Game 1 of Season 2 for McCoy

[Fooleeze]

At the beginning of the game I pointed that out to my wife, this is the start of season 2 for McCoy. I'm pretty sure this is his 17th start. It's about time to expect some noticeable progress from him.

And he delivered. . . kinda.

Yes, the game was lost, but I was happy to see some really nice balls thrown today, some with zip, some with great accuracy in tight windows. I don't remember a pass at all that was thrown off the mark. (we were seeing a lot of inaccurate passes in the earlier games). Those errant passes have been getting less and less each week.

I still sensed a little bit of timidness out of McCoy on some plays. He still has a way to go, but he made a step forward today.

I'm not happy with the loss. Independent of what McCoy did or didn't do, I also complained extensively to my wife when the Browns TWICE got into the red-zone and completely abandoned the pass (I believe both times in the 2nd half). This on arguably Colt's best 'accuracy' game of his short career. The first time was after Ogbonnaya's long run, and somehow the coaches felt that suddenly the Browns had a consistent run game. The second was at the end of the game. They marched down the field, and decided to run it inside the 10. We all know the results.

Eh, my point, I guess, is that I hope to see continued improvement by McCoy. If we see that, maybe we can ride this train for a bit and use our picks to fill some more holes around the team for the time being.

Just my thoughts & opinions.

[Sez.EJ]

I was thinking the same thing when they said it was his 17th start.. he's just getting is first actaul start of a 2nd season.. in a way. I hope we see some progression the rest of the year. It's going to get much tougher real soon.

Jaguars this week. I am still having nightmares of our bad tackling and how our lousy offense and Maurice Jones Drew killed us last year. I think that's the game we got 6 turnovers and still managed to lose. I sure hope it goes better next Sunday.

[golfer704u]

Good post Fooleeze, and again, I think sometimes the playcalling helped Colt feel more comfortable in the pocekt. Finally the creativity was making defenses think twice before blitzing everything. Unfortunately as you pointed out, on two drives they then abandoned that creatiity when it matter most.

[Greythan]

Colt's passer rating of 97.5 was fifth best for QB's with 10+ attempts this week.

[Jax Dawg]

Originally Posted by Sez.EJ

I was thinking the same thing when they said it was his 17th start.. he's just getting is first actaul start of a 2nd season.. in a way. I hope we see some progression the rest of the year. It's going to get much tougher real soon.

Jaguars this week. I am still having nightmares of our bad tackling and how our lousy offense and Maurice Jones Drew killed us last year. I think that's the game we got 6 turnovers and still managed to lose. I sure hope it goes better next Sunday.

Next week McCoy will continue to show improvement and be something like 25 for 28 with about 300 yards but on what should be the game winnning drive Shurmur will once again show his brilliance by taking the game out of Colt's hands at crunch time by calling an end around to Joe Thomas. He will follow that up by calling a useless time out again to try to ice his own kicker before the game winning FG attempt (who does this besides Shurmur?). Too bad Colt has to "learn the game" from the likes of Shurmur...

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by Jax Dawg

Next week McCoy will continue to show improvement and be something like 25 for 28 with about 300 yards but on what should be the game winnning drive Shurmur will once again show his brilliance by taking the game out of Colt's hands at crunch time by calling an end around to Joe Thomas. He will follow that up by calling a useless time out again to try to ice his own kicker before the game winning FG attempt (who does this besides Shurmur?). Too bad Colt has to "learn the game" from the likes of Shurmur...

Hay Jax, yestherday was Colts, Cwibbs, Macks, and the teams fault not Shurmurs. A+ playcalling in that final drive, A+ clock management, F- execution from McCoy and those two Mangini guys Mack and Cribbs.

[Brown Warrior]

Next week is huge on a number of levels. First, it's the last truly bad team we play, although Arizona isn't very good either. It's a chance for the offense and McCoy to take another step before entering the tough part of the schedule... the part that determines a lot of what will happen in the offseason.

I'm hoping we have some healthy running backs and the line can build on this last performance so we can get a relatively fair look at McCoy against good AFCN defenses in winter... because that would be the life he leads if he remained the starter. He has to play well down the stretch to give himself a shot.

I still think Norwood looks like a classic slot with short-space quicks. I like that kid. Wanna keep seeing more of him.

[Greythan]

I'm not sure about Norwood but I'm in 100% agreement with the rest of your post.

Tough sledding or not, the road to success runs through the defenses of Baltimore and Pittsburgh. You can probably add the Bungles to that list now that they're playing pretty well and after they robbed Oakland out of the 22 first round picks. They're going to be loaded with talent if Mike Brown doesn't screw it up.

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

Next week is huge on a number of levels. First, it's the last truly bad team we play, although Arizona isn't very good either. It's a chance for the offense and McCoy to take another step before entering the tough part of the schedule... the part that determines a lot of what will happen in the offseason.

I'm hoping we have some healthy running backs and the line can build on this last performance so we can get a relatively fair look at McCoy against good AFCN defenses in winter... because that would be the life he leads if he remained the starter. He has to play well down the stretch to give himself a shot.

I still think Norwood looks like a classic slot with short-space quicks. I like that kid. Wanna keep seeing more of him.

It boils down to this: We're not going to the playoffs and we're not going to regroup to .500. Take the chains off, toss out the training wheels and put the Offense in McCoy's hands. Use the remaining games to evaluate him as well as what WR's we should actually keep and see where we HAVE TO go next year. We're going 3-13 anyways so you may as well get some questions answered at some key positions.

[Masters]

I don't think its a lock CLE goes 3-13, but I agree with you KOK that they have to take the leash off Colt and the O to see where they are at and what they got during the remaining games.

[Brown Warrior]

Originally Posted by King of Kings

It boils down to this: We're not going to the playoffs and we're not going to regroup to .500. Take the chains off, toss out the training wheels and put the Offense in McCoy's hands. Use the remaining games to evaluate him as well as what WR's we should actually keep and see where we HAVE TO go next year. We're going 3-13 anyways so you may as well get some questions answered at some key positions.

Bam. That. I agree 100%. Frankly, it all aligns on its own then: If the Browns do win only 3-5 games, it means McCoy probably didn't do enough to save his job. If they win 6 or 7? He may keep the job or convince the brass to take a quarterback a little later, like early round 2, who would push him for the job.

But I don't see the upside to keeping diapers on him. It's show two weeks in a row: First, throwing 22 times when down 24 is akin to taking the microphone and saying, "I think my quarterback sucks." Then a week later refusing to give him a shot at the end zone added, "Oh, and I don't trust him, either."

Cut it loose.

[Riffer X]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

But I don't see the upside to keeping diapers on him. It's show two weeks in a row: First, throwing 22 times when down 24 is akin to taking the microphone and saying, "I think my quarterback sucks."

Will you shut TFU about that already, it is like the tenth time you have said that. Besides that, you are way wrong. They only threw that little becuase they didn't want to get the kid killed and had no chance of winning. They had already taken heat earlier in the year for throwing a ridiculous amount of times. What games do you watch?