Browns Finish At 10-6

We discussed back in October the Browns had a legitimate shot at 10 wins and a playoff spot in 2007. We were half right.

Cleveland got to 10 – which is usually good enough to get you in - but a bad loss in Cincinnati late cost them football in January. They have no one to blame but themselves. The Browns opened the door for the Titans and Tennessee walked through it.

Sunday’s win against the 49ers was very predictable. San Francisco was down to its fourth quarterback, who had only been in camp for two weeks. Once Josh Cribbs went the distance with an early punt return, the Browns’ coaching staff decided to keep it simple – put it on the ground, chew up clock and see if Chris Weinke could beat you.

Anderson made one excellent toss to Braylon Edwards for BE's 16th touchdown catch of the season. That and Cribbs’ return is all that was needed. In total, he (DA) only threw it 20 times. As it turned out, all they needed on this day was a quarterback to, and I hate this term, “manage the game” to beat an inferior S.F. squad. A double digit season-clinching win soon followed.

Here is how we graded them out.

Ownership gets an A. They spent to money necessary to improve the offensive line and got back into the first round to get Quinn. Both wise moves - both short term and long-term.

Management deserves an A-. Most of Phil Savage’s moves panned out.

Romeo and company get an B+. They did get to 10 wins in year #3. The down side is it the defense was terrible, especially against the run, nine of 10 wins came against sub .500 teams, and along with having a relatively injury-free season by NFL standards, the Browns failed to reach the post-season. You've got to reach football in January to earn an A in my book.

Look for Romeo to pick up a ton of Coach of the Year votes. He's well-liked and got them to 10 victories. In the end, I see Mr. Bill (in New England)winning. However, he's disliked by many and Jeff Fisher could sneak in and get the honor since his team got in (post-season) without a ton of stars leading the way. Besides, you know my take on awards - to vote before the season ends makes no sense.

DA gets a B. Why a B? It’s simple, a good NFL quarterback posts, at minimum, a 2-1 touchdown to interception ratio and completes at least 60% of his passes behind this line, with these receivers and that running game. Anderson, like that hurler who has a 97 mph fastball but can’t spot it consistently, ran hot and cold. He has a big arm, a quick release and proved he can start in this league, but the Browns will have an new quarterback taking snaps in 2006. They didn't give up a #1 & a #2 to have Quinn hold a clipboard for long.

And for those in the media that are speculating the team might deal Quinn instead of Anderson in the off-season, they should have their pens and notebooks confiscated. That will not happen.

The offensive line gets an A+. A total of 20 sacks allowed and a 1,000 yard back says it all.

The running game deserves an A-. Lewis earned himself the starting lead back role for the foreseeable future.

The receivers earned a B+. The Browns were the only NFL team with two 1,000 yard receivers (K2 & Braylon Edwards)and a 1,000 yard back, but there were simple too many drops to give an A. We counted five drops in the season-finale alone - two by K2 who had his worse game as a pro in terms of catching the football. Call me old school, but if it’s thrown to you, and you get paid to catch it, you should.

Josh Cribbs, the team’s MVP, and his cohorts on special teams clearly earned an A+. Some are pointing to the blocked field goal against the Raiders as a special teams breakdown that caused the Browns to miss the playoffs. Right.

Without the consistent great play on special teams this fall, the Browns are at best a .500 team.

The secondary is by far the most difficult unit to grade out. Why you ask? Look at who they played against for most of the season. By my count, they went up against nine back-ups in a quarterback-starved league. The 49ers, for example, were down to their fourth signal-caller yesterday. Therefore, they (secondary) weren’t tested often. And when they were, they often failed. We’ll give them a C-.

This front seven can be graded as one unit as far as I am concerned. Their main job is to stop the run and put some heat on the QB. They did neither - especially the former. Therefore, a D is in order. The only reason it isn’t an F is the fact that they occasionally got stops on short yardage and they weren't lit up the final month of the season.

So what did we learn in 2007?

We found out that after years of futility, the team finally established home field advantage – setting a franchise record for home wins (7). That’s good news.

We now have an identity (read: swagger) on offense with a vertical passing game that features tall, athletic receivers who play with an edge, and a solid running game in reserve. That's very good news.

We also know that the defensive front seven needs overhauled. That’s bad news.

Imagine what kind of numbers L. Tomlinson might put up next week had the Browns reached the post-season? Scary isn’t it?

The key question heading into the off-season is as follows - are they (Browns) truly headed in the right direction with a 10 win season under their belt or was the double-digit win campaign a result of a very weak schedule and an injury-free year?

Much like the Cleveland Cavaliers of the past couple years, when a team is coming off a statistically successful season (back-to-back 50 win seasons in basketball & a 10 win campaign in football), there is a tendency to tinker only when it comes to making personnel changes.

For the record - this observer wants Savage and company to get very aggressive in terms of making changes on the defensive side of the ball, re-sign Lewis, add another quality receiver on offense and upgrade at quarterback.

That should just about do it.