Mike Pettine on being a road team, Barkevious Mingo and more

The Cleveland Browns are back in action this week down in Tennessee to face the Titans. It’s a home game for Jimmy Haslam, but his Browns are on the road. Head Coach Mike Pettine discussed the matchup with the media this week. Here are some of the highlights with my commentary.

On if he thinks that Tennessee is looking at the Browns as an easier match-up after some of the teams they’ve played:

“Yeah, I’m sure when we pop up on the schedule based on our current record and less than recent history, people are going to look at the Browns and if they want to pencil it in, it’ll be penciled in as a win more often than not. That’s what we’re out to change. I just … like I said yesterday, that conjecture is for fans. It’s for media. There are way too many good players and too many good coaches in this league. You have to be prepared physically and mentally to play every single week at a high level or you’re going to get beat.”

Pettine’s 100% right. Just like moral victories are reserved for fans and should almost never come into play for actual teams in their locker room, in the film room or on the practice field, that perception can’t persist either. Easy opponents are for fans to talk about, because the minute you see a team get overconfident in the NFL, it seems they get taught a lesson not to do that, or at least it feels that way. And let’s not pretend that Titans fans aren’t saying the exact same thing.

On if they have to prepare for Titans QB Charlie Whitehurst in case Locker doesn’t play:

“I don’t think their offense was that different when (Locker) wasn’t in there. I think the run game was the same. A lot of the pass concepts were the same. It wouldn’t be a radical departure for us, but just given the fact that he practiced late last week and they were confident that he was going to practice today, barring a setback, I’m fairly certain that he’ll be ready to go.”

I would pick the Browns as a blowout lock of the week to win if they got to face Charlie Whitehurst. I don’t think Jake Locker is one of the top QBs in the NFL, mind you, but he should give the Browns more of a challenge than Charlie Whitehurst.

It’s been a while since the Browns lined up against Whitehurst in 2011 when they beat the Seahawks 6-3 in a barn burner, but not that much has changed. That day Whitehurst got outplayed by Colt McCoy who completed 20 passes out of 35 attempts for 178 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. Whitehurst was 12 of 30 for 97 yards. That included a completion to Sidney Rice for 38 yards. Other than that one big play, he had 11 completions for 59 yards. All this against a Browns team that ended up being 4-12 on the year. Man, do I wish Charlie Whitehurst was playing this week.

On if LB Barkevious Mingo is healthy and what he needs to see from him as far as production on Sunday:

“We never put benchmarks on what production we need to see. Take the plays that are there for you. You run the danger of trying to make plays that aren’t yours to make or coming out of structure to have production. I can’t speak for him saying that he (feels) 100-percent with it. We haven’t had him in a lot of situations where he’s had an opportunity to get sacks. We’ve used (LB Jabaal) Sheard and (LB Paul) Kruger more in passing situations. Again, it falls back to not reading too much into statistics and a guy filling the grade sheet with plusses. That’s what’s most important to us. There are times where a guy won’t necessarily have production, but they’ll cause production. That comes with doing your job. That’s a big emphasis for us this week. Our mantra in all phases is do your job and good things will happen. That’s one thing – not just with Mingo, but with everybody else – that we’re emphasizing.”

On his reasoning for using the other two guys to rush the passer more:

“I like him better in coverage, and it’s good to roll those guys through. I always like having guys coming off the bench, at least one guy on third down – fresh legs to rush the passer. I just think that helps you, especially late in the game when you need the guys to be fresh.”

On Mingo being drafted here as purely a pass rusher and if he sees him differently:

“I see him as having the ability to do both. We evaluated him over the other two in his drop ability. It’s close with Mingo probably being the best, Kruger second and Jabaal third as far as ability to drop. The Sam linebacker is a very important position for us from a coverage standpoint. That’s just the way we decided to proceed with that rotation.”

Credit to the coach for not piling on the second-year player from LSU, but he can’t explain away Barkevious Mingo’s play. He’s a guy who shows flashy moments with his superior athleticism, but tat this point, he’s just not getting it done the way you expect from a sixth overall pick as far as I’m concerned, and I’m not talking about stats. Maybe I’m just picking out the few anecdotal bad plays, but Mingo has had some big plays to his side where he looks foolish either up the field or totally outside of any possible “contain.”

Joe Banner still has faith.

.@p_cirino outside in a 3-4 You need 1 LB to cover. He made clear sheard and Kruger, aren't as good at that. Over time Mingo will do both

— Joe Banner (@JoeBanner13) October 1, 2014

Even with Jake Locker at quarterback and the Browns being on the road, I think of this as a game the Browns should run away with. I’m not saying they will, of course, but coming off their bye week, they really should. They’ve played a lot of really quality teams already with their 1-2 record, but if they’re serious about proving to themselves and the fans that they’re at least in the middle of the pack of the NFL, they’ll beat the Titans pretty handily.