5 Reasons That Pat Shurmur Has Cleveland Browns Headed in the Right Direction

So, the Browns lost. Again. The most chronically depressed person I ever met was a Cubs’ fan. I’m starting to understand her better.

But I truly am a glass-full kind of woman. So I am determined to find something approaching a silver lining for this team. Even if it seems more like silver plate at the moment.

I’m inclined to agree with those whose anger is more directed towards Holmgren, the rest of the front office and ownership for not replacing Mangini in 2010. At the time, I thought that it was a decent attempt to give Eric a legit shot at the job. But, in hindsight, it robbed the Browns of a year of consistent rebuilding.

Because this season could not possibly look more like rebuilding if it tried. The entire defensive scheme has been transformed, the entire offensive scheme is—well, let’s be kind and say that it is “in the process” of morphing from a power run/hope-and-a-prayer design, to a West Coast style. Frankly, by far the only consistency in philosophy, personnel or production has been on Special Teams, anchored by the awesome Dawson.

So why on earth would anyone defend Pat Shurmur, much less actually state that he has the team headed in anything close to the right direction? Because it’s Week 6 and too soon to give up, that’s why.

Greg Little

The one good thing about being a first year head coach is that you can, to some degree, cut bait on some unproductive players that you didn’t draft. Exhibit A:  Shurmur finally demoted Robiskie and put Greg Little into the starting wide receiving unit. I’m glad somebody finally had the guts to admit that this particular exercise in nepotism was a flop.

Shurmur even started to throw the ball to Little. He was targeted 12 times; he caught six balls for 72 yards. That's a start.

I’m sure that Mr. Shurmur envisions Little on the outside (as do we all), but I was pleasantly surprised at how much promise he showed in the slot. I guess it’s the former running back in him.

Dick Jauron

I have no idea whether Shurmur actually hired Jauron or merely acquiesced. But, since I’m grasping at straws, I choose to give Pat some credit here.

Dick Jauron brought a 4-3 scheme to a 3-4 team, plugged two rookies into the line and is starting two second-year DBs.

The best player on the defense (corner Haden) was hurt this week, which meant that the dime back (rookie Buster Skrine) came into the game in nickel situations. But since the nickel back was playing starting corner and went back to the inside for the nickel D, Skrine was then covering one of the Raiders' two best receivers. Add to this losing starting SLB Scott Fujita at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

And you know what? The Raiders offense did not beat the Browns, special teams did. So I’d say that this game was a success defensively. And that’s saying a lot.

Sure, Darren McFadden ran on them; McFadden runs on everyone. And they held him to 91 yards, which is pretty darn respectable. The Browns confused Oakland’s offense badly enough to force two premature timeouts in the first quarter—and that was before Campbell got hurt. In fact, the entire Silver and Black offense managed only 178 yards. And I’m betting the guys were tired, too. The Browns’ offense only kept the ball for 25 minutes.

See? There is good news.

Sparks of Play-Calling Inspiration

So, I was all poised to give Shurmur credit for switching to Hardesty in the first quarter when the Raiders were stuffing the Hillis power run. I thought, “Okay, that could work—or at least help.”

Little did I know at the time that Hillis had hurt his hamstring. (Or had he?) Anyway, it worked enough in the first half to get the offense down to the goal line.

And then Pat Shurmur called the best play of the season: he had McCoy dump the ball off to Alex Smith instead of trying to force it up the middle. Thank goodness.

That spark of “divine fire” sort of came and went in the second half. First, he got the TEs involved more consistently. Then, he called a deep route for Cribbs. Too bad nobody told Cribbs or that would have been a touchdown.

I don’t know what is going on with the communication in this offense. I do know that things seem to move much more efficiently during the hurry-up, when Colt has control in the huddle. Whether that is a function of youthful lack of focus except at crunch time, sloppy informational handoff from coach to QB or from QB to offense or a general slowness of thought—I do not know. But they need to fix it.

Why didn’t Shurmur have three plays ready while the officials were reviewing the onside kick? Like, forever? And how about we decide now never to throw the ball to Montario Hardesty? I’m just saying.

But I’m staying positive here, so let’s move on…

Can We Give Pat Shurmur Credit for Phil Dawson?

I guess not, since Dawson has been in Cleveland forever. He just keeps on pounding the ball through the uprights (even on bad snaps.) No matter what else happens, Phil’s out there kicking field goals. He and Jason Hanson deserve a special place in heaven.

But I do think we can credit Shurmur for the generally good play of Cleveland’s special teams. I know you are screaming at the computer screen right now, telling me what an idiot I am. Yes, I did watch the game. Yes, I know that the Browns lost on two Raiders’ special team scores. 

But Dawson kicked a 47-yarder, Maynard averaged over 45 yards per punt and the onside kick was perfect. And before this game, kick coverage had been excellent in 2011.

Although I’d be having stern words with Tabor about the sell-out on the Janikowski fake and I would be taking Cribbs up on his offer to get back on special teams, let’s not run the coverage unit out of town just yet.

Heart

Aside from that one batch of pitiful tackling a few weeks ago after an interception, I have not seen one ounce of quit on the Cleveland Browns. And I have to give Pat Shurmur his due kudos in this department. No one is hanging their head.

Hillis may be perplexed and angry, but he’s not hanging his head. In fact, he is on the sidelines pestering the running backs coach to put him back in the game. Let us not forget that Alex Mack played at center with a “stomachache” that became acute appendicitis during the game two weeks ago, and started this week just days after surgery! So, no one in Cleveland is quitting.

And, for seemingly the umpteenth game, the Browns had a chance to win it in the last two minutes. They didn’t pull it off this time. But they might have.

So, truly, it’s not all bad. Pat really is doing some things right. And, while the team is flawed in all three phases, there isn’t an overwhelming disaster anywhere.

When Pat Shurmur Calls...

...I’m going to tell him:

a)    Since you are going to see eight or nine in the box on every offensive snap, until you prove that the offense can throw early—why don’t you throw early?

b)    Now that we know Greg can handle the slot—let’s throw it to him there!

c)    Since they are going to crowd the box, how about we take advantage of single coverage and try to develop a passing game longer than 15 yards?

d)    Teach Montario Hardesty how to catch a football—or stop throwing it to him.

e)    Since the right side of the line is still collapsing (actually both sides collapsed this week)—that whole shotgun scenario might prevent hospitalization for the QB that your boss drafted.

f)      Perhaps Colt and the offense will start more quickly if you put in multiple play calls. Colt certainly has no trouble with tempo when he’s doing the two-minute drill.

g)    Let Cribbs play special teams. Please.

h)    Keep going on defense. They’re going to be good.

Pat, I’m here whenever you’d like some advice.

In the meantime, there’s a reason the Browns are in Cleveland. People in Ohio are tough; they can take it.