Dawghouse Blog

October 2006 - Posts

• A Win, the Right Way

  While it may have "only" been against the Jets, the Browns of my imagination showed up on Sunday. The NFL is full of incomplete and flawed teams, and this incomplete and flawed team played well. The story of the week is Carthon being replaced by Jeff Davidson. Davidson proved the number one axiom of pro football: run the ball. The Browns did it with good effect and, most importantly, Droughns had 30+ carries. The committment to running the ball even when the yards weren't there was the most welcome sign to this Browns fan. It helped, of course, that Droughns generally picked up yardage. Of almost equal importance was the organization of the offense. There weren't a lot of dumb penalties. There was very little of that "standing around, waiting for the play call" that has been a recent trademark. And there weren't times where the playcalls weren't illogical. Everything appeared to make sense, even when the Browns didn't execute. Let me repeat that: Everything appeared to make sense, even when the Browns didn't execute. Really, that's all fans are asking for... But the defense really impressed me. Sure, it helped that Chad Pennington looked horrible. But credit the Browns D for not giving him a chance to ever get in sync. Kamerion Wimbley is officially a beast -- the guy is fantastic and I love watching him. He powerful and very fast, and he's a clear piece of the puzzle. And Sean Jones... has arrived. The guy has played well most games this season and Sunday was his best yet. He continued to be a ballhawk with two picks, he's proven to be an aggressive hitter, and he's looking better and better on blitzes. In short, I think we finally have the safety we've been looking for the past 6 seasons. Other guys played well too... I still like Brodney Pool, the entire defensive backfield gave up very little, and the front seven harrassed the Jets in just about every facet. It wasn't a dominating defensive performance, but it was certainly an aggressive and tough one. I like it. All that said... the Browns got an absolute gift when Chris Baker was ruled out of bounds on the would-be game-tying TD. He was clearly coming down in bounds, or at least likely would have been, and Pool just launched into him. It was a good play by Pool and it would likely have jarred the ball loose had Baker not make a great catch with only his outside hand. And I credit Pool with the effort and delivering a big enough hit where Baker landed so far out of bounds that the ref erroneously concluded Baker couldn't have landed in. But it was the wrong call. The fact that it isn't reviewable is sort of strange, but I'll let Jets fans ponder that. I'd rather be happy with the win, and frankly the Browns did deserve a victory here. Pieces of the puzzle. I think you need 6-7 on each side of the ball to be a playoff team. Other guys are promising, close, or solid. But they aren't quite the sort you have to build around. We need some linemen on this list. Offense: Winslow. Edwards. Defense: Wimbley. Davis. Jones. Bodden. 2-5 is not the record anyone hoped for the Browns. But how nice is it to be tied with the Steelers? It will be even better to beat the Steelers in a few weeks. And someone tell me, why did Roethlisberger suit up this week? He has to know this is just not his year. And it's not like Batch was going to take his job if he lit up the Raiders. This was a decent game from Frye because he did only what was necessary. He handed the ball off 33 times. He tossed mostly short passes. He keyed on Winslow and hit him for the big TD pass. He made one very bad play on the INT. He didn't do anything ill advised in the 4th quarter. His accuracy was okay. All in all, I'm happy with this sort of game. Sure, we need to see a bit more out of him in the big play department, but I'll take boring compentency over big play ability right now. The big plays will come later, I think. The injuries to Andruzzi, Tucker, and McGinest are concerning for the stretch run. We need at least 2 of these guys to get back on the field, but that might be overly optimistic. The rumors regarding Savage and whether he will remain the GM are strange. I guess I don't care whether he is GM, but I want to see him call the shots on the roster for the next couple years. In other words, I'm still drinking the Kool-Aid. But Frye and the dearth of draft success after the 2nd round are big open questions. Last week, Peter King: "Have you ever seen a team sink like a stone faster than the Dolphins?" Yes Peter, almost every year it happens. It's just more enjoyable when the sinking team is the same one that so many national voices wildly trumped up all offseason. It's a guilty pleasure, but I am really enjoying how the Dolphins have made so many sportswriters look foolish. I was wrong about a lot of the NFL season, but not the Dolphins. Posted Oct 30 2006, 09:48 AM by MikeB with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Browns

• Losses, Firings, Injuries, and What's At Stake

  Carthon gone. The offensive performance against Denver makes this an absolute necessity. There's so much to say about the offensive problems, yet why bother? It still boils down to the same stuff: Run the ball. Yes, even if you don't gain yards. So you can't seem to gain yards rushing on first down? Fine. Throw on first, and run more often on second. Defense is keying on the run? So what, give them a reason to keep doing it. Move Frye around. He's just not a drop-back passer, particularly at this stage of his career. Give him some freedom to make some plays while moving around. Let him call a QB draw from time to time. Let him call a bootleg once in a while. Make it clear that if he picks up 3, 4, 5 yards while scrambling (and sliding) that the play is successful. Use our receivers the right way. Edwards: Deep routes. Slants. Winslow: All over. He should be a primary receiver or a decoy on most passing plays. Give him the ball early in every game, especially over the middle. Jurevicius: Across the middle and intermediate routes. Jump balls. Northcutt: Screens, quick outs, safety valves, the very occasional deep route. Droughns: Throw the guy a screen or let him release underneath once in a while. These types of plays would be much more effective/believable with Droughns. When in a doubt or a play breaks down, throw deep. This works, particularly when we have a lot of rushing attempts. This might not be the recipe for a Super Bowl team. But it would be a big improvement, and it would utilize the weapons on the roster. In fact, there's just no excuse for not taking better advantage of Winslow and, to some extent, Edwards and Droughns. That's what really has sent Carthon packing. Charlie Frye. I really like the guy. I think he's tough and he's got the right competitiveness. But he's not cutting it so far in 2006. He's coming up short as a leader when he fails to get the ball where it needs to go. You can tell that guys don't have enough confidence in him. I don't want to nitpick or get into the various details that maybe Frye hasn't mastered yet. Mostly it just comes down to throwing accuracy -- or, rather, the lack thereof. Frye just can't seem to get the ball to the spots it needs to go. Crossing routes, slants, and just about all other pass routes -- he's struggling. I'd say 3/4 of his passes are off the mark. Even the ones that are caught are often either tough catches or require the receiver to alter his body position so much that he can't effectively run with the ball before getting tackled. This is a very big problem. Maybe it's correctable. Frye clearly is no comfortable dropping back and standing there while running through his progressions. The pass protection has been a problem too, as Frye tries to hang in there but often finds himself getting hit or having balls batted down. Perhaps it's a matter of improving his footwork. I don't know what all the options are, but the obvious one to me is to call more plays there the pocket can move or Frye can roll out because Frye appears much more comfortable and (most importantly) accurate while on the move. But what if it's not fixable? There's a good chance that it's not, at least not quickly. We should all be prepared for that possibility. We don't yet know who the next offensive coordinator will be. Hopefully things get better. But the new coordinator's job can be summed up in one sentence: The next 10 games need to reveal whether Frye is worth betting the future on. That's it. Nothing else matters on the offensive side of the ball. Whatever the answer, the whole organization needs to make a decision this upcoming offseason. The worst case scenario is to go into '07 with Frye as the starter but without confidence in him. I've seen and heard people make arguments that Frye is so young we can't expect too high a level of play. I agree. But we should expect the occasional series or quarter where he looks very good, with mistakes and struggles in between. Give me three or four series a game where Frye looks pretty good. Give me one game out of every three or four where Frye has the edge over a defense. That, or at least something close to it, is what I'm looking for, and I'm not seeing it. The injury to Baxter would normally be the big news of the week. It's a devastating injury. I'll be suprised if he's able to play again, at least for the Browns. And what an amazing injury. How the hell do you do hurt the same ligament on both knees on the same play, seemingly in the same split second? What are the odds? That is freaking amazing. And so, so unlucky for Baxter, the Browns, and the city. My god. We also get news that LeCharles Bentley is having a tough go rehabbing from his own knee surgery. A staph infection and the generally slow rehab does not give the impression he's on track for '07. I hate the "woe is me" attitude as much as anyone. But c'mon, it crosses the mind of even die-hard fans when bad news like this piles up. But I also remember hearing some similar stories about Winslow's rehab. He had an infection, and there was talk that the injuries were so bad he may never recover. It's early with Bentley. And sometimes you can't measure progress clearly while rehabbing, particularly early on. Let's let a few more months pass before worrying too much about it. I'm not crazy that Crennel is rumored to have bowed to pressure from ownership to fire Carthon. I agree with the move, but the timing is poor and it suggests that the dynamic in the front office continues to be difficult. Lost in a bad week is Kamerion Wimbley. This guy has looked very good. He made one play that was so impressive to me -- he got fooled on a run to the outside, was able to disengage from a blocker, change direction, and close on the runner before the guy could gain a first down only a couple yards away. An amazing play. The Browns have had some bad first round picks over recent years, but I think this one is legitimate. We just need 4-5 more defenders like him! The verdict of this week, however, is staring us in the face: there's little to play for in 2006, at least on the face of it. We will all hope Crennel and circle the wagons and convince this team to invest in itself and still achieve something. Teams do it. And frankly, this squad and this organization needs to play with a fire over the second half of this season. The shape of next year is at stake. Frye, Shaffer, Droughns. Jackson, Bodden, Pool. Tucker, Wilson, Edwards. Jones, Harrison, and, yes, even Ralph Brown. All these players can be part of a successful future for this team. But they need to start doing it now if they want the chance to do great things later. So while it's true that 2006 is another lost season in terms of making the playoffs or at least battling to a .500 record, the battle for the future continues. One day it will come. Posted Oct 24 2006, 12:15 PM by MikeB with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Browns

• Vs. Panthers Notes, or Not

  So very little to say. The Browns were a bit overmatched, though they gave a solid effort and could have eeked out a victory if they got a couple big plays. They didn't, however, get any. Like probably anyone who reads MuniLot.com or OBRreport, I'm a religious Browns-game watcher. But I missed most of this one to run the Towpath Marathon. It was my second marathon and it went great. I achieved my goal of finishing in under 4 hours (3:52:24 -- a good four minutes better than Will Ferrell) and we ecstatic to do it. In an attempt to do a marathon and still have a normal life, I only trained three days a week for the past 17 weeks. It didn't quite have me "finishing strong" as the last 6 miles or so were pretty grueling, but overall it was still a smashing success. And it was way better than a successful but incredibly killer attempt at the Cleveland Marathon in May. It will be a couple more days until I can walk normally though... As for the Browns, we head into the BYE week with only one victory, and frankly that win is not particularly impressive on balance. This season is all about progress, and in two weeks I think it's reasonable to expect real progress to start to show. We've seen some promising signs with Winslow, Frye and Edwards on offense and Wimbley, Davis, Bodden and Jones on defense. If those guys can maintain their level of play and we start seeing some good things from guys like DQ Jackson, Harrison, and Pool then we'll all be feeling pretty good about this team atr the end of the year, regardless of the team's record. For now... it's bye week. Relax. Enjoy the last weekend's of decent weather. Posted Oct 10 2006, 09:41 AM by MikeB with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Browns

• Browns A Presence on Fantasy Landscape

  The Browns might be only 1-3, but 2006 is shaping up (so far) as the first time in a LONG time that the Browns have multiple fantasy-worthy players. Charlie Frye, Braylon Edwards, and Kellen Winslow are all among the leaders at their positions, and Ruben Droughns was well regarded in the preseason and still has time to really get it going. Can we expect it to keep going? Yeah, mostly. Kellen Winslow is the clear #1 guy of all Browns players, and should be a weekly play in any league. Regardless of the opponent, Winslow should get at least a few big catches per game and is capable of some dominant performances down the stretch. He's gone from being a possible top 10 TE to being a very likely top 3 TE. And at the moment he's the #1 TE in just about an scoring format. And if Winslow keeps it going it's not far-fetched to consider him a favorite for the Pro-Bowl in the AFC -- but lets see a few more games before going too far down that path. Braylon Edwards is also a pretty solid fantasy starter at this point. He's on pace to match the Browns single-season yardage record, and is a dangerous big-play threat. But I'm a bit cautious here. His great athletic ability is tempered somewhat by the fact that he's had some really concerning lapses of concentration/effort. But even assuming those are growing pains, I think the good health of Jurevicius will mean a few less opportunities for Edwards each game, particularly in the red zone. Nevertheless, Edwards is going to put up worthy numbers, he just might see the ball a bit less than the first three weeks. Frye has benefited from his mobility and the fact that the Browns are calling a lot of pass plays in the red zone. His yardage totals are quite low. It figures his numbers will settle down a bit with maybe more yards, fewer TD passes, and less frequent rushing scores. But with Winslow, Edwards, and Jurevicius the Browns have a lot of great red zone scoring options and you can continue to expect a lot of passes into the end zone. I like Frye as a fantasy backup, and is a nice calculated gamble when the matchup is good and you're scrambling for QB production. Finally Droughns had his first 100 yard game, and will get the ball a lot as long as he is healthy. But the o-line is going to be an issue all year, and the Browns are in danger of being a "pass first then establish the run" team, and Droughns carries are likely to be lots of 2-5 yard gainers to keep defenses honest. It's a bit of a bummer to predict this, but it's true. I think Droughns is a #2/#3 runner, and not quite an automatic weekly start. His value may fluctuate too, depending on that shoulder and how the Carthon Offense goes. So while 2006 isn't likely to be a big revelation for the Browns overall (although there is time...), the emergence of Edwards and Winslow as true fantasy threats is a great sign for this offense over the next 3-4 years. And if Frye continues to plays fairly well, you can bet the national expectations for the 2007 Browns will be rather high as well. Posted Oct 03 2006, 03:42 PM by MikeB with no comments Filed under: Browns

• Big Win?

  Eh, not exactly, but a nice win nonetheless. The ups and downs were both on display. This win is being described in headlines as a big comeback victory, but that inaccurately implies the Raiders were really taking it to the Browns early on. That is only partially true. The Raiders came out much more aggressive and hitting harder. It looked like the Browns weren't going to match the intensity of the game, and as a result the Raiders got some good plays / fortunate breaks. Also, the offense was out of sync too and it looked to me like Frye had a hard time getting going. But as bad as it got, there wasn't a sense of panic. You didn't see players showing a lot of frustration. And even me, a currently cynical fan, was only partially disgusted. Because the Browns are a better team, and there was a lot of time to play. Midway through the second quarter things got on track and settled down. The Browns offense moved the ball consistently, if not always fantastically. The defense more of less controlled the game, even after Leigh Bodden left with an ankle injury. And the Browns came back and had made it a game with relative ease. Later on the Browns had to make the kin og big plays that win games -- tough first downs, nice gains on first and second down, the timely sack, controlling the line of scrimmage. The Browns were better in all these areas in the second half, and that's why they won. Thoughts: The best part of this performance was the solid play by the offensive and defensive lines. The o-line didn't dominate, but caused a lot of movement. Sometimes Droughns had nowhere to run. Sometimes he had sizable holes. Much of the time Oakland defenders were coming aggressively but not squarely. And that's where Droughns picked up a lot of yards and turned short gains into decent 4-5 pick-ups. The d-line on the other hand was very active. Washington filled up space. And Roye and McKinley both made more plays that you'd expect a 3-4 lineman to make. That's partly a result of a less-than-stellar Raiders o-line, but it's nice to see the Browns dominate lesser competition. Andrew Walter didn't play poorly. But he was dead once the Browns settled down. Overall, however, he looked a little better than your typical "making-his-first-start" guy. Droughns did not have a great game. But don't discount his ability to get a few yards even when running in heavy traffic. That is huge. And he wore down the defense too, something we haven't seem much of in the last six years. Winslow was, somewhat suprisingly, not a major force. But he made a difference and damn does he look good when he catches a little out pattern and run through or around two guys to pick up a first down. Got a TD too. I think he is the #1 fantasy TE in just about any scoring format right now. If he keeps this up, he could be looking at a Pro-Bowl season. Braylon seemed like he lost focus occasionally. This looks like it's just going to be the way he is. Still a playmaker though. It was flat-out great to see Jurevicius make an impact. The TD catch was great, as was another nice out pattern for a first down. He holds the promise of really defining the look of this offense and, when he's played, he's looking like the perfect type of WR for Frye -- a guy he runs good routes and had good hands, and is gonna be open when Frye has to move in the pocket. Harrison doesn't look nearly as good in regular-season speed. He had a nice catch+run, but on the ground he seemed overwhelmed. Hopefully that will change with more experience. For now it's pretty obvious why Jason Wright would start over him whenever Droughns is unavailable. Props to Ralph Brown. He didn't get beat even once that I can recall. Props to Darren (Devon?) Holly too. Sean Jones is looking really good. He might not be in the class of some of the best NFL safeties, but he shows the promise to get into the discussion one day. He really seems to be playing confidently and aggressively. Cribbs had two big kickoff returns. The guy has really blossomed as a kick returner, which is a much different role than that of punt returner. The punt return by Northcutt was the most impressive. I'm sure he's bummed he got tackled by the kicker but I think he took it as far as he could. That end zone pick by Frye was horrible, obviously. I'd rail on him but it was clear Frye knew it too, immediately. I don't think we'll see that happen again. The Raiders picked up a lot of yards on the ground, but most came on two long runs. In the second half, there was nowhere to go. That's probably the difference in the game because it wasn't like Walter was going to carry them. Randy Moss might as well be in Siberia. Bodden's status is unclear now. That would be a killer blow but at least Holly and Brown seem to be more comfortable now. We are going to learn a lot about Antonio Perkins I think. Don't look now, but Charlie Frye is a top 10, if not top 5, fantasy QB so far thanks to 3 running TDs and now 3 TDs in this game. I wouldn't count on it keeping up, but he's now a pretty good start when you need a bye-week replacement or feel like taking a gamble. Mosre fantasy -- It looks like Edwards' good statistical start might suffer with Jurevicius back. That's a good thing for the Browns, at least. Droughns has been dissappointing with few yards and no TDs. I think that will continue, though he'll be better than in the first month. The Browns are just not going to rack up big rushing numbers because defenses will key on it every week. The verdict to me? The Browns pay a price by not coming out and establishing their tempo. They've struggled with that in each of the first four games. But the last two weeks they got it going in the second quarter, and this time it carried them to a win. That's nice, but it still suggests we've got a ways to go. Certainly the Browns will have to put together 4 decent quarters of football to beat Carolina (which is, by the way, a winnable game if they generate a pass rush). We'll see. By winning this game the Browns kept some momentum going and still have a shot at making this a productive season. For this week, you have to be happy with that. A good performance vs. the Panthers, even in a loss, would be even more significant. Also, the Browns left points on the field. That's either a cause for concern or a promise that better things are to come. I think it's generally promising, though disconcerting. NFL notes: I'm not suprised by the Bears, not much anyway. We knew they had some decent offensive players, and now Grossman is giving them a decent QB threat. With that defense, the offense's job is pretty easy (see Kyle Ortion '05). And have ou seen that schedule? They should win all their games in the second month too. I like Steve McNair. He's the difference for the Ravens this year. But that said, man the Ravens look like crap on offense. They ought to be 2-2 at this point. These early season wins mean a lot too, so they have to be feeling very fortunate and liking their playoff chances now. But that running game looks terrible, and the passing game has been downright lucky to have not turned the ball over about 5 times these past two weeks. I like the Rams. They are going to be on the roller coaster, but they do have a decent defense that could grow into a very solid unit. We'll see. But on offense they will be formidable as long as they get the right mix of passing vs. Steven Jackson. The Dolphins, predictably, suck. This was not hard to see coming, despite the fact that every major sportswriter has been lavishing praise on Nick Saban. God knows why. Carolina, next week's opponent, is finding it's way, and Steve Smith and Jake Delhomme are coming around. What looks most dangerous to me is the ground game with Foster and Williams, both of which could be killer. Marques Colston, the guy I commented as being unknown a month ago, looks utterly fantstic. He's big, reasonably fast, and has great hands. He's not a great route-runner yet but he's still able to get open consistently. Guy looks like he could be a real star. I shouldn't bother making the comparison, but he kind of reminds me of TO in his early days. I still like the Chargers despite the loss in Baltimore. Phillip Rivers, while he didn't have a good game, seems like a solid QB to me. And the Chargers will be in the mix down the stretch. Peter King describes the Bengals inactivatng Chris Henry as, "a warning shot fired across Marvin Lewis' bow." Huh? It could also be accurately described as, "something Marvin Lewis should get used to doing." Posted Oct 03 2006, 08:59 AM by MikeB with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Browns