If I told you in August that the secondary would become the strength of the team, what would you expect Cleveland’s record to be? 5-1? 4-2? Even though this team is technically only a game out of the AFC Wild Card slot, they are much closer to being the Detroit Lions or Cincinnati Bengals than they are to being a playoff contender. With all of the mess going on with Kellen Winslow’s comments, to me the most telling moment was the play in which Derek Anderson and Lawrence Vickers got into an argument and nearly a shoving match on the field. Vickers is a quiet, no-nonsense player that does his job on every play. Anderson clearly doesn’t have his respect, and that says a lot to me.
You have to listen to Tony Grossi’s chat wrap today. Two things jumped out at me. At about the 9 minute mark Tony begins to discuss Derek Anderson’s play. He talks about Derek Anderson running around on the last drive trying to figure out what the play they wanted called, only to spike the ball after losing 20-some seconds. Derek, of course was panicking because he couldn’t hear the play in his headset. Tony’s point- good QB’s aren’t even listening to the coach there. They know what needs to be done.
The second thing that got to me was his description of the Browns’ locker room after a game like this. It starts at the 22 minute mark. Worth the 2 minutes for that clip alone.
Does the extra week of preparation really make that much of a difference? The only difference in personnel from the Monday night game to this week was Tucker for Shaffer. Is Tucker better than Shaffer? Yes, but it’s not like Anderson spent the day on his back because of Shaffer. Winslow was also available for this one, which should have improved the offense.
So I have to ask the question. Is the team at a breaking point, or is it just the fans?
