Written by Jeff Rich

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There’s nothing more to gain from analyzing and criticizing Pat Shurmur for what’s happening with the Browns.  Twenty-six games have painted the picture pretty well, and there’s nothing more to be said; he isn’t the guy.  He’s a poor leader, a poor mentor, a poor strategist, and a poor ambassador for this Cleveland Browns brand.  Even though I just stated it, all of this really goes without saying at this point.  So, let’s not worry about Pat any more; he can coach his way into our good graces and continued employment in Berea, but he won’t.

I heard him give an interview to Tom Moore’s favorite, SiriusXM NFL Radio, last week, where he was, of course, overwhelmed by the experience.  Per usual, he didn’t offer much, but he did plug Greg Little and his work ethic through the bye week and in the week of preparation for the Cowboys.  Every week, I try to just watch the game, but I inevitably end up focusing on something.  In honor of the young receiver’s surname, I focused on the North Carolina product, but also on the little things.

Now, we all saw some of the big things; the questionable coaching that I’ve vowed not to explore, the touchdowns, the turnovers, and the back-breaking penalties were quite obvious to all of us.  Questionable coaching decisions are generally decisions that increase the chances of a team losing the game.  Touchdowns generally help teams win games, unless they fail to score enough of them.  A primary factor in failing to score enough touchdowns to achieve victory is by forfeiting possession of the football.  And back-breaking penalties tend to break your back, figuratively speaking.

All of those things are par for the course for the 2012 Browns, but also for the past fourteen years.  How long do we have to talk about the same things, week after week, before we go insane?  I’d rather talk about Greg Little’s progress, mostly because I’ve written him off as a lost cause; it’s not good to wish he could be mentioned in the same sentence as Braylon Edwards, and I thought that may have been shooting for the moon a little.

Enough Greg Little/Braylon Edwards Comparisons, Please clevelandfrowns.com/2011/08/enough… @str8upglittle”|plz! He's a good player I'm a dif one let it go!

— Greg Little (@Str8UpGlittle) August 22, 2011

Overall, we need not alert Canton about his performance on Sunday at the Death Star in Dallas.  On paper, it was adequate; 3 receptions, 53 yards, 0 touchdowns, but he kept the drops category empty.  That’s progress, especially considering that there was only one instance where he was targeted that he failed to achieve a completion, and even the CBS announcers admitted it was basically impossible to catch Brandon Weeden’s throw into double coverage.

On the opening drive, he went up and got one that Weeden sailed a little high, but it didn’t lead to a score.  It was the one of those little things.  Josh Cooper caught a third down pass from Weeden in front of the line to gain, and stepped out of bounds before reaching said line.  In tennis, I believe they call that an unforced error.  For the time being, I’m going to refer to it as a brain fart.

The Browns did score the second time they had possession, and Little ran a decent route on the Ben Watson touchdown.  The play may not have been designed for Little, but he sold his route well, breaking it off on the right hash, at about the three yard-line.  Watson just had to beat the safety over the top, and a perfect pass by Weeden put the Browns up by seven. Another little thing I liked from Little was seeing him get between DeMarcus Ware and the play, even though Ware threw him away like yesterday’s paper.  It didn’t stop Little from playing physical the rest of the game.

It’s simple, when you’re fluid, and you do the little things right, the NFL gods tend to reward you with 7 points.  If you don’t, it’s three or a Blutarsky.  We’ve reached the point where getting the triple in situations where time isn’t running out in the half or the game is a blatant failure on the part of the offense, and the Browns know it all too well.  We’ve reached the point where we know Brandon Weeden can be sharp, he actually demonstrated it on the first TD, but that’s not good enough; he needed to be on point most of the time, not just some of it.  When the Browns should have had their foot on the gas in the second quarter, Weeden errors led to Phil Dawson, who you almost hate to see at this point, booting a 51 yard kick.  The Browns came away with not enough points there.

The drive started off well enough from their own 16 when they dialed up Richardson, Richardson, and more Richardson for 37 yards on three plays, highlighted by some good down-field blocking.  I credit Mohamed Massaquoi for a solid concussion-free block on the first play of the second quarter.  But, Weeden forced two straight passes to Josh Gordon; both could have been picked, but the rookie from Baylor and Utah bailed him out by staying with a ball he continued to tip until he could retain possession.  It was all for not when he let one sail well over Josh Cooper’s head on third down, which brought on Dawson.

I liked the way they were able to use Montario Hardesty in what wasn’t his finest day as a pro, on paper, until you saw that he gained almost 6 yards a carry (4 carries, 23 yards) to give Richardson a breather.  Unfortunately, the Browns were unable to fully capitalize on his efforts.  After Dallas allowed them to stay on the field with a roughing the passer call on 3rd and 8, Hardesty ripped off runs of 7, and then 12 yards into the Dallas secondary; this should have set up play action beautifully.  In fact, kudos to Shurmur or Childress for noticing this, but they didn’t take care of the little things; Ben Watson dropped a first down pass that would have set up goal-to-go.  The drive stalled, and we got another Phil Dawson cameo.  The kicker from Texas is like a really good lawyer; you know he’s going to do everything you want him to do, and do it well, but you’d just as soon not see him as often as you do.  And, it’s 13-0 at the half.

After a bad return by Joshua Cribbs, which has become commonplace, the Browns start the second half at their own 11.  This is where Browns fans might need to begin adjusting to loftier expectations; we’ve come to expect drives that begin in the shadows of the goalposts to end there after three non-descript plays, so we get excited when our team moves the ball between the 20s, so to speak.  Every team that is half-way competent can move the ball, but it’s about finishing every drive with points.  So, I’m not going to get overly excited when the Browns move the ball 47 yards on a drive highlighted by a great Greg Little 22-yard reception.  I’m not going to settle; I refuse to settle for drives that stall just outside Phil Dawson’s range because Joe Thomas allows Ware to sack Weeden around mid-field when he’s slow off the ball.  Joe Thomas does so many things well that you don’t like to criticize him for the occasional sack, but it is the little things, and your franchise Tackle can’t give up that play when he’s on a team that isn’t very deep in the talent department.  I may have stated that I don’t love the sight of Dawson, but I especially don’t care for the site of Reggie Hodges near mid-field, not when he’s only giving his defense 28 net yards because he can’t keep the ball out of the end zone.  Sure, it’s a little thing, but, as you can see, it all adds up.

The Cowboys drove just far enough to get on the board on the ensuing drive, and every point in this game, even Dawson’s, meant something.  The Browns went 3 and out when they got the ball back, missing on 3rd and 4 on the aforementioned impossible throw to Little.  That may have been the turning point; it was the end of the third quarter, and the it would be big things in the 4th quarter.

After a Dallas TD, the lead was down to 3.  Cribbs, once again, failed to reach the 20 after coming out of the end zone, and they were pinned back on a holding penalty.  After three relatively poor plays, I was just glad the Browns had managed to salvage an opportunity to let Hodges punt.  In this case, I was happy to see him; considering Weeden nearly threw an interception to Josh Brent and Gerald Sensabaugh made an outstanding play on third down, not only stop Trent Richardson from what appeared to be a sure first down, but also forced him to cough up the ball.  Only a lucky bounce spared the Browns on that play.

It was all big things on the offensive side of the ball, as it often is in “crunch time”, from there on out.  The back-breaking turnover in the fourth quarter wasn’t so back-breaking though; the Browns broke the Cowboys back two plays later.  They even got some big things out of their offense, matriculating the ball down the field on the backs of big catches by Little and Gordon (there’s hope for this receiving corps yet), but the coaches got in the way at the end, and they missed out on the biggest thing of all, the requisite touchdown to not lose.  The defense did the offense a huge favor, and gave them a reprieve, but clock mismanagement on the failed drive made it all for not.

On the defensive side of the ball, we don’t need to nit-pick the subs or the unsatisfactory play of some of the regulars.  There was illegal contact, holding, and pass interference; all of which were a means to end, specifically not allowing the Cowboys to end up in the endzone.  I’d been wondering what has happened to Jabaal Sheard, but it’s now apparent to me that he’s just paying the price of admission for not going unnoticed in a spectacular rookie season.  He’s drawing extra attention, and even though Jauron isn’t very aggressive with blitz calls from the left, it opens the door to get some pressure in the right-handed quarterback’s face.  Phil Taylor was back, and didn’t have a memorable game, most notably drawing an accidental holding call while attempting to shed a block.

I am beginning to think that we’re aiming a big high in expecting TJ Ward to be the enforcer on that defense.  He was in position to make a tackle on Jason Witten on a second quarter reception, and Witten threw him to the side before D’Qwell Jackson took care of business.  Being a big hitter is about bringing down the ball carrier, not just wowing the crowd by laying out a 175 pound slot-receiver.  In the third quarter, it was Ward bailing out Jackson, who missed a tackle at the line of scrimmage on Felix Jones, giving him 13 yards and a first down.

It was nice to see Kaluka Maiava and Usama Young combine for that big second down sack when the Cowboys were driving, but frustrating to see Juqua Parker miss one on 3rd and 24 that would have put the Cowboys out of field goal range near mid-field.  Though he was held, he still had a chance at Romo, and even though Dan Dierdorf told us that Romo’s 15-yard scamper didn’t matter, the Browns were forced to take the penalty.  Romo hit Witten for 10 yards on their second chance at third down, which enabled an easy Dan Bailey field goal from 44 yards out.

Through most of the game, Sheldon Brown appeared to be fairly adequate in shutting down Dez Bryant, but after Buster Skrine was lined up against him, it opened Pandora’s Box.  Romo completed pass after pass in the second half, and you knew it was only a matter of time.  The Browns weren’t going to be able to rely on Skrine and Trevin Wade to win this game for the defense; it was up to the front 7 to disrupt the passing game, and it wasn’t there.  Even when the Browns could stop them, they couldn’t.  The Cowboys get called for intentional grounding, and it ends up being a penalty on the Browns for holding the intended receiver on a very uncatchable ball.  They get a big stop on 3rd and short, but Lawrence Vickers, a the best fullback in the league (dumped by the Browns for his lack of pass-catching skills), makes a spectacular catch on 4th and 1.

With the Cowboys down 13-10, their left tackle blatantly jumps early, causing Jason Witten to start before the ball is snapped on 3rd and 8 at the Browns’ 38.  The officials somehow miss the False Start, and Dallas gets a first down on the play.  Three plays later, the Cowboys are in the end zone, when Romo gets the pass off just before he’s sacked by the right end.  He was sacked by Ahytba Rubin on the previous play, and if the rush wasn’t a half-second slow on the next play, it would have set up 3rd and 25.  Now, I’m not saying the Cowboys wouldn’t have converted those hypothetical 3rd and long plays, but the chances of the drive resulting in a field goal instead of a TD would have gone up dramatically in my world of “What If”.  In reality, the TD was scored on 2nd and 19.

Props are due to the defense for holding serve after Shurmur failed to get the offense into the end zone for the lead and possible win, while making sure the Cowboys would have sufficient time to tie the game back up or re-gain the lead.  Jason Garrett, Bill Callahan, and anyone else who has a hand in the offensive brain trust of the Dallas Cowboys kept in vanilla, but you almost expect the Browns to get trumped by vanilla in critical situations these days.

The OT period didn’t go well for the Browns on either side of the ball.  They managed to put Sheldon Brown back on Dez Bryant, so Romo decided to pick on Johnson Bademosi, who was covering Miles Austin.  Considering he was a special-teams player forced into defensive duties, I’d say he did a fair job.  The offense went anemic on their long possession of the extra period, and the special teams had a breakdown on punt coverage that set up the Cowboys walk-off field goal for the win.  So, the Browns lost again.  They did some of the little things right, but a lot of them wrong.

In the end, there’s some truth to what a 2-8 team cannot do and what they may be capable of doing.  They did little things wrong, and couldn’t handle a few big things; in the end, it broke them.  All I can say is that it is what it is, and it’ll all be over soon.  Let’s not make a big deal out of any of this.