Ranking the rankings and Hue Jackson to stay with Amos Jones
HUE GETTING TOUGHER AS HE PUSHES THE BROWNS TO WIN
By STEVE KING
With his team unable to nail down victories down the stretch, thus causing his job status to get a little shakier with each loss, Browns head coach Hue Jackson is getting tougher, meaner and a heckuva lot more demanding — and that’s a good thing for everybody involved.
That’s been in evidence for a while, and it was so again – perhaps more this time than ever – on Monday, a day after his team blew a two-touchdown second-half lead and lost 45-42 in overtime to the Oakland Raiders to drop its record to 1-2-1.
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He’s had it with the special teams, where the punt and kick coverage and punting are just awful. And up until the last two games, the field-goal kicking was just as bad.
“Our special teams unit has not been good enough all year,” Jackson said. “I have said that. We need to continue to get better. We have to cover better. Obviously, we need to return the ball. The returner has to return it better. We have to get these things better.
“I am speaking very firmly about these things because this is the first quarter of the season so we really know what our football team is now. That is what I told our guys. We know where we need to become a little bit more accountable, responsible and get some things done by taking ownership and fixing it. I think that we will do that.”
Jackson is also telling his players to be more accountable.
“We (as coaches) have to continue coach better, continue to get our players more prepared and ready,” he said. “Like I tell everybody, I am really responsible for the process, but the players, they have to start being responsible for the outcome. The outcome is, ‘Let’s go finish this and win the game.’
“I think we will. We are close, very close – closer than we have ever been since I have been here.”
Yes, Jackson is done messing around. It’s time to win, especially when there are winnable games, as has been the case thus far in the young season.
And he’s going to do everything he can to see to it that they do win them.
A SPECIAL DECISION BY AN ESPECIALLY GOOD MAN
Browns head coach Hue Jackson made an interesting comment in his press conference on Wednesday.
It came when he was asked if he would consider making a coaching change on special teams, where Amos Jones is in his first season as the coordinator.
The special teams, of course, have struggled mightily and have cost the Browns a win or two already this season through just four games. It has been hard to watch. The young Browns need the boost that good special teams play would give them, but it just isn’t there. Yes, the field-goal kicking has gotten better, but the coverage teams continue to be absolutely awful, and the punting isn’t real good, either.
Firing Jones would be the easy thing to do – the thing many would do if they were in his shoes. But they are not in his shoes. He is, and he has a different way to go about fixing all this.
“No,” Jackson said flatly. “I do not think I need to do that. I think I need to take my experience that I have had and use it and go over there and help as I can, get other coaches on the staff and help and see if we can get better.”
Indeed, Jackson doesn’t want to fire – or even demote – Jones. He made that clear. Jackson is on the edge of being under fire – his job on the line, hanging in the balance – in his own right. And in having been fired as head coach of the Oakland Raiders after just one season, he knows what a quick hook feels like. He doesn’t want to do that. He doesn’t want to begin breaking apart the coaching staff that he has assembled, and likes, because he knows once he begins to do that, then the whole thing – the rest of his staff, his own viability – could soon come tumbling down, especially if the losing continues for the Browns.
They blew a game to the previously-winless Raiders last Sunday, letting a 28-14 second-half lead disintegrate en route to a 45-42 defeat in overtime. They are now staggering along with a 1-2-1 record and have the unenviable task of facing first the Baltimore Ravens (3-1) and then the Los Angeles Chargers (2-2) in consecutive home games.
I applaud Jackson for his steadfastness and courage, for being principled in trying to save a man’s job and do the right thing. He is to be commended for that. He is a good man – a truly good man – and this is just another example of it.
But he knows – we all know – that the special teams have to get better — or else drastic measures will soon have to be taken, regardless of whether Jackson wants to do it or not – because this season is on the verge of slipping away from him.
RANKING THE RANKINGS
I like power polls.
I like them a whole heckuva lot.
They’re fun, and they let you know where your team – and all the teams in their divisions and conferences – stand.
And the best power polls, at least when it comes to football and, in particular, the NFL, are the ones produced by Sports Illustrated. Those at SI are the smartest people out there. They really know their stuff.
But for those of you who are loyal readers of brownsdailydose.com, you already know all about my fondness for si.com.
With that having been said, then, it makes total sense that the Browns fell two spots, to No. 26, this week, after losing a two-touchdown second-half lead last Sunday and falling 45-42 in overtime to the previously winless Oakland Raiders.
Here’s what SI.com said about the Browns: “The Browns should have won on Sunday, but they’ve been in every game this year and they’re going to win a few more.”
Sounds fair.
The Raiders stayed 31st, or next-to-last. Yeah, I was not impressed by head coach Jon Gruden’s team, either.
The Browns are the lowest-ranked of the four teams in the AFC North. Not surprisingly, the Baltimore Ravens (3-1), coming off an impressive 26-14 beatdown of the Steelers at Pittsburgh, and headed to Cleveland on Sunday, are the highest-ranked team in the division, jumping six places to ninth.
“Baltimore has the second-best point differential in the NFL (behind the Rams), and is allowing only 16.25 points per game,” SI pointed out.
The Cincinnati Bengals (3-1), who outlasted the Atlanta Falcons 37-36, are next, moving up three spots to 11th.
SI still believes in the defending division champion Steelers (1-2-1), who are tied with the Browns. It dropped them only four spots to No. 15.
“Le’Veon Bell will reportedly come back in Week 7, SI stated. “Will the Steelers trade him before then? Will he be in top shape when he returns? Will he see the field in black and gold? Many more questions than answers.”
The Los Angeles Rams (4-0) move up to first from second, while the Kansas City Chiefs fell from first to second.
The New Orleans Saints (3-1), whom the Browns should have beaten, go from fourth to third, followed, in order, by the Jacksonville Jaguars (fourth) and the New England Patriots fifth.
OK, so did si.com get it right with the Browns’ ranking?
I think so. You gotta win.
