Signs of Life

1: Sans Joe Haden and Sheldon Brown, Dick Jauron opted for a conservative (soft) coverage scheme intended to force short passes and prevent big plays.  Patterson and Skrine did screw up, but it wasn't a matter of coverage, but poor angles and missed tackles.

They were lining up as many as twelve yards upfield, forcing Green and company to come to them.  They were supposed to close on the recievers while the ball was in the air and try to force a breakup or at least nail them where they caught it.  The receptions were schematicly ceded.

2: Trent Richardson might or might not have been rusty in week one, but his poor showing was due to an aggressive, stacked, swarming Philly defense and poor blocking.

In Cinci, Weeden improved, forcing Cinci to pull back and cover all parts of the field.  Even the deep underthrow to Travis Benjamin out of the gate was a factor.  It said "He's not afraid.  He'll go for the throat.  No short leash. That made me nervous".

Amidst all the hype surrounding Richardson, I wasn't sure how good he really was.  The highlight tapes I saw of him were certainly impressive, but so were those of the other top backs.

After last sunday, it looks to me like Heckert made absolutely the right move.

One thing that separates him from most of the others is his ability to get open and catch the ball.  We saw that, didn't we?  Marvin Lewis compared him to Jamal Lewis, and that's pretty cool, but Richardson is much more elusive and I think a little faster.

3: Rich Gannon still can't talk about the Browns without first mentioning the bad recievers.  For Rich, Josh Gordon and Travis Benjamin don't exist at all, Massequoi  's  leading reciever performance (with 16 YPC) doesn't register, and Little is a permadropper who will never get better.  Even 320 passing yards didn't make a dent in his made-up mind.

In reality, to date the '12 recieving corps has been pretty average, but not even that bad.

Sure, they looked horrible against the Eagles, but much of that was Weeden, and the offense's inability to run the ball.  Probably, all Rich Gannon probably looked at was Little's inexcusable drop on the Eagles four yard line.  Gannon is an expert on all of last year's playoff teams.  He'll sleep through Bills vs. Browns.  Front-runner.

As Gordon improves and works more with Weeden, as Benjamin gets more reps, and IF Little quits dropping passes (no drops last sunday--I think!!), they'll be pretty damn good THIS season.

4: The front four are generating pressure, but Jauron is mixing in blitzes, and the blitzes all seem to work.  Against the Eagles, he sent safeties and corners off the edge, and vs. the Bengals he sent Jackson up the gut.  Jauron is one smart cookie!

The Bills scare me because of CJ Spiller, who is tailor-made to run all over this defense.  This defense can slow down a big back, but a jitterbug can really screw it up.  This is more due to the tendancy of young players to over-pursue and open cutback lanes than to any lack of speed or talent.  They can be disciplined 3 times and contain the little sucker, but all he needs is for one guy to sell out too early, and all bets are off.

However, Jackson is their main recieving threat, without much of a complement.  Despite what happened to him last week, Buster Skrine can actually cover this guy, as long as the Jauron's defense gets on Fitz early and often.

The Browns front four (front eight, really), are making enemy quarterbacks miserable.  They're bull-rushing and penetrating.  Maybe they can force Spiller to dance around back there and give the rest of the defense a chance to converge.  Maybe they can beat him to the handoff.

He's going to make some big plays, for sure, but if they can offset those with some negative ones, and beat the crap out of Fitzpatrick, they can stifle this offense enough to win.

The Browns offense is now balanced in a way it hasn't been for several years.  While slants and crosses dominate, they'll attack any part of the field at any time.  In week three, the timing should be improved.

Jordon Cameron could get some time if Alex Smith is held out, and Josh Gordon might start getting on the same page with Weeden.

Last week, Weeden barely missed Gordon more than once.  You can see how close they are.  Bearing this out, Massequoi is his current favorite, Little is there for the ball, and Alex Smith too.  He's worked with these guys more, as Watson has been held out with injuries.

This is very encouraging.  Weeden shows a clear pattern of synching with his recievers fairly quickly.  Gordon could take a little longer since he's learning on the job.

The Bills have a truly scary big-play offense, and a decent defense, but the Browns can and should win this game!

The problem is, young teams find ways to lose.  They get close, but don't close.  Until Weeden or Richardson get that last touchdown, or somebody that last interception to end the game, it's still just a project.

As Marty said, winning is a habit.  They have to close one before they start truly expecting to win.

Maybe this is the week.