Da Clip Show: Keeping an Eye on the Tribe’s AAA Squad – 7/27/10
July 27, 2010While We’re Waiting… Head Injuries, NBA Tampering and Cincy Signs T.O.
July 28, 2010After narrowly missing the playoffs in 2007 and then living through the almost instantaneous internal combustion of the team a year later, Browns fans are all too aware of expectations. In fact that is why the post-2007 optimism was so strange. Fans were famously chanting about Super Bowls from the bleachers in Berea. They were ignoring their previous hypotheses regarding Romeo Crennel, the quarterbacks and pretty much everything else. The fans seemed to decide that it was finally time to drop the security blanket of pessimism that we normally carry around in a tighter fist than Linus in the Peanuts cartoons. All the while, muttering about how we will never do that again.
I am sure there are a few fans out there that are feeling a little offended at the reports from prognosticators around the league that have the Browns ranked near the bottom of the league to start this season. The Browns and their acquisitions flew largely under the radar this year, except when people were making fun of Jake Delhomme and the fact that the Browns didn’t manage to find a single receiver of known quality to add to the roster.
Still, as fans, it might be easy to say everyone is wrong. This team won their last four games. They ran all over everyone. Joshua Cribbs and Seneca Wallace are going to inject even more life into that running attack. Jake Delhomme will show just how bad the Browns’ QB corps was a year ago. The Browns have an all new linebackers, and secondary practically. Trust me, I get it.
Still, I want to caution everyone just a bit. This year’s Browns team seems to be headed in the right direction. I believe the Browns made a lot of good moves this off-season with their acquisitions. Still, I guarantee you right now that at least one of those measured, good ideas will fail. It could be Jake Delhomme, or it could be Joe Haden. It could be all of the safeties on the roster for that matter. Maybe it will be Ben Watson. Predicting what it could be is pointless.
My point is that even if all the things go right, this is still a team a year removed from being a nightmare to watch for over half a season. They won in some gutty performances down the stretch when some teams didn’t seem to care to show up anymore. Keep this in mind. The Browns could go out this year and have a couple of bad stretches and a couple of good stretches, win five games with two that they lose in heartbreaking fashion and it could still look and feel like an improvement over the team that we saw last year.
Guess what, though? Those same prognosticators that predicted the Browns to be the 28th – 30th best teams in the NFL will also be right. The Browns have a lot to prove. Rome wasn’t built in a day. All the clichés apply. Progress may come and look great this year, but don’t rule out the chance that the progress will be a lot more subtle than we hope.
28 Comments
Still, I guarantee you right now that at least one of those measured, good ideas will fail.”
Only one?……..WOOHOOOO!!!
I have no playoff expectations for this team. I just want them to start playing. I need football. I need to rid the stench that was this summer.
Sorry, I couldnt read the article… I had Kool-aid blockin it.
B.U.Z.Z.K.I.L.L
I don’t know how I’ll cope with mediocrity or worse after this string of championship seasons and never being let down by a team/athlete/owner in my life!
Oops, forgot caps lock
Delhomme > DA/BQ
Hardisty > Jlew
Right side of OL this year > last year
Wright/Haden/Brown/Lockdown > Last year
Gocong,Fujita, Roth > Wimbley and whoever else
and WR’s with a full season under their belt as well as working with ONE quarterback for a full training camp/preseason
Sorry Craig but the Kool-Aid is GOOOOOOD
I’m lovin the Kool-Aid. OH YEAH!!!
CRAIG YOU GAVE ME THE KOOL-AID YOU CAN’T TAKE IT AWAY!!!
Well Craig, this post really bombed. We refuse to have our fanhood defined by reality or sanity.
Here we go, Brownies, here we go . . .
WOOO WOOO
Anyone entering any Browns season with anything beyond guarded optimism either enjoys disappointment or hasn’t been paying attention over the last, oh, decade or so. Yes, there have been numerous changes made, which is a start. And it feels like trustworthy, competent, and focused leadership is in place (minus the OC at least) for the first time in ages. But until we see it play out on the field in meaningful competition, there is no way to simply assume Hardesty is superior to JLew, or that the new QBs will be any more productive than last season, or that the defensive additions are sufficient. I will be hoping for and root for the best to happen, but keeping my guard up. Assume nothing.
Stuff your cautions in a sack, Mister.
IIIII GOT A FEEEELIN!!! THE BROWNS ARE GOING TO THE…
Take Me to Berea
Wash Me in the Water
Jake-y Jake-y
Whoa-oh, how you can throw
Jake-y Jake-y,
Whoa-oh…Super Bowl…
Craug FTW!!
I mean Craig. Sorry!
God, this is the funniest thread ever.
Hey, it’s only July. Let us have our harmless little happy delusions for a while.
BTW, I think that Kool-Aid logo would look great on our Brownies’ helmets during the preseason.
$100 on the Browns to win Super Bowl 45 gets you $8500 when it happens.
Anyone up for a WFNY trip to Vegas?
My optimism knows no bounds.
The Browns are poised to release the poison on the NFL this season.
2010 Browns equal 16-0 and first ever Superbowl win!!!!!!!!!
You heard it here first!
Personally, I just want to see the team say screw it – we’re just going to run every damn play until someone figures out how to stop us. Put Cribbs and Wallace back there and have Massaquoi as the only wideout just to keep teams a little honest and see how teams handle it.
Actually #22, Paul Brown back in like 1950 (read about it), ran every play in a game. No forward passes. Just said “we will run until you stop us”…
Strike that part about running until stopped in the last post. Just researched it more. Not exactly a pound the ball sort of game. I was lied to as a kid…
@MrCleveland, haha, awesome idea. I made a quick helmet and it’s hilarious, but unfortunately can’t share from work. 🙁
I would be happy with the team improving on last year. Then the following year improving again and hopefully making the playoffs. I hate it when they would fire a coach, he would then get rid of half of the players and draft “his guys” (ie Butch Davis) effectively starting over. That’s happened too many times in a 112 year span. Hopefully with the Walrus in control we’ll start heading in a positive direction.
BTW according to Football Outsiders the Browns are ranked 8th in their Organization Rankings. They base this off of Under 25 talent. Take it for what it’s worth.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/insider/news/story?page=FootballOutsiders2010OrganizationalRankings
err..meant 12 years. Although it feels like 112.
One other thing to consider though. The late season run was fueled by something very tangible in terms of the NFL: a running game that was driven not so much by a star running back or an individual talent, but by the maturation of the O-line and run blocking that began obliterating defenses. Some months ago I re-watched last season’s Browns victory over the Steelers on the NFL Network, and what struck me were the wildcat plays with Thomas, Vickers and Mack just steamrolling Steeler LBs and DBs and Cribbs running over those that were left. It was brutal, smashmouth football, and if the progress we saw continues this year, then they have the ability surprise