Makes perfect sense in Cleveland only....

Who do you blame?

(besides Johnny )

WSS

"... as we expected, (QB) Josh (McCown) will not practice today, but he is improving. He is truly day-to-day. We will see where he is tomorrow."

On potentially starting McCown even if he doesn’t practice this week, given his veteran experience:

“We will see. We will see. We will worry about making that decision if that’s the case. We will see if he can go tomorrow, and if he can’t, I think a big part of what we are doing now is the walkthrough stuff. The good thing about it is we are carrying over a lot of concept stuff that he has practiced and stuff that he’s thrown in games. As far as getting those actual reps in practice, at this point, it is important, but I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into it. We will see where he is, and at the end of the week, we will have enough information to make a decision.”

Or are they going to play it coy with the old "game time decision"?

If he can play, then I see at least two more starts for McC... Sunday vs. AZ followed by TNF @ Cinci. Depending on what the game results are of those two outings and the shape of the WildCard race, then may come the change. In part, the Cinci game decision is based upon the short week.

If after the Cinci game it is clear to all that a WC berth is an impossibility, then you have ten-days to spin-up the kid for the Steelers followed by a 15-day, Bye-week to teach from that tape and prep for MNF hosting the Ravens.

Then Johnny came in and sucked worse than Hoyer, that was fun. Maybe the guy knows what he's doing a little bit.

@tour2ma said:

Considering the rather sparse crowd, they could make a surprising amount of noise in a dome. About as loud as First Energy is on a good day.

@opal312 said:

Why did McCown run into the wall? Was it slippery or icey out? He ran into the wall then turned around and fell down like someone shot him.

Clearly you've never tried to walk on cement in football spikes.

@hoorta said:

Tour- it wasn't particularly loud- say compared to a couple years ago at Kansas City.

& I just reviewed the game tape. I'll have to be a little less harsh on Josh, though the inability to score TDs is concerning. You don't win games with 4 turnovers and 11 penalties, but the Rams had their share.

To be successful, Josh needs a bulletproof pocket, and a competent running game. To date, he's gotten neither. So what gives with the # of sacks the (supposedly studly) o-line has given up?

Thanks for the feedback and the review. Fair enough to say it was loud enough at times that it was disruptive?

A bulletproof pocket and a running game was what we all thought was awaiting him... well most of us anyway. If you think we're surprised/ disappointed, imagine how McC feels...

As for the O-line... dunno what's wrong, but quitting isn't it... the effort is there. Fails have been a mix of individual losses (primarily to Donald) and Ram scheme triumphs (often because we doubled Donald).

I'm in Q3 of the Rams game. JT and JB had very bad 1st halves. Mack so far has been surprisingly good. Not surprisingly Greco has been the only one able to handle Donald 1-on-1. Mitch has been fine as well.

@tour2ma said:

Tour- it wasn't particularly loud- say compared to a couple years ago at Kansas City.

& I just reviewed the game tape. I'll have to be a little less harsh on Josh, though the inability to score TDs is concerning. You don't win games with 4 turnovers and 11 penalties, but the Rams had their share.

To be successful, Josh needs a bulletproof pocket, and a competent running game. To date, he's gotten neither. So what gives with the # of sacks the (supposedly studly) o-line has given up?

@brownb499 said:

The organization knows exactly what it has in Manziel...That's why he's holding a clip board.There are no surprises in pro sports anymore...no Kurt Warners standing on the sidelines waiting to show the world their greatness.The assessment process is too good anymore teams know what they have. Sure you find some gems UDF but once they are in the system teams find the strengths and protect the weekness until it becomes clear what they really have...boom or bust. Look at Mallett!!!

How many on this board clamored for the Browns to go get this weenie while most here saw what he was in college and knew that Belichek doesn't let him go if he had any talent at all.

I think the Browns know what they have in Manziel and they're hell bent on hiding it in hopes someone offers anything for him in the off season.

"Better to be silent and thought a fool...Then to speak and remove all doubt"

Winners are a real thing. I'm not saying he is one but there's always guys in every sport and every time that have an innate ability to find a way to win. And there's also guys who find a way to lose. And the browns always find a way to find a loser.

@opal312 said:

Why did McCown run into the wall? Was it slippery or icey out? He ran into the wall then turned around and fell down like someone shot him. I thought of Gus Ferrotte at that moment.

Will the Browns have a running game against the Cardinals? I'm starting Chris Johnson so I can win my fantasy league. I've started every running back who plays the Browns and I'm 6-1 and 5-2

Hopefully their defense comes to play. Carson Palmer is having a solid year but he's not very mobile. Pressure the QB so you don't have to rely on your secondary.

Go Browns

Aren't you special?

I start Barnidge, Benji and Coons and I'm 6-1 too.

And I never root against my team.

Ever.

Z

@opal312 said:

Fuck you and your fantasy league. A Browns fan would NEVER and I repeat NEVER do bullshit like that. Enjoy your fucking fantasy league wins.

Will the Browns have a running game against the Cardinals? I'm starting Chris Johnson so I can win my fantasy league. I've started every running back who plays the Browns and I'm 6-1 and 5-2

Hopefully their defense comes to play. Carson Palmer is having a solid year but he's not very mobile. Pressure the QB so you don't have to rely on your secondary.

Go Browns

@brownb499 said:

The assessment process is too good anymore teams know what they have.

I strongly disagree. I have absolutely zero faith in anyone on the Browns to tell me who has talent and who doesn't.

How many on this board clamored for the Browns to go get this weenie while most here saw what he was in college and knew that Belichek doesn't let him go if he had any talent at all.

I think the Browns know what they have in Manziel and they're hell bent on hiding it in hopes someone offers anything for him in the off season.

"Better to be silent and thought a fool...Then to speak and remove all doubt"

Also LMAO at an idiot who clearly cannot analyze QB play for shit wanting to see what JM has.

@tacosman said:

the point is that he *did* hit the two big passes and they did lead to points and a big lead and a nice victory. Honestly, how do we know mccown would have hit those passes? For all we know he chooses to dump the ball in the flat instead....after all we saw a whole hell of a lot of that in the rams game as he impressed some in here with his completion percentage....on the way to 6 pts.

How do we know McC would have had to hit those passes? Especially the 2nd one as it was not a designed play. The first? Fairly likely as it was within McC's range and Benji was open enough to wait on the ball... just as he did in the actual game.

As for the Rams game... on how many of those dump offs can you swear there were receivers open further downfield? I'll spot you one...

Through one-half of O-line grading using the broadcast, so far I've seen one verifiable miss. On the 3rd down and 8 at the end of our opening, 2nd-half drive McC was flushed up and to the right. He threw short to Benji who got 4. At the top of the shot by the sideline and 1st-down marker was Barn. A completion to him looked likely and would have gotten the 1st down.

You are on your own now...

@hoorta said:

MHO it's on coaching that we got 3 holding penalties and one false start in ONE drive killers against the Rams,.

h,

Did it get ever loud enough in what looked like a half-empty dome to disrupt signal calling? Seemed like it might have in that series when we had back-to-back false starts down close to our own endzone, but hard to tell on TV.

@the-cysko-kid said:

Pettine is afraid that if they start manziel and manziel blows(a real possibility) the team will go 4-12 instead of 6-10 and that the difference for him between 4-12 and 6-10 is one more year of being a head coach in the nfl. Because he is smart enough to know that this is it for him in that role....so ride it for as long as you can.

Im thinking though he may be miscalculating....if he goes 6-10 with mccown at the helm, WHAT IN THE HELL would management have to point to as a reason to keep in? Two mediocre years where we are completely irrelevant AND on top of that there is not even the excuse that we are trying to develop or take a chance with some qb. We're a 6-10 team going into year 3 with no direction, hope, or excuses.....

But if you throw johnny in there and he blows and we go 4-12, well at least pettine can take the "hey, I tried to shake it up and the kid didnt work out. He wasnt even my pick but I figured we needed to make sure he wasnt good and what did we have to lose".....that argument may be more likely to buy his sorry ass another year before being canned than having a dreadfully mediocre and irrelevant year under mccown that nobody cares about.