Wednesday, December 22, 2021

The Dream's in the Ditch*

Wow. That was tough. Like dropping a huge can of beans on your toe kind of tough. Like two hours after gas station sushi kind of tough. Like a medieval blacksmith kind of tough. Everything in the world had lined up against the Browns this week; a couple of dozen players on the COVID list, no head coach, and some bad-luck injuries. But plucky Nick Mullens gave his all and put this team in a position to win this game, only to have the defense in the last 60 seconds of the game play softer than 800 thread count Egyptian cotton bed sheets. (Side note: I’ve been to Egypt and I don’t recall anything special about the sheets. However, crystallized in my memory are the after effects of drinking the water in Egypt.) Anyway, you can take your pick at the actual point the game was lost. It might have been running Chubb three straight times and not accumulating 10 yards late in the game, Zay Jones’ easy 15 yard catch putting them in field goal range, or maybe the Browns going three and out five times in the game. At the end of the day, the Browns only managed to put up 14 points, and that’s rarely enough offense to win a game. And certainly that futility is not unique to this game, it’s been the theme of the season for the Cleveland Browns.

While it’s probably true that with our starters and coach we would have won this game, I by no means would have assumed we would beat the Raiders. Derek Carr is a far better quarterback than anybody Cleveland has had since Bernie Kosar (not hyperbole), the Raiders have a great pass rush, and the Browns are offensively anemic. I’m sure the Browns would have been favored by a touchdown, but how could anybody in their right mind have confidence in the Browns looking at the last 6 weeks? My point is, this loss probably knocked Cleveland out of the playoffs, but really the Browns didn’t beat a good team all season. (Maybe the Bengals could count as a “good win”.) You can point to a lot of moments, decisions, and mistakes that all made that playoff window this season a little more narrow. Coming off a season that produced 11 regular season wins and a playoff win against a rival, this season is an abject failure, and that sentiment could be seen on the players faces after the game. And that failure harkens from a series of missteps along the way in 2021.

There will be plenty of opportunities to assemble a long list of things to fix before September of 2022. (quarterback, receivers, play-calling, a new peanut vendor in section 236, etc.) But for now, the Browns are on a super-short week as they get ready to play the Packers, in Green Bay, on Christmas Day. That would be a tough assignment if you knew which players are available, but the COVID list is still in flux for the Browns, so the coaching staff are planning in the dark, so to speak. Frankly, there aren’t a lot of options to shake things up when you’ve got 4 days to prepare, let alone prepare for the best team in the NFC with all-world quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Once again, the Browns will have to lean on their shorthanded defense, and try to keep it close into the fourth quarter. Stop back later in the week for a more detailed preview of the Christmas day clash as well as my thoughts on all things Wisconsin including bratwursts, The Bodeans, and ice fishing.

Go Browns.

*Thanks the band Deer Tick for providing the current soundtrack for the Cleveland Browns

Sunday, December 12, 2021

The Playoffs Are Here!!!!

November 7, 1999, a date that certainly does not live in infamy. The Baltimore Ravens made their first ever trip to play in the hostile confines of Cleveland Browns Stadium. It’s hard to believe that that game wasn’t a primetime nationally televised contest, who wouldn’t want to watch a 1-7 team take on a 2-5 opponent. Must see TV for sure. The Browns came into the game red-hot (sarcasm intended), coming off their first win of the season against the Saints by a score of 21-16 one a last second touchdown pass from Tim Couch to Kevin Johnson. Having finally gotten off the schneid, the Browns were prepared to vanquish those poetic bastards from Baltimore. However, three hours laters, Baltimore delivered a 41-9 beatdown and the chance for an actual win streak went up in smoke. Like 14 other times that season Cleveland Sports Radio erupted on a Monday morning about all the things wrong with the Cleveland Browns. Alas, the Browns would have to wait another year to try and beat the Baltimore Ravens. (Actually they had to wait 2 more years.)

Anyway, it is the year 2021, and for all intents and purposes (or intensive purposes, or in tents with porpoises) the Cleveland Browns are in the playoffs right now. Granted, it would be better to play win-or-go-home games in January rather than week 14. But the Browns very squarely have their collective backs against the wall. Really, the only route to the playoffs is to win the division, and they have to win today in order to do so. Although they’d never admit it, I think the team and coaches are pleased to be completely and singularly focused on just this game. The list of things to be concerned with just got a lot shorter, and it is as simple as one play at a time, do your job, all that cliched football stuff. The entire organization (including the peanut vendor in section 236) are aware of the importance of this game. So much hangs in the balance; the possibility of the real playoffs this season, Baker Mayfield’s status with the team, and the mental health of all of Northern Ohio.

I wrote last week about how Browns-Ravens in week 12 wasn’t the disaster that many would describe afterward. Yes the offense was terrible, and we were the first team ever to get 4 interceptions and lose. But, despite all that, we were in a position to win that game, and with one tiny piece of luck the outcome could have easily gone the other way. So in a way, the Browns can carry some confidence into this game. The defense was great, right now Baltimore is reeling and seems to have no answer for a strong pass rush. (our strong suit) Also, the Browns finally had a bye week, and I’m sure Stefanski and his crew went back to the drawing board to design some offense that will actually function. Hopefully that means we see some sets with Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb on the field together, it seems like that unpredictability could pay dividends. The Browns don’t need to score 35 points to win today, really 20 points might do it considering the way the defense has been playing. So it is really a question of figuring out how to get enough going in the passing game so that the Browns can lean on their running game. Last week, Baltimore loaded up against the run, and effectively shut it down. With no downfield passing game from Cleveland, the Ravens could afford to put 8-9 guys on the line of scrimmage and bottle it up. (And they did that very effectively, the Browns averaged only 24 yards per carry)

I’m not sure what to expect from Stefanski and offensive play calling today. My confidence in him has wavered in recent weeks, but what I am sure of is that he will roll out something different today, things that Baltimore hasn’t seen us do this season. I’ve been critical of his conservative nature this season, but I’m sure with the week off, he will work in some creative plays and make the Ravens respect the passing game a bit. Also during the bye week, presumably some of Baker’s 17 different injuries improved. I expect that today Kareem Hunt will be a lot more involved, and I think he’ll catch 6-7 passes. There are some problems at tight end for the Browns today (Njoku and Bryant are both out) so that will be a challenge for the Browns as well as trying to bolster the offensive line now that Jack Conklin is out for the season.

Despite the problems facing the Browns, I believe the Browns are going to come out like a house on fire and overwhelm the Ravens early. They just watched the Steelers sack Lamar Jackson last week 7 times, and they are confident they can disrupt that Raven offense. I hope the Browns win the coin toss, and take the ball first to try to score right away and set the tone. Whatever happens today, I hope the Browns come out and do something unexpected, whether it’s a fake punt, some direct snap stuff, whatever. The sense of urgency is at an all-time high for this team, particularly for Stefanski and Baker, and I think that will translate to a high energy performance today. I would love to make a prediction that the Browns win by double digits, but it feels like it’s going to be a close game in the fourth quarter. I like the Browns to win something like 23-20, and keep the dream alive of winning the AFC north.


Go Browns.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

In Cleveland, things are never as bad or as good as they might seem

There is a special kind of knee-jerk reaction that only occurs in Cleveland Ohio. Recency bias doesn’t even begin to describe how quickly fans and even sportswriters can vacillate between “we’ve got a championship caliber team” and “we’re in the toilet”. It’s a town that only cares about what you’ve done for them lately, as in yesterday. Forget about last week, last month, and god forbid you consider past seasons as reference points to evaluate a current organization. My point is that for the better part of two decades, the Cleveland Browns did not play a meaningful game in the month of December. This is a team that averaged four wins a year over the span of 15 seasons. This is a team that Terry Pluto would optimistically pick to go 6-10 every year. We all craved relevance more than anything, we wanted to see the Browns in the first couple of stories on Sportscenter as Christmas approached. The 2017 season is not ancient history, and nether is that stupid 0-16 parade at the stadium. So take a second, recognize the Browns are 6-6 and in the hunt for a playoff spot.


I get that it’s difficult to objectively assess a team after an inexplicable loss like last week to Baltimore. It’s mind boggling that the defense had four interceptions, held a team to 16 points, and still managed to lose. The Cleveland offense was terrible, and there’s a litany of columns you can find on cleveland.com about all of the details about why that was. The game was a huge opportunity for Cleveland to stick their toe in the playoff door in the AFC, and instead they stepped in a St. Bernard-sized pile of dog poop. 


So of course it was all doom and gloom across the sports landscape in Cleveland last week. Granted there are some valid concerns; Baker’s creaky shoulder, dropped passes, and the complete lack of a downfield threat, and the paltry 2.4 yards per rushing attempt. However, I wonder how the conversation would have gone if just one play had gone the other way. (Like if Lamar Jackson doesn’t make that crazy TD pass to Andrews, or if Austin Hooper actually catches a pass.) Listening to Cleveland sports radio this week, you would think that the Browns were completely outplayed in every facet, and that it was totally a one-sided affair, when in fact it was not. The Browns were in position to win the game, and very nearly did, although that’s not the takeaway you would get from any article or podcast. It is true that the offense was anemic, and the play-calling bizarre, but with all that went wrong, it’s not a stretch to say the Browns could have won that game. I can only imagine how that would have been on Monday morning across Cleveland. This team is gritty, they’d say, they didn’t play well but they gutted out a road win against a rival. Or something like Baker played hurt, was willing to put it all on the line for a win. It would take about 12 seconds to jump right into playoff talk, Hey we won at Baltimore, we can beat them again, and be in the mix to win the division. But the thing is, it’s the same players, the same coaching, and 56 of 57 plays would be the same. So the outcome of a single play changes the narrative by 180 degrees. Such a fickle bunch, these Clevelanders. I heard everything from cutting Baker, firing Stefanski, to replacing the peanut vendor in section 236. There are five games to go, and three are in Cleveland, the situation isn’t as dire as some would have you believe. The bye week couldn’t come soon enough, and although the fan base didn’t take a deep breath and relax, hopefully the coaches, players, and peanut vendors did.


The truth is that this team is definitely good enough to beat Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, there is no question about that. We are not going to be overmatched in any of those games, and we match up well with those teams and I expect that games will all be close in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, we get a play that goes our way late in the game, and we keep the playoff hopes alive one more week. I’m happy to go into this last stretch with the defense playing out of their minds, and with Stefanski using the bye week to reinvigorate the offense. Regardless of how it shakes out with the playoffs, the Browns are probably at worst going to finish 9-8, and for how many seasons would we have all been delighted at finishing over .500?


Go Browns.

 

A humdrum trip to Florida, and the Giants come to town

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