Brownie Points: Excuses, Fights, Injuries, and Advice

Just a few thoughts as the Cleveland Browns prepare for their upcoming game with the Baltimore Ravens this week:

EXCUSES

Plenty of Browns fans are quick to excuse quarterback Brady Quinn’s play so far this season. Granted, he doesn’t have many starts under his belt, and I am not ready to call for him to be replaced after only two games.

But one excuse that has been making the rounds is that coach Eric Mangini stunted the growing process because he made Brady earn the job in the pre-season.

The theory is that if Brady were named the starter earlier, he could have developed better chemistry with his receivers. I say that is absolute nonsense.

Brady has been throwing balls to his best receiver Braylon Edwards for going on two years now. He has gotten plenty of repetitions with his receivers during off-season conditioning, OTAs, mini-camps, training camps and practices.

If you looked at preseason games throughout the league, starting quarterbacks and the first teamers get very few opportunities to play for fear of injury.

In fact, the reason that teams bring so many backup quarterbacks into camp is that there is a legitimate concern for their starting quarterbacks to suffer from “tired arm” because of the number of throws they have to make.

If anything stunted Brady’s growth, it occurred in 2007 when he and his agent wasted rookie practice time after holding out during contract negotiations. He really could have used that valuable time.

The bottom line is that Quinn is struggling because he has not caught up with the speed of the NFL...and not because he wasn’t named the starter until the week before the season started. Even practice and preseason games do not prepare young quarterbacks for the jump from college football to the professional game.

FIGHTS

The local pundits are up-in-arms about the lack of discipline in the Browns’ locker room as a result of rookie cornerback Coye Francies throwing punces at his defensive backfield mates after being doused with a bucket of ice water.

The bigger joke is how much everyone is making of the issue. Francies may have over-reacted, but not nearly as much as the media and the fans.

Practical jokes on rookies in a football locker-room are the norm and not the exception. And guess what fans? These guys are human beings, not robots. Just because the team has lost a few games, it does not mean that they have to hang their heads in the locker until they get a win.

The next time Joe Salesman in your office loses a client, are you going to tell him to sulk and cry about his failures until he picks up a new client?

And a word of warning to Francies…be wary of the Turkey Hunt during the Thanksgiving week.

INJURIES

Two players who have traditionally played well against the Ravens appear to be out this week: RB Jamal Lewis and K Phil Dawson.

Losing Dawson hurts because he essentially has been the Cleveland scoring offense for going on eight games.

And who can forget the kick that bounced over the crossbar two years ago that led to the Ravens collapse down the stretch (and helped propel the Browns to a 10-6 season)?

Losing Lewis is even bigger. He gets up for games against his former team. He is also one of the few guys prepared for how hard this Ravens defense hits and flies around the field.

This will be a “welcome to the NFL” moment for rookie RB James Davis. There is nothing he learned in college (or the pre-season) that can even remotely match the intensity he will see this week.

The Browns would be wise to line up Jerome Harrison in the backfield for the first few series, at least until Davis can get a feel for the flow of the game.

Not having guards Floyd Womack or Rex Hadnot (both listed as doubtful) is going to put even more pressure on both of these young running backs.

LB David Bowens and NT Shawn Rogers also showed up on the injury report as Questionable. The coaching staff better pray both can play on Sunday.

AND MORE

Memo to Browns’ Offensive Coordianator: Let’s hope Brian Daboll does not resort to a “ball control” offense to try to keep the game close. As famously put by former NFL coach Herm Edwards, “You play…to win…the game!”

The Browns only hope is to take advantage of the Ravens suspect cornerbacks and propensity to blitz their linebackers. The only way to counter that is to throw the football.

If the coaching staff is afraid to let Quinn and the receivers make plays, they might as well just not show up Sunday.

Memo to Browns Defensive Coordinator: Please...please…please! Do not leave Camerion Wimbley out on an island with TE Todd Heap this week! Camerion looks as though he has improved immensely since 2008, but that should not be his role on this team.

Good luck and Godspeed, Cleveland Browns. You are going to need it.