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November 4, 2013Pic: Was Greg Little being choked by a Ravens player?
November 4, 2013When Cleveland Browns head coach Rob Chudzinski interviewed for the job, he told Joe Banner and Jimmy Haslam that he would be an aggressive head coach with an attacking style of team. He repeated that to the media when he was introduced. He told his team back in the spring the same.
He wasn’t kidding.
The Browns have gone for it on fourth down 19 times this season which leads the league. Jacksonville is second having gone for it 17 times. The Browns hold a distinct edge in the number of fourth downs converted with 10. They are also successful 52.6% of the time which leads the league.
The Browns converted two big fourth downs in their win against Baltimore on Sunday, the first coming at the goal line on a touchdown pass to Davone Bess, and the second near mid-field on their final drive of the game.
“We had the opportunity to take the game at that point, and it was a potential punt situation, but Baltimore was playing so well and was able to drive so well. I felt good about our guys and us being able to convert and get that first down right there. Jason made a whale of a play. He scrambled, bought himself time, (WR) Davone (Bess) kept working to get open and (it was a) huge play.”
On why he called plays to WR Davone Bess on both fourth down plays, despite his performance against Kansas City:
“Because I trust him and because I know the type of person he is that he’s going to bounce back from the week before. You get to know people and you get to trust people and feel about them in this way, and Davone Bess is one of those people.”
[Related: Browns week nine Winners and Losers]
7 Comments
Love the aggressiveness, and how often we’re willing to go for it. We don’t lead the league in conversion %, though. We’re 9th. http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/downs/sort/fourthDownConvPct
Great call by Chud. Probably the gutsiest call by a Browns coach since Mangini’s gimmick game at New Orleans.
Interesting correlation between Cleveland and Jacksonville. So, aggressiveness is directly proportional to desperation?
How about that quote about Bess. Wonder why the team seems to be buying in more than they ever did for Mangini (tyrant) or Shurmer (deer in the headlights). This staff seems to be hitting the right buttons.
Best percentage by teams with 10 or more 4th down attempts this season? How about best percentage by teams who have converted at least 10 fourth downs?
I loved this move. It was basically saying “We’re not going to to GIVE the ball back to you. You’re going to have to take it from us by stopping us.” No more being intimidated into punting by the “almighty” Ratbird defense, only to watch Bert rip our guts out again with a game winning drive. Beautiful, gutsy call.
Imagine that. A team that plays agressively to win, rather than tries to avoid losing.
Bend but don’t break won’t win SBs.