The color brown is not the most attractive color in the crayon box. Although the color brown can be used beautifully, there’s a shade of brown that usually presents something that is not so pleasant in the minds of many. Since the return of the Cleveland Browns in 1999, that unpleasant brown has been reflected on the field of play.
For the last two seasons, the Browns have quietly made solid changes with quarterback Brandon Weeden at the helm and appear to be transforming, through their performance, their shade of brown into the beautiful color no one expected to be pleasant.
“I’m excited about what Brandon’s been able to do,” said Browns’ offensive coordinator Norv Turner. “The thing that we’ve spent a lot of time working on is trying to find out the things that he does best, and combine them with the things our players do best. And a lot of the things that we do on the practice field, it’s not experimental, but there’s a process you go through to get everyone on the same page.
“Hopefully when we get everyone in the games, we feature all the things that our guys do best,” he continued. “Through the preseason action that Brandon’s had, we’ve been able to do that. And we’ve had a lot of guys playing well. He’s taken advantage of the way they’ve been playing.”
It is important for a team to build according to its division, with the right talent, in order to compete for an opportunity to win. The AFC North is a physical, tough-minded division, and each team’s quarterback must be equipped to handle the grouping of squads that are blitz-happy.
After failed projects with quarterbacks in Tim Couch, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Ken Dorsey, Brady Quinn and Colt McCoy, to name a few, who were not equipped to handle the AFC North, the Browns went the way of drafting a 29-year old rookie quarterback last season.
Apparently, with his poises, maturity and physical present, Weeden was the right choice to bring everything together.
“There have been some really talented quarterbacks that have been put in a position where they didn’t have very good players around them, and they’ve struggled,” said Turner. “And then there have been some guys not as talented that have played at a real high level because they were surrounded by a great supporting cast.
“But the thing Brandon has done is make good decisions,” he continued. “He’s extremely accurate with the ball and he’s made some big throws up the field already, so those are the things you look and say those are positives we can build on.”
After the 2008 preseason, the Detroit Lions were believed to be a decent team, not necessarily a playoff squad, that year because of a solid, undefeated exhibition. When quarterback Jon Kitna went down to a season-ending injury, after throwing for over 4,000 yards each of the previous two seasons, Dan Orlovsky took over and the Lions finished winless, 0-16.
The Lions’ 2008 preseason is one of the perfect examples as to why the preseason provides false hope.
With that being said, it’s highly unlikely that the Browns will finish their 2013 campaign at 0-16, due to the great potential talent on both sides of the ball.
Clearly, following two impressive outings this preseason against the St. Louis Rams (27-19) and the Lions (24-6), who defeated the Browns 26-6 in their 2008 preseason matchup, Cleveland is keeping things in perspective, but remains confident.
“The past two games, obviously, we have a lot of work to do and improvements to make but it will be good to get a chance and watch tape with our guys,” said Browns’ head coach Rob Chudzinski. “It doesn’t count in the standings in the preseason as I mentioned last night. We want to keep this in perspective. But we are working to develop winning habits and hopefully these things will help us during the course of the season.
“We are finding some guys that exemplify our identity and that’s what we want to do, establish our identity on the football field,” he continued. “Getting a chance to evaluate our players and our team, and put our team together in the best manner we can…We were efficient, ball security was good, and the guys came to play. I like the effort that I’m seeing. Some things that we needed to work on and improve are fundamentals and we will be focusing on those the next two days in practice.”
What has been the Browns’ thorn for the last two seasons were the fourth quarters. Cleveland played well enough to win the majority of their games. Nevertheless, when entering the fourth quarters, the Browns surrendered the points and left scores off the board, which were costly and caused them contests.
But they are close, nearly a touchdown away.
Since Dec. 15, 2011 when they were defeated by the Arizona Cardinals by 11 points, the Browns averaged 8.8 per loss.
A stop here, a score there, the Browns and their color would have been viewed differently. With coordinators in Turner and Ray Horton (defensive), the Browns are looking to make their color brown more attractive each day.
“It is a good starting point,” said Horton. “All we have been trying to instill in the players is to get better today, get better today, get better today. Not tomorrow; just get better today. It is a good start. That is all it is. It’s preseason…We are trying to get better and get ready for Miami coming up.
“The bottom line is our offense is doing a fantastic job keeping us off the field,” he continued. “As long as we keep rolling like we are on offense, they will help us on defense. Most of the credit that we have been getting is really a reflection of the offense scoring, keeping us off the field, and we are fresh. That is a big part of our success is the offense’s success.”
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