Texans Obliterate Browns 30-12
November 6, 2011Mike Polk Kills With His Browns Reaction Video
November 7, 2011While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“At this juncture there are many issues that the Cleveland Browns are going to have to resolve in order to build a legitimately contending football team. What we see from a schematic stand point isn’t exactly considered a high quality product. Offensively, It’s difficult to acquire an honest read on what this regime is attempting to establish each Sunday afternoon. Defensively, there are times the scheme matches up perfectly with the opposing offense, then at times they look like they jumped straight off of a comic book page. From a personnel stand point, Colt McCoy is struggling, Peyton Hillis is out, wideouts aren’t exactly high octane and the second layer of the front seven after D’qwell Jackson is very pedestrian. But schemes, philosophies and personnel in the National Football League are as irresolute as the shores of lake Erie. Everything that we see as “wrong” at this point, can be fixed with time.” [LeCharles Bentley/In the Trenches]
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In the midst of the excitement of the weekend, the news of the Penn State scandal hit. Here are a couple reaction pieces- “If the indictments brought by a grand jury and announced by state Attorney General Linda Kelly result in convictions of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for a sick history of sexual assaults on children, and two Penn State officials for failing to act on those allegations and then lying about it, then Paterno also has to be dismissed in the clean sweep that must follow. Paterno escaped indictment because he told athletic director Tim Curley about an alleged 2002 incident in which a graduate student reported discovering Sandusky performing sex acts on a boy who was about 10 years old in the shower area of a football locker room. Paterno told Curley, who failed to report it to the proper authorities, according to the attorney general. Then Paterno apparently did nothing.” [Bob Ford/Philly.com]
“In most cases, (Paterno) did act appropriately,” said Caroline Tyrell, who works with the Child Abuse/Prevention Outreach Committee on West Market Street in York. However, if anyone felt that Sandusky hadn’t been dealt with appropriately for the crime, someone should have called a child abuse hotline, “if only for peace of mind.” [York Daily Record]
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“As Ben Tate rushed for seven yards on a fourth and six to ice an all-to-easy victory for the Houston Texans over the lowly Cleveland Browns, I let out a sigh and calmly switched to “Modern Family” on my DVR. I wasn’t upset, wasn’t angry, wasn’t depressed… I simply didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to watch something funny and forget the fact that I wasted three hours on a Sunday afternoon. I’m becoming numb to the Browns’ ineptitude. I cannot even make excuses for them any more. My ability to look at the glass half full is becoming impossible after so many futile attempts.” [Ten Cent Beers]
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“Josh Cribbs continue to be the lone bright spot on offense – and the one player that really seems to bring it every week. Cribbs, playing in his 100th career game, had a 64-yard kickoff return, five receptions and a touchdown. He’s already set career bests with 22 catches for 298 yards. He also had three tackles on special teams. Everyone else? Not much.” [Red Right 88]
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Stepien Rules is running a contest giving away copies of Scott Raab’s new book. [Stepien Rules]
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Finally, some interesting uniform suggestions for the Columbus Blue Jackets. [Uni Watch] For the record, I think the Blue Jackets have a great look.
22 Comments
The Penn State story is sick and makes me very angry. There is no way Joe Pa keeps his job after this season and nor should he. All the parties involved were more interested in protecting themselves rather than protecting the children. Sandusky was a monster and after they found out they hid it. Disgusting.
@Mark – Why would he lose his job? He was told about the allegations and reported them to the AD who apparently did nothing with them. I’m not sure how that is grounds for firing him.
I’ve been pleased with Josh’s play this season.
He had a graduate assistant witness Sandusky raping a ten year old boy in the locker room showers. Paterno, when given the info that the GA had witnessed a sexual assault, did the absolute minimum he could do. He told his bosses then washed his hands of it and NEVER asked anyone about it again. If he had any inkling the what the GA told him was true, he had a moral obligation to go to the police. They should all be fired or forced to resign/retire. Would you trust sending your child to play football for these people after finding this out? PSU has to clean house.
I agree with Mark on this. Even if he did send it up the chain, how about when nothing comes of it in a week or 2 JoePa asks about it? Or you know, call the cops. How the hell could you not follow up on this?
@Mark – I’m not trying to defend anything anyone there has done. If the reports are true it’s absolutely terrible, I’m right there with you. I’m just saying I don’t know who was talked to and who wasn’t, what conversations took place and about what. All we know is that Paterno reported an allegation (that he himself didn’t witness) to a higher authority.
@Lyon – I guess that is sort of what I am saying. Do we know if he didn’t? Do we know that Paterno didn’t call up the AD and say hey what happened with the Sandusky thing? For all we know the AD could have said we’re handling it and to keep out of it.
There is no defense for anyone’s actions if they just sat on this.
Let’s not get all Mike Nifong on this. The story is still very young, so before we start calling for heads, let’s have some facts.
It was reported that he sent this up the ladder to one of the college’s police officials, so I think he in fact did tell the “cops,” as it were.
I am typically all for being patient and giving a guy a fair shake…but it’s pretty friggin’ clear that Shurmur is way in over his head and is dangerously close to losing this team (if he hasn’t already). That being said, there is really only one logical solution to this if we want to keep everyone on the same page and pulling in the same direction.
Big Mike, come on down.
You can question Holmgren the President, but you can’t question Holmgren the coach. The guy is one of the top 10 coaches in the NFL over the past 30 years. I know he might not want to coach, but this is getting to the point where he might have to. Any concerns the players have about the competence and credibility of their coach go away the second he puts on the headset.
Time to admit that you messed up hiring Shurmur, Mike. And you need to fix this yourself. Get this mess cleaned up over the next couple years, then hand it off to a young up and comer.
@ BuckeyeDawg: Some of us saw this weeks ago, but there are still “true believers” out there who actually think Shurmur needs more time. What precisely they imagine he can do with this additional time except lose more games, make more fans disenchanted and alienate his players, is beyond me.
Riddle me this –> If he were NOT the coach of the Browns and there was an opening on a top 5 NFL team…do you think they would even bring him in for an interview? Would he even be in the top 10 of “possible prospects” for the position of Head Coach ANYWHERE else but the Browns?
@11: Probably, when you consider that Josh McDaniels and Lane Kiffin got head coaching positions.
/kylie and booms’d
@ ben: I just threw up in my mouth. Thanks for improving my Monday morning.
Kiffin was hired by the same person who drafted JaMarcus Russell. His decisions are all suspect and dumb. So, bad example.
As for McDaniels, he was let go due to his involvement in the taping of the 49ers practice by the guy he hired. During his first year he did go 6-0 at first, but faltered later in season. He is also the same idiot who let Peyton Hillis go, although maybe that wasn’t such a dumb idea, lol.
So I’ll give you McDaniels, although they cut his @$$ during his second year.
MAY WE BE SO LUCKY with Shurmur.
@ Stin, agreed. We don’t know all the facts.
I raked leaves an played with my dog on Sunday. It was a good day.
i’m willing to see what the team will look like with a full offseason, another Heckert draft, and a full season of learning the new system.
yeah, our offense looks bad. but it looked worse in 2009, our only real weapon last year was Hillis (who is hurt this year), and we had to rush in learning everything this year with a young team (and starting a rookie OG and a 2nd year OG who missed most of last year).
i hate patience for the Browns because it hasn’t amounted to anything yet, but I do believe in Heckert’s drafting and the team should get leaps and bounds better next year. as always, we’ll see.
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also, remember that Chud and Arians were idiot coaches when they were here as well.
Unfortunate or not, Paterno will and, IMO, should be caught up in the tidal wave that will clean house at Penn State. The only way to save the football program’s life here is to start anew. Besides, quite frankly, it has been time for a change there anyway. This will just accelerate the inevitable.
@mgbode – while you’re making excuses for the Browns, be sure to make some for the Bengals. They had a rough offseason, lost a lot of key players, and are starting a bunch of rookies despite losing 10 straight games last year.
Oh, they don’t need excuses…
@Big Z – i apologize for trying to find some glimmer of hope to cling onto. if you do not feel that our offense can improve with Heckert using top picks on offense and more time in the WCO system, then I am not sure what you think you will be cheering for this season or in the next few. Enjoy 🙂
All I know that is this absolutely nasty story came out of OSU, Aaron Goldhammer would be ripping the Buckeye program apart by the seams. I believe heads MUST roll on this…could have been nipped in the bud way back in 1998!!!???
@mgbode. Naw, I’m behind Heckert for the most part. I disagree with his non-use of free agency this year, but he’s said he’s not a fan on more than one occasion. I agree that the offense will probably improve next year as well. I’m just saying that the whole “no offseason” thing is kind of tired, especially since there’s a couple teams in the same boat as us who are looking pretty good on Sunday.