Could Eliot Wolf be Browns next GM if Ray Farmer is fired?
December 28, 2015Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson on Johnny Manziel: “He’s terrific, really”
December 28, 2015The helmet spike was poetic in a way. Not just in the Dwayne Rudd-Kansas City-last-second-OH-MY-GOD-THEY-MIGHT-WIN-OH-NO-NEVERMIND way, but in that Johhny Manziel: Ultra competitor way. Coming out of college over a year ago, Manziel was short and had questionable decision making, but he was a lot of fun to watch and he was a competitor. This, in professional sports, tends to be a code word for “guy who tries hard and wants to win, but might not have all of the physical skills of his peers.” Stories of him on the golf course paint him in a way that would make pleated pants around the world burst at the seams. He hurls wedges, spikes cell phones. But in a different setting, he discusses the same game, but in a way that would paint others as the overly competitive ones. In a Golf Digest interview, he claimed to be afraid of his father’s reaction in the event he would have beaten him in an 18-hole round.
Throughout the entire Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Browns were behind the eight ball. They were 10.5-point underdogs heading in to Arrowhead Stadium, one of the tougher places to play for any visiting team. Manziel had had an up-and-down season, but would be taking on his penultimate audition for a job—somewhere—and would be doing so without so much in the way of a wide receiver north of 5-10. (Dwayne Bowe was active, but this was simply so he could be team captain against his former team.) During the game, the Browns were unable to score points, largely due to Manziel’s inability to find his receivers with accuracy, throwing the balls over heads of targets and then one just a bit short and into the hands of a defender. But then the switch flipped and Manziel said eff-it—Johnny Football was back in the same way that Bruce Wayne dusts off the Batman regalia in The Dark Knight Returns. There was no Alfred and no money sign, but Manziel quickly dumped the learn-on-the-fly pocket presence for a guy who just wanted to freaking win a football game and was going to do whatever it damn well took to do it, running around like he was wearing wine and white instead of orange and brown, bouncing off of offensive linemen, breaking the ankles of linebackers and then diving head first to get that extra yard.
But as has been the case of the Manziel era in Cleveland, there was an element that proved to foil the plans. This time, the clock. Needing a touchdown with zeroes nearing, the whistles blew as No. 2 frantically scrambled behind center Alex Mack in hopes of receiving a snapped ball to spike. Instead, he received a fist full of his own ear holes, where the natural reaction—not having a phone nor a golf club—was to plant his headwear into the earth.
All winners compete, but not all competitors win.
LOSER: Johnny Manziel’s arm
OK, so Johnny Manziel the passer was pretty much atrocious. I’m not even talking about the statistics—Alex Smith threw for fewer yards, completing just one more pass. Manziel was off-target for a good portion of the day, missing a wide open Gary Barnidge early and sailing a fourth-quarter pass over the head of Travis Benjamin late. I maintain that this is one part a young quarterback still trying to grow as a passer (there’s a reason he only threw a dozen passes in that win over Tennessee) coupled with the fact that the Browns have no No. 1 receiver under contract let alone healthy. Pro Football Focus rated Manziel’s passing in Week 15 as one of the worst they have ever calculated. Not good.
WINNER: Johnny Manziel’s legs
But knowing he didn’t have it going in the passing game, and the Chiefs providing a ton of pressure to force errant passes, Manziel made it work on his feet, scrambling for 108 yards on 11 carries, moving the chains when needed. Yes, the Browns fell seconds short of being able to get off a potential game-winning play, but that drive would not have happened if not for Manziel being able to get the yardage needed on a crucial 11-yard gain with 1:20 left on the clock. That drive itself would not have mattered if Manziel would not have been able to get the four yards needed at midfield to ultimately get the Browns in field goal range early in the fourth quarter.
https://vine.co/v/iqaPXtFJeIL
To a man, Manziel foreshadowed PFF and gave himself a sub-par grade on the afternoon.
“I’m definitely shouldering a lot for this loss,” said Manziel. “This is weighing [on me]. Regardless of what our record is, where we are in the season, it sucks not to win, especially when our coach and the other 10 guys put us in position to try to get in the end zone there at the end. I just felt like I didn’t do the right thing in crunch time. That’s the moral of the entire story of the game.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to our defense in the second half,” he said. “I thought we put some good drives together but when it came down to it, I don’t think I was good enough in crunch time today. I thought I was extremely sub-par and cost us some points.”
Look, passing to Mitchell Schwartz in the red zone was not a good move. But he also did things in the game that gave the Browns a chance to win. While he didn’t exactly execute flawlessly, the fourth quarter was a ton of fun to watch—something we haven’t been able to say all to often in 2015.
WINNER: Mitchell Schwartz
This may have been the big man’s best game of the season, coming just days after his Pro Bowl snub. He was great once again in run blocking and took advantage of a depleted Chiefs pass rush by allowing next to nothing in the way of a hurry. Conversely…
LOSER: Cameron Erving
There’s not much more that can be said at this point. Overall the offensive line allowed no sacks and no hits, but 10 hurries—four of which were on Erving. Here’s hoping the front office knows something we don’t.
WINNERS: Browns front seven
There was a point where the Chiefs went for it on fourth down without so much as blinking, and it had appeared that it was going to be a long day. The Browns gave up a ton of first-half yardage to Alex Smith in the most frustrating of fashion, but what had typically been a brutal unit only allowed 17 points on the afternoon and gave the offense a chance to bring things home. Nate Orchard (more on him later) finished with three defensive stops, a sack, and an interception on the day. Paul Kruger, despite that incredibly dumb off-sides call that extended KC’s first scoring drive, hurried Alex Smith four times on the day. I went into the game wondering how the Browns would limit the Chiefs’ offense due to their host of playmakers. They surprised me and held up their end of the bargain. That’s a win.
LOSERS: Browns secondary
Donte Whitner had a solid day in terms of stopping the run and containing on the interior, but the rest of his defensive back teammates were abused early in this one when Jeremy Maclin screamed past them on a seam route from the slot.
https://vine.co/v/iqaF1MHAJbI
Not to be outdone was Tramon Williams who, as a defensive back, was abused by Travis Kelce on this textbook 2-route from the right side.
https://vine.co/v/iqaUvPn2O6U
I can’t blame Tashaun Gipson for being pissed following this touchdown, but if you take a look at the Maclin video above, it’s Gip who’s laying in the end zone as Maclin has the ball in the back of it for six points. Glass houses and stuff.
WINNERS: Chris Tabor and Jordan Poyer
While some think of trick plays as a sign of desperation, kudos to Tabor (who’s gotten his fair share of beatings in these columns over the season) on having the balls to make this call. Kudos to Poyer who, in addition to a few special teams tackles, executed the play perfectly and got the yardage that was needed for the first down.
https://vine.co/v/iqaPur667KV
WINNER: Isaiah Crowell
Crow will likely fall through the cracks as everyone will want to discuss what Johnny Manziel did on the ground, but the dude had a solid day, tallying just shy of 90 yards on the ground with just 16 carries. He busted out a 28-yard run early in the contest and then found the end zone for the fourth time this season.
LOSER: Christian Kirksey
He’s grouped in with the winners above, but man—if you’re the QB spy, you can’t give up a run like this on a huge third down.
https://vine.co/v/iqaFYOpAUF2
It’s these types of plays that have destroyed this team, their inability to get off of the field despite doing their jobs on first and second down. Picking nits perhaps, but this game may turn out much, much different if not for the first-half inability to stop Smith from extending drives.
WINNER: Nate Orchard
Dude gets his own spot here. In addition to his stops, that okie-doke he pulled on the interception, pulling the ball from Craig Robertson as if they were running a zone-read and then taking it down the sideline with receiver-like quickness was fun to watch. Letting Jabaal Sheard go to New England (where he’s killing it), the Browns desperately need this kid to shine. Perhaps he was just late blooming this season, but the growth in his game over these few weeks has been noticeable. Now, it just needs to keep going.
LOSER: Ray Farmer
Permanently here until the Browns obtain playmaking wide receivers who also happen to be north of six feet tall. FOX airing the Panthers-Falcons game in the Cleveland market, wherein Julio Jones hauled in a host of passes for 175 yards and a touchdown merely served as salt in the wounds. Get playmakers. Now.
https://vine.co/v/iqaxzPLi5dH
And finally, the fans:
@WFNYScott Winner Pettine. Players haven't given up on him or the season. Clearly still have pride and playing for him. IMO anyway
— Luke Sicari (@lukesicari) December 27, 2015
@WFNYScott Winners: Sheard, Weeden, Skrine, Julio Jones, T West. Losers: Those not cut/not drafted/traded away by CLE. And Dwayne Bowe, too.
— Andrew Reid (@AndyLReid) December 27, 2015
@WFNYScott losers: Browns special teams
winners: Johnny, Kevin Love, local radio hosts-who will be focused on the former rather than latter
— Ben Cox (@WFNYBen) December 27, 2015
https://twitter.com/fed_scivittaro/status/681221439156977664
https://twitter.com/BenMarleyTweets/status/681236308107358209
Winners: Chiefs, Jets
Losers: Pitt & their playoff odds
Winner: December SchadenBrownes— michael bode (@mgbode_WFNY) December 27, 2015
@WFNYScott winner: Manziel. What a difference a year makes. Loser: Ray Farmer like always
— JM85 (@Mal0307) December 28, 2015
36 Comments
Bruce Banner is Batman?!? Methinks you’re crossing the streams.
http://www.radiotimes.com/uploads/images/Original/80217.gif
LOSER: Tackling in the Secondary. For the second week in a row, the Browns DBs played like Job 1 is to not get hurt.
WINNER: Fake Punt. Very gutsy and it nearly didn’t work. But what the hell, why not?
LOSER: Cam Erving. He and Mozgov need to find a new weight room.
LOSER: Post-Fake Punt. So after getting the first down, Poyer gets stuck on stupid and draws a delay-of-game penalty. Nobody on a putrid team should ever celebrate anything other than a win. And even then, not until the game is officially over.
LOSER: Manziel. He keeps throwing behind receivers. That’s a sign of Brady Quinn disease. It looks like it should be curable, but it wasn’t for Quinn.
WINNER: Moral Victory. At least we threw a scare into ‘em.
of course! and everyone knows that Bruce Wayne is the Hulk! Not.
But wouldn’t Bat-Hulk be amazing?
http://img12.deviantart.net/2f28/i/2011/185/d/2/bat_hulk_colored__by_aztech2009-d3l053s.jpg
Winner: Johnny next week when we knock the Stills out of the playoffs and begin the rekindling of the rivalry.
LOSER: Pettine. Kick the FG. The D is getting it done, you have 2 time outs, and the 2 minute warning. This guys continued inability to grasp the concept of clock management is mind boggling.
LOSER: Irving. Why does he keep looking around, and backwards while in his stance?
LOSER: Farmer. Wiiiiiiide Recieeeeeeever.
Winner: Flip. He made some nice play calls given the smurf brigade. My tke is the had Manziel on the leash and his pocket mechanics improved. They let him off the leash and it all went to hell. Gotta find the balance between the two.
I had the Browns plus 4 at 3-1 odds. I so wanted that FG, lol.
Winners:
Coach Flip: Doing what he can with what the FO has given him which isn’t much.
Johnny: His throws were terrible but tried to make plays with his legs when possible.
O-line: They played better and gave the RB’s some lanes to run. Erving makes me wish that they could bring back St. Claire.
Orchard: big play with the INT.
Losers:
Farmer: Will continue to be here until he is gone or learns to draft properly.
Special teams: Another blocked FG?
Erving: Jonathan Ogden you are not…
Fat Bowe: couldn’t even make a difference when playing against the team that booted you out the door.
ME: for losing not one but two championship finals in fantasy football.
UNSURE: It’s hard to grade Manziel this week. As a QB, he was pretty bad. As an offensive weapon, he was pretty great. Unfortunately, he plays QB, so it’s probably better to be a good QB. Pittsburgh should be interesting as they are not half the defense that KC is.
UNSURE: Farmer. Pettine finally played Bowe, and the whole world saw how awful he is now. Erving also looks really bad. And Gilbert still can’t see the field in this awful secondary. Our receivers flat out stink. Barn+Bridge is a lucky find. Hartline is okay. Hawkins should only play the slot. And Benji is a hit or miss deep threat guy. But there’s no one who you can look to and say, “If we need 10 yards, we can throw it to this guy.” But, some of the other guys are starting to contribute.
UNSURE: Pettine. As demonstrated above, Pettine has crap talent to work with on offense. However, that can’t be said for the defense. This defense blows. BUT adjustments were finally made! Good things happened! Hooray! BUT AGAIN, you cannot tell me that Gilbert, for all his idiocy, is unable to put up an effort better than whatever awful combination of Gaines/T.Williams we saw yesterday.
WINNERS: Orchard and Shelton. They look like they might be coming along. This is how low the bar is set on defense this year.
LOSER: The Browns secondary sucks. I know it’s missing Haden, and Williams is playing out of position, but it sucks. Gipson is afraid to hit people. Gaines sucks. Desir sucks. Gilbert allegedly sucks, but know one can say for sure because he’s not allowed out of the dog house.
WINNER/LOSER: The Crow. He had a good game. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to play the whole game. They need to stop yo-yo-ing between Crow and Duke. Crow starts to find a rhythm, and he is pulled for a quarter so Duke can get his touches. This is dumb. If one of the two are running wild, keep feeding the beast.
I lost as well. Thanks OBJ.
WFNY PREDICTION GAME
BROWNS RECORD = 3-12
SAFE
None
ON THE BUBBLE/ POTENTIAL WINNER(S)?
Scott = 4-12
Saggy = 4-12
6thCity = 4-12
Hopwin = 4-12
Nj0 = 4-12
LOSERS
ME = 12-4
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
I would dispute seeing my name up there as a potential winner. I watched all the games this season except one, which leaves me firmly entrenched with the “losers”.
I can’t believe nobody has pointed out the lack of math skills on the team.
Loser- Ray Farmer. Now and forever.
Loser- Haslam. Good luck telling fans that another rebuild is coming.
Pretty sure Pettine can’t count to 21 unless he’s naked.
And Farmer is definitely a Common Core guy.
WINNER: Jimmah. PLEASE tell us another rebuild is coming.
After this season, maybe it is a good thing after all.
Whoops.
WINNERS: Us the fans. We needed to lose a game we should have won for draft pick position. Should have won because if Pettine kicked a FG earlier the Browns would have won the game being in FG position. Pettine I am sure had no faith in the kicking game thanks to all the recent blocks. But if the Browns kicking game was decent, with the last first half block, and the fact that they went for it in FG range yet turned it over on downs earlier in the 4th. However, the team outgained KC, looked much better defensively, and should have won. Had the Browns won, we would be drafting like 8th.
I know the draft doesn’t matter, as we always miss out, but what good does winning do now? On the other hand, I have never cheered against the Browns, nor will I. When the loss was official, I was happy for the draft position, but honestly, the game should have been a W but for our pathetic kicking game… And in the end, draft position doesn’t matter. Why even watch the draft, the team will draft the next Jamarcus Russel next, it is just FATE. A win is a win, a loss is a loss, but I felt since the team played well, for once, I actually enjoyed watching a game (well, it had been a while since I enjoyed the Browns, outside of the SF game)…
I lost too. Was up big until Arizona Defense put up the Sunday of all Sundays.
Any Barn+Bridge reference gets an upvote.
The early mock drafts have us taking… another fat guy for the O-Line. Seems like the Farmer-play.
No denying Manziel was inaccurate at times. However, I still find him hard to grate: No real receivers getting open, and KC put their best corner on Barnidge who bated an INT. That is how little respect the WRs have. THe other issue, outside of 2 OL guys, the whole blocking of three other guys was awful, and I can’t imagine it being easy to play QB in the NFL, let alone do it for this Cleveland offense.
I say, give Johnny next year to see what he has. I don’t want to draft Jamarcus Russel in this poor QB draft class. Unless you can sign Drew Brees…
but why would he come (or anyone come willingly) to this mess…???
I’m so tired of fat guys. With the last 13 first round picks (since 2006 b/c no one is left on this team from before then), the Browns have selected:
5 Fat guys (+1 if you count Trent Richardson)
3 Late first round QBs
2 CBs
1 “RB” (see above)
1 Whatever Mingo is
If drafting fat guys and late first round QBs were the blue print for success, the Browns would win every superbowl.
I lolled harder than I should have at:
“1 Whatever Mingo is”
Success!
Oooof. 9-7. I should have known, this IS the Browns we’re talking about here.
I don’t give Farmer any credit for Barnidge… he came over via Banner because of Chud and signing him long-term was a no-brainer after this season. I award you no points, Ray Farmer, and may God have mercy on your soul.
I came up against the buzzsaw of Bortles and David Johnson. Oh and he also had Julio Jones. I had Brady and Deangelo Williams but just couldn’t catch up.
Oh, I agree. Even if you want to credit Ray, it’s more a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut than it is of Ray’s prowess as an evaluator of talent.
I made all of the right moves to win my league. I figured Cam Newton could be rested, so I started Bortles instead against a bad NO defense. I picked up Tim Hightower off of the waiver wire on Wednesday and started him instead of Randall Cobb (playing a crazy good Cardinals defense). I also had Julio Jones, Allen Robinson, Lamar Miller, and Devonta Freeman. At the beginning of this season, I figured I had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the league. Looks like hell froze over.
5 Fat guys seriously cracked me up.
POINT ONE: Johnny’s Performance
Johnny was inaccurate but played like a winner. He moved the ball. It seemed like the more he ran the ball, the more he lost his throwing mechanics. However, if he can be half as accurate as he was in previous games, and can use his legs like he did this game, I think he is more than capable of winning games for this franchise, especially if they can run the ball with their backs the way they did against KC and improve their defense. I think he is different from some other shorter QBs (Brees, Garcia) and is by no means the prototypical NFL quarterback, but I think he has potential to be successful in his own right.
At the very least, the team is rallying around him to some extent, and I hope the city can rally around him a little bit too if he continues to improve and stays out of trouble, and tries to endear himself to this city by showing effort and trying to win. I give Johnny one gig em’ but not two for his performance because Johnny Football would have found a way to win that game. I don’t really care what PFF said. The scoreboard and the team’s effort said enough for me.
POINT TWO: Why the Browns shouldn’t play for the draft pick.
I want the Browns to beat the Steelers. They cannot continue to be the organization that hopes to lose games for draft picks. They have not proven that high draft picks translate to wins. They haven’t for the last 15 years. AT ALL!!! After this game, I would much rather know that they potentially have a QB of the future (because Johnny plays like one) than a top 3 pick. They need to treat this game like a playoff game. They need individual players to play like they want to save Pettine and/or Farmer’s job if they want either of them back next year. Orchard,Johnson and even Shelton played like they were fighting for the people that drafted them. They ran the ball well when Erving played. The whole team, with a few exceptions, played like they want Pettine to keep his job. Dwayne Bowe played like he hated Ray Farmer and wants him to get fired.
They need to play the Steelers game like there is a rivalry, and the need a quarterback who plays like he wants to beat the Steelers. This organization continues to use draft picks as hope for the franchise rather than hoping that the guys they draft are successful on the field. A win next week will provide a better indication of whether this team will be good next year, and what areas they need to address. If Johnny continues to show improvement, and he dedicates himself to the team in the offseason, I don’t think the Browns need to address the QB position with a high draft pick. That being said, Johnny needs to take control of the leadership of this team to some extent in the off-season and prove that he can be the franchise over the next few months.
Loser: The Dark Knight Returns. Crap movie.
Winner: The Dark Knight Rises. Wonderful movie.