Gloves, bats let Tribe down at worst time
September 23, 2014Browns vs. Ravens: Behind the Box Score
September 23, 2014Running the football seems to be the most important thing to Mike Pettine whether we’re talking about doing it on offense, or defending it on defense. During his Monday meeting with the local press, both topics were at the forefront of conversation. One of the biggest questions for the Cleveland Browns in the face of their emerging rookie runners is what it all means for Ben Tate once he’s back healthy, having missed time since the middle of the team’s Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh.
They’ve made it tougher, but if… we’ll see where he is later in the week. I don’t know if we have to make that decision just yet, but before we leave here we’ll have a much better feel. Those guys have played well to their credit, still have a lot of room for improvement, but we are looking forward to getting Ben back.
This is the good thing about the running back position. If you have many talented players, there should be carries for multiple guys. Plus, as Ben Tate has already shown us, it’s difficult to play a full 16-game schedule in the NFL. I’m sure Tate will get opportunities once he’s back healthy and I expect carries to be fluid between the three backs. I expect that if Isaiah Crowell continues to be effective like he was last Sunday that his work will increase plenty. As they say, it doesn’t mean much who starts a game. Who finishes and plays the most during crucial moments says a whole lot more.
Pettine was also asked about Terrance West’s play, including a late miscommunicatino with Brian Hoyer that led to a loss of yardage and eventually one of the Browns’ failed field goal attempts. Turns out, it was indeed West’s error.
“Just a miscommunication, went the wrong way.”
“Yeah, we had a checked run, was supposed to go to the left. He stepped right. You have to ask him. I don’t know whether it was loud or he missed the check.”
Regardless, Mike Pettine is still taking the blame for the Cleveland Browns’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. While it isn’t in his best interest to say all the things he feels responsible for, he did express disappointment in the Browns’ overall defense of the Ravens running game. Before talking about the Browns’ own running backs, Pettine talked about fixing his rushing defense.
The run thing is disappointing. When we look at it…every run play that we give up, every explosive play we give up we evaluate. Was it technique? Was it scheme? Was it talent? Over time as you build, you start to see some trends. If it’s scheme, you either fix the call or take it out. If it’s technique, you address it on the practice field as far as making sure you get that technique worked, repped, perfected. Then if it’s talent you could replace a guy or not put him in a position to have to make that play. Just in broad terms, we look at all the negative plays we give up that way. In the run game, it’s a combination of a lot of different things. It was technique on some. It was scheme on some. (It was) missed tackles on some. It wasn’t any one thing where, ‘Hey, if we do this, we’ll be different.’ We need to get better in our run defense across the board.
As we discussed on Monday, this may very well be the most crucial element of all.
14 Comments
I say turn the Forest City Kiddies loose, behind the Northcoast Railway!
All the upticks for the NorthCoast Railway mention. And, it is so much better to have the full company laying the track rather than just having Joe Thomas be a 1-man track laying machine:
http://cdn.gifbay.com/2014/01/gromit_and_railroad_track-112809.gif
As for the question: Ben Tate is the veteran back who knows what he is doing best. He’ll have the better understanding of the plays and the protections and he has proven that he is successful when healthy. So, he will likely continue to start. The bigger question is if Crowell or West is the one to get the 1/3 carries that typically go to the backup RB.
Ben Tate =
http://i.imgur.com/50yZ5WR.gif
ben Mr Glass tate:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/photo_06_hires.jpg
At this rate, once Ben Tate returns, each RB will get about 1/3 of the carries, with the starter getting slightly more than the others. I don’t even remember the last time we had 3 good RBs on our team before. I wonder if a trade could be in order….
if Indy will give up 1 1st rounder for Richardson, then how many 1st rounders is Crowell worth?
Are you saying that he is going to purposefully sabotage the NorthCoast Railway in an attempt to find out if Johnny Manziel is truly a superhero?
I saw that movie one time and I’m still trying to forget how bad it was!
It wasn’t a good movie, but it was “bad enjoyable”
Zero. None. Nada. Crowell is not eligible to be traded.
Now Tate, or possibly West, let’s talk.
That was “Daredevil” for me and it had to do with more then Jennifer Garner in black leather!
Well, yeah.
It’s really nice to see a coach consider the fact that the issue may indeed be scheme. Too often, I feel that coaches believe their schemes are infallible, and the blame must lie elsewhere.