Written by Thomas Moore

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More than 24 hours later and many in Brownstown are still scratching their heads over the decision by Cleveland Browns coach Pat Shumur to punt on fourth-and-one with a little more than six minutes remaining in the Browns loss to Indianapolis.

It’s not so much what the Browns did – punt when they were on the Colts’ 41-yard line and only needing one yard – but why they did it.

During their show Monday morning on Sirius NFL Radio, Bob Papa and Ross Tucker were talking about the strange post-game press conferences that Carolina quarterback Cam Newton has been holding this season. Papa commented that it seems as is Newton is working off of a movie script of how the losing quarterback is supposed to act following a loss.

That pretty accurately describes Shurmur on game days. He dresses like a coach, wears a headset like a coach and does coach-like things. But, and we’ve touched on this before, more and more it seems as if Shurmur makes key decisions based on what he thinks an NFL coach is supposed to do in a given situation (almost as if he was playing a head coach in a poorly written sports film) rather than read the mood of the team and the game situation.

“You make choices,” Shurmur said. “I think that’s important. You do things that you think is right based on what you know; the game, the situation, how the game is going, all those types of decisions.”

But is that what is really happening? Has anyone actually seen that happen during a game this year?

Sunday was a perfect example. It wasn’t so much that punting was necessarily the wrong call at that point of the game – NFL teams inexplicably punt when they are in opposing territory all the time – it was that punting was the wrong call for this particular team in this particular situation.

The Browns had struggled to move the ball in the second half; prior to the drive in question they had gained 37 total yards and punted on their three previous possessions. With the way things were going, there were no guarantees they were going to have a better shot.

Plus, if you think the defense can hold the Colts following a punt (which they did, by the way), then they can certainly hold the Colts if you fail to convert on fourth down.

Of course, Shurmur didn’t see it that way.

“I’d do that again,” he said. “. I think it worked out. I had two timeouts after we decided to punt the football. We kicked it to them and it was better than six minutes left. At the end of the day, we had a first down with over three minutes left on the other side of the field. (It was) basically in the same spot we punted from, give or take a yard, with a chance to win the game and we didn’t. So no, that had nothing to do with it.”

How about this for something different? If Shurmur and offensive coordinator Brad Childress were so sure they couldn’t come up with a play that could get the Browns at least one yard, then they should have turned the situation over to Brandon Weeden.

Let Weeden pick the personnel package he wants, tell him “let’s see what you got, kid” and send him back on the field with complete control to call whatever play he is most comfortable with.

Shurmur is always talking about learning opportunities for the young players on the Browns roster, what better opportunity could present itself than that?

But that is not how Shurmur rolls, it’s costing the Browns winnable games and something needs to change.

It’s not so much that we fear Shurmur has lost the locker room, but some of his comments can’t go over very well with the players. For example, how he addressed the drop by Josh Gordon that would have given the Browns the lead.

“I talked to him and he’s a full-grown man,” Shurmur said. “He understands what’s going on and he’s hard on himself. I think that tells me that (he’s) got a chance to improve and we’ve seen great improvement from him. I expect that he’ll get better next week.

“It pleases me to know, just like I stand here and take responsibility when things don’t go right; it pleases me to know that they’re men enough to say, ‘Listen, I screwed that up.’ That to me is the first part of the learning process. Being able to then find a solution and you work on getting better and you emphasize things, knowing that they’re not willing to deflect things. No excuses, next guy in the game make a play and let’s go.”

It could be that we just finished rewatching all six seasons of Lost and the mantra, “live together, die alone” is stuck in our head, but whatever happened to winning as a team and losing as a team? We don’t seem to recall hearing Shurmur say he messed anything up.

Weeden seems to get it, though, choosing to have his receiver’s back after the game.

“He makes that catch nine times out of 10, so be it, it didn't happen on this day, but I stay positive with him,” Weeden said after the game. “He’s made a lot of big plays. He’s coming into his own and he’s becoming a really good player.”

When your rookie quarterback (OK, he’s 29, but still) shows more maturity than your head coach, you may have a problem.

The other problem is losing can become contagious and the last thing the Browns need is to have the players start to accept that this is just how it goes in the NFL.

Consider that the Browns currently sit at 1-6 on the season. Now consider that Trent Richardson lost four games total in three years at Alabama (with three of those losses coming in 2010), Weeden lost three games in two years and Oklahoma State, and Billy Winn lost two games in three years at Boise State, just to name a few of the younger Browns who are used to winning.

“It’s a tough one,” veteran cornerback Sheldon Brown said. “My biggest concern with this young team we have, it’s very important that we get a victory on the road. You go into hostile environments and you have to understand that it’s going to be tough, but to be able to go in and (win), that gives you a tremendous amount of confidence.”

As Janis Joplin taught us, “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,” and at this point, what does Shumur have to lose?

He’s already lost a large portion of the fan base and continues to lose more every week.

He already has members of the Cleveland media openly trolling him on Twitter.

No one knows if he’s lost the support of owner Jimmy Haslam (and don’t let anyone and their “sources” try to tell you differently) but Haslam was visibly not happy with what he saw on the field Sunday vs. the Colts.

Shurmur may just have the most freedom of anyone in the NFL.

Maybe if he finally accepts that he has nothing left to lose, the Browns may finally find the winning formula they have been searching for.

(Photo by The Associated Press)