With Week 17 of the NFL season looming, the Browns head to Pittsburgh to take on their divisional “rival.” I use the quotes as it’s tough to consider this a rivalry when you have a coach that has not been able to beat said rival once in his four years with this team.
The Plain Dealer took the liberty to remind us all of how awful Romeo Crennel has been against the black and gold. But one quote that may get overlooked purely based on the fact that you have to make it all the way to the end of the article:
“It is somewhat of a mountain to climb, but it is a mountain to climb because they are a good football team along with the other things that are involved with it,” Crennel said. “But I think that we have some progress here.
“Going into this season there was some talk that we might be able to beat Pittsburgh and I don’t think there has been that kind of talk around before. This year we ended up taking a step back, but going forward, as we build, I think we will have a chance to be much more competitive against them.”
Wait, what? Progress? I’m starting to wonder if this guy is even watching the same debacle that we see week in and week out. Of course, we cannot get much less competitive against the Steelers, so he may be on to something…
Oh, no! Crennel is 0-7 vs. Steelers [Plain Dealer]
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 1701 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Romeo’s quote was positively Palin-esque. Seriously, if he is that out of touch and inarticulate in the media, how much clarity of purpose do you think he has been able to convey to his football team over the past several years? To refer back to Craig’s article on the Steelers coach a couple days ago, can you imagine Timlin talking himself in illogical circles like that?
The Browns are going to win 100-0. Okay, maybe not, but I don’t think Crennel is nearly the problem that the roster is. Sure, I am the only one that thinks that but I plan to keep thinking it until the day he is fired. (and I’d rather they fire the guy that built the roster.)
Wow…..I am pretty sure there is regression this year not progress. Get this idiot out of this town…quickly
I am going to do something unprecedented. I am going to defend Romeo from THIS criticism.
He didn’t say that the Browns made progress this season. Instead, he was suggesting that people talking about challenging Pittsburgh COMING INTO THIS SEASON was the progress. So, he was actually attempting to rest on his “laurels” from last year when they won 10 games and didn’t make the playoffs.
Even he isn’t delusional enough to suggest that the Browns haven’t regressed this season. He called it “a step back” which might be the understatement of the year.
While I am kind of defending Romeo on the point, he doesn’t exactly communicate well enough to not be misunderstood, so there is that.
His latest quote?
“I think we can look at that Giants game and say if we prepare like we did for that game and play like we did in that game, that is what the future can be.”
(Mary Kay Cabot, Plain Dealer)
Maybe we can get the NFL to give Crennel a bye week before every game to prepare. Really… what happened in the other 15 games? Did Crennel spend all his time preparing for that one game and quit for the other 15? … eh …
Maybe the Giants game was the only opportunity that Romeo had to text Bill Belichick all year.
“going forward as we build…”
who is this “we” he’s talking about?
I’m guessing this is what counts as our “The Browns Will Win If…” column because it would be delusional to think they have even a realistic chance to win this game
Oh no, Alex. We should have a BWWI article up and rocking sometime tomorrow. It will hopefully be funny enough to help you forget the awful game that is sure to take place. Probably not, but we will try.
Browns cover the +10.5…
Any takers????
Seriously I’m curious what you all think.
Sorry I’ve screwed the pooched on the BWWI column. Holiday travels and two sets of divorced and remarried parents have had me away from my computer effectively since Tuesday.
That said, I could see this game being about as bad as the “Christmas Eve Massacre” in 2005. And that game was BAD. Except for James Ferrior tackling that fan that ran onto the field. That was pretty awesome.
Anyone else see that Bill Parcels can essentially be a FA???? he turned the Dolphins into a playoff team (if they beat the jets), wouldnt it be awesome if he came to cleveland. Plus i still hate cowher and would much rather get parcells then have cowher!
@ bobby -
Indeed! Is it too much of a pipe dream to wish for Randy Lerner to hire Parcells to run the organization in a position similar to what he did in Miami, and then have him bring his son-in-law (and Mark Shapiro’s brother-in-law) Scott Pioli along to work with him as GM?
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough faith in Randolph’s decision-making ability to really think we’d be so fortunate…