It's strange but also nice to not have a Browns game today. Nice in that I don't have to worry about feeling bad about the world when they lose, but strange in that I don't have three blog posts to write in succession. However, since I just haven't gotten to it yet, let's just get right to assessing the damage from Thursday's 14-3 loss to Pukesburgh.
And I know who you may be thinking about with the second part of that headline, but to whom I'm actually referring may surprise you.
First off, I think it's important to note just how hard the team played. The effort was definitely there, the hits were hard, and it felt like the Browns really wanted to win. Do they have the talent to beat Pittsburgh right now? Maybe when Roethlisberger is hurt, yes, but as long as the effort is there I find it a lot harder to complain.
Still, it has to be a huge concern when you've got your defense playing at such a high level, and your offense can't really get past midfield—with the exception of the first drive of the game. I also have a lot of concern over Pat Shurmur's ability to manage his personnel, as we had another game where Montario Hardesty runs (poorly) all the time, and Peyton Hillis and Chris Ogbonnaya stand on the sidelines. After the game, Shumur said that Hillis got "dinged up" or something like that, so that's why Hardesty was used so much. Hillis, on the other hand, seemed frustrated by his lack of carries and didn't say anything about being injured.
Stuff like that is going to have to stop if the Browns are going to be a successful football team.
But my biggest concern coming out of this game is everything surrounding quarterback Colt McCoy.
Okay, I've been as big of a McCoy supporter as anyone. People keep saying that McCoy looks like a young Drew Brees, and if that's true, I really don't want to give up on him this early (I'll probably write a more extensive post on this in the coming weeks, stay tuned for it). However, if you watched the kid this week, he made some fairly poor decisions.
Looking at the stat line, 18/35 for 209 yards and two interceptions is just not good enough. Granted, the second interception was thrown after he was clearly concussed (more on that later), but even so, the Browns offense just isn't really making any consistent tangible progress. I say consistent because we went right down the field and probably should've scored a touchdown on the first drive, but nothing happened after that. At all! And yes, we were in the game until the last five-ish minutes, but if you haven't scored a touchdown in the third quarter all year, something is seriously, seriously wrong. Not all of that hinges on the quarterback, obviously, but McCoy is the leader of the offense and he's got to do better. I'm sure he knows that.
But that brings me to this.
When James Harrison hit McCoy, I tweeted out "Oh man, is Colt alive?" because that is how vicious that hit was. I mean, I honestly thought Colt was out cold, much like his father, Brad McCoy, said to the Plain Dealer. But then the fact that Colt came back into the game literally three minutes and 50 seconds after that hit is insanely irresponsable.
Anyone who saw that hit knew that Colt had a concussion. It was a helmet-to-helmet blast. You can even see Alex Smith waving for someone to come over from the sidelines, because it was immediately apparent that Colt was not alright. And to think that the Browns actually checked Colt out in that time is ludicrous. As Brad McCoy said, a high school trainer takes longer than that to evaluate whether or not a player has a concussion. And now this article from the PD's Mary Kay Cabot confirms that the Browns did not "perform the SCAT2 concussion test (sport concussion assessment tool) on the sidelines before they sent him back into the game after two plays."
...Are you freaking kidding me?!
How on God's green earth can you not check the man for a concussion after that hit. How? No wonder they said he wasn't exhibiting signs of a concussion during the game—no one even checked!
So this is what I was referring to in the headline—whoever didn't check Colt McCoy for a concussion on the sidelines after that hit should be fired. Today. Now.
Not only could they have cost Colt his career if he had been hit in the head again, but whoever it was probably cost the Browns the game, as Seneca Wallace seemed on, and when Colt came back into the game, everything—including but not limited to the lights inside his head—was off. With the emphasis the NFL has put on player safety in the last couple of seasons, stuff like this cannot happen and someone needs to answer for it.
Look, no matter what happens with James Harrison (who actually said something to the effect of "I thought the hit was legal because he was out of the pocket and is a runner." Again are you freaking kidding me?! The quarterback?! Shut the hell up), or Colt McCoy, or Peyton Hillis, or Pat Shurmur, the Browns just need to get better. They probably can't do much more this season, but if they keep up the effort they displayed last week, they'll at least be watchable for the final three games of the season.
I'll see you next week,
~MAS
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