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Monday, September 8, 2008
It’s only one game, so get off the ledge
My late father loved the Browns. Two days before he died, he watched them beat the Baltimore Ravens on TV and I’m convinced it extended his life another day.
He didn’t go to many games, but almost nothing made him happier than when the Browns played well and almost nothing upset him more when they didn’t.
So I could picture him Sunday, this man who went to his grave still bitter over the Paul Brown firing, slamming his hand into the arm of his couch during that nauseating 28-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys and exclaiming, “They’re not ready to play!”
It really was as simple as that when you think about it. For all their offseason posturing and roster revising, the Browns were not ready when the bell rang and the Cowboys came across the ring and hit them like Mike Tyson in his prime.
Forget beating the Cowboys. They weren’t even ready to be on the same field with such a juggernaut.
And how in the world do you justify kicking a field goal down by three touchdowns with 10 minutes remaining? Head coach Romeo Crennel said he was looking for some momentum. A reasonable justification in the third quarter maybe, but not the fourth.
A female friend who knows as much about football as I do about nuclear physics was listening in her car. She called me at that moment to suggest this probably wasn’t the soundest course of action in terms of statistical probability.
She said that since the Cowboys had 28 points at the time and the Browns had seven (a four-to-one touchdown ratio, she felt the need to point out), it would have made more sense to go for it on fourth-and-3, try to score a touchdown, then attempt an onside kick.
“Why aren’t they playing with more urgency?” she wondered, echoing a sentiment undoubtedly shared by the thousands who used that moment as an excuse to head for the exits.
I suggested Crennel must have had Phil Dawson on his fantasy team and didn’t want to risk coming away with just one point from his kicker. She laughed.
Still, even with all the blunders and miscues, there’s no reason to be out on the ledge today. Beat Pittsburgh on Sunday night — tall order, I know — and suddenly your season is alive again.
I understand passionate fandom, but this was one game, a nonconference one at that. Injuries were a factor. The Browns played a team that was 13-3 last season and nobody, except maybe for me and a few other fools, expected them to win.
It’s way too early to look at this one defeat as “ominous” or, for that matter, any definitive indication of what to expect.
If they can split their first four games, they’ll be fine, and that’s still reasonable, no matter what anyone tells you.
