June 20, 2013

Browns Limping to Finish With 20-10 Loss to Ravens

December 26, 2010 by 24 Comments

Maybe someday the Browns and Ravens will have a real rivalry. Today I was given a bit of hope for the future watching Joe Haden spar with Anquan Boldin after a particularly physical first five yards. This kind of animosity is supposed to come with divisional games for the players so that they can feel at least half as desperate to win these games as the fans. Someday it might pay off for the Browns to end their season against these tough divisional foes, but not today.  The Browns drop to 5-10 on the season with their 20-10 loss at home to the Ravens.

Colt McCoy had a very typical day for an NFL rookie quarterback, even if it is atypical from what we have seen from him so far this season.  He threw three interceptions.  Two of them were underthrown even if Mohamed Massaquoi did have a chance to bail his quarterback out.  McCoy will learn, but he probably should have known better than to throw two balls anywhere near an always-salivating Ed Reed.

The Browns’ lone touchdown was another out of the bag of tricks. Seneca Wallace handed off to Hillis going left, who flipped to Mohamed Massaquoi on the reverse. Seneca appeared to be out blocking for MoMass, who unleashed a bomb of a pass to the corner of the end zone where Robiskie was there to pull it in. It made me wonder just how many Browns offensive touchdowns have come by way of the “trick” play this season.

For those who follow our own Scott on Twitter, you were treated to this sarcastic gem. “Only about 14 more TD passes from Massaquoi to Robiskie and it will justify the 2009 second-round draft picks.”  It would be funnier if it wasn’t also so very true.

Another week and another confusing non-usage of timeouts to end the first half by Eric Mangini. The Browns had the ball almost in the red zone with about a minute left and the Browns just let the clock run and run. They did get some shots at the end zone from inside the 20 but they ran the clock all the way down to six seconds when they finally had to kick a field goal on third down.

The problem is that the Browns had three timeouts left when they let the clock run needlessly under 40 seconds and then 30 seconds. Had they chosen to stop the clock, they could have played shorter routes. They had one more first down that they could have gotten before going 1st and goal.  The Browns probably wasted at minimum two shots at the end zone by not using their timeouts.  Mangini seemed pretty content to limit his own offensive attempts at the end zone though. It was painful to watch.

Mangini’s clock management was just par for the course for this banged up Browns team today.  They sure do try hard, but they just can’t get anything done at this point in the season.  There is hope for the future, but these guys are thin and banged up.  There is only so much of a deficit that their heart can cover on Sundays.

If it is true as so many say that Mangini is coaching for his job here, that heart will be the biggest feather in his cap.  It also gives me a reason to watch next week’s season-ending contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Win or lose this team will be limping their way off the field.  Let’s hope they don’t needlessly save any more first half timeouts though.

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  • C-Bus Kevin

    I’m not in the “get Mangini out of here” camp, but it’s not looking good right now. The time management was inexcusable. You must get more shots into the endzone with 1 min to go inside the 20. I’m not sure how you go into the half with timouts left. They are playing to leave no time on the clock for the opposition when their #1 concern SHOULD be maximizing your chances to score, and I simply do not agree with that strategy.

    Also, 1 division win this year doesn’t look good. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to fall into the category of fans that are perpetually angry with mangini for not playing agressively. However, I wouldn’t call it “playing not to lose.” Rather, I call it “playing to keep it close.”

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com DP

    I came away from this game–like so many others–with the following over-arcing impression: this team plays hard, shows some flashes, but just isn’t talented enough to overcome mistakes. They have to execute almost flawlessly to succeed, and no team that has this little talent can do so. The MoMass fumble looked eerily similar to the Stuckey OT fumble against the Jets. The silly penalties (Robiskie’s push-off, St. Clair getting beat/holding). They just can’t overcome mistakes like that.

    Some of execution falls on coaching, but we all know it’s a lot easier to execute in this league when you have good players.

  • Joe in Wooster

    It’s great seeing Reggie and Brennen there together! I was really hoping they would’ve suited up for the game, I am certain that they could’ve had an impact. Interesting note, Bernie’s record of pass attempts w/o interception was broken by Brady today…

    I thought it was interesting to see Colt arguing with Dabol on the sideline.

  • Harv 21

    Another astonishing lack of understanding of how to work the expiring clock for a guy finishing his fifth year as head coach. Post-game comments that it was most important to not give the ball back indicate compounded ignorance: he doesn’t get it that he doesn’t get it.

    We were not going to beat that team this day but here’s what I see: a smart young guy who probably just became a HC too soon, with big holes in his skill set. A few more years as an assistant, or maybe a year between jobs, might have made him a different guy. But the primary lesson he seems to have learned from his Jet years is that he’s safest with his own people in place, even if crucial ones -Kokinis, Daboll- are more callow than him. The schizo decision to vacillate from playing the safest percentages to desperately risking all on the ensuing onside kick as the game resumed looked like a halftime realization of another job slipping away. Certainly wasn’t consistent with his explanation of why he ended the half as he did.

    Dead man walking.

  • Joseph

    So off-topic a bit.. the area I live in officially has the worst blizzard in 21 years (14 inches of snow in my area). I braved the elements and went out to my local sports bar and watch the Browns game with about 5 other people. That should count for something right? Maybe a bonus FG to give us another one of those “7 points of less” losses?

    Ok on a more serious note tough game for McCoy but I suppose it was bound to happen.. he can’t play really well every single time. It seemed like the gameplan was somewhat on track but just too many mistakes in the end.

  • Christopher

    This being McCoys worst game of the year….he still looked 100 times better than Delhomme, Quinn, Anderson, Frye, Garcia, Dilfer, Holcomb, McCown, you get the point.

    There is that “it” feeling I feeling I get when watching him play. The simple fact that we are not heading into the draft looking to utilize a top pick on a hopeful QB is my one good feeling for this year. Instead we can continue to draft top talent in our other weak areas to help address the team needs overall.

  • sda

    heres what I see. A team that plays as good as they can with the talent they have. What I would love to see is an out going offensive minded head coach hired as an offensive coordinator. I think being a former head coach brings more to the table than many people think. Mangini needs to stay in place he has good organization good leadership. The team plays hard every week they are just over matched. Look at all the good teams and you will see most have former head coaches as coordinators

  • MrCleaveland

    Brian Brennan is a member of a terrific little club of honorable Cleveland Browns who wore No. 86. They include Dante Lavelli, Gary Collins, and Gerald Irons (a Pro Bowl linebacker who played here for a couple seasons) — and, if he hadn’t choked once in a typically Cleveland Byner/Mesa-like fashion, Dennis Northcutt.

    With his small stature, Brennan couldn’t have succeeded without a huge heart.

  • Harv 21

    @ 7: disagree about team playing hard every week. Main reason they lost to awful Bills and Bengals was failure to do so, not talent discrepancy. That’s what the coach said, and what the players were saying. And it was pretty obvious.

  • dalton

    Ugly, frustrating game. Same sorts of mistakes that have plagued the team the last two seasons and show no sign of being turned around.

    I think Cleveland Frowns is reading Cicero right now to try to construct an argument in favor of keeping Mangini for his monday blog.

  • MattC

    I’m in the Keep Mangini Camp because I think he has a lot of upside as a young coach and because we need consistency. I do, however, think that if there was any doubt before today, he definitely coached himself out of a job today.

    I just hope we don’t bring some old clown in like John Fox. No thanks.

  • VooDoo

    There is definitely a lack of talent but Mangini is not a very good coach. Entirely to many inconsistencies from week to week. If it’s not penalties it’s turnovers or a defense that fails to make one stop when it matters most. This reminds me of all the time the Cavaliers wasted under Mike Brown minus the winning.

  • JM

    I went to the game. Sat in the upper deck of the Dawg Pound. The turnovers killed the crowd. Watching McCoy drive the offense down field was great but also frustrating due to his mistakes. They played hard but they don’t have enough talent to win the games which has been the story all year. As far as Mangini goes, I say keep him. But they need an offensive coordinator badly.

  • bobby

    Frustrating game. I think MoMass needs to learn to fight for the balls throw to him. Even if you cant catch it you have to fight to make sure the defender wont, and he did not fight for any of those balls (all 3 INTs were MoMass targets). I cant believe that they called Robo on O PI. that was a bs call and ruined a great chance at points.

    I just think the browns get out coached. It was such an even game, in my mind despite the coaching. Rob Ryan is starting to frustrate the crap out of me. Its 3rd and 4 and you have 0 DL in, or 1 DL in the game. Are you serious? We already cant stop the run! On the last TD theres a 2 man rush only on a 3rd down. I mean the secondary is much improved but if you give a QB what is essentially a prevent he will pick you apart. I also fully believe Daboll is just limiting the potential of the players on O. All of that should reflect poorly on Mangini. Ultimately, you are what your record is, and the browns are the same as last year. Sorry, but Mangini is gone if it were my decision. I trust Holmgren will get someone in place that will take full advantage of what we have on the roster. I do not believe theres a great talent deficiency. Yes, the Ravens have more talent. They are also a 4(5?) loss team. The browns should be a 6-8 loss team. Start comparing what we have vs. other teams in the hunt or on the verge of WC and the browns should be right there.

  • sealedhuman

    I’m with Harv 21 on all points. I can’t believe that people are still playing the “no talent” card. McCoy, Hillis, even Mangini admitted that the losses to the Bills and Bengals resulted from poor effort and execution, not talent. Moreover, H&H brought in a lot of talent in the offseason with B. Watson (great season), linebackers (huge improvement), Brown (solid performance), etc. This says nothing about the boost from the draft (TJ Ward, amazing play by Haden, etc.) Any improvement in this team is the result of this infusion of talent. When we lose to the worst teams in the league, then beat the best teams in the league, we can’t call it progress. We have lost all momentum.

    I, too, was at the game and I can’t believe how Mangini handled the end of the first half and how the conservative staff called an onside kick to start the second half. I can think of few things more embarrassing for a football team than to be offsides on their own surprise onside kick that just rolled out of bounds.

    I’ll admit that I never liked Mangini for the job, but I think Holmgren has enough objective reasons to hire a new coach. Anyone using the “consistency” argument needs to review the list of coaches who had too many years with the Browns. Consistency for the sake of consistency is useless.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com DP

    For the record, my point wasn’t “no talent.” I was saying “not enough talent to overcome crappy execution.” Big difference, IMHO.

  • JM

    @14 I was scratching my head at that onside kick. It was a 3 point game still!

  • Matt S

    Name me one above-average piece of the offense for the Browns. There’s Hillis (and how good he is remains a debatable question), Joe Thomas and… Eric Steinbach maybe?

    The problem is that none of the wideouts can get separation, and furthermore don’t win when they go up for the jump balls… and there’s no deep threat. You’ll notice that all of McCoy’s INTs were on deep routes. One of the reasons Hillis was STUFFED today was because Baltimore was playing close up with their safeties approximately 90% of the plays. Daboll/Mangini/McCoy saw this, and tried to take advantage… but couldn’t. Against an AWFUL secondary. You do all remember how the Ravens had basically signed practice squad guys at the beginning of the year, right? Even with Ed Reed, they’re only the 15th ranked pass defense. And yet, the deep ball was a failure.

    You could see the difference in the way the teams ran the ball. McGahee/McClain/Rice… they were all making their cutbacks a good 2-3 yards after the line of scrimmage usually. Hillis was doing his in the backfield. Part of that has to do with the Ravens having everybody up, and the Browns not being able to stop that. Part of that might also have to do with the weakness of the right side.

    So yeah, I’ll play the talent card. The Browns are still running with the least talented group of WRs in the league. Their best QB is a rookie who probably shouldn’t be relied on to carry the team. The right side of the line is awful. The defense is talented enough, and they get decent results. And you’ll notice that the defensive side of the ball was where H&H focused their attention this offseason. What’s killing the team right now is that the offense is awful. I know Daboll is gone, and there’s reason for it. But it’s not entirely his fault.

  • TLEO

    You can play the no talent card all you want. But in the end, Mangini has been here for 2 years and the roster has been overhauled (again) with mostly his players. All the impact players we have gotten since he has been here have come from Holmgren/Heckert. But even with a better roster, the team is shown no improvement. Ok, so we are not getting blown out every game like we did at the beginning of the Mangini era, but we are also not finding ways to grind out wins.

    What’s worse is that even with better players, he hasn’t figured out his to use them. Would Joe Haden even started one game this year if Eric Wright didn’t get injured? Mangini seems to play players based on seniority, attitude, and how he generally feels about the player. Everything except talent level. So yeah, get better talent in there, but unless they are a veteran who kisses the coach’s backside, then don’t expect to get playing time. That is why you see so much “heart” out there and so little talent. Maybe I am exagerrating a bit, but that’s how I see it.

  • Hamfist

    Well, there’s valid points on both sides of the HC argument. Here’s a couple of my thoughts for conversations sake:

    1. If Daboll knows we don’t have WRs that can/will get open, what should his calls be?

    2. Why are we still running a 3-4, when we don’t shoot the LBs in to stop the run against offenses that are running all over us? IMHO Roth, Rubin, Rodgers, and (insert name/Bowens?)would seem to be a pretty solid d-line. Have Fujita as MLB and Gocong & Benard as OLBs

  • C-Bus Kevin

    I’m with a few people that have stated that the Browns should switch to a 4-3. I understand that they are shooting for an effective 3-4, but it’s just not happening right now.

    You can wish for a 3-4 defense that works all you want, but if you don’t have LBs that can reach the qb or fill the running gaps, then you are going to get gashed by the run and picked apart by the pass. There are few LBs that can pass cover consistently.

    With less talented LBs in the mix, I think you’re better off rushing 4 down linemen in the hopes that you can put pressure on the QB. Otherwise, you just have a bunch of LBs and DBs chasing wideouts while the QB has time to eat a sack lunch in the pocket.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com DP

    RE: rookies vs. veterans and Mangini’s handling of such, for every “Joe Haden should have started from Day 1!” argument there is the necessary “TJ Ward started from Day 1″ rebuttal. Just sayin’.

  • Wheel

    Mangini hung himself with the clock debacle incident at the end of the first half. IWhat a pathetic, embarrassing coaching decision. If you don’t try to win, you don’t deserve to win. The Browns, the fans, and city of Cleveland deserve better than this lame, defeatist philosophy to winning football. A good draft in 2011 and coaches who will build on offense around Colt McCoy’s strengths – and perhaps we can compete for the playoffs. Personally, I’ve had enough of Mangini’s nonsensical approach to the game of football.

  • http://ato.com Jmoney

    @6. My thoughts exactly. Enough said – lets move our focus and energy elsewhere – we have our QB of the future.