First I'll refer to Terry Pluto's article, and tell you he's right, as usual. If you expected a team with 15 rookies, many of whome started including the quarterback, to beat the Baltimore Ravens, you are or should be institutionalized.
If you are demanding even a winning record this season "or else", you should never supervise anybody else, including children.
Braylon Little's drops directly prevented the Browns from beating the Eagles and the Ravens; two elite teams considered candidates for the Superbowl. He did more damage in the other games, and it's possible he cost the Browns one of those, as well.
Cutting him would be an idiotic overreaction, and even benching him could be problematic. After all, he does get open, and has made some plays. His replacement would have to match his productivity.
Benjamin shows promise. Weeden hasn't worked with him as much, and has been a tad short on the deep throws to him. Travis being such a little shrimp, he can't out-leap or overpower anybody, and has a limited reach. Throwing to him (or Norwood) deep, Weeden needs exceptional timing and accuracy.
Josh Gordon is still learning, but is a much bigger target who seems to have good hands. He's a long strider and will never be very sudden out of his breaks, and, like Benjamin, is still getting used to the West Coast system.
Weeden has worked with Massequoi and Little much more than with any of the aforementioned guys, none of whome has proven much yet. But all I can say is, I hope there is workable way for Shurmer to park Braylon Little's choke-handed ass on the bench, at least for awhile.
Because Weeden did everything he could to win two or three games. His passes were on the money. Even when he was downright horrible, as he was in Philly, he hit Little in a microscopic window on the four yard line, and it bounced off him and into Philly's hands.
Thursday night was Boomer Esiason's first view of Weeden, and he loved him. He threw passes that few NFL quarterbacks can throw. Boomer even blamed the interception on Shurmer or Childress. In Boomer's opinion, when you throw across the field on third and long, you're asking for trouble. Defenders are waiting to jump that route, and Weeden is a rookie who probably won't recognize that yet.
Rich Gannon and Jim Miller agree with Boomer. The Browns finally have a stud quarterback.
That doesn't matter to Adam Schein, who argued with Miller about it, insisting that the Browns are the worst team in football. He considers close games vs. elite teams just an excuse. He cites a culture of losing.
Here, the blind squirrel is right. But as Miller pointed out, the way to overcome that is for them to win a game. Adam mentions Richardson, Weeden, Jauron, the defense (leaving out Thomas Mack Schwartze Jackson Haden Ward Sheard etc.), and finishes with it's just the worst team in football period. He doesn't believe the Browns will ever win a game this season.
This level of ignorance is profound. The Browns had the Eagles and Ravens beaten, and one player prevented both wins. Adam believes that Little will never make those catches. That Gordon will never make them either.
What team do the Browns play this season that's as good as the Ravens or the Eagles?
The three ex-quarterbacks, Pat Kirwin, and most other analysts now see the Browns as a young and rising team. Some still expect a 1-15 or 3-13 record, but as Kirwin explains, how many years have they sucked? Nobody will believe it until they have already won. Even then, he said, they'll never give the Browns credit for it. They'll say the other team had a bad game.
That's hard for me to swallow not because I'm a Browns fan, but because I used to be an intelligence analyst, and this is irrational.
Like Terry Pluto, I was heartened by the Browns road performance against the Ravens. They're using Richardson like they once used Earnest Byner. Quick passes to him on the perimeter to get him in space. I'd been waiting for that. Richardson is bigger, faster, and more elusive than Byner, and that's scary.
Weeden is getting his feet under him. He was as bad as I'd ever seen a QB be in his first game, but after that he's been getting better. Sure, he backslid a little vs the Bills, but you could see that he was working his way through it. That was more about the Bills getting quick heat on him than it was his fault.
How bout that Billy Winn? I knew the guy was a sleeper, but he exceeded my expectations. The guy was all over the place! Oh, man, wait til Phil Taylor returns to that rotation!
I wasn't able to watch the game, but I bet the Ravens tried to get a center or guard on Jackson, and couldn't handle the rookie man-on-man. This is great. that's what Taylor did, except Taylor can beat double-teams too.
Buster Skrine looked better. A guy his size can only do so much vs. Anqwan Boldin. The defense got heat on Flacco and slowed Rice down. The Ravens had to blitze to create pressure, and Weeden burned them a few times--a significant sign of progress.
I'm not too worried about Norwood's drops. He was reliable as hell all of last season with McCoy and Wallace. He's hardly worked with Weeden at all, and his last real game was last season. Unlike Braylon Little, he'll be fine.
Losing Massequoi will, but shouldn't be, ignored. MoMass was, as I told you he would be, the Browns most reliable wide reciever. Also, as I told you, he can make big plays. Finally, as I told you, when he's healthy he's pretty damn good.
Too bad he pulls a hammy at the exact time that I as coach would bench Braylon Little. He might not be able to do that now.
But maybe yes. Maybe Gordon is ready. He's showed some great signs in limitted playing time.
I'd personally make that move right now, and use the longer week to get Weeden all the practice reps with Gordon and company I could.
I've completed my analysis of the latest information a little early this week, and am updating my win/loss prediction to 12-4.
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