Start Me Up: Browns @ Bengals

Let's hope Brandon Weeden will have a better
rating than 5.1 today.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday—the second Browns Sunday in the 2012 season.

Straight up, I'm having a very hard time finding positive reasons that the Browns will win this one.

Let me explain. Obviously, the Browns offense still isn't very good. Brandon Weeden is a rookie, and he's going to need some time to adjust to the NFL. I think the game speed overwhelmed him last week—something that isn't entirely unexpected since he only played five quarters in the preseason. Trent Richardson also played too much last week, as even head coach Pat Shurmur admitted he played probably 10-12 more snaps than he was prepared for. But irrespective of the snaps, you can't convince me Richardson should've had 19 carries after not taking a live snap since the National Championship Game in January.

Okay, yes I do expect Richardson to be better this week after getting his feet wet against the Eagles, but who knows what to expect from Weeden? Even if he stinks again, they have to keep him in there. He's a first round pick. If you think he should be taken out in favor of McCoy, you're lost.

I have more confidence in the other side of the ball, but not much. Joe Haden's immaturity got the best of him and now the Browns won't have him for four pretty key games. The other starting cornerback, Sheldon Brown, is reportedly going to play, but won't be at 100 percent after sustaining a shoulder injury last week. With an elite caliber receiver in AJ Green on the Bengals offense, how will Dimitri Patterson, Buster Skrine, and 2012 7th round pick Trevin Wade do against the pass?

Also, lost in the shuffle last week was that the Browns allowed 110 yards on 20 carries to LeSean McCoy. That's 5.5 yards a carry. Why Andy Reid had Michael Vick throw the ball 56 times when he had a running game that effective will always be a mystery to me, but the Browns are going to have to do a better job against the run if they want to win today. Despite getting demolished by Baltimore last week, Bengals RB Benjarvus Green-Ellis rushed the ball 18 times for 91 yards—that's 5.1 yards a carry.

I'm not really a betting man, but if I were I'd put money on the Bengals pounding the run today with the Law Firm and trying to play ball control offense.

But despite all of that negativity surrounding the Browns this week, let's think about what we know about the Bengals. They always have these flash-in-the-pan years, and then go back down to earth. It's happened plenty of times before—they won the AFC North in 2005, then went 8-8 in 2006. Then they won the division again in 2009, and went 4-12 in 2010. They really weren't even competitive against Baltimore on Monday night, and with the short week who knows how they'll look today?

So what's going to happen in this game? Honestly, I have no clue. I think it'll once again be a low scoring affair, with Dick Jauron once again doing a bang up job with the "Bend but don't break" defense. I think both teams will try to establish a solid running game early and often. And I think the Browns will probably struggle trying to cover AJ Green.

But without further ado...

The Prediction: Bengals 20 - Browns 17

It'll be close, the Browns will once again be winning in the fourth quarter because the defense has kept the team in the game, but a tired D will once again lead to a heart breaking loss.

Can you really see this one playing out any other way?

Well, no matter what happens, I'll see you after.
~MAS

The Final Word: Only in Cleveland

It would've been more surprising had they actually held on to win the game.

That's what I thought to myself as I sat watching the Eagles offense take a knee after Brandon Weeden threw his fourth interception of the day to seal a 17-16 victory.

Ah yes, Weeden's fourth interception.

Wow.

This morning, I prepared myself to sit down and write a post defending the 28-year-old quarterback if his debut didn't exactly go well. But now...

I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. Shield your children's eyes: 12/35 for 118 yards. 3.4 yards per completion. Four interceptions. And—the kicker—a horrific 5.1 quarterback rating.

Now we can all talk about how bad Weeden was, how Colt McCoy is better and should be playing, and to be honest, I really can't make an argument to counter that other than let's give Weeden a few more games. But to me, the bigger concern was the Browns startling lack of a running game.

I wrote in the Start Me Up today that Trent Richardson really is the key to all the Browns offensive hopes and dreams, and if you look at his numbers from today you can easily see why the good guys lost.

Richardson carried the ball 19 times for just 39 yards. His longest run was just nine yards, and it came on the play to the right were he truck sticked an Eagles defender into next week.

Obviously 2.1 yards per carry is not ever going to get the job done. And on a team that traded up to draft Richardson 3rd overall, 39 yards on 19 carries in an entire game is simply unacceptable.

To be honest, however, I really wasn't expecting Richardson to get the ball so much. I'm not sure why Pat Shurmur didn't spell him a little bit with Brandon Jackson for some carries. Yes, Jackson did make a key catch for a first down, but Richardson hadn't taken a handoff in a live game since the National Championship Game in January when he was still playing for Alabama. You can't tell me he was prepared to go 19 carries in his first NFL action.

That being said, the Browns were embarrassing on short yardage run situations. Yes, Philly loaded up the box constantly when it was 2nd or 3rd and 1, but with a RB like Richardson, you must get to the point where you know, I know, the defense knows—everybody in the NFL knows he's going to get the ball on 3rd and short and he makes it anyway. That's what a dominant running game looks like.

That's what the Browns need to strive for.

I'll kill Shurmur for many things over the course of this season, but I can't be too mad about not going for 2 after D'Qwell Jackson's pick-six. After the touchdown, there was 13:59 left to go in the game. That's a whole lot of time. And honestly, the way the Browns offense was going, was there really a realistic chance that they'd make it? At least because they kicked the extra point, two field goals would've just tied the game, instead of winning it.

Not that it really matters.

In the end, we're stuck with yet another gut wrenching loss. I long for the days when we'll be happy after games like this instead of stuck feeling the same old way game after game, week after week, year after freaking year.

Until next week...
~MAS

Start Me Up: 2012 Cleveland Browns Season

If you ask me, the Browns season hopes are tied
to how well this guy can run the ball.

The return of Start Me Up posts can only mean one thing...

The Browns are back, baby!

This 2012 season is obviously going to be a big one for four men: Jimmy Haslam, Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert, and Pat Shurmur.

As someone who just bought a franchise for a billion dollas, Haslam has earned the right to do whatever he wants with the Browns. And based on everything I've learned about him in the last month or so, I think he's going to do what it takes to win football games here in Cleveland. Not only is he an extreme lover of football, he's a shrewd businessman. The Browns will be a hobby for him. It's not that owning an NFL franchise won't make him richer, but it also won't be his only source of income.

That's the way I want an owner to operate.

Still, though, this season could—and probably should—be defining for Holmgren, Heckert, and Shurmur's careers in Cleveland. Holmgren is already expected to be packing his bags for Seattle as former Philadelphia Eagles President Joe Banner is presumably going to fill that same role in Cleveland once the sale is finally approved in October.

But for Heckert and Shurmur, things could be different. If the team plays well and shows that what they've begun building over the last few years is making tangible progress, I believe there's a very good chance that both could stay. I can't give a number for wins on that, but if they go 6-10, I think there's more than a reasonable argument that progress has been made.

If they go 1-15 as some "experts" have been predicting...well, let's not even go down that road.

When you think about it, though, the keys to the season pretty much rest in the hands of the supremely young Browns offense.

Obviously the Browns hope Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden can become stable backfield fixtures in Cleveland for the foreseeable future, but if the season goes south only one of those guys realistically has a chance to be here when a new regime takes over. And his name isn't Brandon Weeden.

To me, if Richardson is healthy and productive, the Browns will have a realistic shot at winning each and every game they play. Yes, I know the NFL has little by little shifted into a passing league, but a running back with speed, power, and agility still has a place in the league—just ask the Texans. I'm not going to pretend it's all about the running back—since I firmly believe Houston lost to the Ravens in the divisional round last year because they were playing their third quarterback in TJ Yates—but if you have a top-notch running game and can control the ball and the clock, you will have a chance to win.

Plus, now opposing defenses have at least one guy that they must gameplan to stop. You literally could not say that about one Browns offensive player last year. As weeks go on, we might even prove to have two or three guys like that—Greg Little has reportedly made some strides, and Josh Gordon is just a supreme physical talent. Hell, maybe even Weeden will progress enough to scare some defenses as well.

For now, we all have to hope that Holmgren's bold prediction that the team will take a "big jump" this year holds true. Will it? I'm not sure. There are just so many unknowns on this team. The lack of depth at the linebacker position scares me—and it should scare you too. At some point, Joe Haden might be out for four games, and that would be terrible. And losing Phil Taylor for half the season at one of the DT spots certainly isn't that good either...

But when it comes down to it, who cares? It's football season yet again, and as of this writing the Browns are undefeated!

And because this is a Start Me Up post, of course we have some predictions to make...

The Season Prediction: 5-11, Fourth Place, AFC North.

I just don't see how the Browns are going to win more than five games with their schedule. I want to be wrong—meaning I want them to win more games—but there are just too many question marks. Like I said, if Richardson is healthy and productive, the Browns will have the ability to be in every game. It's just going to be a matter of making sure those games turn into Ws, and I'm just not sure they have the ability to do it.

And now for today...

The Prediction: Eagles 28 - Browns 17

Okay, here's a bold prediction—the Browns will come out and score a touchdown on their first drive of the season. Trent Richardson will surprise us all and come out looking like a man on a mission, allowing the Browns to run the ball down Philly's throat while Weeden comes up with some big time throws. And then the Eagles will remember that they're playing a worthy opponent, and all the wind will be sucked out of the Browns sails. But I really don't think it's going to be as bad as it looked like it could be in that preseason game just a couple of weeks ago.

For all of you loyal blog followers out there, unfortunately there won't be any halftime blurb today as I've got too many meetings to go to, so I probably won't even see most of the game. But at some point, I'll do what I can to see what I can and there will be a Final Word. So all three of you, don't you worry about a thing.

Enjoy the day, Browns fans!
~MAS

"Come out and compete," they said. "It's a competition," they said.

Colt McCoy looking a little defeated. I'm sure "defeated"
is exactly how he felt on Monday

Even if your name is "Colt McCoy," you saw this coming from a mile away.

The first depth charts came out for the Cleveland Browns today, and as Pat Shurmur so eloquently put it, "Brandon Weeden will start the Detroit game, and he'll be our starter going forward here."

Like I said, even if you're McCoy himself, you knew this was coming. Anybody who has attended more than one training camp practice has surely noticed that McCoy doesn't take any snaps with the first team. And that was something the young quarterback seemed to think was important enough to specifically point out to the media as he spoke after practice this afternoon.

"I would like to say that I haven't taken any snaps in walk through or in practice with the first group," McCoy said.

That's right, bud, you sure haven't.

McCoy is a gentleman and a professional. Does he provide material that the media is going to salavate over so they (...we?) can write their (...our?) articles? No he does not.

But to me, that's just fine.

You see, today was the first time McCoy has even voiced any type of frustration to the media over what has happened to the quarterback situation in Cleveland. Okay, so that might have something to do with the fact that it was just the third time all camp he's spoken (when he saw the gathering waiting for him, he said, "You guys wanna talk, huh?"). But even so, McCoy didn't explicitly say he was ticked off because it was obvious he never had a chance.

"Well I thought coming in it would be a competition," he said at one point. And in response to a reporter saying he had a shot at the starting role he quipped, "I did?"

So, yes, he went as close as you can get without going over in terms of did he or didn't he say, "there was no quarterback competition." But he was adamant about the fact that he was still going out to compete and trying to get better everyday.

Unfortunately, the simple fact of the matter is that Brandon Weeden is just better than McCoy. Weeden is bigger and stronger than McCoy. He's been more accurate in practice than McCoy. He has a better ability to throw the ball downfield than McCoy.

And I don't want to sound too politically incorrect with this, but McCoy just looks slow on the field sometimes. When he goes through his reads it's as if someone is counting, "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand..." instead of the "one, two, three, boom" you see when looking at Weeden. It's even apparent during 7-on-7 drills, where there aren't any linemen for McCoy to have to look over. He reads the defense slowly and then has no choice but to go with his checkdown. Watching him in practice has kind of explained the offense last year. McCoy is just slow on the uptake.

In some ways, it pains me to write this because I like McCoy a lot. He's exactly the kind of guy you'd like to date your sister. But that certainly doesn't make him a quality NFL quarterback.

The problem is that McCoy was supposed to be a developmental project. Think about it, when McCoy was originally picked in the third round of the 2010 draft, he was supposed to be the third quarterback behind Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace. He was to hold the clipboard and learn for a few years before potentially competing for the starting job.

Then Delhomme and Wallace both got high ankle sprains in 2010 and that plan got shot to hell.

We all know how the story has turned out for McCoy. Could he use a fresh start? Probably. Will he get that chance? I'm not sure. Both McCoy and Wallace have looked like backups in camp, and this team just isn't big enough for three real quarterbacks. (And if you think Thad Lewis counts, you obviously haven't seen him in practice.)

In the end, I do hope we're able to keep McCoy and send Wallace elsewhere. Heaven knows we could use a good backup for the next few years that's actually going to put the team first, and won't unnecessarily change a play at the end of the first half.

McCoy's a professional. He can be that guy.

~MAS

Making a Splash in Round One

Trent Richardson. Could be the best Browns
RB in a very, very long time.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Why hello there old man!
Brandon Weeden, new Browns QB
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I've gotta say, this is not what I was expecting out of the Browns today.

Did I want Trent Richardson? Hell yes. Did I think they'd trade up to #3 to get him? Absolutely not. Am I happy they did? 1000% yes. (And that's not a typo.)

Now, Brandon Weeden. With all the WRs still on the board after the end of the first round—including Stephen Hill—this might have been a much better pick than I might have initially thought.


I certainly wasn't expecting Weeden to be taken at #22—I don't think anyone was. (Well, maybe aside from Tom Heckert, Pat Shurmur and Mike Holmgren) But I'll say this, tonight the Browns have gone after exactly who they wanted.

Clearly, the attempt to trade for RGIII wasn't a smokescreen—the Browns have determined Colt McCoy is not a franchise quarterback. I can't blame them for that, especially based on Colt's size and lack of arm strength.

The Plain Dealer's Dennis Manoloff has been campaigning for Weeden to come to Cleveland for a long time now, and this video from ESPN's Sports Science series is a big reason why.




So yeah, Weeden can take out clay pigeons, but what does that have to do with what he does on the field?

Well, for one thing, Weeden beat Andrew Luck, RGIII, and Ryan Tannehill last season. I don't think that's insignificant.

I also don't think it's insignificant that we're replacing a guy who's 6 ft. with a more prototypical quarterback type—6 ft. 4 in. 220 lbs. and a lazer rocket arm.

What's not to like?

I'll be honest—I was totally prepared to go into this season with Colt McCoy as the quarterback with better weapons around him, and then pick a franchise quarterback in the 2013 Draft. Weeden's age (29, when the season opens) means that he must come in and start right away. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if he'll prove to be the best quarterback in the "common era" (since 1999).

I certainly hope he ends up being able to be mentioned in the same conversation with Bernie Kosar.

~MAS