Browns head coach Mike Pettine is at it again.
For the second time this week, he has said something he shouldn’t have – at least not in the way he said it. That’s surprising for someone who usually does a great job of watching his comments.
Just a couple days after saying the Browns were going to let it all hang out when they play in Seattle on Sunday (shouldn’t every team play hard and give it their all every week?), Pettine gave Seahawks standout quarterback Russell Wilson a back-handed compliment.
He said Wilson is a great player, but not in the top tier of quarterbacks in the NFL. Wilson is in the next level down, according to the coach.
Is Pettine right? Yes, he is. Wilson is outstanding, but he’s not Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees or what Peyton Manning used to be.
But you can’t be dumb enough to say it in the days leading up to your team’s game against his club. That’s like cutting your own throat.
The 8-5 Seahawks are very good, they’re red hot, they need to keep winning in order to stay in the NFC playoff hunt, they’re just about unbeatable at home and they’re 14½-point favorites over the Browns. Why disrespect their quarterback and give them another reason – this one bulletin board material — to come out with fire in their eyes? Is Pettine crazy?
What Pettine should have done is heap so much praise on Wilson that it might give him a big head.
That’s exactly what New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick does all the team leading up to games, and it’s also what he did while he had the same job with the Browns from 1991-95.
He was at his flattering best – and he made sure his players were, too – as the Browns got ready to play the host – and two-time defending Super Bowl champion – Dallas Cowboys in a nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game late in the 1994 season.
The Browns were good – they were 9-4 and headed to an 11-5 finish and a wild-card playoff berth – but they weren’t given much chance against the Cowboys.
Belichick knew it, and, from his days playing the Cowboys when he was serving as the defensive coordinator of the NFC East rival New York Giants during most of the 1980s, he knew he had to soften up head coach Barry Switzer’s team to have a shot at winning.
All week long, Belichick made the Cowboys seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Cowboys were so good, in fact, that the Browns probably shouldn’t have bothered to even show up.
And those Browns such as linebackers Pepper Johnson and Carl Banks, both of whom had played for Belichick in New York, laid it on just as thick. In fact, everybody in the organization, from team owner Art Modell to the equipment managers, were reading off the same script.
It worked. The Browns pulled off the upset, winning 19-14 when safety Eric Turner tackled tight end Jay Novacek just inches short of the goal line on the game’s final play.
After hearing what was coming out of Cleveland, the Cowboys got full of themselves that week.
Now the Seahawks are saying behind closed doors that Pettine is full of something else, and my guess is that they’ll be loaded for bear to make that point on Sunday.
