The last time the Browns and Seattle Seahawks met, it was, for those who like offensive football, a dud.
And that seemed fitting, for, as it turned out, neither team was going anywhere – not that season, at least
The Browns won 6-3 in a battle of field goals on Oct. 23, 2011 at what was then still known as Cleveland Browns Stadium.
The Seahawks had averaged 32 points over its previous two games, but the Browns played well defensively, holding them to just 137 total yards.
But offensively? That was a different story for the Browns
While they controlled the ball for a whopping 43 minutes, they could still manage just two field goals – long ones, at that, in 52- and 53-yarders by Phil Dawson, the latter serving as the game-winner in the fourth quarter.
Oft-injured running back Montario Hardesty, a second-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, had the game of his life, rushing for 95 yards. But it took him 33 carries to do it, which watered down the accomplishment a bit. And that was a sign, since Hardesty never was heard from much again.
Running back Chris Ogbonnaya, a versatile player and hard worker, had five receptions for 43 yards from Colt McCoy, who was 20 of 35 passing for 178 yards with one interception.
As bad as McCoy was, Seattle’s Charlie Whitehurst was much worse – awful, in fact, in hitting just 12 of 30 attempts for 97 yards with an interception.
The Browns broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 3-3 under first-year head coach Pat Shurmur. Coming off two straight 5-11 finishes in the disaster that was the Eric Mangini coaching era, the Browns were hoping they were on the upswing.
Those hopes were dashed when the Browns lost three straight and nine of 10 to finish the season at 4-12, a game worst than in 2009 and ’10. It got only slightly better – 5-11 – in 2012, and Shurmur was fired at the end of that season.
By losing at Cleveland, the Seahawks fell to 2-4 under second-year head coach Pete Carroll. They were headed toward a 7-9 finish for the second straight season, but whereas it was good enough to win the NFC West on tie-breakers in a real down year for the division in 2010, it put them into third place in ’11.
The Browns, of course, have continued to lose since the Shurmur days. In fact, they’ve not had a winning record since 2008, and, at just 3-10 heading into this afternoon’s game against the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field, they have long since clinched their eighth consecutive losing season.
And oh, by the way, they’re still looking for that franchise quarterback. Since McCoy, they’ve gone though Brandon Weeden, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Josh McCown and now Johnny Manziel – and those are just the main ones. We won’t mention bit-players such as Conner Shaw, Thaddeus Lewis and Seneca Wallace.
The Seahawks picked a quarterback out of Wisconsin named Russell Wilson – ask Browns head coach Mike Pettine for details about him – in the the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft and he instantaneously transformed the franchise. That’s what you expect out of … well, a franchise quarterback.
The Seahawks finished second in the NFC West in 2012 at 11-5, just a half-game behind the San Francisco 49ers (11-4-1). They then beat rookie Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins in the first round of the playoffs.
They followed that up by winning the Super Bowl following the 2013 season and came within an interception at the goal line in the final seconds of repeating last year.
After a 2-4 start this year caused to a great extent by injuries along their offensive line, they have gotten healthier and regrouped and have won four in a row and six of seven to stand 8-5, putting them into the thick of the playoff race. In their last two games, they have been running on all cylinders, battering first a good team in the Minnesota Vikings (38-7) and then a bad one last Sunday in the Baltimore Ravens (35-6). The Ravens, of course, edged the Browns three weeks ago, which doesn’t bode well for today.
I was covering the visiting locker room during the 2011 Browns season, and what I remember about Carroll, not necessarily with what he said in the post-game press conference, but rather with how he said it and with his demeanor and body language, is how confident he was.
The Seahawks were brutally bad that day against the Browns, who he knew were brutally bad as well. But he understood that he didn’t have a quarterback and would simply have to bite the bullet, hold on tight and ride out the season with Whitehurst. However, Carroll had no doubt that as soon as he found his guy – and he knew he’d track him down somehow, some way — things would change dramatically with the team.
As it turned out, he was exactly right.
He wasn’t thinking about Wilson – he couldn’t have been, for the draft was still six months away — as he stood up at the podium and took on any and all questions in what had to be a disappointing day, but he was thinking of someone like him.
Carroll, a one-time Ohio State assistant, is a winner. He has a proven plan for success, whether it be with the Seahawks or with USC, and he knows it will work if he just executes it. He’s very good at executing it. History tells us so.
As such, he knows he is never down, no matter how bleak it may look, just temporarily detoured, as he was that day at Cleveland.
The Browns need a coach like Carroll, someone who has a vision and the ability to turn it into a reality – someone who sees things that most others can’t. Guys like him are hard to find, and even harder to coax to come to a fixer-upper like the Browns, who, like the 2011 Seahawks, may not have their quarterback yet.
But a smart coach will find that QB, just as Carroll found Wilson.
So there is some hope for the Browns – as long as Jimmy Haslam can make a convincing pitch to the right man.
If only Haslam had the same panoramic view as an owner that Carroll has as a coach, then it would be a fait accompli.
As it is now, it is nothing more than a roll of the dice. And with the Browns’ luck in the expansion era, don’t hold your breath that they will hit the jackpot, just as Seattle did in first hiring Pete Carroll and then having him land Russell Wilson.
