tuesday. So we got that going for us, which is nice.
Even JaMarcus Russell got hooked today…..for Bruce Gradkowski.
Man, we are awful.
Brady Quinn is either re-defining awful in practices or Mangini must be looking to get fired. Anderson has regressed way beyond even how mediocre he was last year.
The real problem is the medias and the bloggers who continue to cover and discuss this organization. It just fuels the fire for these Lemming fans who follow the team. Either Lerner sells the team or this continues.. so why bother? Hit Randy where it hurts. Stop buying tickets. Stop going.
Cmon Craig, BQ isn’t playing because of practice or any such nonsense. He’s not playing because the coach has an insidious personal agenda. And let’s not hear anymore about a financial/contractual issue-would you want to support an organization that held back players that might help in order to diminish their ability to cash in on bonus dollars? If that would be the case, this is more pathetic and dirty than you know. The real issue is that this coach won’t give this player a deserved opportunity because he’s personally at odds with that player, and would rather put his fat ego in front of finding out about what’s best for the team. And you support this coach? Somebody will eventually give BQ his deserved opportunity and then we’ll all know what he can or cannot do; until then he’s being done as dirty as an individual can be. Until then, keep listening to Rob “Gut” Ryan tell you that DA is a great leader……..when the guy with the acknowledged leadership ability is tethered to a dirty chair.
Cmon Isis, why think like a rational observer when you can make ridiculous conclusions without any supporting info?
Isis… for me it isn’t about support all the time. I report facts and react to them. Mangini might be somewhat egotistical, but to think that he doesn’t have some kind of reasonable explanation for not playing Quinn in his own mind is crazy. I am not supporting Mangini or justifying anything, but I truly believe he has a reason that he believes to be true. I am not saying avoiding the 6 million dollar bonus is a good idea or not. I am saying it is a possible reason.
Frankly, I find that “reason” to be more logical than pure ego maniacal dislike for Brady Quinn.
As I type this Beanie Wells just had a bigtime running TD. I am waiting for him to become one of the bullet points for you again now.
I have yet to see how Rob Ryan’s size matters one iota with respect to his coaching ability.
I am not a fan of this team. I did not go to a game last year for the first time since I was 3 (1986) and the no team years. I cannot give them money for this product. I have had it and today was the worst game I’ve seen since the opener against Pit a few years ago where we had 5 penalties on one punt and we traded the opening day qb after week 1 (didn’t see the Bills game, thank God)…Why can’t we be like…wait for it…the Steelers? I am so pissed that I like the Browns…Cleveland fans do not deserve this…we are a freaking laughing stock outside of Oakland and Detroit, and even the Lions seem to have SOME momentum…when will the diehards finally take a stand and stop going to the games?
Hey, Jason Wright is now outscoring our entire running back and wide receiver corps!
Only one more week until the bye. Wonder if we’ll see any mixing up of the starting lineup/coaching staff then? I don’t think Mangini will be fired or anything so extreme as that, but I wonder if anything else changes? We can hope.
#13- And also watching Manningham drop his 7th open pass of the season. It’s now obvious this is a M1chigAAn thing.
Ryan Grant should be a second-string RB but Aaron Rodgers is a very, very good QB.
I’m sorry but DA is a bad, bad QB. He had some chances to complete passes but he wasn’t even close. I don’t think Brady Quinn is an answer for the Browns, either.
The Packers defenders are not very fast across the board so I didn’t understand why your coaches just didn’t try to use the speed and power of Cribbs more often.
I’ve always liked Browns fans and the Browns (including the OLD Browns). I think Browns fans have a right to question Browns’ coaching decisions in this game.
The Packers are not a great team this year. They are a good team but lack a first-string RB and a first-string OL. No way the Browns should have lost this game by this much.
The following is what drives me insane about the Browns:
I can look at the 4th place Tribe (or you can say tied for last)
– They have a good core in the OF
– I like Asdrubal a lot.
– I really like Perez in the bullpen.
– They play in the AL Central
– Carlos Santana is the best hitter I have seen at Akron since Manny (Aeros season ticket holder)
I then look at the Browns:
– I’ve got nothing.
– Except why do we always have good place kickers?
@#6 Charlie…Lerner is a bad football man but a good business man. It would be bad business to sell your product LOW. You just don’t do that. Look for Lerner to hold on to the Browns for some time to come…
Zastudil looked good!
@ ben- Good points. I would say the browns do have 2 core pieces to the OL (in Thomas and Mack). They have young WRs who hopefully will develop some this season into respectable WRs. On D they have Jackson and Wimbley who are decent pieces, and Brodney has shown growth at S. Thats not a lot, but its more then nothing.
The answer is an easy one. Boycott the team until changes are made. Stop watching/going to games until Mangini is sent packing. At this point the “coach” has shown me enough of who he is that I could not support this team even if they were winning. This, to me, is just one small step away from being as low as we were when Model took the team away: it’s similar to not even having a team at all, at least not one that I can take any satisfaction in supporting. There were times during the Davis and Crennell eras where it got bad and hope was lost, but I still sneaked peeks at the games on Sundays. I couldn’t help myself. Now, I am disgusted – with Mangini, and Lerner for the manner in which he made the hire – to the point where I will no longer support this team in their current iteration. That’s all I have to say about that.
On another subject…why in the hell are there so many Bengals fans now..at the beginning of the season I used to see one at Buffalo Wild Wings…now there are like 10..god I hate fair weather fans..
Since the season is lost I think they should play their draft picks. You spent a number one on Quinn (even though it wasn’t Mangina’s guy), why not give the guy more than 2.5 games to see what he can do? You already know what you have in Anderson and that is scary in itself. The only possible thing I can think of is that they are holding him out to trade him in the offseason and get whatever value they can. After the bye I think they will continue to bench Quinn, or even deactivate him in lieu of Ratliff. The Browns have 11 draft picks going into next year…they better hit a home run with them.
@21 – I’m not saying he should sell, he just needs to start taking his lack of success a little more seriously because if he is aiming to sell high – eventually – that’s never going to happen at this current rate.
I attended my first game of the year yesterday and it’s depressing. There’s little energy before the game and early in the 2nd half, most of the people around were clearly not even paying attention to what was happening on the field. There are definitely going to be blackouts for those non-divisional home games (and the NFL will be doing us a favor by keeping them off TV).
The Steeler home game is going to be an all-time embarassment. 40,000 yellow-towel waving idiots celebrating a 35-0 shutout in our home stadium on national TV.
i don’t even know what to say or how to respond to this team anymore. I hate almost everything about it.
also, if someone pays me, i will personally kill DA so that Mangini’s decision will be made for him.
Yesterday marked the first of my 2 yearly trips back to see the Browns in action (inaction?), and it’s even worse in person than it appears on tv each week. DA is an absolute embarrassment at QB–the 2007 version was clearly a fluke, and it ain’t coming back. I haven’t heard the stadium this against the team/QB since the Couch days, and I haven’t seen a road team dominate the stands like that EVER. I was first row west end zone and it looked like a meeting of the Packer Backers–pretty embarrassing. To their credit they were a solid group of people, and several were genuinely concerned about just how bad a team we have here. Upon hearing that I had flown from Florida to be there, one Packer fan asked “why?” Loyalty was my answer, and his reply was “I don’t know that I could ever be that loyal to anything.”
On the positive, Browns tailgating never disappoints.
It’s very hard to care about what this team is doing on the field…i was working from home yesterday w/ the game on in the background and the sound low, taking occasional peeks at the score. Saw they were down 21-3 before the end of the half and just had laugh. What else can fans do at this point? I’ve wanted Lerner to sell since around 2006. My stance has not changed.
I sure am getting a lot of stuff done around the house on Sundays now! ….and yesterday was a fantastic day for a hike in the Metroparks.
Thanks Browns, for letting me enjoy my weekends more than ever!
Anderson can’t throw on the run. Does anybody else see that? I know he’s not much good when standing still…..
Season tickets since 1980. I am selling my PSL’s at a loss just to get out from under this insanity. The best thing about yesterday’s game is that we had some Packers fans behind us who were enjoying themselves. They were apologetic when they could have been mean. Very classy. Unlike most of the typical Browns fans.
Mangini is all about Mangini and is not going to do anything somebody else tells him to do.
Lerner won’t fire Mangini this season no matter what happens.
So, we will have to endure this for at least the next year and a half?
Not me. I am done.
For those of you without tickets, enjoy the blackouts in December!