Browns get shut-out on Monday Night Football

Well I dragged my wife out to the game last night as she has never seen a Monday nighter before.  I guess I could have picked a better game!

The Browns failed to score a point as they got beat 16-0 by our AFC North rivals, the Baltimore Ravens.  Brady Quinn was bad.  His receivers were worse.  Josh Cribbs was carted out on a stretcher after the final play of the game where he got hit hard on the chin under the face mask.  We saw a few fights afterwards which was fun;  and some fires in the parking lot.  The music was good, says my wife.

Our season seats are near the sportscasting box.  In the third quarter, our section had a good “Gruden” chant going which seemed to catch the attention of Jaws.  That was fun.

Blocking another extra point and holding the Ravens to nil points at the half were likely the highlights of an otherwise miserable performance.  Another ode to “Brain” Daboll.  About five minutes into the third quarter, my wife turned to me and asked “why does Brady Quinn always throw the ball sideways instead of down the field?”  Good question, I thought.  Does anybody know why Daboll is still on the sidelines?  The offensive play calling is grotesque.  There are so many passes that are thrown laterally and for 1-3 yards even if caught.  For crying out loud, no wonder we never score any points.  We have to travel around 500 yards to get down to the red zone!  Correct me if I’m wrong (I did have a few beers to numb the pain), but I do not think that we got past the Ravens’ 40 yard line all night!

The planned protest did not take flight as the seats were full at the start of the game.  Our section was getting thin after the half.  It was a ghost town by the fourth quarter.

After going down by 6 points early in the third quarter, Brady threw an errant pass to Royal that was intercepted and run back for a touchdown by the Ravens.  The game was over in less than 10 seconds.

Fire Daboll.  Someone on the sidelines needs to roll for making the Browns the worst team in pro football offensively.  Allow the QB coach, Carl Smith (who is a former offensive coordinator) to take the reins for the rest of this season.  Keep Mangini for the rest of the season.  If Holmgren is hired, allow him to choose the head coach, whether Mangini or someone else.  Keep Ryan.  Stick with Brady Quinn for the remainder of the season.  Play Robiskie and Massaquoi all the time for the experience.  Let Jamal play as much as he wants to keep a little dignity in his last year.  Pray for Cribbs.  Use the wildcat even more than last night because it is the only way we ever gain any yards, but start letting Cribbs throw the football.  Get Vickers some more action running and catching out of the backfield.  Blitz more often on defense to take advantage of opposing offenses double-teaming Rogers in the middle.  Have a chat with Thomas and Steinbach – it is bad enough that the right side of our O-line is inept, but the ugly and dirty little secret is that Thomas and Steinbach have been no hell on their side either.

One of our better chances at getting a second win comes next week against the Lions.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  I’ll have my legs crossed because the only way that I can stomach this horseshit is by guzzling back a few cold ones every quarter.  Cheers.

Go Brownies.  I’m still a fool.

-Clayton