First and foremost I’m a Browns fan. However im only 30, so I either don’t remember the glory years or was still in my little-kid, front-runner stage. As of today our record is 4-9. FOUR AND NINE. The bottom line is that we are not a very good team.
I think im in the minority when it comes to diagnosing our problems. But first lets state the facts. We have started 3 quarterbacks this year, none for more than 4 games consecutively. Our special teams advantage disappeared when we lost Travis Benjamin to an ACL injury. We have 2 rushing TD’s on the year. Given those facts alone it just looks like a 4-9 team. Sure there have been some good things but we are less than mediocre.
Another less than mediocre team is Washington. The latest shitstorm aka made up media story is Mike Shannahan pulling RGIII in favor of Kirk Cousins for their upcoming game. I honestly tried to understand what the big deal is and I cant see it. RGIII is clearly not 100%. Additionally, in the NFL when teams lack motivation, they quit. And once your O-line quits on you its open season on the QB. Shannahan is a smart guy and is gonna pull his franchise player to avoid a meaningless injury. Every other take and spin on the story annoys the hell out of me.
Stories like this I will avoid like the plague. So i cut on my local sports talk radio station (no names please) to hear about my team. Nevertheless im even more frustrated. The topic de jour was a sound bite from Jason Campbell saying how he’s encouraged by the teams progress in their loss in New England last week. Our co-host goes on to disagree and say how can a team be making progress when they have lost 7 of 8 and blah blah blah.
My take
I don’t know what anybody would expect. Sure, on sunday morning i think we are gonna win them all Because I’m a homer. When I’m excited for football game I can’t help it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t step back and see the big picture after loss. Teams lose because of their players are not as good as the other team. Flat out. End of discussion. First you have the problems I listed earlier. But on top of that, our defense is very flawed right now. our coverage over middle has to be the worst in the league. All of our linebackers are below average in coverage. Throw in TJ ward and you have 5 of 8 potential coverage guys losing to the likes of Ace Sanders, Marcedes Lewis, Joseph Fauria, Julian Edelman, Heath Miller, MJD and any other 3rd or 4th option that they go up against. This has to be addressed. I mean Kruger or Sheard in a hook or flat zone is an offensive coordinators wet dream. And Sheard is probably my second favorite on the defense behind Joe Haden.
2 games ago Joe Haden got beat on double move to give the Jags their go ahead TD. He is undoubtably the best player on our team and has shown more discipline than that in the past. I feel he was just sick of seeing his teammates fail him all day. he decided to try to compensate for their shortcomings and paid for it.
We are making progress. We havent been watchable in December in years, and so far we are 1 for 1 in watchability. We need definitely need offensive help, but this area must be fixed to make our team complete.