Monday, December 22, 2014

View from the Dawg Pound Browns at Charlotte 12.22.2014





Postcard from Charlotte…I have no new information about the Browns 17-13 loss to Carolina. There is nothing new to tell you that I haven’t said before. The Browns have two guys who are not the answer at quarterback. They both showed you why today. One is an over hyped college superstar whose skills set does not work in the NFL. He’s too short, he can’t run away from defenders like he did in college, and he has yet to show that he has an NFL arm.
            The other one definitely doesn’t have an NFL arm. He showed that today when Travis Benjamin had his guy beat by two strides on what would have been the winning touchdown but turned into an interception.
            This was a big loss for the Browns. Going 8-8 after winning only four games last year would’ve been huge. Instead, with a loss to Baltimore next week the Browns will be 7-9, losing the last five. Ouch!
            With all that has happened, most of it negative, 4-11 to 7-9 is a big jump. The Browns are in a good position to make a bigger jump next year, but it won’t happen without a real NFL quarterback. Simple as that.
            The 2014 Browns were good enough to make it to the playoffs except for one position, the most important one, quarterback.  The front office made several huge mistakes in regards to this position, and now it is still a mess. The best pro prospect on the team is the third string quarterback who is on the practice squad and did not make an appearance in a game this year.
            Here’s a hunch I have…Mike Pettine had a limited pool of candidates to fill positions on his staff because of when he was hired. I will be really surprised if many of the assistants from this year will be retained. He will bring in his guys, guys he couldn’t hire last year because they were committed to coach someplace else. This will be a major change for the team. I especially think there will be a new offensive coordinator.
            As has been said over and over in the last fifteen years, the fans deserve better. Even after what has happened over the last four weeks, there they were in Charlotte taking over the city. Wherever you went on Saturday you saw Brown and Orange. We met fans from all over the south and as far away as Rochester, New York, there to root on their team. There were a lot of sad rides on Monday morning back to where ever they live, but you still got the feeling that home will always be in Northern Ohio for most of them.
           
           

            

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