CLEVELAND (AP) -Looking nothing like an expected AFC contender, the Cleveland Browns stumbled into their bye week with one win and the league’s second-most penalties.
False start indeed.
This was supposed to be the year the Browns put it all together. Instead, through four games, they’ve done little more than disappoint their loyal fans again. The leaves on the Buckeye trees have barely begun turning autumnal shades across Northeast Ohio and already there’s a fear that football season is as good as over.
As bad as it’s been, the Browns (1-3) understand things could be much worse. They ended their 0-for-’08 losing streak last week with an ugly 20-12 win at Cincinnati, beating a Bengals team forced to start Harvard grad Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback in place of injured Carson Palmer.
Hey, a win is a win.
this week and come back next week and get some momentum going.”
That will be tough. The Browns will return to the field on Oct. 13 for a Monday night matchup against the Super Bowl champion Giants, who embarrassed Cleveland during the preseason, scoring 30 consecutive points in the first half and knocking out quarterback Derek Anderson with a concussion – one of five Cleveland starters to go down with an injury that night.
The exhibition loss triggered a slide the Browns are still trying to stop.
The off week is allowing Cleveland’s injured players more time to heal. Wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth, who pulled a right quadriceps muscle during warmups before the opener against Dallas, expects to make his debut against the Giants. Stallworth has yet to show any return on the Browns’ seven-year, $35 million ($10 million guaranteed) investment in him. He said he was “pretty close” to playing last week, but the added rest this week should do the trick.
“I’m excited to take my cheerleading outfit off and put on a Cleveland Browns uniform,” he cracked.
Whether it’s Stallworth or right tackle Ryan Tucker, who has yet to play following offseason hip surgery, Cleveland’s offense can use an infusion of something. A unit that produced 402 points last season has managed only 46 in four games and 17 of those – or 37 percent – came in the fourth quarter against the Bengals.
second wide receiver with experience as a target has hindered Anderson, whose starting job seemed to be hanging in the balance last week. Anderson has completed just two passes longer than 20 yards, with the longest a 23-yard screen pass to running back Jerome Harrison.
A Pro Bowl selection in 2007, Anderson started slowly Sunday and was nearly yanked by coach Romeo Crennel in favor of backup and fan favorite Brady Quinn. Anderson, though, came up with two fourth-quarter scoring drives to save his job and perhaps Cleveland’s season.
Crennel doesn’t see any flaws with his quarterback’s mechanics, but clearly something hasn’t been functioning the way it was last season for Anderson.
“He might be pressing a little bit more and trying to go down the field with the ball more than he did last year,” Crennel said. “Last year, I thought that he took what the defense gave him and if the defense gave him the check-down he took the check-down. Probably this year, he’s trying to go down the field just a little bit more with the ball.”
Anderson said he has completely recovered from the concussion, and that his forearm, which was wrapped last week after he was sacked in Baltimore a week earlier is fine. If there are any lingering problems in his game, they are the result of Cleveland’s offense not having all its parts.
op seven currently ranked defenses – the Browns may have to change their offensive identity. Until their passing game finds its rhythm, the Browns may have to grind out things on the ground by handing the ball to Jamal Lewis.
Anderson is open to any reforms that will get the Browns on track.
“You just have to find a way to get it done,” he said. “Whatever it takes to get it done. If that means running the ball 40 times, then that’s what it is. It’s not last year, we realize that and we’re adjusting to that.”
In Sunday’s win, there were signs the Browns are emerging from their malaise. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards, guilty of several dropped passes and penalties in the first three weeks, caught a touchdown pass and was aggressive blocking downfield. He snared a TD pass from Anderson with one hand and celebrated it by dropping to one knee and windmilling an imaginary air guitar.
But he also committed a silly unnecessary roughness penalty with the Browns backed up near their goal line, and when he got back to the sideline Anderson let him know about it.
The two appeared to have words on the bench, but Anderson downplayed the chat as “no argument whatsoever. He and I were talking. He wasn’t yelling at me, nothing was going on.”
moment the Browns will be able to look back upon as a turning point in a season that couldn’t have started much worse.
“I don’t think we can go any further down,” Edwards said. “We’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
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