Browns Lose Again

The Cleveland Browns lose again. It's hard to fathom this year's edition of the Browns. They remind me of the Cavs of a few years ago that once they hit the locker room at half time they lose all sense of pace, focus, intensity, or anything resembling a will to win.

Once again, the defense played decently. Enough to win. Phil Dawson had a rare miss which ended up being the difference in the game, but that was not the real reason we lost. 65 yards of offense in the second half is. Certainly, penalties didn't help, and once again turnovers hurt the cause. In the end though it's the absolute inability for the offense to do anything in the second half for the second straight week doomed the Browns to a 0-2 record.

Couple of things I noticed. I appreciate that the Offensive Coordinator was trying to give Harrison enough touches to get in a rhythm and break out. However, running Harrison up the gut over and over for two yards gets old very fast. And it should be obvious much sooner that it is not working. Hillis will pretty much guarantee you 4 yards a pop. Switching between the two consistently is what I think will be effective. Not sitting one for close to 30 minutes and then putting him in again.

Again, it reminds me of the Cavs where in-game adjustments just aren't made. And if you haven't noticed, that's a coaching thing, not a player thing. Interceptions, fumbles and penalties are players issues. In-game adjustments are the coaching staff.

The other thing I noticed was that it seemed like every time they had a third down, regardless of whether is was short, medium or long yardage, the Browns went for a bomb. And failed every time. Last week I complained about throwing for 4 yards when you need 8, but I didn't mean to throw 40 yards when you need 8. How about 8 or 9 yard throws?

Daboll's head must roll. It won't solve all of the Browns problems, but it'll make me feel better.

I think if the Browns are lucky, they'll win 3 games maybe 4 if they are really, really lucky.

Jay Yoo called me a pessimist on twitter. And perhaps I am, but the reality is that this is an improved Browns team. They are in the games with a chance to win. And that's all I was hoping for last year, and all I'm hoping for this year. Here's the thing though, looking at our schedule I'm not sure I see any more than 2 maybe three games where will be competitive. I would love nothing more than to be pleasantly surprised.

Update: See this article at WFNY. That's why you should listen to them and not me - a much more balanced discussion of what went wrong. But I still think Daboll has to go.