Because I have yet to share my thoughts on Grantland: While We’re Waiting…
November 2, 2015Donte Whitner and Joe Haden out for Week 9 in Cincy
November 2, 2015The setting was perfect. A sunny, bright November afternoon with Cleveland Browns fans trading in their Halloween sugar high for a well-timed Muni Lot buzz. The first drive was forgettable, what with the Arizona Cardinals moving down the field thanks to multiple third-down conversions and ultimately scoring a touchdown, but the rest of the first half was fantastic. Exciting screen plays, perfectly thrown back-shoulder fades—you name it. And then: Travis Coons.
When the Browns’ erstwhile impeccable kicker missed an extra point, one that would have put the team up 21-7, you just knew. FirstEnergy Stadium sure knew—the place went dead silent, save for the groans that accompany the foresight of what was about to happen. Travis Coons has been something of a cult, folk hero to this point in the 2015 NFL season, but on this day, he would simply be the first domino, the human card placed upon the top of the house that would start the entire crumbling process, the result being nothing more than a bunch of orange shirts and tired legs staring up at a scoreboard in disbelief.
Such is the life of a kicker in the NFL. Look at Kai Forbath. Dude was called upon eight times on Sunday, seven of which were of the extra point variety thanks to his quarterback’s incredible afternoon. The one that mattered? A 50-yard shot that made Drew Brees’ seven touchdown passes actually count.
WHODAT!!! I'll never forget that one! Great team win!! pic.twitter.com/7Cxj8bWcto
— Kai Forbath (@KaiForbath) November 2, 2015
The Washington Redskins cut Forbath after a missed field goal attempt in Week 1, and here he is banging home what may have been the biggest attempt of his career. The unfortunate part: I don’t know if good old Travis will have the chance to tweet something like this any time soon. At least at this stop on his career.
LOSER: Josh McCown
It’s difficult to fault a guy for wanting to play through injuries. To root for a team which once had a running back sit out with a sore throat is rarified air, so to have a starting quarterback who is actually having a decent season to want to suit up despite not being 100 percent is admirable. But it’s also dumb. As good as McCown looked before halftime, he was a shell of his Tampa Bay self in the second half, giving the ball back to the Cardinals with the utmost of quickness, allowing them to not only get themselves back into the game, but ultimately win by two scores.
McCown was forcing throws—that interception was brutal—and was hampered to the point where the entire Browns offense was looking at the sidelines in disbelief that Mike Pettine was not making a change. While this may speak more toward their thoughts about Johnny Manziel, how anyone can watch a 20-7 lead turn in to a 34-20 loss without making some sort of move is preposterous.
“We talked about [taking McCown out],” said Pettine after the game. “We were going to take him out, and said that if he couldn’t go, to go down, and he stayed in there.. . . We put it on our players, if they’re injured and need to come out, they are to go down on the field.”
You may say that this has more to do with the bumbling Browns coaching staff, but I’ll gladly find Josh McCown guilty by association.
LOSER: Joe Haden
While Joe Haden may be the victim of a terrible scheme (more on this later), he’s also a former Pro Bowler who has gotten torched more often than not through the entire season. On Sunday, Haden was thrown at five times with his receiver snagging all five passes, tallying 123 yards and a momentum-shifting touchdown to Michael Floyd.
Worse is that Haden left with yet another concussion. The first one this season forced him to miss multiple games. When it rains in Cleveland, it pours.
WINNER: Brian Hartline
It’s been a rough season for the free agent receiver, but with Andrew Hawkins missing time, it was good to see another wide receiver step up. The first touchdown snag was a very nice route on a very solid defender in Tyrann Mathieu. The second was in traffic and displayed the willingness to use his body in order to come up with the ball.
While the sustainability of such a game remains to be seen, it’s good to see the Browns have another red zone target outside of Gary Barnidge.
LOSER: Dwayne Bowe
Seriously. Are you even on the team?
@Reflog_18 just barely participated in anthem pic.twitter.com/CyWQysOvRQ
— Brad Rehker (@BRehkingBrad) November 1, 2015
WINNER: Duke Johnson
I encourage you all to check out this piece by Tom Reed. For a team in desperate need of playmakers to completely ignore the guy who set up one of their three touchdowns is unforgivable.
LOSER: Isaiah Crowell
Ten carries. Fourteen yards. You’re fired.
LOSER: Tramon Williams
Allowing 132 yards on 7 of 13 targets is one thing. When you’re leading the team in tackles, something isn’t going as planned.
WINNERS: K’Waun Williams, Tashaun Gipson and Armonty Bryant
Williams had a very strong game. Gipson finally picked a ball off. Bryant was thiiiiiis close to pulling off the ever-exciting Fat Guy Touchdown. There weren’t many bright spots to the Browns defense, so it’s worth pointing out the rarities.
LOSERS: Mike Pettine, Jim O’Neil, and John DeFilippo
There comes a point where your preferred style of play just isn’t cutting it any longer. Mike Pettine came in to Cleveland with this desire to run a man-coverage scheme that allowed the front seven to pressure the opposing quarterback, inherently putting his secondary on their individual islands. When asked where the team was at this point in the season, Pettine supplied the following:
“Where are we? We’re at the halfway point.”
If this past Sunday was indicative of anything, it’s that the system, as constructed, is not working. If a change isn’t made immediately, the pair of coordinators may want to start brushing up their résumés as I can’t see how any of them survive, whether it’s the right decision or not.
WINNER: Gary Barnidge
Old faithful did it again. What made Barn+Bridge’s touchdown snag all the better is that Chris Cooley, former tight end and current color commentator, could not help himself from calling out the play before it happened.
LOSER: Pierre Desir
Poor guy.
LOSER: Ray Farmer
I mean seriously.
And finally, the fans:
@WFNYScott
Winners: whoever gets traded out of this Browns hell hole
Losers: everyone else— Pabst Benatar (@pabst_benatar) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott Winners: The Browns selling all the seats out. Losers: Fans paying to see it.
— Lisa Hahner (@citygalsports) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott losers are the fans. Winners are the ownership for raking in the cash from this pile of crap
— Joe (@thedirtyjoe) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott Winner- Bowe for stealing 9 million to stand on the sidelines. Loser- The defense again.
— JM85 (@Mal0307) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott Winners-Hartline and McCown in the 1st half Losers- Browns secondary, 2nd half offense, people who think Pettine's coach material
— One of the Lesser Johns (@JohnBilancini) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott Winner: Orange tops, as in "Orange you glad we wore them?"
Loser: Pettine, as in "Orange you glad we kept McCown in?"
¯_(ツ)_/¯— ryangetty. (@ryangetty) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott Winner: McCown- playing like he wants to win here. Loser: Jim O- Pettine needs to take D back over, or at least increase his role
— Trilly Ray Cyrus (@thenickbryson) November 1, 2015
@WFNYScott losers: Farmer – every week the roster looks worse highlighted by his first round picks & the great Dwayne "healthy scratch" Bowe
— T.D. Dery (@TD1TribeKU) November 2, 2015
https://twitter.com/Dr_Phil20/status/660979114078289920
@WFNYScott winner: me for watching first half. Loser: me for watching second half
— Diamondcutters for all you suckas (@DevonDallasPage) November 2, 2015
@WFNYScott Winners: Special Teamers getting playing time over Justin Gilbert and Dwayne Bowe.
Losers: The Browns. #Eternally— Clout (@irundownhill) November 2, 2015
@WFNYScott whoever the bottom of the barrel play-by-play guy Fox had. He was straight awful. Worse than any of the hot garbage CBS gives us
— UncleGrumpy (@Unc1eGrumpy) November 2, 2015
@WFNYScott winner: me, I put $50 on Ariz. Loser: CLE but that's ok our draft pick keeps getting higher and that's our Super Bowl
— Eric Brooks (@OffSummers) November 2, 2015
50 Comments
WFNY PREDICTION GAME
BROWNS RECORD = 2-6
CURRENT WINNERS
Michael = 9-7
Pat Leonard = 9-7
Craig = 8-8
Joe = 8-8
Garry Owen = 7-9
Harv = 6-10
Josh = 5-11
The Real Shamrock = 5-11
B-bo = 5-11
Scott = 4-12
Saggy = 4-12
6thCity = 4-12
Hopwin = 4-12
Nj0 = 4-12
ON THE BUBBLE
None
LOSERS
Over .500
ME = 12-4
Under .500
None
am now 6-2
Reposting here:
@ Jets – L (CORRECT)
vs Titans – W (CORRECT)
vs Raiders – W (INCORRECT)
@ Chargers – L (CORRECT)
@ Ravens – L (INCORRECT)
vs Broncos – L (CORRECT)
@ Rams – L (CORRECT)
vs Cardinals – L (CORRECT)
@ Bengals – L
@ Steelers – L
vs Ravens – L
vs Bengals – L
vs 49ers – W
@ Seahawks – L
@ Chiefs – W
vs Steelers – L
2-6 at the halfway point puts us on a trajectory to nail my 4-12 prediction.
Scott, you’ve perspicaciously made some of these points already, but I’m going to reinforce them.
LOSER: Coaching Staff. Guys, that’s not what we mean by “making second-half adjustments.” (Hey-yo!)
LOSERS: O’Brien and DeFilippo. Gentlemen, your glorious (hush, bow head) Systems are not working.
• Kruger is a proven pass rusher. Is it true that he was dropping back into coverage? (I don’t know because I don’t watch the games any more; I listen to them on the radio with one ear.) If so, why? Because your System calls for it? That’s pretty ridiculous by any measure.
• Duke Johnson, by far your most productive running back, gets three touches during the whole game? THREE? That is absolutely inexcusable. It’s coaching malpractice. (“Excuse me, Mr. Flip, it’s Elk & Elk on line two.”)
Systems don’t win ball games, playmakers do. You two mindless drones appear to be clueless. Stop trying to pound square pegs into round holes.
WEEKLY LOSER: Ray Farmer. Let’s sing it one more time, Ray. With a bonanza of four first-round picks in two years, you drafted a kick returner, a loose-cannon/train-wreck/tire-fire backup QB, a speed bump, and a utility lineman. Discuss.
(Or is it that the coaching staff is unable to coach them up and take advantage of what skills they do have? We don’t know what goes on at practice, and Pettine has said that guys must practice well to earn playing time. Fair enough. But my man-love for Pettine is starting to dissipate. I’m not going to send him flowers anymore.)
Amen to Lisa Hahner and her Tweet!
I’ve only missed the SD game so far even though I originally predicted 4-12 as well. I should have gone 3-13 since nobody picked that I just thought, dummy me, this team would win more then three games for sure.
Winners:
Hartline. 2 TD catches puts him here but his 4 for 32 wasn’t great.
Barn-Kowski: Another day another td catch.
First half defense. Causing turnovers and actually putting a decent pass rush together was great. Holding the ARI run game in check that first half showed some progress.
Losers:
D-Bowe. The guy has his own private table in the losers section.
Second half defense: Holes got bigger to run through and the secondary was torched for 24 points.
Coaching: It would be great if they could learn to finish the games and put the proverbial “foot on the throat” instead of “hands doing choking motion”.
Offense: Even with the ball on the arizona part of the field after the turnover, McCown throws into double coverage and gets picked.
hi Scott … good point about the defensive scheme , or lack thereof. they are way too predictable in their man-to-man tendencies … you would think o’neill or pettine would change things up & give them a zone-look every now & then , but they don’t. it is painfully obvious in the 2nd half of games , when the opposing offenses are adjusting & we just keep doing the same thing.
I am not eliminated yet. Yaaaayyyyy.
(had to chime in before next 2 games)
Why is Hartline a Winner? Yes, he had 2 TD catches, but he also had 3 drops that were square in his hands, 2 of which killed drives on 3rd down. At best he gets a pass. For someone who Bitched about not getting targets, you should frickin catch the ball 1/2 the time it’s thrown to you. Inexcusable. OK, I would probably give him a “winner” grade had I not listened and read multiple time last week where he said “I don’t know why I don’t get targets, ask the coach” boo hoo hoo.
Losers? 51 Browns players who came out playing on fire and watched their coach say “slow down, have a cool glass of water, and relax” when the team went up 20-7. (I’m excluding Bowe and Manziel because they are not allowed to play)
Pettine – LOSER for so many reasons I can’t bring myself to type them all.
LOSER: Hopes & Dreams. What a nice first half. Why didn’t it come for the second 30 minutes?
WINNER: Continuity. The Browns will probably have a new coach next year. They looked like they were going to buck the trend and keep someone for 3 seasons in a row. Thank goodness that isn’t going to happen.
Because I needed a positive GIF and he was one of two players who could be the subject of one. The bar is really that low.
Winner: Josh McCrown. He continues to be the one guy on the team that is actually better than what we all hoped. Plus he is tough as nails. He is obviously not the long-term solution , but the dude has been great and no one ever gives him credit.
Loser: Joe Haden and the Defense. If the defense was just AVERAGE, we would be an above .500 team. It really is that simple.
Loser: Farmer, O’Neil. Farmer ‘s signings and picks have been duds, and O’Neil has been terrible.
Winner: whoever held the edge on the first play of the game and made the stop. No idea who it was because it was far end of the field from the camera, no replays and the announcers didn’t bother. Speaking of which, I rarely mention the broadcast team but were they both drunk? Forget any perceived bias – they couldn’t get the players right on either team, all game. Both guys missed the missed extra point completely.
Loser: Pettine decisions galore.
– re Haden: if he still wasn’t healthy he shouldn’t have played. Pettine watched him practice. The Cardinals knew from the jump he was off – they targeted him incessantly and he wasn’t close to covering anybody. If he didn’t bother studying receivers, shame on the coaching staff.
– re Desir: one snap? He’s been no worse than Haden when Haden was supposedly healthy this year.
– re keeping McCown in despite his eyes rolling back in his head: wow, what an explanation. This is the first time I thought the “high school coach” epithet appropriate. You’re not teaching kids how to suck it up. See the sitch and make the tough call. This is like a baseball manager justifying not changing pitchers because he he told the guy to let him know if he needed to come out. No, Mike. If you’re that sure Johnny is going to cost you your job, at least think about McCown’s brain cells and ability to walk in middle age. There are things more important than this gig.
Loser: Hartline. Disagree with your congrats, Scott. The routes were good but TDs were perfectly thrown. On the other hand I counted 3 drops, one of which ripped the guts out of the team. What happened to that guy.
Loser: My leaves. Saw the opening TD drive, picked up my yard equipment. Heard us tie, came back inside. Got dark early. This stops Thursday.
Loser: Turbin, Haden, the Wildcat, Malcolm Johnson
Winners: Dansby, Mack, Thomas, D Bryant, Kruger, Tramon Williams – $7 million plus for all these dudes, congrats
Loser: the hideous day-glo orange jerseys. You couldn’t read the player numbers and in HD the orange literally bled off the uniforms into the surrounding pixels.
Turbin sucked. I don’t know why he is playing so much right now. Give the ball to Duke out of backfield.
sorry I didn’t see your Hartline comment first. I thought one of those drops, the sideline pattern on 3rd down, ripped the heart out of the team’s play to that point, reinforced the notion that they’d lose. They signed him to make that catch.
I am a loser, period. I thought that the 7-9 browns of last year were at least improving and the franchise was for once going in the right direction. Nope, we look to be heading towards at least 5 more years of losing, and a regime change shortly. Yes, I read the article on not panicking, and I am not. I am simply sad that this is the same Ol Browns.
The draft is indeed our superbowl, but the draft ends up being like the regular season, if we draft 16 players, we will lose on at least 12 of them. So the draft is just another way this team loses. You feel good the night of the draft, like the organization picked someone good, but once they hit the field, like Danny Shelton, they just are well, other Cleveland Browns that just are poor or at best average players.
For the love of the Gods, keep Joe Thomas. But Trade Mack. Why? He is not sticking around, he would be a moron to, and we may as well get something for him outside of a supplemental pick Farmer will screw up on.
It is almost as if Josh Gordon is next years best hope, if he stays off the dope, (hope for any highlights or big plays).
While I agree, no one gives McCown credit, just play the young guy and prove he is a bust at this point. He is at least mobile, and probably won’t be helicoptered as much as McCown. McCown has earned my respect, but seriously, lets not start the guy, and that sucks for him as he is our best QB, but he is not the future. Since we will suck and suck bad anyways, lets at least lose young. trade Mack, see what Irving can do.
On a funny side, why not release Bowe and pick up Greg Little.? Sure, Little Sucks too, but my goodness, he would actually do better than Bowe… LOL
“I counted 3 drops, one of which ripped the guts out of the team. What happened to that guy[?]”
He now plays like a Brown.
WINNER: Alec Scheiner. By now the Browns have certainly set an all-time world record for the most losses in the most different costumes in a single season. They can never take that away, Al.
well, the Steelers, probably in a show of condescending sympathy, lost in the worst unis I have ever seen.
They remind me of the industrial hand soap we used to have to use to get oil off our hands when I worked a city maintenance job http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/a8/a8a4edb3-1588-4950-b00e-d163a7b900cc_300.jpg
Yeah, you don’t want to watch the Steelers play the Packers on Throwback Day.
You misspelled throw up.
What’s the deal with that Bowe pic? There has got to be more to the story. Nobody wants to find themselves in the position of having to defend Dwayne Bowe, but I have to point out that he was a contributing player just a season ago. Yet this 2-6 team can’t find a chance to get him on the field. So weird.
hi BRYAN … if everyone played with the passion & pride that mccown does , we’d be much better off.
After Pettine publicly criticized Haden for sitting because of an injury, is it any surprise that guys are playing when they shouldn’t?
I know being a head coach is probably a million times harder than it looks, but I’d kill for one who shows basic competency. No flashy schemes. No surprise formations. No gaming the rules. Just do the basics. Get your personnel in and out, decide on a #1 RB, get the best players the ball, don’t completely f*%# up the clock, keep the locker room happy…..
hi HARV … it was nate orchard who held the end on arizona’s first drive.
… coach up the draftees so that they progressed in a normal way along the NFL learning curve without some combination of wrecking cars, entering rehab and being inactive.
Our standards are so low at this point that we would probably hail this generic coach as the second coming of Bill Walsh.
Oh, and the musical chairs approach to starters and playing time is pretty annoying.
It’s another one of these things that established guys like Belichick can pull because a.) they’re proven winners, b.) they’re smart enough to evaluate talent, and c.) they know how to scheme for teams week-to-week. I have to imagine that most players react differently when it’s coming from a second year coach who probably won’t see a third.
if you were bowe , wouldn’t you want to play … or would you be happy just collecting a check ?? i would be busting my ass every single day to show the coaches i’m serious & want to contribute. i can only guess it is his attitude & work habits … and if that’s the case , somebody should’ve known this about him before we brought him here. this is definitely a black-eye for the guy i continue to defend.
yes, MR. SASS … you are a loser ! just kidding … hang in there , bro.
I have been coming around to the idea that Pettine is actively alienating some players. West, Gilbert, Manziel, Bowe, Erving. They all did something early on to get in his dog house and they are never getting out.
When it was a few rookies with character issues, I put it on them. But now that it is starting to include others, I’m thinking there is blame to go on each side.
Most of those guys are young enough to not know any different. Bowe is a veteran and knows it shouldn’t be this way. I mean, they all may be terrible players, but to treat your roster like it’s only 45 players deep as Pettine seems to is extreme.
Coach Pettine seems to think a lot of these supposedly talented players have attitude problems.
It sure seems that way, doesn’t it? What’s really odd is that after all this talk about being on the same page, it seems obvious (to me at least) that Farmer isn’t afraid to acquire players with character issues while Pettine’s main concerns seem to be work ethic and professionalism.
I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but I really think Pettine suffers from Bill Belichick Syndrome. This is the condition where you make callous, hard-nosed decisions that blow up in your face because you’re not Bill Belichick. Other famous sufferers include Eric Mangini, Josh McDaniel, and Bill O’Brien
What’s the tie breaking procedure going to be for us 4 and 12ers?
I’ve also wondered about issues with the player-coach connection here. You usually hear effusive praise from at least some small segment of the player population, even if they’re brown-nosing. Nothing but crickets about Pettine, very similar to Shurmur. But we have to be careful here: there’s a lot of objective indicators that everyone you mention above can’t play, and that Manziel, Gilbert and West in particular deserved to be deep in the doghouse for lack of seriousness of purpose.
I am hanging in there. Will be a Browns fan my entire life though I expect them to suck for the rest of it too. I am in the Acceptance stage of the grieving process here. However, I am ‘adopting’ a second favorite team, when the Browns are not on I shall watch the Vikings as my ancestors “hail” from that region. Need to at least watch some competent football outside of the teams clobbering the Browns. (Don’t want to watch the Patriots or the Broncos, those teams just don’t float my boat, the Broncos cause of the Drive and Fumble, and the Patriots because of Tom Cry Baby Brady the deflator…
On another note though, I do think Farmer should be fired before the draft. Pettine I loved last year, but since the team was 7-4 last year, Pettine has really not coached the team well. He reminds me of Chud’s job when the team tanked at the end of his only year. Too bad we did not give Chud and company another year, but hindsight is 20/20
i’m the opposite … i think farmer gets another year & pettine’s fate may depend on our showing the rest of the way. i’m in the camp that thinks we’d need to keep everyone together for more than 2 years … it’s a lonely camp.
Losers: Haden and Whif err Whitner. They are basically the Nick Swishers of the team, talk a lot and never produce. Now they have “concussions”.
Well, I understand the camp, I do. This is the worst I have seen the Browns in sometime though, they are not even competitive defensively, and I thought Pettine was a defensive coach. I have not paid attention to the Patriots but I imagine Sheard is probably doing well there. Our schemes and personnel all suck.
Bowe from all reports has been ideal in terms of work ethic and attitude. Pettine for whatever reason doesn’t want to play him and didn’t even gameplan him in yesterday’s game. Wasn’t the first pass thrown to him from Manziel? I think it went incomplete but seems similar to how Manziel “discovered” Travis Benjamin for the team this season. Even if he’s slow there are several ways a big bodied receiver would help this team: blocking and screens come to mind.
sheard is doing well … so is RB dion lewis , remember him ? he was injured when he was here … he is tearing-it-up with the pats … the patriots are good at taking other people’s players & getting them to succeed.
thanks MD … i don’t understand it.
Agreed those three Landed themselves there, but do they have to be there forever? Gilbert and Manziel both had flare ups this year, but is it because they are stuck at a job where their boss hates them and they’ll never be given any responsibility? Or are they just lost causes? I honestly can’t say.
If our boss hates us, we can quit. These guys are trapped.
I think it’s fair to say that our players are regressing under Mike Pettine. Our pass rush disappeared the second he took over and I think Joe Haden has as well.
I’m not a huge fan of Farmer but Gilbert wasn’t a reach and was a position of need, pairing with Joe. Gilbert was considered the top corner, was he not?
Everybody had Shelton going at the top half of the 1st and was the perfect fit for our struggling D.
Manziel had flags and is fair criticism. Erving as well was a bit of a head scratcher.
I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t mind Farmers’ vision of building a power football team. Unfortunately Pettine has not fielded a tough, physical team. It is a finesse team that passes 50 times a game out of the shotgun, can’t run, and sure as sh** can’t stop the run.
All of which is to say that Farmer and Pettine are not a good match.
… which leads to road rage and falling off the wagon? Mmm, don’t think so.
Joe Haden’s year usually goes like this: He’ll cover most receivers very well the entire year but give up the big game deciding play a few times a season. This year he’s jut been terrible. I was following the game on ESPN gamecast, when Floyd made the 60 yd touchdown I thought: “I’m sure that was over Joe Haden” and sure it enough it was.
What? All through camp all the reporters pointed out he was using “veteran” days to skip running drills. Everything I have heard about the guy going back to last year points to a serious work ethic deficiency.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/03/is-dwayne-bowe-on-the-browns-roster-bubble/
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.