Browns RB Trent Richardson to Have Non-Awkward Meeting with Jim Brown This Weekend

While the situation was blown out of proportion (when doesn’t that happen?), Browns legend Jim Brown did say that new Browns running back Trent Richardson was “ordinary” when the team drafted him back in April.

Richardson essentially let it go (though he no doubt used the slight as motivation), and now that Brown has decided to return to Cleveland to honor his former teammate Ernie Green, the two will finally meet. Don’t expect that rocky start to have any impact on their meeting, though.

“Just to meet [Brown] is an honor,” said Richardson. “He’s always been an icon. He’s always been somebody that you want to have a season like, a career like. To meet him and be on the same field means a lot.” (Source: Cleveland.com)

And with Jim Brown watching, Trent Richardson has every opportunity on Sunday to make the Hall of Famer describe him as even more than “impressive.”

http://dawgpounddaily.com/2012/09/20/browns-rb-trent-richardson-to-have-non-awkward-meeting-with-jim-brown-this-weekend/

Cleveland Browns desperate to avoid 0-3 start to season

By Mary Kay Cabot, The Plain Dealer

BEREA, Ohio -- Pat Shurmur dreaded his statistics class as a business major at Michigan State, trudged clear across the blustery campus to get there, and didn't really get it.

But there's at least one statistic the Browns head coach can wrap his head around this week -- if the Browns lose to the Bills (1-1) on Sunday and fall to 0-3, they can pretty much kiss their playoff chances goodbye.

Since 1990, only three teams have started 0-3 and made the playoffs. The most recent team to achieve the feat was the Bills (1998).

"We've got to win this game," Shurmur said.

As it is, the Browns are already facing long odds. Since 1990, only 12 percent of teams starting 0-2 (22-of-184) -- have made the postseason.

"We need to do what we can to win this football game against a team that's coming off a big victory [35-17 over Kansas City]," he said. "I've got a lot of respect for Buffalo, because in my opinion they've done a lot of things to upgrade their roster in the last couple of years."

The Browns were encouraged by the performances of Brandon Weeden and Trent Richardson during Sunday's 34-27 loss to the Bengals, but the harsh reality is that they're 0-2 and hitting a rough patch in their schedule.

Over the next three games -- all played without suspended cornerback Joe Haden -- they'll host the Bills and then visit the Ravens and defending Super Bowl champion Giants. If they lose Sunday, the season could slip away in a hurry.

"Right now, it's easy to just lay down your hat and be like, 'You know what? The season's over with. We don't have it,'" said linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, who has two interceptions and three sacks through the first two games. "But we have a long season to go and if you can stay upbeat, things may turn around. Things may not turn around, but that's something that's out of my control."

As the defensive captain, Jackson knows its incumbent on him to help keep the young guys focused.

"I have to be the same guy every day, so young guys know -- it's tough to win in this league, and it's easy to lose in this league if you allow it," said Jackson. "My message is, 'Keep fighting, keep pushing forward, because things could change in one week.'"

Despite the dire outlook, Jackson remains hopeful.

"It's not over. We have a ton of football to play," he said. "Two games, we were in it. The next time we get in those situations we have to be able to close out."

In his six seasons with the team, the Browns have failed to make the playoffs. The Browns have made the playoffs once since 1999, losing in a wild-card game in 2002.

"To play this game, you've got to be mentally tough," he said. "Whether we win or lose, you have to be critical of yourself."

The Browns are finding life without Haden can mean big plays and wide-eyed defensive backs coming up short. The Browns on Sunday were also without starting cornerback Sheldon Brown, who sat out all but one play with a neck stinger. Shurmur inserted Brown just to keep his 162-game streak intact.

In their absence, Buster Skrine and Dimitri Patterson started, and rookie Trevin Wade played nickel back. But with Skrine surrendering passes, missing tackles and drawing a 31-yard pass interference penalty, Shurmur might tinker with the lineup.

"With Joe out, we're going to look at all options to make sure we play the right combination of guys," Shurmur said.

He attributed some of Skrine's struggles not to his size (5-9, 185), but to bad footing a few times. "I don't care how big you are you can't slip," Shurmur said. "But he's quick and he challenges."

Jackson said the loss of Brown, an 11-year pro, is underrated. Fortunately for the Browns, he should be back this week.

"There's not too many receivers that can fool him," Jackson said. "He's seen it all. He encourages younger guys on what to expect. His knowledge of the game is what we're missing the most."

Being back home to avoid the dreaded 0-3 kiss of death is key, Jackson said.

"We've just got to get over that hump," said Jackson. "And once we [do], it's like a snowball effect. We'll continue to string some wins together."

Now that would be a stat Shurmur could embrace.

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/09/cleveland_browns_desperate_to.html

Brandon Weeden on his struggling debut: 'I know I played bad'

By Mary Kay Cabot, The Plain Dealer

BEREA, Ohio -- Brandon Weeden hasn't glanced at Twitter, even with one eye shut, read the papers, listened to sports talk radio or watched SportsCenter highlights since his four-interception NFL debut.

"I know I played bad, so I'm not going to sit here and listen to anybody," said Weeden. "These guys in this locker room, they've got my back and that's really all I care about. I don't need the nation to tell me how bad I played."

Just to be certain that it was as bad as he thought, Weeden came in early Monday morning and watched the film of the 17-16 loss to the Eagles three times. "Two times too many," he said.

But after the non-charming third viewing, he deep-sixed the tape.

"I'll never watch that film again," he said. "It's over and done with. If you dwell on it, it will affect you the rest of the week and you can't do that. I learned from it, and I've got to play better."

The one silver lining is that he can only go up from here. Weeden and his 5.1 rating are dead-last in the NFL, one notch below fellow rookie Ryan Tannehill (39.0) and a few spots behind No. 1 pick Andrew Luck, who's 28th with a 52.9.

"It can't be any worse than it was the first week," Weeden said of his restored confidence heading into Cincinnati this week. "I mean that jokingly. We're all going to have rough stretches. Obviously, mine was the first week. I look at the mistakes I made, and you guys saw 'em. Guys were wide open and I missed 'em. That's not my character, not the way I usually throw the football."

Weeden, who said he never played that poorly for an entire game before, sought refuge in the company of family and friends.

"I didn't go home and watch football, I can promise you that," he said. "I had a bunch of people in town. My parents are supportive. They were like, 'Brandon, it's going to get better.' It's nice having those people around -- even though I am a little bit older (28) and I should be able to handle it."

Weeden arose early Monday, ready to face the music. When he got to the team facility, coach Pat Shurmur assured him he was still his guy, and General Manager Tom Heckert echoed it.

"It's one bad game," Weeden said. "If I continue to do bad things, that's on me. I think they have a lot of confidence in me and my abilities and they wouldn't have named me the starter if they didn't.

"I've just got to prove to them that I'm the guy. When it's all said and done and you drop the helmet, you've got to play better."

Weeden also spent a large chunk of Monday apologizing to his defense, which supplied him with five takeaways – 25 percent of last year's total.

"I've told the defense over and over until I'm blue in the face -- they should've won us that football game," he said. "That made me feel worse than anything. They played so well, I've got to help them out, make a play here and there to give us a win. Everybody's talking about [the Eagles] going to the Super Bowl and we were a couple of plays away and that was all our defense."

Weeden still can't believe he was so erratic, missing Mohamed Massaquoi and Alex Smith by a mile in the end zone and Massaquoi down the sideline.

"That [first] one was just adrenaline," he said. "A couple of them were my feet. I got pressure, I had to slide up on one and got hit, kinda high-lowed, kinda saw the guy dive at my feet, so it just caused me to throw it. The other one, [I just wasn't] sound in my footwork. Just not getting my feet underneath me and being able to step into throws and throw them accurately.

"It's not something I'm happy about. Hopefully we can fix it moving forward."

He acknowledged his chemistry with Greg Little is a work in progress. Weeden hit Little in the hands near the goal-line and it glanced off for an eventual interception.

"We're not where we need to be yet," said Weeden. "Fortunately there's a lot of football left to fix those mistakes."

Little and rookie Travis Benjamin, who had two passes for him intercepted by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, acknowledged they have to help more.

"I should've caught that pass," said Little.

Said Benjamin, "I learned I have to help Brandon out. I've got to fight for the ball and knock it down."

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis cautioned his defense that Weeden is better than his stats indicate.

"I didn't think he played nearly as bad as I guess the criticism he's getting," said Lewis. "Sometimes the ball just goes the other way."

But the gunslinger isn't about to let the debacle deter him.

"Oh yeah, I'm taking shots," he said. "Don't worry about that."

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/09/brandon_weeden_on_his_struggli.html

What The Browns Have Now Is A Real Q.B. Controversy & A Moron For A Head Coach

Posted by LG on September 11, 2012 at 10:15 pm.

The Cleveland Browns the team that has the best fans in the world are now faced with a good old fashion quarterback controversy and the head coach has no idea how to handle it. The fans that attended the Browns home opener were already booing the Browns 28-year-old rookie Brandon Weeden and they wanted to see Colt McCoy and get the Browns an opening day win, something that hasn’t been done in the past 7 years. Can you blame the fans for being a little irate? Why not, the Browns were close, they were in a game that many picked for them to be out of by halftime.

The Cleveland Browns defense all but gift wrapped the game for head coach Pat Shurmur, by now the people who know football in the town have already pegged Shurmur as a moron that has no business coaching football in the NFL and  Shumur himself placed the exclamation point on his moron-ness by not going for the 2 point conversion when the Browns defense scored their only touchdown. Amazingly the Browns would end up losing the game by the one point Shurmur denied the Browns from putting on the scoreboard.  What did that tell us Browns fans? Pat Shurmur doesn’t even have enough faith in his rookie Q.B. Weeden to let him go for 2 points.

Here’s a thought for you Shurmur, Josh Cribbs could have tossed a touchdown pass for a 2 point conversion if you didn’t want to put Colt McCoy in the game. Yes that is right Shurmur, Cribbs can throw the football, you pulled off a trick play with Benjamin, why not pull one off with the guy the Browns had listed as their 3rd string Q.B. before your sorry butt got to Cleveland?

No that we have that out-of-the-way let’s get down to the real problem the Browns fans are facing. Sure the Browns have a new Q.B., sure this guy is a rookie and sure we can’t hurt the guy who is making millions of dollars to go out and win football games feelings, or he might want to run back to Oklahoma just like he did we he couldn’t cut the mustard in major league baseball. Yes folks Brandon Weeden comes from a failed baseball career and he is now working on a failed football career.

Needless to say it has been a rough couple of months for us here at CS-360. We happen to tell it like it is and we use facts to back up our articles.  One fact I would like to point out to you is, Brandon Weeden playing for 4 quarters in a football game and finishing the day with a 5.1 Q.B. rating is terrible. It down right sucks. For those of you who think this can improve, let me point out the obvious.  If Weeden goes to Cincinnati to play the Bengals and comes out with a 10.2 rating he would be twice as good as he was lest week. If he comes out with a 15.3 he would be three times better than he was last week, but guess what people, you aren’t going to win in the NFL with that kind of rating, trust me.

Now by this time a lot of you fans are thinking this guy really hates Brandon Weeden. Believe me when I tell you this, I don’t hate anyone especially Brandon Weeden. The reason I am writing this article is because this is the kind of quarterback the Cleveland Browns hierarchy picked to stick us Browns fans with. Then Mike Holmgren, not Tom Heckert talked his hand  picked moron Pat Shurmur into keeping his mouth shut and naming Weeden the Browns starter before they ever saw the Weeden panic,yes panic that forces him to  drop the football. Yes sir, even though the Cleveland Browns front office had privilege to the same information on Brandon Weeden as everyone else in the free world, they made the choice to ignore it and just go with a self-made failure as their starting quarterback.

There are people who make a living scouting guys in College who play football, these are professional scouts, they know who can get the job done and who won’t be able to perform in the NFL. It is hysterical how most of these scouts said Brandon Weeden can’t take the pressure of a pass rush.  It is even more hysterical how these same scouts said if Weeden faces any pressure, he is prone to make mistakes that will lead to turn overs. It is even more hysterical how the guys running the Browns with the exception of Tom Heckert chose to ignore everything the professional football scouts had to say about Brandon Weeden.  For those of you who are thinking I’m nuts, just google everything you can find on Brandon Weeden. You’ll find the information these scouts reported, I did. Go ahead have a look.

Now that we are smack in the middle of it, the good people running the team Cleveland Loves the most, aren’t going to say they made a mistake. They are stuck with Brandon Weeden as the Browns starting quarterback. The question is for how long do the fans who buy the tickets and support this team have to put up with this garbage Shumur is putting on the field? When you are 28 going on 29 you are pretty much set in your ways. You have heard the saying a million times “you can’t teach an old dog a new trick”. That is what we the fans of the Cleveland Browns have here folks. We have an old dog that can’t learn new tricks.

To make maters worse, we have a new head coach that has no business being in this position, he doesn’t possess the experience to know how to correct the situation. When you put these 2 problems together, you end up with a losing football team. When you have a guy playing Q.B. for your team that is afraid to take a hit in your backfield you have a problem. You either are born with the courage to get the job done or you are going to be squeamish and make a ton of mistakes. I believe we have the later with Brandon Weeden.

People were down on CS-360 in the preseason when I pointed out the obvious, now that others are seeing it in the regular season they don’t think I was to far off.  Yet you have the fans who think there is some kind of magic pill they have in the locker room and by this Sunday Brandon Weeden is going to come out transformed into the next Joe Montana. It isn’t going to happen people. Brandon Weeden is not going to turn the Browns into a winner. The head coach who has refused to admit he was wrong is going to subject us to more of the same. Shumur is the same guy who told us before the Browns final preseason game how ready Brandon Weeden was, he is the same guy that told us before the Eagles game how ready Weeden was, he is the same guy who has no answers as to how correct the situation. Shurmur said Weeden needs to throw the ball better.

If Shurmur was telling the truth when he told the fans how ready Weeden was, then the Browns have a coach running the team that doesn’t know what ready is. Now that’s a problem…. A lot of people tell me I am not a football coach and I wouldn’t know what to do in this situation. I can tell you this, I have a lot of common sense something the people who are presently running the Browns lack.  I would have waited to see how Brandon Weeden performed in a couple of preseason games before naming him the starting Q.B.  Especially after ready the scouting reports on Brandon Weeden. Better yet I would not have drafted Brandon Weeden in the first place, I would have taken players who would have improved the Browns as a team….

http://clevelandsports360.com/wordpress/what-the-browns-have-now-is-a-real-q-b-controversy-a-moron-for-a-head-coach/