Colt McCoy: First chink in the armor

Colt McCoy had his first bad line score in last weeks game vs the Ravens. His 3 intercepts were critical in the Browns loss and all of them came on long passes.

It's clear that Baltimore had studied McCoy on film and made some adjustments. What the Ravens did was to dare McCoy to throw long by increasing their coverage underneath. The strategy worked. McCoy was unable to hit the 15-20 yard passes that he is so incredibly accurate with but when he went long, his weaknesses were exposed. Colt struggles to get the ball downfield on longer tosses.

Time to give up on Colt?? No way. However in the poker game of adjustments, Colt and the Browns clearly need to step up. First and foremost, the Browns need to find some outside receivers capable of getting open long. Colt can thread the needle on short passes but on the bomb, Colt McCoy is no John Elway. There are two problems here. First, the Browns have no receiver who is consistently able to get open, especially on deep routes. Second, Colt can throw the pigskin more than far enough, he is however not nearly as accurate with his deep throws as an Elway or Kosar were. Hence, Colt, like Brian Sipe and many other QBs not blessed with strong arms, will need to recognize earlier when a receiver will come open deep. If he can get to that point, his arm strength will be a non issue.

Don't forget that Browns great Brian Sipe sat on the taxi squad for his first two full years before he started to get playing time. Once Sipe started to play, he showed immediate flashes of brilliance and like our Colt, he never wavered on leadership however if you sort through some box scores in Sipe's first years of playing, you can find some awful games that more than match the bad game Mr. McCoy had last Sunday.

I personally remain convinced that Colt McCoy has the work ethic to improve his game and above all, the intangibles needed to be a Super Bowl QB.

Bl Predicts: Season ends vs Pittsburgh

The Brown Log attempts to top off our season record at .500 in the last week of the season. In what may be Eric Mangini's last game, it will be interesting to see how the Browns come out and play. If the team plays with heart it shows that they believe in Mangini.

Look for the Browns to give a respectable performance, but the Steelers simply have too much at stake Sunday.

BL Predicts

Browns 17
Steelers 26

The BL are 7-8 in predicting the outcome of Browns games year to date.

The Mangini question

The Brown Log has often been critical of Eric Mangini, who, at 39 years old, has too often made mistakes that a more mature coach would avoid. Today's clock mismanagement at the end of the first half was a prime example. Mangini often lacks what I refer to as "the intuition of experience.".

That said, Mangini's weaknesses are all flaws that will get better with time as he lives through this school of hard knocks. His weaknesses are in game management where he makes misjudgements under pressure. Decide not to call a timeout because maybe just maybe the other team will have too much time left and might score??? Oh yeah, the Browns need time to score too...

Leave an injured QB on the field?? We lost 2 games we should have won because of this misjudgement. Tampa Bay could see that Delhomme was useless due to his injury as did Jacksonville with McCoy. As a matter fact it was so obvious in those cases fans like myself watching on TV could see that the QB was hurt. So while Tampa and Jacksonville blitzed on passing downs and defended the run on running downs, the Browns went down the drain in games they should have won. Why couldn't Mangini decide to pull the QB? Fear and indecision, in other words inexperience.

Mangini's strengths on the other hand are that he has shown a genius for game strategy and he has demonstrated the ability to create formations and gameplans that are ahead of the rest of the NFL pack. Strengths, if you may, that one does not easily find in a coach. Ask the New Orleans Saints if Mangini can put a fantastic gameplan together. Ask Tom Brady if Mangini can confuse an all-pro quarterback with previously never seen defensive formations.

Mangini has shown himself to be well organised and on player personnel decisions where he has a few days to reflect, he shown shown himself able to stand on principle even in the face of pressure. He is an innovator. In 2010 the Browns often fielded defensive formations never before tried in the NFL such as a zero man defensive line. This permitted the Browns to field a dramatically improved Defense in 2010 and allowed the team to compete in every game. Credit Rob Ryan you say? Sure but the buck stops with the head coach and that gentlemen's name is Eric Mangini.

The offense stunk right? Yes but the Browns bet that Jake Delhomme was the mature presence needed to carry a weak offensive team. That bet failed and Mangini was left to manage the aftermath. The offense was bad but Hillis emerged as a force and our mediocre receiving crew was contributing at seasons end. That's a credit to coaching. Too conservative, maybe but if you don't have The firepower playing it safe is actually the right plan. Mangini has shown on D that if he has the talent, he has the moxie to innovate.

So should the Browns fire Mangini? I'm going to go out on a limb and state uneqivicably "no".

My estimation is that Mangini, who turns 40 next month, will start to trust his gut more in 2011 and avoid some of the bonehead decisions caused by outthinking himself under pressure. All that remains will be his strategic genius, a quality that is most often found in Super Bowl coaches.

In the end we've invested 2 years in building Mangini's experience. My vote is don't dump the guy right when he and the team are ready to repay that investment.

Merry Christmas from the NCAA

A Terrelle Pryor jersey on sale today for "only" $80.00!

"This is Cleveland"

Has any Browns player ever embodied the spirit of Ohio football more than Josh Cribbs?

Well if you have any doubts, read Tony Grossi's article from today's Plain Dealer.

On November 14th, Josh Cribbs sustained a serious foot injury against the Jets. Most players would have sat. Why does Cribbs keep playing? Read on:

The injury caused soft tissue damage to the plantar plate, or beneath the ball of the foot. He feels pain when putting pressure on that area. It limits his ability to cut and change direction. His kick returns are limited to running straight ahead.

The question is why doesn't Cribbs just sit and let the injury heal? The answer embodies the essence of Cribbs as a football player:

"I could easily sit down and be like, 'Coach, I'm gonna try to take care of myself for next year.' But I love football too much," Cribbs said. "Even one of my teammates said, 'If you're not good, sit down.' I can't sit down.

"This is football. This is what it's all about, pushing through injuries, going to work when you don't have to, and battling. This is Cleveland. What would I be, having a foot injury and not going to work? And make the money I'm supposed to make. People have to work with worse circumstances than me. So the least I can do is push through the injuries and try to do as much as I can for the team."

The Cleveland work ethic is part of what makes this town great. Countless working men and women in this town get up every day and have at it. Josh Cribbs is one of us and deserves this town's support, through good and bad.

BL Predicts: Game 15 vs Ravens

Injuries to numerous key players leave the Browns weakened and renders predicting results of games quite a bit easier.

BL Predicts

Browns 13
Ravens 27

The Brown Log are 6-8 year to date on the prediction front.

NCAA defends slavery system

Yesterday Terrelle Pryor and 4 other Ohio State football players were punished by the NCAA for selling their own personal property. Let's see if I have this right. If I own something and I sell it, last time I checked it is not a crime. Why instead does the NCAA treat its "players" like criminals when they profit? Because the NCAA does not appreciate when it's slaves take from the hand of their master, even if they do so by perfectly legal means. This article starts to explain, I include a portion:

So much money gets made off these players and they can't even resell their own bowl jersey and championship ring? Look, I wouldn't sell something that meaningful to my team's success. But let's stop being naive and look at what the players see.

Consider Newton's impact. Some of the hottest sellers on Auburn's official online store are Heisman Trophy shirts with Newton's No. 2 -- but not his name, of course, as forbidden by the NCAA.

I counted 20 long-sleeve and short-sleeve shirts with No. 2 prominently displayed; home and away No. 2 jerseys; a 2010 season DVD with Newton on the cover; and a wall decal with a superhero-looking Auburn player wearing No. 2.

"You don't want to push the envelope too much, but you certainly want to try and meet that demand of, hey, we want to buy a No. 2 jersey (Cam Newton) or a No. 17 jersey (Josh Bynes) or a No. 89 jersey (Darvin Adams)," Auburn Senior Associate Athletics Director Scott Carr said.

"It's that fine line of do you just stick to a jersey that says No. 1 or a jersey that represents the year you're playing in? Or do you do more that's more player-specific? A lot of it is the fans want to wear the jerseys of the popular players. It's a tight balance."

Under Armour, which provides $27.45 million over seven years in cash and product to Auburn, estimates Newton wears six to 10 of the company's logos during games.

"When you sign a school like Auburn, you hope to get this kind of exposure and catch lightning in a bottle with this type of special player," said Matt Mirchin, Under Armour senior vice president of sports marketing.

The NCAA and it's universities make well over a billion dollars a year in profits on the back of their players, most of whom will never play in the pros. A common sense solution should exist to share this wealth with players, many of whom come from poor families and struggle to get by even if the university pays room and board.

The hypocricy of the NCAA and it's treatment of athletes has one answer, just look to Major League Baseball. Pro baseball has a professional minor league system and regularly drafts 18 year olds who skip college to play professionally. If the NCAA insists on continuation of the indefensible policy of player slavery, perhaps the best solution is to let the market rule. The NFL or some independent entreprenuer should establish a football minor league. Players not ready for the NFL would have a home and a paying job, and the NCAA could return to it's real mission: supporting student athletes.

Coach Brian Sipe

Here is a great article about Brown's legend Brian Sipe. Sipe is now the Quarterbacks coach at San Diego State University. Today he will be on the field as his alumni play Navy in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

BL Predicts: Game 14 vs The Bengals

The end of the season is near and many important decisions will be taken by Mike Holmgren based on the performance of the Browns over these last 3 games. Will the Browns come together as a team and perform well or will they ride out the string.

The 2010 campaign has been one of many ups and downs and looking back, after the disaster of 2009, the fact is that the Browns competed all season long in every game. That stated, I think only Mike Holmgren can judge if Coach Mangini will merit another year. If Holmgren fires Mangini, the likely reason is that while the Browns have in fact competed in 2010, it is primarily due to the innovations introduced by Rob Ryan on defense. The Browns defense took Dick Lebeau's zone blitz schemes to the next level, often substituting linebackers for defensive linemen, a strategy that infinitely complicated the opposing quarterbacks reads. Instead of having to account for 4 linebackers, opposing QBs often found themselves having to evaluate the positioning of up to 6 or even 7 linebackers. On 3rd and long the Browns have dared opponents to run, and one only need recall Tom Brady's awful showing against the Browns to realize that Ryan's schemes confused even the best quarterback in the game.

So the question is "does Mangini deserve credit for Rob Ryan's innovation?" My inclination is to say that Mangini does in fact deserve credit for the Browns defensive success in 2010. Everything on a team starts and finishes with the head coach. However only those persons associated with the Browns day to day truly can evaluate Mangini's role in putting this innovative defense on the field every Sunday. This is important because it is very likely that Rob Ryan will be lured away by some NFL team next year to be their head coach so next year Mangini will not have Rob Ryan' support.

Mike Holmgren's decision on whether to retain Mangini will tell us the inside story.

On to the Bengals game. When the Bengals and Browns played in game four earlier this season, the Bengals were still viewed as a one of the better teams in the NFL. The Browns were 0-3 at the time of that game and badly needed a W. The Browns led by Seneca Wallace got the win that Sunday in Cleveland and the Bengals have since stumbled to only 2 wins.

One point I clearly recall from that match up earlier this year is that the Bengals were one of few teams this year to come into the game with a good plan to counter Rob Ryan's innovative defense. At one point in the game for example, Ryan threw his zero down lineman scheme at Carson Palmer, the Bengals immediately went into a no-huddle and drove the ball down near to the goal line over the next few plays. Palmer passed for nearly 400 yards that day.

Pundits are getting wrapped in the fact that the Bengals have only 2 wins this year but a closer look shows that the Bengals have competed in nearly every game this year. Add in the following factors and I think today's outcome becomes clear:

- Bengals are at home.
- Colt will play but he still is not 100%
- Browns morale is down after a demoralizing defeat

I think it all adds up to a clear and solid loss. For the first time this year, we may see a game in which our Browns are soundly defeated


BL Predicts

Browns 17
Bengals 33

The Brown Log are 5-8 is our predictions this season

BL Predicts: game 13 vs the Bills

As a long time Browns fan the 2010 season has been very difficult to predict. A lifetime of losing certainly has tempered our ability to recognize that our Browns have a world class D that gives them a shot at winning every Sunday. Our offense however assures that almost no game will be a blowout, unless of course the defense scores a few times.

On paper Buffalo should be an easy win but nothing comes easy to our Browns and this week will be no different. Look for Jake Delhomme to move the team and just when we seem to have the Bills by the neck he'll make a mistake to put them back in the game. Look for Rob Ryan's D to dominate and keep the Browns on top all afternoon in spite of the offense.

What will happen ? Close game but Cleveland should win.

BL Predicts

Browns 17
Bills 10

The Brown Log won loss now matches our Brownies. We are 5-7 on predictions year to date

BL Live Blog: defense wins the game

I'm glad yet again to be wrong on the game prediction. Huge pro bowl level performance by Joe Haden and the Browns D was huge. It's hard not to say "what if" right now. The Browns are 5-7 but could easily be 8-4.

BL Live Blog: tight game!

Standout first half for Joe Haden and the Browns D

BL Predicts: week twelve vs Dolphins

On the road vs a Dolphins team playing well. The Browns are banged up, and starting to show it. It all points to a loss.

BL Predicts

Browns 15
Dolphins 27

The Brown Log after practically nailing last weeks final score, are 5-6 year to date