Now Grossi and others are blaming playcalling for the second-quarter meltdown. This is familiar territory in Cleveland. Once you've worked over the quarterback real good, your hunger for "brains" isn't satisfied, so you have to start lumbering towards the coaches.
This offense has been trying to run the ball all season, with mixed, but usually negative, results. This is why Turner has incorporated more shallow slants and crosses into his normally vertical offense.
These are much higher-percentage throws, and the reason why West Coast quarterbacks usually have a higher completion percentage than those playing in descendants of the Coryall system.
This is an offensive coordinator making the most of what he's got. What the Browns are running now is not the system Turner wants to run. A priority for next season will be to get the two or three new players it will take to set up a more consistant running game.
Meanwhile, they have to pass a lot.
Grossi was here all the way through the Marty years. When Marty got a lead, he'd start running the ball over and over again. It often did work to eat the clock and still march into scoring range, but his team was built for it.
Is that what Tony wants? No, I doubt that. Tony gets that the Browns have a hard time running the ball. So...what were they supposed to do instead?
Oh, I think I know! Stop throwing the ball downfield! Have I got that right? No more deep passes? Is it the drops? Do you think that in this situation the defense can sell out to stop the deep pass? Do you get that the Browns had the lead?
I'm just guessing here. Anyway I'm glad Chud came out and said that they'll always go for the points, and not worry about the bad things that can happen.
Listen: Weeden's judgement should have told him not to make those throws. If not, he should have put them on the mark. HE melted down.
And after reading a Tom Reed article, I now realize that Weeden was much better in the second half. It's just that I and my fellow witnesses were too angry and impaired to realize it. Nor does it make up for the melt-down, because by now we know that he'll do it again.
Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the playcalling.
What is wrong (besides Weeden being the guy Peter Smith thinks Campbell is)? Run-BLOCKING.
McGahee isn't the back he once was, but is still okay, and only last season racked up impressive numbers. Obgannaya averages what--is it still like 6 YPC?
But the thing we see most on runs is an absence of holes. Our linemen engage, but don't MOVE the defenders. The back has to cut right or left to find daylight, wasting time and allowing the rest of the defense to converge.
TRich might have danced too much in the backfield, but it wasn't all him. There weren't any holes for him to hit. McGahee just tries to ram into that wall and wiggle through because it's all he can do.
Aside from Joe Thomas, none of these linemen are really athletic enough to pull. Defenders beat them to the mark, and running backs have to either run past them or wait (and waiting never works).
I was high on Mitchell Schwartze, who did a decent job as a rookie last season, and could sometimes push people around. But evidently defensive coordinators have studied him and found his weakness. Instead of trying to get their best passrushers and blitzers past Joe Thomas, they're zeroing in on Schwartze and getting penetration on both sides of him with their fastest/quickest players.
This is why I and lots of people who know way more than I do look forward to replacing him with a more athletic right tackle, and moving him to guard, where I think he could be pretty damn good.
A DeCastro-type athletic run-around guard to go with this would totally transform the offensive line.
Looking at the 2014 draft rankings, I see Bridgewater still at or near the top, and every other quarterback dropping. I sort of trust this, as it reflects current performance/progress in real games.
Because there are several of them, I'm now starting to think that there won't be a trading-frenzy over anybody but Bridgewater. IF the front office likes a "lesser" quarterback as much as Bridgewater, that guy could fall to them, even at six or seven.
Remember, Hoyer will be back, and Campbell could well be retained. Other stuff could happen, like Tanney could surprise everybody, and show too much promise to just try to sneak onto the practice squad.
So Turner could take a guy who "needs some work". Most teams in need of a quarterback need him to start NOW, so they won't be looking at anybody without experience in a pro system, or a lot of games under their belts.
For this reason, the Browns could draft a not-Bridgewater with their top pick. Maybe they could even trade down and accomplish this. Possibly they could even get him with their second pick.
If they don't trade down, and draft a guy the "gurus" projected at 15 or 17 higher, the barstool GM's will be out with the ropes and torches, but in the real world it's a quarterback, and you have to do what you have to do.
Imagine that: They got (hopefully) the quarterback of the future, and now they draft low in the first and high in the second rounds! This is where you get your DeCastro, and a solid wide reciever or big running back (I'll take a fullback/RB hybrid) or even the best ILB prospect in the draft.
Keep thinking: Two third round picks, and you can get all sorts of good stuff on day two! How 'bout a true blocking fullback who can catch? How 'bout a blocking tight end who can also catch? There's a stud ILB for you, another safety or cornerback---
For that matter, the fourth round (two picks) often yield some really nice down-the-road developmental talent.
Two offensive linemen would amount to basically a rebuild. Now they could run Turner's scheme as it's meant to be run, and that offensive line makes every skill player better.
I feel Joe's pain, but he's there in the trenches fighting his heart out. I'm out here looking down the road apiece, and I know Joe understands, his time will come in 2014. Not 2015 or 2016. It's right around the corner, Joe! They've got it all set up!
I don't even need to wait for the draft or free agency. I'll tell you now that the 2014 Browns will be the best team in the AFC North. They will run a full-blown Norv Turner offense, and rack up gobs and gobs of points.
And they'll do it not only because they'll lose a lot late (and maybe upset Pittsburgh for redemption haha there's your culture), but because they turned Richardson into a first round pick and two picks last year into a third and fourth this year.
Because they kept their powder dry and will have 25 million to spend resigning core players and adding one to four not overhyped, not past their prime free agents.
"Wait and see"? Banner has done this before. Every move he's made (or NOT made) so far has made sense, including not prematurely signing a third quarterback.
Then, the playcalling will look a lot better, Coach Tony.
Unless, of course, Norv tells the new guy to throw interceptions.
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