Who Deserves the Blame for the Cleveland Browns' 0-2 Start?
The Cleveland Browns' 16-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs game left a very bad taste in the mouths of Cleveland fans.
While there's plenty of blame to go around, the immediate situation is the Browns are faced with an 0-2 record with no easy games in sight.
The Browns face the rest of their AFC North Division in the coming weeks, as well as games against the New Orleans Saints, New England Patriots and New York Jets.
If anyone can see anything other than the "Biggest Upset of the Week" moniker attached to any of those games, please tell the rest of the class.
For the moment, let's focus on the Chiefs game and where to properly place the blame.
The Players
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Before we get to the specifics of who did what to whom in what quarter, let's just throw a blanket over the whole team.
Minus a few standout performances, this team completely failed to execute on offense.
While there's little to complain about with the defense, they let up a few big plays at the worst possible times. Jamaal Charles was getting far too many yards (49, on 15 carries) against the line.
But overall the players didn't make plays and that's why the score ended up the way it did.
Seneca Wallace
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Seneca Wallace overthrew his receivers like he was looking at them through a telescope. A lot of his passes were nowhere near the intended receiver.
We'll take a moment to give credit where credit is due: Wallace was incredibly mobile, avoided sacks that Jake Delhomme most likely would've fallen victim, and he kept his head even after a very bad pick-six interception. He finished 16-of-31 passing for 229 yards and a 65-yard touchdown to Josh Cribbs.
While the Browns receivers are nowhere near elite, even the best receivers in the league can't catch a ball that sails 10 feet over their head and 10 yards past their route.
This is a main reason why the Browns weren't converting on third down in the second half: not all of Wallace's passes were catchable.
Jerome Harrison Keeps Getting Worse
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There have been a lot of calls by the fans to feature Jerome Harrison more, but the truth is he hasn't been that good and appears to have a lost a step in the offseason.
The few times he hit the line, his runs pretty much ended there because he no longer seems to be able to get through the line. That's assuming he doesn't fumble the ball—a disease he appears to have caught this year—and that shows no signs of going away.
Until Harrison (16 carries, 33 yards, 2.1 average) gives the coaches a reason to trust him this year, expect his number to keep not getting called.
That still doesn't explain why James Davis isn't getting touches, but that's a different argument.
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Where Are The Wide Receivers?
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Tight ends like Benjamin Watson have been the Browns quarterbacks' favorite targets so far this year.
Why is that?
It's not a rhetorical question. The mystery of the Browns receivers is not one that has been answered by the coaches or Eric Mangini in the press conferences.
Are they that bad? Are the quarterbacks checking down too fast? Is it by design?
Did Lord Voldemort steal their talent through former wide receiver Syndric Steptoe, thus explaining why he was cut at the end of training camp?
We could be here all night speculating on the "whys" of this matter.
Eric Mangini
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Eric Mangini will take a lot of the blame because he's the head coach, and the team's failure to adjust in the second halves of the first two games is all on his head.
After that, though, how much is his fault when the players don't execute?
The answer is the number of penalties. The Browns committed far too many penalties (nine) and played undisciplined football.
That is Mangini's fault, and it's the very thing he preaches most about: not playing smart football.
When you're committing false starts and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, that's a mental error. It's something Mangini needs to do a better job of controlling, or there's no point in keeping him.
Brian Daboll
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Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has come under heavy criticism for his vanilla play-calling since he took over the job last year.
The play-calling hasn't improved that much so far this year but when you look at it in the context of what happened this week, it's hard to completely blame Daboll.
First, the Browns prepped their offense this year for Jake Delhomme. With Seneca Wallace in there, you throw out a chunk of the playbook because Wallace hasn't had time to practice it.
Second, Jerome Harrison has been unreliable this year, so there goes another chunk of the playbook.
Third, you don't want to risk getting Wallace injured with only Colt McCoy to back him up, so there goes the Wildcat, Cyclone, Hurricane and Madden 2010 plays all the fans want to see. You just can't take that kind of risk right now.
What you can blame Daboll for is lack of adjustment at the line of scrimmage and not using every tool available to him, no matter what the drawbacks might be. (I'm talking about James Davis' continued absence.)
So Now What?
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When Cribbs gets the ball, good things tend to happen.
This was the truth vs. Kansas City, and the Browns just have to figure out how to use him more effectively.
They also need to adjust to other team's adjustments on special teams. Cribbs isn't getting the chances he got last year, and the Browns need to deal with that.
This team now could be headed for an 0-9 start. If that happens it'll be "Blow Up" time in Berea and, as painful as this rebuilding process has been, another blowup sets this team back at least one more year.
The Ravens are up next, and it doesn't seem like it's going to be a fun game to watch if you're a Browns fan.
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