While We’re Waiting…Rookie Mistakes?
September 17, 2012Pics: What happened on D’Qwell Jackson’s unnecessary roughness penalty?
September 17, 2012Who caught your eye? Did someone stand out? Who blew it? That’s what were interested in this morning. Winners and losers.
The Browns fell to the Bengals, but looked better- at least offensively. Let’s get it started…
LOSER: Joe Haden. This will likely be a four week inclusion. Haden put his teammates in a tough spot. I certainly wouldn’t insist the Browns win that game with Haden in the line-up. But you can’t doubt they would have been better.
WINNER: Trent Richardson. Obvious pick here, but no less worthy. Richardson had some of his Alabama explosiveness this week. Thank goodness. Not a huge fan of the sideways somersault into the end zone, but I am a huge fan of the effort after the catch to get into the end zone. 109 yards rushing and 36 yards receiving with two scores. Well done. Whew.
WINNER: Brandon Weeden. Again, an obvious choice, but have to say it. Weeden finally started to look comfortable. Second half stat line: 17- 22, 201 yards and 2 TDs. A very good performance after a shaky start. We saw a little bit of why the Browns wanted him.
LOSER: Special Teams. Ugh. Terrible tackling and coverage on the Adam Jones punt return. More than just that play though, I am really starting to wonder about Cribbs as our full time returner. Doesn’t seem to have the burst anymore. Benjamin is a burner. Wouldn’t you like to see him get a shot?
All right, your turn. Give us your takes.
84 Comments
Winners: As Rick said, our rookies. The whole town feels better that they both overcame their week 1 disappointments. That includes Schwartz, although not Gordon.
Loser: Greg Little. That self-aggrandizing end-zone thing was embarrassing. This guy is a primo, class A jerk.
Winner/Loser: D’Qwell. Great play/unfortunate roughness penalty that really hurt.
Loser: Special teams coach. Not just for the punt return, but for putting Greg Little on the onside-kick “hands” team. Ha ha, good luck with that.
Honorary loser: Colt McCoy. He might as well just go over to Things Remembered and have his name engraved on that clipboard, because he owns it permanently now.
100% agree about Cribbs. He used to run north and south at top speed looking for the hole. That having been said, it is obvious he has obviously lost a step, and as a result we are leaving yardage on the field every return.
Winners/Losers: The fans. Our losses are getting easier to take. Is that a good thing?
So glad you included Haden here. When they call a player a difference-maker, you can really see the difference when they’re in street clothes.
My buddy looked at me at the end of the game and said, “Is it bad that I feel good after a loss?” I think we all kind of feel that way. Good or Bad it felt good to watch and offense move the ball.
Still can’t believe all of the hate for Greg Little. It was a 7 point game at the time, I believe. It’s not like they were getting smoked by 35 and he danced after a meaningless score. They were very much in the game and he made a good play. Cut him some slack. If you want to criticize him, criticize him for what I thought was a pretty terrible dance, but not for dancing at all. Alot of NFL players would have done the same.
Did you say D’Qwell roughness penalty? 🙂
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2012/09/pics-what-happened-on-dqwell-jacksons-unnecessary-roughness-penalty/
I don’t love the dancing personally, but people are borderline crazy about it. I hope I have to “endure” his bad dancing 100 more times this season including meaningless TDs…
Winner – Greg Little. I was ready to be done with the Greg Little experiment. He looked good and even caught a touchdown. I picked him up in my fantasy league. The touchdown dance left a little to desired but still played well.
Loser – Owen Maericic. So bad I dont even know what to say. He looks like a WR trying to be a FB but then when they pass him the ball he looks like a Center trying to play WR. Smelley??????
Winner – MoMass. Weeden has revived his career. Looks quick, gets open, and catches the ball. We have room for people like that on this team.
Obviously it would be great for every pro-athlete to “act like they’ve been there before” and hand the ball to the ref and run off the field and look like a pro. But that is not the culture anymore, in practically any sport. Sending the guy Twitter hate because he scored your team a TD (which he’s supposed to do) and danced afterwards is ridiculous. They are on his ass for dropping passes and when he does something right, they are on his ass for dancing after. What great fans we are.
Some of these will repeat what others have said:
LOSER – Owen Maericic: How is this guy still starting? His hands are actually worse than Little’s and he is still stood up by opposing LBs.
LOSER – Secondary: Good job tackling guys. /sarcasm I can understand being beaten by better players, but you have to freakin’ tackle.
WINNER – Pat Shurmur’s play calling: It was decent, which is a huge improvement. Screens, routes that don’t rhyme with “flossing,” and he managed Weeden well after such a horrible first game.
WINNER – MoMass: I almost want to add him to my fantasy team with all the targets.
I like the swagger, personally. I think people need to get over the “act like you’ve been there OR ELSE” mentality. I’m not a fan of too much showboating, but this was his first TD of the year in what was, at the time, a close game.
I had basically gone into this season with expectations so low that progress–whether real or perceived–is a welcome thing. I expected them to be 0-2, but at 1:00 yesterday I didn’t expect 27 points on offense, so i considered it a bit of victory-of-perception. 🙂
Agree completely about MoMass. After his concussion/non-concussion during the preseason, his career looked to be in jeopardy. But he has really turned it around these past two weeks. And we really need him, since Gordon looks a little lost and Little can’t be counted on.
I give a “winner” to the rushing defense. After McCoy was killing them all week last Sunday, they stepped up. Granted, Cincy went to the air more to pick on the weak secondary, but they still held Cincy to 3.2 ypc throughout the entire game.
Agree 100% about Cribbs/Benjamin. I’m sure it’s why they drafted Benjamin. I’ll be very surprised if Cribbs is on the team next year.
Is our punter bad? Seems like we have nobody close when the returner is ready to catch it. Need to have a guy or two ready to make that first tackle. I don’t know if it is coverage, or punter needs to get ball up a little higher. Some of the punts were very bad yesterday. And, may be time to move on from Cribbs returning. He seems to fall down and/or dive to get an extra yard or two instead of breaking tackles.
LOSER -Passing to FB on 3rd and short again!
Respectfully disagree that Haden comes out as a “loser” from this game. If anything, his value just skyrocketed. Yesterday proved that he just might be the Browns’ MVP! Splitting hairs, I know (and I believe that taking any drug is a “loser” move), but I’m sticking with this point.
On a similar note, a big “winner” in my mind is Sheldon Brown. I’ve been a Sheldon apologist since he came to the team. I feel somewhat vindicated after yesterday. We missed him in a big, big way.
It didnt seem like we could run the ball to the right in the beginning of the game. But I dont remember any sacks coming from the right side either. Did Michell Schwartz win or lose yesterday???? I was too busy watching a high powered offense yesterday to pay attention to him.
Loser – Buster “can’t cover” Skrine – He looked like a true freshman on a DII trying to cover out there.
(Hopefully) 1 week Loser – Joe Thomas – I don’t think he has looked fabulous so far this year.
Loser – Every DB on our team – Got shredded by a Ginger
Winner – Jimmy Haslem – Hopefully by him coming in the locker room after last weeks game and being visable it will get this team’s act together and start playing some football.
I didn’t care a lot about the dance because it is what the NFL is now, so whatever. I did not like the sending Twitter part where he is sending out pictures of himself after a loss. I co-sign with everybody that gave him a hard time about being a little too happy after a loss.
Hey gang- thought I would ask for suggestions for the film room this week. What would you like to see as the focus? Is there an area that you would like to see covered?
He’s a sacred cow, but Joe Thomas played probably his worst game as a pro. Not sure what’s going on with him this year–he’s still pretty amazing–but definitely off this year. Getting beat by quick Philly linemen is one thing, but Cinci wasn’t throwing anything especially tough at us scheme wise or any tough matchups. Giving up more sacks & pressures than I recall seeing. He has been uncharacteristically racking up penalties too…as did a lot of the off line it seemed yesterday. The off line hasn’t been opening up a lot of room for Richardson, but they seemed to improve at the game wore on. Hopefully they’ll “gel” as the season wears on.
The one thing that gets kind of swept under the rug in regards to Thomas yesterday is that he was on the injury report all week. I don’t know how much his knee was or wasn’t bothering him, but it has to be remembered.
And let’s face it, 60% of Joe Thomas is better than 100% of anyone else on the roster for the LT spot.
The biggest winner this week was me – I won’t have to hear from the Colt McCoy fan club all week! Awesome!
What percentage of WR’s run routes shorter than the first down yardage on 3rd down yesterday? I know one 3rd and long we were TE Trips with a SE the other way and all 3 to the strong side were short of the sticks.
Rick, how about those three shots at the end zone at the end of the game? None of those passes looked very close to succeeding.
Yes, it was Sheldon Brown that they missed in a “big, big way”… /sarcasm.
We’ll never know because Haden wasn’t there…but I’d venture a guess that Brown by himself doesn’t make that secondary much better than they were yesterday. Haden was the big loss and they get shredded with or without Brown in my opinion.
Try to figure out what was going on during that 3rd and long TD for the Bengals. Were we running zone, or did someone just stop playing man coverage after Dalton scrambled?
I have a hard time killing the secondary too much because I thought they were playing to the best of their ability. They just don’t have much ability. The Browns were down two starting CBs and I think any team would have a hard time recovering from that. I’m more inclined to blame the geniuses that felt comfortable going into the season with a 2-deep comprised of late round draft picks and undrafted FAs. Cincy also has a deep and fast WR corps.
So if “we’ll never know,” why the sarcasm?
With just Haden out, the Browns would have normally put either Skrine or Patterson in his place. With Brown out, they had to put both out there – which undoubtable and inexorably affected the Nickel and Dime packages.
I stand by my statement.
While i agree Cribbs doesn’t seem to have the same burst, I am fine with him as the main return guy. Reason being, the man doesn’t fumble. Nothing worse than a fumble during a return. It kills your team – case in point see Dallas this past week. Benjamin may be the return man of the future, but let’s allow him to get his sea legs for a year and then let him return kicks as a veteran next year….meanwhile keep the ball security with Cribbs.
Truer words have never been spoken Rick, Joe Haden is the biggest loser this week. Having him out there would have completely altered this game and I think it would meant a victory for Cleveland.
Winner: Weeden – Awesome bounce-back game from him.
Loser: The NFL – A league that is so anal about uniforms and socks shouldn’t be okay with letting these replacement referees work these games. They don’t know when to stop/run the clock…that’s day-one stuff. The worst thing was when Cincy launched T-Rich’s shoe down the field and there was no delay of game penalty, or at lease a stoppage of play until Richardson could get it back on. He had to leave the game for that? Crazy.
Well, we do have Oniel Cousi…ok I can’t even finish typing it, my hands are trembling too hard. Good point on the inj. Heard that he might have tweaked his knee I think a wk or two ago. Hope that’s it’s nothing lingering
Maybe it messed up the rotation…but I don’t think that Brown is the cover corner he once was. I don’t think missing Brown meant there was a huge lack of a talent on the field. I think Brown would have been beat up just like Skrine or Patterson in the same situation. I guess my point is that if you rate the defense a 100 with Haden, the fall from losing Haden is 10x the fall from losing Brown. To say they missed him in a “big, big way” is hyperbole. They missed him a little bit. They missed Haden in a “big, big way”.
I agree that Shurmur isn’t getting enough credit for this week yet. He actually called plays that made sense. He used some of the pressure against them by calling timely screens. Good mix of runs (even a few to the outside) and long and short passes. It was the best playcalling effort to date, I think.
“I guess my point is that if you rate the defense a 100 with Haden, the fall from losing Haden is 10x the fall from losing Brown. . . . They missed Haden in a “big, big way”.
Yes. See my first point in my initial comment. With Haden out, I still believe that they missed Brown in a big, big way. It’s not hyperbole, and it’s not an “either/or,” in my mind. It’s both. They missed both guys in a big, big way. Just because Brown isn’t Haden doesn’t mean his presence wasn’t missed. I think it was more than a little bit.
But who cares? This is dumb.
I agree with 99.9% of this comment….but I would have liked to see them finish tackles by pushing Green-Ellis backwards, instead of him finishing every run falling forward. Those 1-2 extra yards added up and turned 3rd and 8’s into 3rd and 4’s. But that’s me nit-picking.
Let him dance. He wasn’t just celebrating a touchdown….he was celebrating the fact that a football was thrown with zip and power to him when he was open. He deserves to dance for this after a whole year of Colt “Flutter Ball” McCoy and Seneca “Pass Out-of-Bounds” Wallace.
I wonder if those same “fans” blasted Richardson and Jackson for their flips into the endzone.
I agree with Marecic and his hands….but he looked decent as a lead blocker for Richardson all game.
Amen.
I would actually put Haden as the biggest winner of the week. I had questions about him getting beaten on plays but after seeing our secondary get slaughtered this week I have no doubts about his abilities.
I’d like to see Cribbs moved into the up-man on returns. If anyone knows who needs to be blocked and how to negate their gunner it is him.
He did well, but nearly every pass play, Richardson or Obganayayanayana was used to chip his man before dropping off an as outlet.
Not bad.
It’s just a shame. Wish he was peaking when the team was.
Contrast of running lanes versus last week. Was it Richardson being healthier, our line blocking better, combination?
I don’t want to get down in the mouth about the game, because the offense looked much better. However, the defense was terrible. Joe Haden possibly cost his team a win with his poor decision.
One other thing stands out on defense…the front offce needs to find a little more depth for the secondary. I know it was mostly the fact that Haden was out that hurt the passing defense, but in a league that is so pass-heavy, you need to have better depth. Want to find the money to sign better talent? Start by cutting Marecic and possibly trading Cribbs. I like Josh, but the guy is clearly not part of the passing offense, and there are others that can return kicks.
While trading Cribbs is not a bad personnel move….I don’t think the team wants to deal with the PR disaster that would be.