Play calling, Josh Gordon, Todd Haley and more
PASSING FOUR TIMES FROM THE PHILLY 1? COME ON!
By STEVE KING
The Browns beat the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles 5-0 on Thursday night at FirstEnergy Stadium in the “dress-rehearsal” third preseason game, but it very easily could have been – and should have been – 12-0.
The Browns had a first-and-goal at the Philadelphia 1 in the first half and it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that they wuld score a touchdown, but they failed to do so in four plays, all of which were incomplete passes, the last one result in quarterback Tyrod Taylor hurting his pinky finger on his left hand. The injury could have been a lot worse. It certainly looked bad, but the Browns got lucky.
Here’s what Browns head coach Hue Jackson said in his conference call with the Cleveland media on Friday when asked to elaborate on the play selectin there and if he approved those calls:
“Absolutely. I mean, I stand behind Todd (Haley) 100 percent. Obviously, there were some things that we were trying to exploit, some opportunities we thought we had. I think when we look back at it—hopefully, next time we may do things a lot differently in that situation. But there is no question that I think the things that we are trying to get done – I think you saw Jarvis run through – we thought he was bumped. We thought it was a P.I (pass interference) in that situation. The next time, we thought maybe we could have fought through a little harder.
“At the same time, as we get down there, we understand what we need to do to finish drives and how we are going to have to finish them. Sometimes, it is going to be that we throw it, and a lot of times it is going to be that we are going to have to run the football.”
The bottom line is that the Browns should have not thrown any passes in that situation. They needed to run the football four times, and if they didn’t score, then they didn’t score. But if you can’t run it in from the 1, then you need to re-examine your running attack.
More on this in my next post.
THE STOP-AND-START GUY STOPS AGAIN
Wow, Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon tweaked his hamstring?
No!
You’re kidding, right?
You mean Gordon ran into a little roadblock?
Again?
Still?
Yup!
I’m being facetious, of course. Gordon, with his substance abuse problems and some injuries, has had more stops and starts than possibly anyone in Browns history. Really. But I’m going to cut him some slack – a lot of it, in fact – on this one because when a player misses training camp and tries to rush back in the last two weeks of the preseason, he is not in football shape and is prone to having hamstring issues.
Don’t worry, Gordon will be ready for the season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s no way he’s going to miss that one – the Browns desperately need him — so they’ll just back off with him a bit. Rest is the only thing that cures hamstring injuries.
Gordon’s absence was evident in Thursday night’s 5-0 preseason win over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Cleveland wide receivers couldn’t separate from the defensive backs. Give the Eagles credit because they have a good secondary, but the truth of the matter is that this type of thing will happen in just about every game because the wideouts have, as a whole, just average speed. They’re not going to run past anyone on a consistent basis.
Gordon, though, can run past them. No matter the defense, he can beat the coverage deep.
And that’s exactly what – and who — the Browns will have to have, because until they prove they have a legitimate downfield threat – and Gordon is certainly that, and then some – those safeties will creep up into the box to clog up the short passing routes the Browns like to use, and the running lanes. With Gordon in there, the safeties have to back up – way back – and be extremely wary of the ball being thrown over their heads.
I was going to write in this post – again — about the Browns’ four straight incomplete passes from the Philadelphia 1 the other night. Unless some other piece of news breaks between now and then, I’ll get back to that goal-line strategy in my next post.
ARE BROWNS, HALEY RUNNING INTO BIG OFFENSIVE PROBLEMS?
Now, about that play-calling in last Friday night’s 5-0 preseason victory over the Eagles at First Energy Stadium when the Browns moved to a first-and-goal at the Philadelphia 1 in the first half.
The Browns then threw four incomplete passes and gave up the ball on downs. Yes, instead of running the ball from a yard away, they went to the air on four straight plays. None of the passes was close to being completed.
Advertisement: Browns!
How did this happen? Why did this happen? Good questions.
It was not a smart thing to do on a variety of fronts, the most important of which was that quarterback Tyrod Taylor slightly injured the pinky finger on his left hand while hitting the ground after the last incompletion. The Browns were lucky he wasn’t hurt a whole lot worse. Indeed, it looked as if he might have broken his wrist.
But what if Taylor had done exactly that? What if they had lost their starting quarterback – perhaps for the season — because they had insisted on passing the ball four times in a row?
You run the ball there. You run it four straight times. If you can’t gain a yard in four running plays, then you’ve got a lot of problems with your offensive line.
That the Browns did this does not bode well going forward. Remember when Browns offensive coordinator Todd Haley came under much criticism last season when, while serving in the same role for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he insisted on passing the ball way too many times in a stunning upset loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars? Why Haley, with the best back in the game in Le’Veon Bell at his disposal, disregarded the run and was pass-happy is anyone’s guess.
In any event, it angered fans and Pittsburgh management so much that it played a role in his getting fired after the season?
Is Haley going to start doing the same thing here with the Browns, who have three competent runners in Carlos Hyde, Duke Johnson and rookie Nick Chubb?
We’ll see.
More on this in my next post.
