Oh the humanity.
I was hoping Crennel would be the first coach in NFL history to be fired at halftime.
Time for a statement from the Arizona Cardinals. The Cards have the Giants at home and then have to travel to Philadelphia for a Thursday night game. I’d love two wins, but realistically 1-1 is more likely. We can’t lose both games. The Cards need home field advantage in the playoffs as well as a possible 1st round bye.
The Browns players conspired to play comically badly this game in order to get the coaching staff fired. I have no other explanation.
I’ve only recently begun paying attention, but his playcalling and game management are absolutely atrocious. First and 10 at the Texans 18 and he calls three straight passes by his rookie QB (all incomplete), instead of handing the ball off to a guy who was averaging 5 yards a carry before then. You VERY NEXT POSSESSION, it’s first and ten at the Texans 19, and you call … 3 straight passes by your rookie QB. WHAT THE FUCK?
Then, to add even more idiocy, you face 3rd and two on the Texans 12, and you have your rookie QB pass… interception.
Then, you pull your rookie (and future) QB and put in your even more int. prone backup.
He is horrible. I pity you.
Honestly, man, you have no idea. Those things wouldn’t even make the top 50 of worst coaching decisions by the Browns staff this year - no exaggeration.
The team just completely quit. It was comical. I can’t recall seeing less of a collective effort by a professional football team in my life. Houston was so pathetic that they only beat us by 10 when they should’ve beat us by 40.
The team has clearly quit on the coach - and perhaps even deliberately. If Crennel isn’t fired within a few days I’m going to start hating the entire organization.
It seems that they have a pretty talented team that should be much better than they are. Is that all coaching? I know Edwards was dropping balls, Winslow was injured, but they’re O Line is pretty good and they, although losing, were in games early in the season. Other than their shitty secondary, is this horrible state of the Browns the fault of the coach?
Yes.
Every aspect that coaching can control is bad. Game planning - almost always bad. Motivation - the team looks as flat and unemotional as their head coach. Game management? Comical - someone who’s played Madden could manage most game situations better - seriously.
Romeo is a defensive specialist, and yet his defensive scheme is pathetic. He insists on running a 3-4, but does none of the things that a 3-4 allows you to do. His pass rush is never disguised and almost non-existant, there’s rarely any creativity in the coverage schemes, DBs play off WRs like they want to give up the reception- often there’s not a guy within 5 yards of a receiver when he makes a catch.
The back 7 play some of the least physically aggressive defense in all of the NFL - it’s hard to say for sure whether it’s the coach or if they’re all just pussies - but he certainly has an influence on their attitude, the playcalling, and their scheme - and that’s all passive.
He can’t hire competant assistants, can’t delegate responsibility and manage them well, refuses to play the most effective or talented player at a position, instead playing his favorite or the veteran (usually both).
There’s essentially nothing at all he does well as a head coach. Even a mediocre coach would have this team at 6-5 or 7-4.
Quinn is now implying that his benching during the game wasn’t related to his injured finger.
Crennel has talked about “trying something to give a spark” (paraphrased).
Anderson started the season with a nasty concussion and was clearly out of it. Did they let the backup come in until he was better?
There was at least one game (Washington) where the entire team except the quarterback was playing well. The most clear cut situation you could have for inserting the backup QB to create a spark. It didn’t happen.
As Anderson recovers and gets more comfortable, he starts playing somewhat better, and then makes one big mistake - and finally, he’s benched. So when he’s playing badly for long periods, he’s left in. When he’s starting to improve, he’s yanked.
So in comes Quinn who has had to wait a good while to get his shot. His leash is apparently so short that half a bad game gets him benched, justified by a coach who claims he wanted to create a spark, who had previously steadfastly refused to try to swap quarterbacks when it was far, far more clear that the situation warranted it.
What the hell? My guess is that the GM and/or ownership mandated the change to Quinn, that Crennel never wanted it, and he was looking for an excuse to bench Quinn and get his boy back in there ASAP. Either that or he’s just flat out retarded.
Off Topic of the Browns game:
Arizona Cardinals attempt a “Free Kick” at the end of the half??? Something I’ve never seen before- and i’m not quite sure I understand; if one of the rules specialists can clarify for me.
Situation: Giants get ball with 22 seconds left at about their own 10 or so. Cardinals with 3 timeouts are able to get the Giants to punt with about 5 seconds left in the half. Giants punt and Cardinal PR calls for fair catch instantly. Cardinal ball on their 42 with 5 seconds left.
Cardinals send out their FG Kicker who is able to have the ball placed on the line of scrimmage for an attempt at a “Free Kick” which, apparently, would count as 3 if he got it through the uprights. The announcers even indicated he could have used a tee had he wanted. (He opted against)
First question- WTF?
Second question- NY Giants lined up downfield. Why were they not at the line of scrimmage? Is this a rule of the free kick (which is what makes it a “free” kick? I mean… if they have a couple large DL standing on their side of the LOS- then the ball just gets kicked into their knees- since the ball is placed at the line of scrimmage.
Third question- if this is a rule- why is this not tried more often? Is it only an option on your very first play after getting possession? You can’t drive to the 20 with the game on the line and announce a “free kick” so you kicker has basically no rush pressure?
It is now up there is one of the strangest things I’ve seen in a pro football game. I had no idea the rule existed- and hopefully some ignorance can be fought here.
The Tof, that’d be a fair catch kick.
The “freely” portion of that is why the defense was positioned ten yards downfield. You don’t see a lot of these tried, but the option is there.
Don’t see Arizona pulling this one out. I have to say Eric Green is a crappy Corner, his only saving grace is he is a hard hitting little bugger. I have seen 3 important pass plays where Green mucked up his coverage. I have not seen Hood out there at all today. He is a quality number 2 CB. Matt Ware has really stunk it up on Special teams with the penalties. Warner has done ok so far, he had one fumble when he held the ball to long, Granted his RT Brown should have sustained his block longer and prevented it. Warner’s other fumble was actually a crappy bad snap and not really his problem. His INT was at a bad time and place, but any QB can get suckered once in a while.
Warner has 6 minutes left to try bring them back.
Osip
What in the world happened in the Oakland/Denver game?
It is to bad Oakland could not play that way all year. Good defense, a grinding mistake free offense.
The Jets looked pretty good today as well. Farve might get most of the press, but Thomas Jones is having a damn nice season.
Atlanta looked pretty good, if they could have found an answer to Steve Smith it would not have been a game.
The rest of the games this weekend for me were kinda bland.
Osip
You sure you’re not talking about your red-headed stepchild franchise the Bengals here?
I LOL’d because as I read this I thought “This could be easily applied to Cincinnati!”.
Funny. The Bengals are terrible and the Browns are only marginally better. Looking forward to our next titanic struggle!
Yeah Bengals and Browns have not had it good this year. Of course, I would rather be a fan of one of the Ohio teams, than Detroit which just stinks of total chaos and shitty play.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!
Roland smash! Once again, my Chargers manage to blow the game with 17 seconds on the clock. Credit where credit is due, of course; we couldn’t have done it without one questionable PI call, one “manufactured” (read: pure unadulterated bullshit) PI call, and one conveniently unreviewable fumble recovery ruled as a dropped pass all in the same fucking drive…but hey, in the end, we had a chance to stop it and we didn’t. Again.
And all this after the Raiders were so kind to us, too. Oh well, assuming everyone involved can beat the Chiefs, we can still stay alive if we can beat Denver and Denver can manage to lose to the Jets and/or the Panthers.
In other words, there’s always next year. Dammit.
ETA: At least Rivera seems to have done something right with SD’s defense. They’re getting something other than “0” in the Sack and INT columns again, and we got some decent pressure on Manning, which is good to see. Hell, maybe Norv can pull this thing out after all.
Oh, and because I didn’t say it last week, well played to the Pittsburgh Steelers and especially Troy Polamalu. There’s a reason I don’t come into these threads to bitch about every Charger loss. 
Y’all won that one straight up, even with the utterly bogus PI call that went against you in the first half.
Also, give Polamalu his damn touchdown. He earned it.
I can’t say anything bad about my Bills, for once- they gave up plenty of points against a dreadful Kansas City team but won comfortably. Any win at all is fine at this point.
What the hell happened in Philadelphia? McNabb was apparently awful, but you can’t tell me he was worse than Kolb was. Their yards-per-attempt figures were about the same. Kolb got some yards under his belt, but only after the Ravens started running up the score. The 108-yard interception return was exciting, but probably not what Reid was after.
Of course not; but one doesn’t know that until you put him in.
Not that it was a good move, with only a 3 point deficit and facing the ravens’ D…
I’m liking the Cardinals’ chances against the Eagles. Yeah, I know we suck on the East Coast, but the Eagles look like they’ve packed it in for the year. These short week games are always weird, but hopefully the Cards know they need that home field advantage in the playoffs
Is the NFC West the worst division in football, or does that title belong to the AFC West? Or maybe a third contender? What’s wrong with the West Coast, anyway?