Hot Chicks and cool sports links: Cleveland Browns

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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Is is time for the Cleveland Browns to move on from Peyton Hillis?

This is a very perplexing question. The Cleveland Browns have taken a big step back from what they were a year ago, especially given their offensive struggles so far in 2012. A large part of the blame rest on Head Coach Pat Shurmur and his decision to take on the role of offensive coordinator. A large piece of blames rests with QB Colt McCoy and his struggles and with the WR corps and their struggles. However, a large part of the blame is the diva like behavior of RB Peyton Hillis.

Peyton had a break out year in 2010, rushing from 1,177 yards. It earned him a spot the 2012 Madden cover. What has followed is a pretty poor showing for a professional athlete. He is in a contract year, and took some bad advice from his agent and sat out a game against the Miami Dolphins when many feel he should have played. He has a nagging injury and skipped some treatment to go get married. He took time to throw footballs off the crossbar in San Francisco when he did not play due to his injury. He is starting to lose his locker room on top of creating a large distraction for his team. There are several reports that his teammates are growing tired of this act.

Profootballtalk.com cites Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the team is prepared to let Hillis go after the year and test free agency. There, his one great season, added to his diva act of 2012 is not going to get him the big contract he apparently wants.

It seems pretty clear that the Browns will have to move on from him. A young team, in the midst of a rebuild plan, cannot allow one player to so disrupt things. A message has to be sent that this type of behavior will not be accepted by this organization. Since there does not seem to be a veteran in the locker room that can send that message, General Manger Mike Holmgren will have to do it by sending Hillis on his way. To their credit, some Browns' veterans did have an intervention with the RB, and we will have to wait and see what effect that has.

The defense is pretty good, but their young QB is struggling, and the best friend of a struggling QB is a great running game. That is something fellow RB Montario Hardesty cannot do alone. This team needs Hillis to be the guy he was, and if he cannot be that, they need to move for the good of the team.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What is wrong with the Cleveland Browns?

The Cleveland Browns are probably the worst 3-3 team I have ever seen in twenty plus years of watching NFL football and now six writing about it. They are one of the few teams I have seen play live in their own building this year (thanks to my membership in a Browns Backer club). The question has got to be what is wrong with this team, if anything?

I think the Browns have a number of problems. The offense is not very good, and is adapting to a new offense. New Head Coach Pat Shurmur has changed a lot of things and I am not a big believer in the Head Coach taking on the offensive coordinator job as well. It seems evident that Shurmur is overmatched as an offensive play caller. They rank 27th in points scored averaging just 16.2 points per game. They are averaging over 300 yards of total offense a game, but that has them ranked just 23rd. They rank 22nd in passing yards per game and just 29th in rushing yards.

Of course the bigger problem here may be the attitude of RB Peyton Hillis. I truly believe, despite what many of my Browns Backer friend think (granted they have rooted for this team far longer than I have), that Hillis has let his 2010 success and his presence on the Madden Cover to go to his head. I also happen to think his agent is not doing him nay favors, and that this situation has severely distracted a pretty young locker room. That is all bad.

Beyond the questions about Colt McCoy who is having a pretty forgettable sophomore campaign. He has 14 passing TD's but has also thrown 13 picks. I really think that this team has a wide receiver problem. Greg Little and Joshua Cribbs have talent, but they do not have a wide out who can stretch the field. Little is averaging less than 10 yards a completion and looks to be an ok piece, but this is an offense that still needs a legit deep threat. Cribbs feels like more of a game changer than a legit wide out talent and is only averaging 12.8 yards per catch. Mohamed Massaquuoi drops a lot of passes put is averaging 13.3 yards per catch. However it does not feel like enough.

Sure, some of those numbers may be due to McCoy's arm. At this point this team and its fans have to question everything. However, it does not look like they go down the field enough, and the problems with Hillis are disturbing the flow of the running attack. I truly believe that the offense is the problem here.

The defense, under Dick Jauron, is fifth in total average yards allowed at 291 per game. They are second in passing yard allowed where they give up just 172 yards through the air on average. However they are 19th in rush defense and that speaks to a weaker LB corps or problems along the Defensive Line. That could be explained away by the switch to the 4-3 scheme and the fact that two rookies are starting on the D line.

We see this a lot, teams that look pretty good one year taking a big step back the next. We have also seen new Head Coaches come to teams, and those rosters take a little bit of time to get use to new systems and new expectations. In the end that is what I see when I look at the 2011 Cleveland Browns.

Before I made a final decision on Colt McCoy I would like to see this team get him some legit talent in the WR corps and see if that makes the difference. Of course the Browns have not had a ton of luck in developing young QB's recently.