Written by Jeff Rich

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“Only three things can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad.”

It’s an old adage from a coach that has long since left this world, and it shouldn’t literally mean that passing is only successful on one out of every three tries, but the OSU coach’s words were horrifically fitting for the quarterback from a different OSU last Sunday.  Brandon Weeden flung the rock 35 times last Saturday; 12 of those throws ended up in his teammates hands, 4 went to the Eagles, and the other 19 fell harmlessly to the ground.  What it means is that the Cleveland Browns can’t pass the football in a passing league, not right now anyways.

Warning: The following may contain some blatant sarcasm, proceed at your own risk.

To be fair, the 28 year-old rookie from Oklahoma State wasn’t Plan A.  Depending how far back you want to go, you might consider him to be Plan C, D, E, or F, but in the absence of Robert Griffin III, and in wake of the decision not to progress forward with Colt McCoy, Weeden is the quarterback.  If only there were another way of playing offense, one that doesn’t put the weight of the world on a quarterback that’s not ready for prime time…or even Sunday afternoon, maybe the Browns would have a chance against Cincinnati this Sunday.  I understand that many believe an offense built around a rushing attack has no place in today’s game, but why not explore the idea of getting something out of that obviously wasted first-round pick?

I’m sure it’s probably already time that we start penning Ki-Jana 2.0’s football obituary, especially after he missed all of those practice games with medical issues.  We’ve already seen enough to know that this guy’s a bum, right?  Let’s get the label maker ready to brand this guy in that “Draft Bust” class with Ryan Leaf and Courtney Brown.  39 yards on 19 carries, are you kidding me?  With his 2.05 yards per attempt, it’s going to take almost 6,000 carries to catch Jim Brown, or 4,000 just to catch Earnest Byner in Browns lore.  Even Travis Prentice stumbled to 2.8 per carry; so, maybe it’s time the Browns cut their losses with this guy, and figure out how to move forward with Brandon Jackson in the featured role.

This is similar to Colonel Nathan Jessup’s suggestion to give up in “A Few Good Men”.  Time to call the President, tell him we’re surrendering our position in Cuba, but wait, maybe there’s a better way.  Maybe it’s time we take a step back, to realize the need for a running game and a dominant back to support it, especially if the Browns continue to struggle at the quarterback position.  Take Sunday’s opponent, the one near the Kentucky border, victorious in 5 of the last 6 games in Ohio’s intrastate professional football series.  All of the games have been close; the Browns were even winning last season’s 10-point defeat at home, but the Bengals have been the one’s walking off the field victorious in these affairs.

With no disrespect intended for Marvin Lewis, Carson Palmer, or Andy Dalton, the Bengals aren’t exactly reining supreme as the Buckeye State’s best NFL chapter because of extraordinary Head Coaching or elite quarterback play.  They don’t even have special talent running the ball, but the numbers don’t lie, with these two teams, running the ball well has meant everything lately. 

You have to go back October 4, 2009 to find a game where the game’s leading rusher, Jerome Harrison (29 carries, 121 yards) did not play for the winning team, but the Browns did take the Bengals to OT before losing that one 23-20.  In the second meeting that year, Larry Johnson (22 carries, 107 yards) and Bernard Scott (18 carries, 87 yards) bested Jamal Lewis’s 40-yard effort in a 16-7 defeat.  Josh Cribbs, Jerome Harrison, and Chris Jennings combined to have 5 carries for 8 yards in what ended up being the Browns final loss of the 2009 season.

In the Browns first meeting with the Bengals in 2010, Peyton Hillis ran the ball 27 times for 102 yards, this time besting Benson’s 60-yard effort, and the Browns won 23-20, despite Terrell Owens 10 catch, 222 yard day.  You might take issue with calling this a passing league when Carson Palmer can throw for 371 yards, and lose to Seneca Wallace, who turned in a modest performance (18-30, 184 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT).  The second time around, it was the Clint Stitser Show in Cincinnati, but the fill-in kicker’s 4 FGs were set up by Cedric Benson’s 150 yard performance.  It would be Peyton Hillis that would be contained to 59 yards on 14 tries in this 19-17 Bengals win.

In last year’s opener, a devastating 27-17 defeat, it was Cedric Benson, once again, that ran wild with 121 yards on 25 rushes, while the Browns video game cover boy was, once again, held to under 60 yards.  He was spelled by Montario Hardesty, who dazzled with 18 yards on five carries in his NFL debut.  It was more of the same down in Cincinnati last November, with Benson hitting the century mark, while Hillis actually did run for more than 64 yards, a feat he accomplished just four times in ten games for the Browns in 2011.

Though last weeks 17-16 loss to the Eagles did yield the same results, Shady McCoy 110- Richardson 39, I’m not ready to concede that BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who had 91 yards in a behind the wood-shed beating from the Ravens, is going to best the Browns running attack this week.  Assuming adequate (not great) quarterback play this week, the Bengals defense may be honest enough to let the Browns run the ball at some point.  You have to figure that there’s some value to be had in the man that ran for 5.8 yards per carry for that school Tuscaloosa.

Let’s not excuse the low Week 1 output completely because of the knee injury that caused Richardson to miss all of the meaningless games in August, but we should consider that he may need a little time to get his sea legs underneath him.  I’m going to consider the five 90+ yard performances that Hillis and Chris Ogbonnaya combined for last season on a dreadful team as a sign of what to expect from the third overall pick in April’s draft.

Granted, it was five years ago, but the last Top 10 pick at his position eclipsed the 200 yard mark 8 times in his rookie season for the Vikings.  However, it wasn’t all 100 games for Adrian Peterson, picking up Hall-of-Fame shoe-ins Tavaris Jackson and Brooks Bollinger, the Eagles held him to 70 yards on 20 carries.  The rookie from Oklahoma also did have a Weeden-esque 14 carry, 3 yard showing in Week 13 at San Francisco that year.  The 1200 yards he had in his pocket in the first 10 games of his career likely hushed any “he’s a bust” sentiment in the Twin Cities.

So, it’s time to demonstrate some patience, but not lower our expectations, for the Trent Richardson experience in Cleveland.  It can still be a passing league, but things work a little differently in the state of Ohio.  It may please no one in Central Ohio to be reminded that the professional team on the shores of Lake Erie has brought in a “ringer” from the SEC, but the focus here is on Sundays.

It’s not too crazy to believe that the two-time National Champion from Pensacola may some day run Ohio, but good day running near the Kentucky border may spell victory for Pat Shurmur’s squad this Sunday.