I Say We Haing 'em!

Many of you want to hang Eric Wright. Ever since, the Ravens game, you are seeing what you want to see. Ward is never late or out-of-position, the front seven are neve allowing quarterbacks too long, Wright is never assigned to cover a different reciever when he chases somebody around with the ball...

No, if he's visible on the TV screen, it's "Wright again!".

You see what you want to see. He's the fastest guy on the team, and he shows up near a lot of recievers--whether he was supposed to cover them or not.

Brian Daboll? Well, Hillis has been running over stacked fronts all season, and had been doing that in the first half here. You never expect this guy to get stuffed even twice in a row. I mean, you double-down on him--the defense tires and he breaks through.

You might pass some more with a two-legged quarterback. It gets harder when he can no longer escape the pocket, and you don't want to make his injury worse. McCoy completes many of his passes between the numbers when he's outside the pocket.

Objectively, rationally, the guy you finally get a legit shot at bashing is Mangini. Just as he put Delhomme back on the field when he was limping around on his plant-leg rather than use Wallace, last week he put peg-leg McCoy back out there rather than go to Wallace. In both cases, the injuries probably turned from one-game blips to several weeks out-of-action, and both quarterbacks were ineffective thereafter in their games.

Wallace was always effective coming off the bench, and he's been taking all the second-team reps in practice. He was about 90% last week and ready to go. What is it with Mangini's refusal to protect an injured quarterback? Why does he think that any physicly-handicapped quarterback gives him a better chance to win than Wallace, especially given what he's seen from the guy up close and personal?

And how can you clowns list the entire defense anywhere on the "goats" list when they scored about a third of the points in the game and stole the ball six times? They did all they could, and they wore down. Off the field--back on after three plays. Again and again and again. Yeah--it's all their fault! Ahh, shaddap!

I believe they would have won had McCoy been kept on the bench after his initial injury, and Wallace been used. Wallace is actually pretty similar to McCoy. He's not as accurate (but nobody is)--but he can scamble, and the same game-plan works for him.

As it was, the defense quickly adapted to McCoy's obvious lack of mobility and went instantly to kitchen-sink mode. Trapped in the pocket, he can't see as well. Max protection equals min. recievers.

Daboll knew it too. That's why he went to the big hammer, and stuck to it.

To me, it's remarkable that Hillis didn't ultimately break their backs.

On that front, it's partly the Cribbs factor. Cribbs on the offense has to be watched. He's quietly mutated into the Browns most reliable wide reciever, and takes handoffs sometimes. He makes it much more dangerous to run-blitze, and the back safety has to keep an eye on him. without Cribbs, they can kitchen-sink Hillis and the quarterback.

Harrison was being disruptive, so I can accept his trade. But what did James Davis do? Nice move, Heckert/Mangini/whoever! Davis could do some of what Cribbs did. Why does EVERY back have to be a big power guy? Davis was quick, made big plays, and was an excellent reciever. Now you lose ONE GUY (Cribbs), and see what you get!

See? I can bash Mangini too! But these are his only warts--overall he's a damn good coach. If you have to go overboard to extremes on everything, you're a simpleton. Black and white. People who use their brains think in color.

Daboll had to do what he did with McCoy's injury. It was Mangini's fault, because he had no Wallace. Hillis was stopped, because of that and because there was no Cribbs (or James Davis) to take heat off him. Also Mangini's fault. But the fight in the guys, the game-plans that beat the Pats Saints and almost the Jets? Overall good coaching DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

You guys are around the bend. The analysts who like Mangini are ex-players and coaches, and you call them "koolaid drinkers". My freaking God I tell everybody that if they need a new coach or GM all they need to do is hit any bar in Cleveland--there are thousands of them, and they're all smarter than all the ex-players and coaches.

OK--I believe Mangini lost this game, but should not be fired.

I got my fingers crossed with Delhomme. He actually looked pretty good til HE was injured, and he knows this team. Think we'll win.

Revised W/L prediction: 9-7.