Week Three Preview: Too early to call it a must win?

 It was 1992, sometime in the month of January. In the city of Syracuse, the time passes in a strange manner during the winter months. At most, the continuously oppressive grey is sometimes a bit lighter during midday, but more often than not, enormous amounts of snow fall from the skies in an angry, vindictive manner.* The camera cuts to a shot of 9 college freshmen huddled around a TV in the common area on the 12th floor of Lawrinson Hall. Superbowl XXVI between Buffalo and Washington was moments from kicking off, and Harry Connick Jr. was just finishing the national anthem. (Great performance, not quite Whitney Houston or Marvin Gaye, but certainly better than Carl Lewis) Back onn the 12th floor of the dorm, Albert from Maryland was a bundle of nerves, Herbie was shouting about the New York Giants for some reason, and I was deeply concerned about when the wings would arrive from Sal’s Birdland. The evening turned out to be magical for Mark Rypien and the Washington Football Team and they went on to win 37-24, sending the hapless Bills to their second of 4 consecutive Super Bowl losses. True to form, I think we got 12-14 inches of snow that night. 

So why highlight a Super Bowl from 30 years ago to open this week’s post? Because that was literally the last time that the football fans in the D.C. area had anything to really be excited about. Coaching legend Joe Gibbs retired a year later, and the team began to sink into a morass of mediocrity. Then in 1999 the dumpster fire was kindled when Daniel Snyder bought the team. Misstep after misstep ensued, and Daniel Snyder continued to wreak havoc on the organization (and their fans). Ineptitude and terrible decision making is something we are familiar with in Cleveland, but Daniel Snyder fostered a culture of toxic masculinity in the organization to a criminal extent, all while refusing to acknowledge the racist nature of their name and branding. Surely the NFL will push him out much like the NBA did with Donald Sterling, and what baseball did with Marge Schott. Perhaps then the Washington Football Team can force quit themselves and begin anew.

The Browns enter tonight’s contest as a 7 point favorite, which strikes me as odd because they’ve given up 38 and 30 points the first two weeks of the season. And yes, Washington has a terrible offense, but they are also leading the league in sacks. (11) And we know that Baker historically hasn’t handled it well when playing against a team with an active pass rush. (See San Francisco last year) Former Buckeye Chase Young is playing with reckless abandon, and tonight will be a real gut-check for the offensive line. If the Browns can establish the run early, it ought to create some opportunities for the passing game as well, Washington’s secondary is average at best (although they do have 3 interceptions) and I anticipate that OBJ and Landry ought to be able to literally run away from the Washington defensive backs.

Try as I might, I cannot find anything of interest to say about the Washington offense. Quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. has played a total of 11 games in the NFL, thrown 9 touchdowns and 7 picks. Pedestrian at best is how I would characterize those numbers. He’s a far cry from the guy we saw at Ohio State in 2018 when he threw for 4800 yards and 50 touchdowns. (Who can forget the 6 TD’s against Michigan?) But he just hasn’t looked like the same guy on Sundays as he did on Saturdays. I thought he was going to be an excellent pro, and maybe he still will be, but so far it’s very “meh”, as the kids say these days. (To be fair, he hasn’t had great coaching or a good offensive line in front of him.) Looking over the rest of the Washington depth chart, there aren’t any other recognizable names for me. My 45 seconds of research indicates that they had one pro-bowl player last season, and that was their punter Tress Way. First off, that sounds like a fake name. Secondly, there are approximately 30 players that make the pro bowl somehow, so it’s quite an indictment of your roster if you don’t have a few guys make it. Point being, there’s no way this offense ought to be able to score touchdowns, and the Browns should be able to harass Haskins into a few mistakes and make it a really long night for that offensive unit.

My prediction is that the Browns will get a win tonight by way of their running game. Chubb will get a ton of work, and go for 100+ yards and at least one score, maybe two. I have a crazy feeling the Browns get a pick 6 in the game as well, or maybe a special teams score. The thing I might be looking for the most is the use of the tight ends. Stefanski is known for that throughout his career, and the Browns are paying Austin Hooper 18 million dollars this year, and so far he has four catches. This is the same guy who had 75 catches and 6 touchdowns in 13 games last season. I think Cleveland wins this game something like 27-10.

Go Browns.

*This photo really represents my impression of the 4 years I spent in Central New York. The few scant memories I have retained involve snow measured by the foot, gravy fries at Cosmo’s, and some kind of math thing called a Laplace Transform. And those wings... I have spent 25 years searching in vain for wings as good as Sal’s, especially with the sassy sauce.

A Baltimore Beat-Down, and an Intrastate Showdown

 A great many things have come to pass in the world of sports since the Browns headed to Baltimore for a week one clash with the Ravens. The Browns shook off a loss to win the first matchup in the Battle of Interstate-71 against the Bengals, the Indians lost 8 straight games, the Big Ten realized how much money they’d lose without playing college football, and of course SV Holdenstedt II defeated SG Ripdorf/Molzen II 37-0 in the 11th division of Bundesliga.

Nobody is surprised that the Browns lost to Baltimore, but the manner in which they did was demoralizing to say the least. I believe that makes 16 straight losses in week one (bettors, file that fact away for next year) and back to back years where they lost by 30 or more points in the opener. Last year it was the 18 penalties and terrible play calling, and this year it was probably more of a case where the Browns ran into the jet-fueled buzzsaw that is the Baltimore Ravens. Everything they did appeared so easy, and I think the Ravens could have scored 50 points if they had kept their foot on the gas pedal. Meanwhile the Browns didn’t help their cause with mysteriously running a fake punt deep in their own end fumbling it away.* It really looked like a scrimmage for the Ravens, everybody was wide open, there was barely any bother from the Browns defensive line, and Baker looked completely overwhelmed. One bright spot from the game was the play of TE David Njoku who caught all three of his targets for 50 yards and a touchdown. (Njoku, true to form, went straight to IR and will miss at least 3 weeks) Not so bright in week one was OBJ, who caught 3 of 10 (forced) targets and once again was not impactful on the field.** The best commentary about the loss to the Ravens was offered by head coach Kenvin Stefanski who said simply “We did a lot of things that losing teams do.” That’s succinct enough, and perhaps is quite enough analysis of yet another week one blowout. Here at 4338, we were quite eager to move onto the Thursday night clash with the Bengals.

I have offered my thoughts on Cincinnati before; their bizarre chili-spaghetti-cheese concoction, the former nickname of “Porkopolis”, and their outstanding wiener dog race. The 2019 campaign was not good for the Bengals as rookie head coach Zac Taylor guided them to a 2-14 record. However, that paid dividends in the end as the Bengals ended up with the first pick in the draft. Somehow, they passed on guys like Quintez Cephus (Wisconsin), Lloyd Cushenberry III (LSU), L’Jarius Sneed (La Tech) and Rodrigo Blankenship. They settled on Joe Burrow, Heisman winner and look alike to Jim Breuer in the movie Half-Baked. When last we saw young Mr. Burrow, he was absolutely shredding the Clemson defense for 463 yards and 5 touchdowns en route to winning the national championship. It was as easy a pick as there ever was, there is no question about his talent and the Bengals were in desperate need of a face-of-the-franchise type of guy. 

Week one was pretty forgettable for Joe Burrow, as he was 23-36 for 193 yds and one pick in a losing effort against a mediocre Chargers team that almost never wins playing in the Eastern Time Zone. However, the good citizens of Porkopolis remained stalwart in their support for the young signal caller, and a handful of them made the trip north to watch the Bengals play a primetime game against the Browns on Thursday night. To nobody’s surprise, there was a brief drunken brawl in the stands. That’s not an unusual occurrence in Cleveland, and who knows what led up to the clash, probably a lot of machismo fueled by Genesee Cream Ale. But what is odd to me is that cleveland.com reported that the average ticket price for the game was $404, and that seems like a lot of cheddar to spend just to throw blows in the stands. It’s bananas that people spent that much money on a week 2 game, not against a real rival, on a weeknight. I can think a lot more meaningful ways to put $404 into the local Cleveland economy. 

Regardless, the actual game was entertaining, and the Browns started out running the ball, and stuck to it for the duration of the game. Baker was 16/23 with two touchdowns, including one to OBJ, so maybe that will get him going a bit more. Burrow threw the ball 61 times during the game. That’s not a misprint, a rookie QB threw the ball 61 times in a game. I cannot fathom what the Bengals are trying to do, there was no semblance of an actual game plan, and it looked like Cincinnati was drawing up plays in the dirt. I almost felt bad for Joe Burrow, he is really being thrown to the wolves this season, and I hope he is still upright three months from now. All that being said, the Browns really had to hold on to win 35-30. (There are a lot of upset gamblers about that bad beat) Once again, the defense was riddled with injuries, and generally underwhelming in their performance. It’s tough to complain too much about winning a divisional game, but I really thought the Browns defense would give up 17-20 points at the most to a rookie QB playing on the road. However, the Bengals actually had the ball for seven minutes more than Cleveland, and they ran 30 more plays than the Browns did. So it wasn’t the ball control offense I thought it would be from Cleveland, although we did run the ball successfully overall, 35 carries for 215 yards. Make no mistake about it, the Bengals are a bad team and will be lucky to win six games this season, yet they were able to put up 30 points on the Cleveland defense. That’s probably not leaving a good feeling in the defensive coaching staff in Cleveland.

If there is one clear take-away from the first two weeks of the season, it's that Cleveland can really run the ball effectively. The offensive line has played well, creating loads of space and also protecting Mayfield. (Baker has only been sacked twice in two games) The Browns could easily give it to Chubb for 20 carries, make sure that Kareem Hunt has 20 total touches, and feel good about their chances to control the ball and put together long drives. That means that there are some prima donna pass-catchers that need to get their targets, but hopefully stringing together a few wins can allay selfish ambitions. 

*The Scottish Hammer (also a recovering rugby player) maybe put an end to the ridiculous idea that rugby players could be effective ball carriers in the NFL. 

**I’m still waiting for compelling evidence that OBJ is a guy that helps a team win games. He went to one playoff game in 5 years with the Giants, and had 4 catches for 28 yards in that loss. I agree that he is a freakish athlete and always has the potential to stretch the field, but the whole OBJ package might outweigh those potential contributions.

Will week one come down to The Wire?

In my extensive career as a sports journalist, I’m not sure I have ever written a season preview amidst so much turmoil in the world. Like many others, I am welcoming a brief respite from the news cycle these days (election coverage, COVID-19, climate change, the Kardashian show getting cancelled) and turning my attention to the Cleveland Browns for a couple of hours on Sunday nights. Hope springs eternal, more so in Cleveland than anywhere else when it comes to unbridled enthusiasm for an upcoming season. Here are a few things I have actually heard said aloud in Cleveland about newly acquired free agents shortly before a season begins:

• “Larry Hughes is is the missing piece for Cavs, he’s a real glue guy”

• Andre Rison is a threat to score every time he touches the ball.”

• “Keith Hernandez still has a couple of good years left in him”

• “RG III is the perfect guy to bring into Cleveland and solidify the locker room.”

So it’s no surprise that the atmosphere in Cleveland is hopeful this weekend, at least in so far as I can tell from listening to some Cleveland sports radio and reading some of the local writers. I get it, on paper there is a tremendous amount of talent on the offensive side of the ball. Chubb, Hunt, OBJ, Landry are all back and we’ve added a pro bowl tight end, Austin Hooper. Jack Conklin was signed to bolster a terrible offensive line, and hopefully keep Baker Mayfield from running around like his hair is on fire. The Case Keenum signing might be the most interesting free agent acquisition, and let’s hope we’re barely talking about him during the course of the season. Suffice it to say, that there are lots of reasons for Browns fans to be pretty excited for kickoff today. 

However, let’s take a second to consider how we went from despondent In December of 2019, to cautiously optimistic here in September of 2020. There is a very clear pattern of emotions that a Cleveland Browns fan experiences between early January and early September. After week 16 there is typically a numbing sort of sensation as we try to make sense of yet another sub .500 campaign. (2019 was punctuated for the Browns by a complete dismantling at the hands of the Bengals, who notched their second win of the season in week 16, and Baker was dismal, even by his standards; 12 completions and 3 picks.) In January, it's tough to be a Browns fan, because NFL playoffs are happening and once again, we’re left out of the party. (Very reminiscent of the grade seven Valentine’s dance at Litchfield middle school in 1986) For me, January is about coming to terms with the fact that I was tricked into thinking that the Browns could be a relevant franchise, a team that we could be proud of at the end of the season. But more often than not, January means yet another coach and a GM and this year we welcomed Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry into the organization. 

So by February, the Browns are pushed to the far corners of our minds as we try to pay attention to the Cavs, or maybe start reading baseball previews. Then in March we start to think a bit about the upcoming NFL draft and the smallest bit of optimism begins to take root. We watch Rich Eisen run the 40 yard dash at the NFL combine, an otherwise completely overblown, boring event that takes place in Indianapolis prior to the draft. Then in late April, there is a little enthusiasm as we start to think who might be available to draft tenth overall. This year we went with Jedrick Wills Jr. who played exclusively at right guard for Alabama. We promptly announced that he would be switching to left guard, maybe the most important position on the field, at least as far as Baker Mayfield is concerned. Apparently the front office in Cleveland believes that overall athleticism is more important than experience at a particular position. Jedrick certainly has that athletic ability, he’s 312 lbs with a 34 inch vertical leap and can broad jump almost 10 feet. (Side note: it’s a real shame they removed the standing long jump from the olympics, just look at how magnificently Gustaf Malmsten flies through the air in the 1912 Olympic Games. Barefoot nonetheless.) Tonight we’ll know right away if he can play, certainly the Ravens will try to get future hall of famer Calais Campbell lined up across from Wills and harass the rookie all night long. 

Anyway, the month of May is a time for Browns fans to analyze the picks, sometimes with excitement (Joe Thomas, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb) but more often confusion/anger (Barkevious Mingo, William Green, Justin Gilbert, Deshone Kizer, Jabrill Peppers, Johnny Manziel). There are also a few meaningless rookie events and maybe there is some instagram video of Baker Mayfield throwing passes in an empty high school football stadium in Texas. So despite the lack of actual football activities, sports radio in Cleveland is consumed with calls about the Browns and a season that is still four months away. (It makes me crazy that Cleveland sports fans can ignore the Indians, an almost perennial playoff team that has the most regular season wins in the American League over the past 5 years) Regardless, June and most of July pass uneventfully in the life of a Browns fan.

Then, around the end of July we usually kick off training camp in Berea to much fanfare, with loads of events for the fans and families. Clearly that was not the case this year, as OTA’s happened via Zoom, and the coaching staff is probably still figuring out everybody’s name. (To be fair, masks really make that difficult, I’m 4 weeks into a new school year, and still stumbling here and there with names) Usually, footage of the first team offense scoring TD’s on the second team defense is featured prominently on the news, and once again we find ourselves putting aside our skepticism, finally that moving on from the previous season, and fully embracing the latest iteration of the Cleveland Browns. As we approach week one, the excitement continues to build, the transgressions of the past are mostly forgiven, and we can finally see this team take the field.

Which brings us to kickoff, in about 2 hours from now. This is a weird year (obviously) and despite all the Cleveland podcasts and blogs I have been reading, I really don’t know what to make of this Browns team. We’ve got a new coach, a whole new staff, a new offensive approach, but we can’t even glean a little information from preseason games. However, I know exactly what to make of the Baltimore Ravens. They are a team that has lost three games since last season began, they’re well coached, they have a MVP quarterback, and got better on defense as well. For the Browns, tonight really is a preseason game, and for Baltimore it’s business as usual when they come out of the tunnel. It pains me to pick against the Browns, but I just have a hard time seeing how Cleveland can score more than 17 points, and with the Browns defense in shambles (particularly in the secondary) it seems like that Baltimore can almost score at will. I hate to say it, but I think Baltimore comes out on top, 34-17.*

Go Browns.

*Seeing how this is the first football post of the year, I feel compelled to pick an overall season record for the Browns. I’ve been saying all off season that last year they should’ve been 9-7, and that Freddie cost them three games single handedly. However, no preseason and an entirely new coaching staff points to 8-8 in my book, but I really hope they can get a couple of unexpected victories along the way and take advantage of the extra playoff spots this year.