The Cleveland Browns ended their season
in a familiar manner, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in a pathetic
fashion to end another pathetic season with a 4-12 receord. Surprisingly,
though, they ended their season exactly as they did last season by
firing their head coach.
Let's take a look back at my post from
September 8 on how the “5 Keys to the Browns Improving This Year”
panned out this season:
- Brandon Weeden must become the starting quarterback.
As we know, this key to victory did not
remotely happen. Weeden got injured after two lackluster games and
Brian Hoyer was anointed the starter. Hoyer looked like a far better
quarterback and leader in guiding the team to two straight victories
before a knee injury ended his season. Weeden returned as a starter
only to perform so poorly that he was benched for backup Jason
Campbell. Weeden came back yet again when Campbell got injured only
to receive more boos from Cleveland fans that had enough with his
lowest point coming in a Jacksonville loss in which he inexplicably
was responsible for three turnovers in the last three minutes of the
first half. Weeden finished the season with 1,731 yards passing, 9
TD, and 9 INT, for a quarterback rating of 70.8. He's likely to be
released by the team, and at the age of 30, may at best be third on a
team's depth chart next year.
- Trent Richardson must have a 1,000 yard rushing season.
Richardson was dealt to the
Indianapolis Colts for a first-round pick on September 19. At the
time, it was a shocking trade that angered most Browns fans. But,
Richardson's poor performance with the Colts makes the Browns look
like the winners of the deal for the time being. It's still possible
that Richardson could turn his career around and that the Browns pick
they received in exchange could be a bust. Richardson finished the
regular season with 458 yards rushing and 3 TD with a 2.9 yards per
carry average. He was benched by the Colts in favor of Donald Brown.
The Browns ended the year as the number
9 ranked defense in the league. But, the numbers that determine who
has the best defense in the league by the NFL's standards can be
deceiving and rely solely on yards given up. Football Outsiders ranks the Browns as 24th. Their second half defense was likely
even worse. The Browns were 8-6-2 in the first half of games this
season.
Chudzinski likely had a similar reaction when being handed his pink slip.
- No dumb coaching mistakes.
It's unclear whether Chudzinski can
really be blamed for any specific miscues. Any mistakes didn't stand
out as badly as Pat Shurmur's did last season. But, there were
definitely major gaffes that cost the team games particularly the
special teams performance in the game in Cincinnati. A coach doesn't
lose seven straight games to end the season without some dumb things
going on.
- Don't be the Cleveland Browns.
This key may be the saddest one that I
wrote because, by the end of the season, the Browns were even more
Browns than they have ever been. After one season, the front office
fired Chudzinski, making the team seem even more dysfunctional than
it has ever been since returning in 1999. By firing Chudzinski,
Haslam defied the points that he made in this interview with Peter King, and chose against consistency at the head coaching position. In
their press conference on the firing, Haslam and president Joe Banner
regularly mentioned their determination to win. It's nice for Browns
fans to have a group that claims to be passionate about winning. But,
there's a fine line between the mad genius determined to win (Bill
Belichick) and someone who is just plain mad in his decision making
when trying to win (Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones). Browns fans are
hoping that Haslam isn't the next Daniel Snyder, but with Haslam's
Pilot J scandal still lurking, an entire coaching overhaul again, and
uncertainty at the quarterback and running back positions, the Browns
look as lost as they have ever been. The Cleveland Browns are looking
like the organizational equivalent of Dwayne Rudd's helmet throw.
No comments:
Post a Comment