Browns Week #1 Post Mortem vs. Cowboys

We had the Cowboys reaching 30+ and winning by two scores in our previous entry. We were in the ballpark.

Dallas did what we thought they would do offensively – whatever they pleased. Unfortunately, Cleveland’s offense, outside of the first drive, was inefficient – to say the least. The Browns are headed for Miami Dolphins 2007 territory if they average 10 points per contest this fall.

Here are our game observations.

I have no idea what the Browns’ defensive brains trust was doing in the first half having their best pass rusher, K. Wimbley, constantly dropping in coverage on obvious passing downs.

They made him a first round pick to get sacks, not cover space on third and 9. Wimbley had a tough enough sophomore season getting to the quarterback. He doesn’t need the coaching staff to make his job any harder in year #3. He gets paid to sack quarterbacks. Period.

The Cowboys made an adjustment in the second quarter and put Anthony Henry on the Browns best receiver – K2. That’s seemed to work. The Browns, for some unknown reason, rarely went back to K2 after he had several grabs on their first drive – which resulted in a 2-yard TD dink from DA to Winslow.

The Browns spent the first half dropping as many as eight in coverage in an effort to protect a weak secondary.

Of course, that meant no pass rush whatsoever and Tony Romo had a field day. They came with more numbers in the second half but had limited success with it. By then, Romo was in a groove, and although they bloodied him up once, he played pitch and catch all day – regardless of what the Browns tried.

Back to the drawing board.

My son is a huge Felix Jones fan, the rookie back out of Arkansas. I can see why. He came off the bench for Dallas and ran for over 100 yards today. Of course, you have to take into account the defense he was facing.

Let’s see, week #1 is in the books and we have already seen a QB throw for over 300 yards against the Browns, a back rush for over 100 yards and a team gain nearly 500 yards of total offense. And that’s with the Cowboys putting it in neutral most of quarter #4.

We’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. A. Davis is a good citizen and a hard worked, but he’s a mediocre NFL linebacker at best. He had a chance to pick off Romo near the Browns' goal line and stop a Dallas drive cold. Romo threw it right at him but he dropped it. You HAVE to make that play. The end result was another Cowboys’ TD soon after.

Don’t ask me to explain why Romeo C. kicked a field goal down 21 in the fourth quarter.

Every once in a while we see coaches do something really stupid to remind us they aren’t all geniuses. This was such a case. The Dawson FG cut the lead to 18 – that’s 18 as in the Browns STILL needing three more scores to overtake Dallas with less than 11 minutes to play. You would hope there was at least one assistant coach on the sideline with the guts to tell him that was a bad idea. I guess not.

It didn’t matter anyway but it sure looked bad. How bad? After the FG sailed through the uprights, I actually heard loud boos. When was the last time you heard hometown fans boo after a score? That said it all.

I saved the best for last. Braylon Edwards turned in a performance only paralleled by the infamous Dennis Northcutt Fiasco in Pittsburgh circa 2006.

Remember that one?

Dennis dropped four that night and wanted no part of the poor weather conditions or the Steelers’ physical play. It was the single worst performance I have ever seen turned in by a professional athlete in team sports in any era. Yea, that bad.

Braylon Edwards’ performance came close with four official drops of his own (although we only counted three). In fact, throw in a pair of penalties Edwards picked up today and you could argue he put on a better show than CUT did that fateful evening in Steel Town. We’ll still give the edge to CUT however, but it was close.

The network carrying the Cowboys - Browns game put up a stat indicating Edwards had the second most drops in the NFL in 2007 – 20. Only TO had more. I had Edwards with only 16 drops in ‘07. But why quibble over a handful of drops. The point is Edwards had a horrid day and no one in their right mind should excuse it to his foot injury.

QBs and NFL receivers spend more time together than with their spouses when you include all the mini-camps, the two-a-days, the pre-season, the regular season and the extra work on the side.

I expect Edwards to bounce back next week and play very well. They'll need him to if they want to be competitive. Besides, how could he be worse?

We took the "Butterfingers" label off Edwards last fall because he was turning in a Pro-Bowl season - even with all the drops. But I reserve the right to bring it back if he once again is among the league-leaders in drops.

The point is the Browns cannot afford such self-inflicted wounds on offense. They need to score 30 or more every time out if they hope to win more than they lose this fall. Their defense is poor – and that’s being nice. They know it. The fans know it. The NFL knows it.

Two suggestions for Braylon - apologize to your teammates, coaches and fans that paid $50 + to see that performance, and donate a small part of your game check to the charity of your choice. Say $10,000.

Of course that will never happen. But it would ingratiate him with many people if he did as much. It's a good PR move, and I may not be able to tar my driveway (that's for you Nick), and I barely know how to screw in a lightbulb, but I know a little something about PR.

Finally, those media member who already are on record as saying the Browns CAN afford to go 0-2 out of the gate and still make the playoffs are showing their clear hometown bias. It’s like watching MSNBC covering Obama.

Going 0-2 in your building to start the season puts you in a huge hole. That means you would realistically have to win half your road games (4-4) and win out the rest of the way at home (6-0) to secure a 10-6 record. And we found out last fall, 10-6 was not good enough.

Forget what others say or write, if they want to be playing in January, this is a MUST win for Cleveland against the Steelers – a team that has handled the Browns nine straight times.

Otherwise, this could snowball badly when you consider the competitive schedule they have in ’08 compared to the X-mas present of a schedule they had in ‘07.

Week #2 vs. Steelers prediction to come.