In college football, a head coach knows he better win his share of rivalry games or he will find himself out on the street. John Cooper found out that gaudy records didn't mean anything at Ohio State if he couldn't beat Michigan. Now Michigan coach Lloyd Carr is about to find out the same thing from the opposite side of the rivalry.But that's not normally how the NFL works. Making the playoffs is much more important than beating your division rival, although it's hard to make the playoffs without winning division games.
Browns coach Romeo Crennel needs to win any game at this point, not just Browns-Steelers games. But how long can a coach last in Cleveland when he's now 0-5 against the Browns biggest rival with an overall score of 163-55 in those games? At some point, can losing to a rival be enough to help speed a coach's exit?
The Browns and Steelers don't play again until Week 10 of the season. With the schedule the Browns have coming up, it's hard to imagine Crennel will still be around when that game is played. Cleveland has to beat Oakland next week or they face the very clear reality of a possible 0-5 start (with the Bengals, Ravens and Patriots next on the schedule). It's hard to imagine Crennel surviving an 0-5 start.
The Browns can't keep switching coaches every three years, but it's also hard to stick with a coach who's now 10-23 with a trend line that keeps going in the wrong direction. The talent may be improved, but there wasn't a lot of visible results of that during the opener: the Browns committed too many penalties, made too many turnovers and failed to match Pittsburgh's effort as well.
All in all it was another debacle for Browns fans who have had to get used to debacles.
It was a much better day for Steelers fans. Ben Roethlisberger's four touchdown day didn't look like a four touchdown day, but it was an effective and controlled outing by the Pittsburgh QB--he was only sacked once and threw no interceptions--and those may be the most important numbers for the Steelers week in and week out.
The defense dominated Cleveland's offensive line to the tune of six sacks and the pairing of Anthony Smith and William Gay once again showed they know how to make big plays--Smith forced a fumble and Gay recovered it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-09-2007 @ 6:19PM
Luz said...
i'm a steelers fan but i think crennel is still on the right track. to change coaching regimes now, when the browns are finally starting to get some good players, would be a disaster. a new coach likely will mean new schemes, which means new players. it will continue the never-ending vicious cycle for browns fans. patience is the hardest thing but for the sake of browns fans, i hope lerner has it.
p.s. if the browns DO can crennel, i hope the new coach switchs to a base 4-3. that way the steelers can steal wimbley!
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9-09-2007 @ 6:34PM
iffer said...
Right track? For the Stoolers maybe. Crennel has mishandled this quarterback situation. His lack of conviction and his inabilty to control his young players have doomed this franchise. By not picking on quarterback before camp and allowing one of the bums to split reps with Brady ensured his firing. At least Grantham has some fire his belly. The entire city is tired and lying down and taking this crap from Pittspuke. This team needs leadership and passion. Palmer was over his head but at least he had the Browns ready to play our rivals after that first beat down.
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9-09-2007 @ 6:37PM
Alan said...
It looks like Romeo Crennel is proving the Peter Principle while coaching the Browns. He was part of a superb team when he was with the patriots but it appears that both he and Charlie Weis are in the midst of learning about the realities of coaching. Meanwhile Bill Belichik has just kept on trucking with another Super Bowl bound team.
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9-09-2007 @ 6:43PM
David giese said...
Crennel is a nice man and a good defensive coordinator. He's not a head coach. The Browns must get it over with, and fire Crennel and hire Cower now!
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9-09-2007 @ 6:48PM
SteelCountry said...
Excuses, excuses, excuses! I've had it with the Browns and their fans coming up with excuses for every loss in every season. Pittsburgh has Cleveland's number right now and they have MUCH better personnel on BOTH sides of the ball. Let's face it...it'll be years until they can play consistently at the level of the NFL's elite.
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9-09-2007 @ 6:50PM
George B Vieto said...
Romeo Crennel will be like Bill Belicheck who coached the Browns got fired by the Browns and then went on to coach another team to a Super Bowl. I believe Romeo will leave Cleveland after this season and coach either in college ot another NFL team with a better owner and general manager to get him the players he needs to be a success.
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9-09-2007 @ 7:25PM
chris said...
coach sucks play brady quinn.
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9-09-2007 @ 7:40PM
myra said...
Crennel needs to throw his hands up and just leave. the browns are not good. phil savage makes it worse by thinking he's getting back at the Ravens by picking their unsigned players. savage was good as long as he was with Newsome.
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9-09-2007 @ 8:01PM
Art said...
Great job for the new coach of the Steelers. The Browns/Steelers rivalry lives on and will continue. Ben Roethlisberger looked fine as did the rest of the team. Coach Tomlin has a good approach to the game and will learn new things week to week. Best of luck to Coach Tomlin.
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9-10-2007 @ 9:53AM
apop55 said...
Rivalry? Don't rivalries starve without competitive balance? When was the most recent Cleveland victory?
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9-09-2007 @ 8:19PM
James said...
Pittsburgh has dominated Cleveland in recent years.The Steelers are the better team. They are 7-1 in their stadium.The browns have played lousy football the past years. No excuses.
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9-09-2007 @ 8:46PM
Trent said...
Crennel is trying not to look stupid...But by not playing the very popular and talented Quinn, he looks more than stupid...He looks lost!! Some athletes just have that "IT" factor..Quinn has that "IT" factor..He won games at Notre Dame, something they don't seem to be able to do now...PLAY QUINN YOU MOROn!!!!!!!
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9-09-2007 @ 8:55PM
quickgoat said...
Stoolers? Pittspuke? very original, but what can you expect from mouth breathers.
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9-09-2007 @ 9:38PM
Don said...
I can not believe a team can continue to get worse year after year. I gave them my season tickets back 3 years ago because of the way the team was run, I am not sorry. I wonder if they even had a camp prior to starting the season. This team looked like it had never played a game together. Romeo did not want to start Quinn because he missed part of camp. Hell he could have missed everything and just walked in today and started and could not have looked worse then this team looked.
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9-09-2007 @ 10:01PM
doug said...
Just goes to prove that cleveland got browned again and are really steeler fans deep down inside
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9-09-2007 @ 10:28PM
dj said...
Randy, the entire football world is laughing at us again. You really deserve to lose the support of all of us fans who have stuck with this team through the last 8 years. Palmer, Davis, Crennell, when are you going to get it right? It takes two things, leadership and courage and the coach sorely lacks both. He doesn't act like a headcoach, he doesn't speak or answer questions like a headcoach and he's grossly overweight and doesn't look like a headcoach. He certainly has never had control of the team. There is also a total lack of creativity. Ask anyone who follows the Browns, what the first play from scrimmage would be today and they would have all gotten it right----a simple hand off to Lewis. Here's one for you, I know nothing about football, and anyone can second guess but I guarantee this scenario against the Bengals; First play is a hand off to Lewis for a yard, second and 9 and it's a run off tackle, third and 6 it's an incomplete 3 or 4 yard pass in the flats, fourth down we punt.
No guts! When Winslow pulled the interference penalty on third down that negated the first in ten I would have sent him to the lockerroom.
My dream is I go to bed tonight and when I wake up on Monday the Browns announce they have signed Jim Tressel as head coach and Bo Pelini as defensive coordinator for next season.
We spend thousands of dollars for season tickets for our customers. They'd see better football if we just took them to the high school games in Youngstown. Much better football.
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9-09-2007 @ 10:34PM
john schauer said...
The cycle begins before the draft with all kinds of publicity..special sections in the Plain Dealer..then the draft..camp..more special sections ..all this while the division leading Indians are second rate. Then the season starts..stinko..by the quarter pole fans are selling their tickets..by the 3/4 pole their giving them away..then we can't wait til the season is over. Next year its starts all over again! Will we ever have a winning football team again for the most deserving and tortured fans in sports??Not unless we get true professionals coaching instead of wannabees!!
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9-10-2007 @ 1:25AM
John said...
I almost had this feeling of sympathy for the Browns fans...but no this is competition. Crennel doesn't look like a coach or seem to have any passion or desire on the sidelines. He looks as though he is contemplating what time to order his next pizza. Browns fans, I know you are thoroughly disgusted but you can't throw a rookie quarterback into the fires of the NFL. This isn't pitch and catch football like you do in your back yard. Give the young man a chance to develop. Try to be patient. That is extremely difficult when you are losing. Your defense really didn't play that bad of a game.
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9-10-2007 @ 1:42AM
LizaB said...
Can someone please tell Crennel to read this? Or would they just please knock some sense into him, so that he will play Quinn. God, I thought that Owners, GM's as well as head coaches had to have common sense and not be IDIOTS!
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9-11-2007 @ 9:00AM
Jay said...
I am in my mid thirties and have been a Browns fan since I was a little boy, and besides the loss to the Steelers in the 2002 playoffs we Browns fans haven't had anything to be excited about since I was a teen ager. The point is we seem to be accustomed to losing. When you ask anyone the outcome of the upcoming Browns game they don't hesitate to say that we are gonna lose. So bring some winners in to coach the Browns. they might just start winning. They have the talent.
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