Yes, I know we're nine games into his first season. Yes, I know this team has been decimated by injuries. And yes, I know he doesn't go out there and try to kick field goals, but you know what?
Pat Shurmur needs to go.
He is a pathetic excuse for a football coach, and is an embarrassment to the Browns name, colors and the entire history of the franchise.
Fire him. Now.
Before I get into exactly why, I'll give you a small assessment of some aspects of today's disgusting 13-12 loss to the Rams.
Colt McCoy? One of his best games all year. That pass down the field to Greg Little may have been the best throw of his young career as he threw the ball with a tight spiral right into the bread basket on a very windy day.
Chris Ogbonnaya? After he made some adjustments, he wasn't so bad. I really think running backs can be a dime a dozen when you have a good offensive line, and for the most part the o-line didn't have a bad day. After Ogbonnaya got comfortable, I think he had a pretty good game with 19 carries for 90 yards, including a 32 yarder. I'll take it.
Run defense? BOOOO! They were terrible once again, giving up 128 yards to Steven Jackson. They totally got bailed out by the fumble and interception.
Josh Cribbs? Boy that was a costly fumble. But you know what, the defender made a good play while Josh was fighting for more yards. This loss is definitely not his fault.
The trickeration? Loved it, that's what we need in order to be in a position to score points—more creativity.
And the special teams...all I have to say is that none of this special teams B.S. ever happened under Eric Mangini. Makes you think...
But now we've reached our destination, Mr. Pat Shurmur. Born April 14, 1965, this 46-year-old has been absolutely overwhelmed by the rigors of being both offensive coordinator and head coach of the Browns. And let me say, it's time for him to get the hell out of town.
Look, as much as I liked that trickeration, we still scored zero touchdowns today. Zero. Nada. Zippo. Goose egg. We rarely score points in the first and third quarter, meaning Shurmur never has his team ready to come out and play. And when we have scored points, they're usually field goals! You're not going to win games in this league if you don't play to score touchdowns, you're just not.
Which leads me to why I'm done with this fool. Let's go to the play selection of that series towards the end of the game where the Factory of Sadness earned its name today. After the kickoff went out of bounds which gave the Browns the ball at their own 40, the drive started out quite well. McCoy threw a pass to Little for 11 yards, and then Little ran it for 10 more on an end around. Next was a horse collar penalty, which put the Browns on St. Louis' 18 yard line. The Browns ran it three times, getting a first down and goal on the eight yard line, which was just fine.
But then things just get crazy stupid.
Keep in mind that on first down, there were 3:30+ minutes in the game. So to start off, we run the ball on first down with Ogbonnaya. I can't find too much fault with that, but you can't expect that guy to get into the end zone—everybody knows he stinks. And then—here's the real kicker—we try a handoff to freaking Alex freaking Smith, he fumbles, and Josh Cribbs recovers. I don't usually use caps lock but...WHAT IN THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS WAS SHURMUR THINKING?! Smith had never taken a handoff in the NFL. Never. THAT WAS NOT THE TIME TO START!
To make matters worse, when reporters asked Shurmur about "the thinking" on that play after the game, that idiot got snippy. Don't you get snippy when you clearly don't know who's on the field! That's your own fault, Shrmur. That's the most inexcusable thing I've ever seen on a football field. The game is on the line. You just can't run the ball like that.
But that's when St. Louis took their first time out of the half, with 2:59 left to play.
Alright, so next Shurmur elects to run the ball with Ogbonnaya for a three yard gain, obviously not playing for the touchdown. My question is...why the hell aren't you playing for touchdowns?! C'mon, after that play we called timeout with 2:13 left. You know what that means? Even if Dawson makes the field goal, we're giving the Rams the ball back with 2 minutes left in the game and all they need is a field goal to beat us because the score is 15-13. If you score a touchdown, however, you're up 19-13, and they need at least a touchdown to win. That's huge! I know Sam Bradford isn't Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, but 2 minutes is a long time in an NFL game—especially for a team with two timeouts!
That's why you have to at least try to get the ball into the endzone. Run a little rollout swing pass to Josh Cribbs, and if he's not wide open tell Colt to throw the ball into freaking Lake Erie. It's not that hard, we've seen them run that play all the time. But you cannot just settle for a field goal there, I don't care how automatic Phil Dawson is. And saying, "we were playing to get the points" in the press conference doesn't make it any better.
Look, I know they won't fire Pat Shurmur, but with the piss poor way he's coached this team this year, he doesn't deserve to stay. You have to know who's in the game, and unless time is literally going to expire when you kick the field goal, you have to at least take one shot at the endzone when you're inside the 20.
I've had enough of the daft, inept and all around stupid offensive coaching at the Factory of Sadness.
Time to say goodbye to Shurmur.
I'll see you next week...
~MAS
Showing posts with label St. Louis Rams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Louis Rams. Show all posts
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Browns Halftime Blurb - 11/13 vs Rams
You know what? The Browns really showed me something on that last drive before the half. I know I wasn't particularly optimistic in the Start Me Up, but Colt McCoy's deep ball to Greg Little might've been the best pass of his young career. Still, that 15 yard facemask penalty on Evan Moore was no help, and the Browns are down 10-9.
As I thought, the Browns haven't been able to put the ball in the end zone so far, but they have at least gotten the ball deep into St. Louis territory—more than we could say about the team during the 49ers and Texans games. So far McCoy is 13/19 for 152 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. Greg Little has four catches for 67 yards, including that beautiful 51 yard reception at the end of the half.
My problem with the offense is the running backs and the offensive line—big surprise. Of course, part of the issue with the o-line comes from the RBs, but honestly, I didn't realize how bad Chris Ogbonnaya and Thomas Clayton are. I saw at least 2-3 plays where those guys didn't see the hole and were trounced for little to no gain. That's going to be a problem until we get Hillis or Hardesty back, unfortunately. The guard play has been a little bit better today, but Shawn Lauvao had a couple plays where he was just beat badly. That just can't happen.
I did love the creativity with Josh Cribbs in the wildcat, and also that sweet play where McCoy ended up passing to back up QB Seneca Wallace. It's about time we saw something at least a little different out there, even if it is only one play of trickeration. The fact is that with those running backs, it's going to be really hard for the offense to do anything of consequence when its not passing.
The defensive unit has allowed Steven Jackson to run for 71 yards on 13 carries—good for a 5.5 average. Booo! This run defense has to make some adjustments, because that's how they're going to lose. Seriously, if you can't stop the run in the 3rd and 4th quarters, just pack it in because the D is going to be too tired. They did, however, pick off Sam Bradford when the young QB didn't see Scott Fujita and the linebacker tipped the ball up volleyball style and ended up catching it himself. I'll take that, but with the field position we got there, the offense should've turned in a touchdown.
All in all, we're so lucky to have Phil Dawson because that's where those 9 points came from, and kicking field goals today is no easy task with the swirling wind. Dawson really deserves more credit than he gets because he's been on such bad teams.
So what's in store for the second half? Well, the Rams get the ball first, so we'll see if defensive coordinator Dick Jauron made the necessary halftime adjustments to stop Steven Jackson. We'll aslso need to see the Browns cure their third quarter woes on offense if they have any shot of actually winning this game. And by that I mean they need to come out and score a touchdown.
I'll see you after for the Final Word.
~MAS
As I thought, the Browns haven't been able to put the ball in the end zone so far, but they have at least gotten the ball deep into St. Louis territory—more than we could say about the team during the 49ers and Texans games. So far McCoy is 13/19 for 152 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. Greg Little has four catches for 67 yards, including that beautiful 51 yard reception at the end of the half.
My problem with the offense is the running backs and the offensive line—big surprise. Of course, part of the issue with the o-line comes from the RBs, but honestly, I didn't realize how bad Chris Ogbonnaya and Thomas Clayton are. I saw at least 2-3 plays where those guys didn't see the hole and were trounced for little to no gain. That's going to be a problem until we get Hillis or Hardesty back, unfortunately. The guard play has been a little bit better today, but Shawn Lauvao had a couple plays where he was just beat badly. That just can't happen.
I did love the creativity with Josh Cribbs in the wildcat, and also that sweet play where McCoy ended up passing to back up QB Seneca Wallace. It's about time we saw something at least a little different out there, even if it is only one play of trickeration. The fact is that with those running backs, it's going to be really hard for the offense to do anything of consequence when its not passing.
The defensive unit has allowed Steven Jackson to run for 71 yards on 13 carries—good for a 5.5 average. Booo! This run defense has to make some adjustments, because that's how they're going to lose. Seriously, if you can't stop the run in the 3rd and 4th quarters, just pack it in because the D is going to be too tired. They did, however, pick off Sam Bradford when the young QB didn't see Scott Fujita and the linebacker tipped the ball up volleyball style and ended up catching it himself. I'll take that, but with the field position we got there, the offense should've turned in a touchdown.
All in all, we're so lucky to have Phil Dawson because that's where those 9 points came from, and kicking field goals today is no easy task with the swirling wind. Dawson really deserves more credit than he gets because he's been on such bad teams.
So what's in store for the second half? Well, the Rams get the ball first, so we'll see if defensive coordinator Dick Jauron made the necessary halftime adjustments to stop Steven Jackson. We'll aslso need to see the Browns cure their third quarter woes on offense if they have any shot of actually winning this game. And by that I mean they need to come out and score a touchdown.
I'll see you after for the Final Word.
~MAS
Start Me Up - Browns vs. Rams
Alright I've got to 'fess up. I didn't do my blog-ly duty last week with the Final Word because...well...I just couldn't bring myself to write a post when I was questioning my Browns fan-dom.
But lo and behold, this video showed up and reminded me why I love the Browns so much.
We all feel this way! We know it's ridiculous, we know it's irrational, we know they just freaking torture us each and every time out, but they're in our blood. And even though Cleveland Browns Stadium is a "factory of sadness" I will always watch the team each and every Sunday.
So now that we've got that out of the way, I've got to say that I'm just not particularly optimistic about our chances. First off, Peyton Hillis and Montario Hardesty are both still out for this game so you know what that means—no running game. They haven't replaced Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lauvao at the guard positions, so I have no confidence in the offensive line. And to make matters worse Mohamed Massaquoi is most likely out because of his lingering concussion symptoms.
We all know the offense has been unwatchable the last few games, and all those injuries aren't helping matters. There were rumblings of Josh Cribbs maybe doing some more out of the backfield this week, but those rumors were squashed. Maybe because the coaches didn't want Cribbsie giving away the game plan, or maybe because Shurmur really isn't going to use him as a running back.
But I'd say why not? Seriously, the guy ran the Wildcat for the past couple of seasons and averaged 5.9 yards per carry. With the lack of offense, and the heart that Cribbs plays with, why wouldn't you want him involved in every play possible?
Think about it—if you're the opposing defensive coordinator, who else scares you even a little bit on the Browns offense? The "who dat" running backs? Nope. The wide receivers? Sorry Greg Little, but you're still a rookie. And God love Colt McCoy, but with the offensive line trying to kill him by not blocking, nobody is afraid of him either.
So look for Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo to pressure the heck out of McCoy. Spagnuolo's previous job was defensive coordinator of the New York Giants—arguably home of the NFL's best pass rush since 2006. I'm thinking we're going to see a whole lot of McCoy running for his life yet again, and that doesn't bode well for our chances to win.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Browns will be without strong safety TJ Ward for 4-6 weeks with his foot injury. Yeah, that spells "bad news bears" for a team that's 30th defending the run and is playing against a running back in Steven Jackson that's gained 159 and 130 yards on the ground in his last two games. If I'm Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, I'm handing the ball off to Steven Jackson all game long to wear down the Browns D. I think Steven Jackson could definitely get over 200 yards on the ground with that strategy. Can I get an "Uh-oh!" people?
This game could be similar to the Seattle game and come down to field goals. But honestly, I'm thinking the Rams will come in and just run Steven Jackson all over the field, while Sam Bradford just has to make a few key throws to seal the victory over the Browns. And while I'm not happy about it, I'm just not feeling like the Browns are going to be able to muster up any offense with the inept coaching of Pat Shurmur.
We can't get an offensive coordinator in here soon enough.
The Prediction: STL 17 - CLE 9
No touchdowns for the Browns, and who knows where we'd be without Phil Dawson.
I'll see you at the half,
~MAS
But lo and behold, this video showed up and reminded me why I love the Browns so much.
We all feel this way! We know it's ridiculous, we know it's irrational, we know they just freaking torture us each and every time out, but they're in our blood. And even though Cleveland Browns Stadium is a "factory of sadness" I will always watch the team each and every Sunday.
So now that we've got that out of the way, I've got to say that I'm just not particularly optimistic about our chances. First off, Peyton Hillis and Montario Hardesty are both still out for this game so you know what that means—no running game. They haven't replaced Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lauvao at the guard positions, so I have no confidence in the offensive line. And to make matters worse Mohamed Massaquoi is most likely out because of his lingering concussion symptoms.
We all know the offense has been unwatchable the last few games, and all those injuries aren't helping matters. There were rumblings of Josh Cribbs maybe doing some more out of the backfield this week, but those rumors were squashed. Maybe because the coaches didn't want Cribbsie giving away the game plan, or maybe because Shurmur really isn't going to use him as a running back.
But I'd say why not? Seriously, the guy ran the Wildcat for the past couple of seasons and averaged 5.9 yards per carry. With the lack of offense, and the heart that Cribbs plays with, why wouldn't you want him involved in every play possible?
Think about it—if you're the opposing defensive coordinator, who else scares you even a little bit on the Browns offense? The "who dat" running backs? Nope. The wide receivers? Sorry Greg Little, but you're still a rookie. And God love Colt McCoy, but with the offensive line trying to kill him by not blocking, nobody is afraid of him either.
So look for Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo to pressure the heck out of McCoy. Spagnuolo's previous job was defensive coordinator of the New York Giants—arguably home of the NFL's best pass rush since 2006. I'm thinking we're going to see a whole lot of McCoy running for his life yet again, and that doesn't bode well for our chances to win.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Browns will be without strong safety TJ Ward for 4-6 weeks with his foot injury. Yeah, that spells "bad news bears" for a team that's 30th defending the run and is playing against a running back in Steven Jackson that's gained 159 and 130 yards on the ground in his last two games. If I'm Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, I'm handing the ball off to Steven Jackson all game long to wear down the Browns D. I think Steven Jackson could definitely get over 200 yards on the ground with that strategy. Can I get an "Uh-oh!" people?
This game could be similar to the Seattle game and come down to field goals. But honestly, I'm thinking the Rams will come in and just run Steven Jackson all over the field, while Sam Bradford just has to make a few key throws to seal the victory over the Browns. And while I'm not happy about it, I'm just not feeling like the Browns are going to be able to muster up any offense with the inept coaching of Pat Shurmur.
We can't get an offensive coordinator in here soon enough.
The Prediction: STL 17 - CLE 9
No touchdowns for the Browns, and who knows where we'd be without Phil Dawson.
I'll see you at the half,
~MAS
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
They Call Him Coach, Pat Shurmur
First off, was it a good hire?
I'm going to have to say yes. I know he's not the big name coach we all were hoping for (ahem, Jon Gruden), and that I wrote this pretty critical post about him in my "A Look At" series, but I think he's going to get the job done well. Shurmur comes highly recommended from Eagles head coach (and Mike Holmgren favorite) Andy Reid, he runs the West Coast offense, and he did a very nice job with Sam Bradford down in St. Louis this past year.
Did the Rams offensive stats set the world on fire this year? No. Did they make the playoffs? No, they actually kind of choked on offene the last game of the season to take them out of that equation. Did they even have a winning record? Well, no again. But I think coordinating the offense that made Bradford have the best rookie quarterback stats since Peyton Manning is something for which Shurmur should be given a lot of credit.
All that aside, the next thing the Browns need to do is hire a great defensive coordinator, because defense is something Shurmur knows little to nothing about. I actually have no problem with that, as the last two Browns head coaches were former defensive coordinators of Bill Bellichick in New England, and neither of them paned out that well. In a sort of after the fact criticism of Crenel and Mangini, I think that if you have a specialty as a head coach, then your team should reflect that specialty, right? Well, the only successful Browns team in the past six years was the '07 version where we were 10-6, and that team was known for Derek Anderson throwing 28 touchdowns, many of which were to Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr. Let's hope Shurmur can bring a good offensive identity to the team, since we really haven't had an identity at all since we got back into the league in '99.
But to get back to defensive coordinators, the Browns have interviewed former Bills and Bears head coach, and the current secondary coach of the Philidelphia Eagles, Dick Jauron. According to ESPN and the Plain Dealer, they're also looking at former Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt and former Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Bill Davis. Now, I'm not really sold on Wannstedt and Davis, the former because he's been out of the NFL since 2005 while serving as coach at Pitt, and the latter because he just got fired from the Arizona Cardinals - if he's not good enough for them, he's not good enough for us.
That brings us to Jauron, who has a pretty good resumé, and is also a candidate to replace the recently fired Sean McDermott in Philadelphia as defensive coordinator. Now that's a team we should be competing with for a coordinator. I'm not sure if he'll come here, but he would also be great to have around the building just as another resource for Shurmur to bounce his head coaching ideas off of - especially when it comes to defense.
Also, we're going to have to change from the 3-4 to the 4-3 defensive scheme. This actually could be a problem that sets the Browns back a couple years because right now we are just not built for that at all with the players that are currently on the roster. We're going to need an overhaul at the defensive line position, and that's a shame because Ahtyba Rubin has been doing a great job stuffing the run for the past couple of seasons at nose tackle. In a perfect world, we'll acquire a couple of great defensive ends who will be able to rush the passer and we'll build around Scott Fujita at the linebacker position. When I think of a great 4-3 defense, I think of the New York Giants because of the way the rush the passer, yet still defend the run quite well year after year. With any luck, we'll be like them in...maybe 2, 3...or 5 years.
That's a lot of information to diget, Browns fans, so make sure you don't go swimming for a little while (not that you would if you're in Cleveland, or anywhere in the world where it's winter this time of year - unless you have an indoor pool, of course). I'll probably be back this weekend to assess what I think are the two best games of the year in the NFL - the conference championship games. The games this week promise to be great, with division rivals Chicago and Green Bay squaring off in the NFC, and two teams with top defenses battling in the AFC, the Steelers and Jets.
Enjoy the games on Sunday - I know I will.
~MAS
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A Look At... Pat Shurmur
In the third "A Look At" post of the week, I'm...well, taking a look at someone the Browns are bringing in to interview today, current offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, Pat Shurmur.
Shurmur, 45, has spentonly one season (nope, I was wrong about that) two seasons as the OC of the Rams, but before that he spent nine years with the Philadelphia Eagles, seven as the quarterbacks coach. It's widely known that the Eagles run the west coast offense with Andy Reid, which is obviously a plus in Holmgren's eyes. It would be nice to have a head coach with not only a specialty in that offensive system, but also with quarterbacks to help the development of Colt McCoy. Shurmur obviously knows his fair share about both topics as he coached Donovan McNabb to three Pro Bowl selections in his time as the QB coach.
He was brought on to the Rams staff last year and clearly helped speed along the development of the first overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft, Sam Bradford. Keeping in mind that he was a rookie this year, Bradford was 20th in the league in completion percentage (60%), 12th in passing yards (3512), 18th in touchdowns (18), 9th in interceptions (15) and 25th in QB rating (76.5). Those are pretty solid numbers for a rookie. By comparison, Peyton Manning completed 56% of his passes, threw for 3739 yards, 26 touchdowns and led the league with 28 interceptions.
The rest of Shurmur's offense was definitely not as impressive this year, as the Rams ranked 21st or below for each yardage category (26th overall, 21st passing, 25th rushing). They also ranked 22nd in first downs with 292, and were tied with Arizona for 26th in the league in points per game with 18.1. I don't know about you, but those numbers really don't get me excited.
So why are the Browns interviewing this guy? Well, he's got the connection with Tom Heckert from their time spent together in the Eagles organization, he runs the west coast offense, and he's a quarterback specialist. Plus he comes with a high recommendation from Eagles head coach Andy Reid, someone Holmgren knows well and respects a great deal.
Because of all that, unfortunately I think Shurmur has a decent chance at becoming the next Browns head coach. If it comes down to him being our top candidate because everyone else turns us down, I'd hope that Holmgren would just decide to coach the team himself.
More to come!
~MAS
Shurmur, 45, has spent
He was brought on to the Rams staff last year and clearly helped speed along the development of the first overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft, Sam Bradford. Keeping in mind that he was a rookie this year, Bradford was 20th in the league in completion percentage (60%), 12th in passing yards (3512), 18th in touchdowns (18), 9th in interceptions (15) and 25th in QB rating (76.5). Those are pretty solid numbers for a rookie. By comparison, Peyton Manning completed 56% of his passes, threw for 3739 yards, 26 touchdowns and led the league with 28 interceptions.
The rest of Shurmur's offense was definitely not as impressive this year, as the Rams ranked 21st or below for each yardage category (26th overall, 21st passing, 25th rushing). They also ranked 22nd in first downs with 292, and were tied with Arizona for 26th in the league in points per game with 18.1. I don't know about you, but those numbers really don't get me excited.
So why are the Browns interviewing this guy? Well, he's got the connection with Tom Heckert from their time spent together in the Eagles organization, he runs the west coast offense, and he's a quarterback specialist. Plus he comes with a high recommendation from Eagles head coach Andy Reid, someone Holmgren knows well and respects a great deal.
Because of all that, unfortunately I think Shurmur has a decent chance at becoming the next Browns head coach. If it comes down to him being our top candidate because everyone else turns us down, I'd hope that Holmgren would just decide to coach the team himself.
More to come!
~MAS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)