The Browns are enduring another painful year, with the defense unexpectedly regressing despite six former Pro Bowlers and significant additions up front.
Face it, the Browns are horrible, and they are going to have to fire Mike Pettine as coach.
We are ranked number 32 out of 32 on Defense, currently giving up 406 yards per game. 31st out of 32 in rush defense. Once again we can not stop the run.
We didn't play any major offenses so far: the Jets, led by recycled veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick; Tennessee Titans with rookie Marcus Mariota calling signals for only his second game in the NFL (hey, I think he'll be a very good if not great player, but not necessarily in his second game), perrenial losers Oakland Raiders, and not to mention the San Diego Chargers (with three guys out on offensive line). Correct me if I'm wrong, but these teams are not offensive juggernauts.
You have to look at the talent level and see it increase and yet our performance is getting worse! Six guys who have been to a Pro Bowl, and moreover in the offseason, the team added Danny Shelton, Randy Starks, Nate Orchard, Xavier Cooper, and Tramon Williams and we also are getting back a healthy John Hughes and Armonty Bryant.
By comparison, the 1999 team finished last in the NFL with 378 yards per game given up. The 2015 team is worse than 1999! How can we accept Pettine as the defensive guru, especially as he has Jim ONeil as DC, his lieutenant in Buffalo? O'Neil and Pettine have coached together for seven years. Are you kidding? It's beyond terrible.
"What? Elliot Kennel says that our stats are worse now than in 1999? How can that be?"
It's not injuries that are killing us this year, unless you count Joe Haden's broken finger.
Nobody wants to blow up the management team and start over, but I don't see how you can stay with a defensively minded coach after providing all that talent and seeing the team get so much worse. It would be one thing if the offense were messing up, given that the conventional wisdom has been that they don't have that much talent at quarterback and wide receiver. It seems clear enough that there is something fundamentally wrong with the defensive approach. The team has gone 1-8 after staring out 7-5 last year. It's just a terrible peformance from a team that has talent. There seems to me to be no choice but to dismiss the coaches, at least on the defensive side of the ball, and rebuild yet again.
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