Tag: Cleveland Browns (Page 25 of 57)

Stafford proves his toughness in wild win over Browns

Even though it pitted two, one-win teams against each other, the Browns-Lions matchup on Sunday produced the most thrilling game of Week 11.

With his team trailing 37-31 with only eight seconds remaining, rookie Matthew Stafford threw a desperation “Hail Mary” pass into the end zone, which was intercepted by Browns safety Brodney Pool. Cleveland started celebrating before Hank Poteat was flagged for pass interference and the ball was placed at the Browns’ 1-yard line for one last un-timed down.

The wild part is that Stafford was hurt on the “Hail Mary” throw after taking a shot after releasing the ball. Daunte Culpepper came in to run the final play but following a time out, Stafford re-entered the game and threw a touchdown to fellow rookie Brandon Pettigrew for the winning score.

Stafford, who finished 26-of-43 for 422 yards and five touchdowns, was in clear pain after the touchdown pass as he grabbed his left shoulder. Apparently he re-entered the game against the advice of team doctors and the Lions originally feared that he had fracture his collarbone. But X-rays revealed otherwise and he’ll likely be a game-time decision for Thanksgiving Day.

For those that haven’t seen Stafford play yet, you’re missing out. He takes tremendous abuse because his offensive line couldn’t block Jabba the Hutt, yet he stands in the face of pressure and delivers passes. He takes lick after lick and continues to get up despite the pounding. If he hasn’t endeared himself to the blue-collar fans in Detroit, I’d be very surprised.

On a side note from this game, Brady Quinn was outstanding. I’ve been highly critical of his play this season, but I’ll be the first to admit that he torched the Lions today. Granted, Detroit’s defense isn’t very good but a quarterback doesn’t throw for 304 yards and four touchdowns on 21-of-33 passing on accident. It’s too bad Cleveland’s defense couldn’t sustain the lead Quinn got for them, because he was exceptional.

Shockey: “LeBron couldn’t play in the NFL”

Jeremy Shockey isn’t buying the LeBron James-as-a-NFL-player idea and said as much via his Twitter account.


From the National Football Post
:

James said Tuesday night that he could be “really good” if he put the time commitment into playing the game, and he was a talented wide receiver in high school.

“I think he should come on down,” Browns coach Eric Mangini said today. “I know he’s pretty busy right now, but if he wants to give it a shot, the guy is gifted. He’s competitive and tough. I’m sure whatever he applied himself to, he’d probably be good in baseball or soccer or swimming.”

But Shockey isn’t convinced.

“Everyone trust me Lebron James could not play in the NFL,’’ he wrote on his Twitter account. “ESPN is crazy to even think he could even make a practice squad. He;s a 4.9 40 time.’’

Shockey must not have seen the Browns performance on Monday night or else he wouldn’t be making such ludicrous statements.

LeBron could play receiver or tight end for the Browns; The Hamburglar could play receiver or tight end for the Browns.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

Browns considering signing LeBron James

…okay, not really. But LeBron did say recently that he could succeed in NFL if he put in the time and Browns head coach Eric Mangini has a helmet waiting for him if he ever wants to give it a try.

From ESPN.com:

“If I put all my time and commitment into it, if I dedicated myself to the game of football, I could be really good,” he said Tuesday night, “no matter what team I was on.”

Mangini agreed, calling James “a freak athletically” and said the 6-foot-8, 260-pounder could be dangerous at tight end, wide receiver or even outside linebacker.

Quarterback Brady Quinn also heard about James’ football fetish. He would love to have a target to throw to like James in the red zone.
“That’d be great,” Quinn said. “Tell him to suit up and let us know, we’ll get him working. Obviously he’s an incredibly talented athlete. If he wants to try to play a little bit now, we’d be more than willing to pick him up.”

Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers isn’t convinced James, as great as he is, could step into the NFL and be able to handle the pounding.
“I heard that comment,” Rogers said. “I have mixed emotions about that. A great athlete? Yes. A football player? No.”

Rogers then looked into TV cameras.

“Yeah LeBron, I said it,” he said. “It’s a punishing game. I just don’t think you can step off the basketball court after not going through this year in and year out and just play football. From that standpoint, I just don’t think it’s possible. You have to weather and condition your body to take this punishment.”

That’s all the Cavs and the city of Cleveland needs: For LeBron hurt playing for a 1-8 Browns team going nowhere fast.

Given how gifted an athlete James is, I could see him succeeding in the NFL if he put in the time. But I agree with Rogers in that he couldn’t just step onto the field this Sunday and have an impact. For starters, he’s never run a pro route and he’s never read a defense. If he was told to just run straight down the field and then look for the ball, I could see him making a play or two. But he’d be lost if he were to start a game without practicing and I could only imagine him getting laid out going across the middle.

The front office for the Cavs would rather die than see this come to fruition, but I would love to see LeBron play for just one game to see how he’d do – even if it were just for a couple of plays.

Of course, that would require Brady Quinn to throw a pass longer than three yards in bounds, which is something I seriously doubt he could handle.

Quinn, Browns give putrid effort in another putrid loss

Eleven first downs, 160 total yards and zero points.

After two weeks to prepare for their opposition, that’s what the Cleveland Browns produced on Monday night in a 16-0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Nobody should be surprised by the outcome of Monday night’s game in Cleveland. Everyone knew that the Browns were awful entering the game, but to actually watch that miserable excuse of a team stumble over themselves for 60 minutes is rather amazing. It’s like a car wreck – you just can’t look away.

Brady Quinn is bad, so bad that it’s safe to say that he has zero chance of becoming anything resembling a decent starting quarterback in the NFL. I’m fully aware that he has no talent around him, but I dare anyone to watch that kid play for entire game and tell me he has any shot of success in this league. His own coaching staff doesn’t trust him to throw the ball further than two feet and I wouldn’t either. The Monday Night Football crew kept begging for the Browns to throw the ball vertically and whenever Quinn did, he was either picked off or was so far off the mark with his passes that there wasn’t a receiver within 20 yards of where the ball ended up.

Again, I know that he doesn’t have anyone to throw to but there’s just no excuse for being that inept. The Browns didn’t even reach the Ravens’ 40-yard line tonight and don’t forget that this was a Baltimore defense that has struggled at times this year stopping the pass. On multiple occasions late in the game when he was trying to make a feeble attempt at throwing deep, Quinn tossed the ball completely out of bounds. That means he’s so inaccurate with his throws that he can’t even keep the ball in play. He even overthrew a receiver on a screen pass, which is so mind-boggling that it pisses me off just thinking about it.

Continue reading »

Lewis: Mangini is wearing Browns out

Running back Jamal Lewis suggested in a recent interview with the media that head coach Eric Mangini is wearing the 1-7 Browns out in practice.

From ESPN.com:

Lewis, who intends to retire after this season, said Thursday that he doesn’t want to be a “babysitter” to Cleveland’s younger players. He wants to win and expressed disappointment that two- and three-hour practices aren’t translating into wins for the team, which has a 1-7 record.

“There’s talent all over this locker room, young and old,” he said before practice. “There’s talent everywhere, but that talent has got to be ready for Sunday, it’s got to be fresh for Sunday. You can work all day, but if you’re going to work like that, you’re probably not going to get what you want out of your players.”

While Lewis doesn’t mind working hard, he said Mangini is wearing out his players. The team captain said he hasn’t approached his coach about making changes.

“This is his show, not mine,” Lewis said. “You got to take care of your crop. If you don’t, when it comes time to harvest, you’re not going to make no money because the crop is no good. That’s that.”

Is it just me or does it seem like the majority of players that complain about practices being too hard play on bad teams? I remember a few years back when some Lions players bitched that Rod Marinelli’s practices were too hard.

Forget about Lewis’ crying, the real story here is that yet another Browns player is complaining about the way Mangini is running his team. When a coach acts like a hard ass, treats his players like crap and still finds ways to lose on Sundays, his players are going to quit on him. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Cleveland with Mangidiot.

Mangini’s approach isn’t working and if he can’t adjust then he’s going to find his ass unemployed real soon. Nothing he’s doing or has done in Cleveland has worked.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

« Older posts Newer posts »