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12/19/05

Browns may have turned corner

Monday, December 19, 2005

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>BROWNS SPOTLIGHT TODD PORTER



OAKLAND, Calif. - Rest today, Browns fans. You’re not Raiders fans.
It took most of the season to find one, but the Browns did so on Sunday. There is a team further behind the NFL pace than Cleveland, which couldn’t beat a Lions team that has Detroit close to rioting.

The Raiders, as Dr. Seuss would say this time of year, are an awful, bad team, led, coincidentally, by the Grinch of NFL owners. Oakland has always had an inferiority complex compared to San Francisco, its neighbor across the Bay.

But in the NFL, Oakland isn’t even Cleveland. That hurts.

While we must include the fact that the Raiders are the Raiders and apparently wandering aimlessly without much of a plan, Sunday’s win was important for the Browns.

It was big.

Yeah, it was ugly.

But there is a lot to be said for a 5-9 football team playing out the string and winning ugly.

Browns General Manager Phil Savage, to his credit, didn’t fall head over heels in love. Carmen Policy would have had Browns fans ready to make Super Bowl reservations after a game like this.

Savage? He nearly shrugged his shoulders after what was the season’s signature win.

“Because we won the game, maybe,” Savage said when asked if this win showed the most progress of the year. “Obviously, we’ve had signs along the way, here and there. I would say the Miami win was the best, based on what they’ve done after us. That is the highlight.

“But we’ll take any kind of small success.”

Think about what Cleveland did Sunday.

Rookie quarterback Charlie Frye had the worst of his three NFL starts. He was picked off, made bad decisions, threw to the wrong reads, was sacked three times and looked like he’d just spent an afternoon being tossed and tumbled in a washing machine.

The offense made just 13 first downs, and three of those came on the game-winning drive. Reuben Droughns, Cleveland’s first 1,000-yard back in decades, was virtually absent for the second week in a row. Wide receiver Antonio Bryant dropped at least two more passes, but he’ll remind you he caught five others.

And one more little thing: No touchdowns. No momentum, no sign of winning this game.

But the Browns scratched out a win. That’s progress, believe it or not.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game in the world,” Head Coach Romeo Crennel said. “... But they made some plays they had to make to give us a chance to win. ... We hung in there and made a play at the end to win. During the course of this year, we haven’t been able to make a play at the end to win. It feels good we were able to make it.”

The Browns failed to make that play against dreadful Houston and Detroit. They also failed the last two weeks against Jacksonville and Cincinnati. All four of those games were winnable.

“We’ve got fighters,” cornerback Daylon McCutcheon said. “That’s what I love about this team. Other guys on other teams would lay down and not fight in these types of games.”

So, did the Browns fight and the Raiders lay down? Probably.

That’s why you shouldn’t fall in love all over again, only to have your heart trampled on this Christmas Eve against the Steelers.

The Browns aren’t quitters, although they have been in previous years.

“Sometimes ... guys toss in the towel. Our guys are not like that and didn’t do that,” Crennel said. “I’m proud they continued to fight to give us a chance to win the game. Hopefully, we can build on that and finish this year strong, and build on next year.”

That’s all the Steelers game and the Jan. 1 finale against the Ravens are: Building blocks, and signs the team still has faith in Crennel and Savage.
In a quiet hallway in the locker room, Savage seemed to enjoy a small slice of the season that mostly has been bitter pie. He smiled. He looked around. He smiled more.

He didn’t smile too much. He didn’t paint a picture of a Lombardi Trophy coming to Cleveland next year.

“We can all criticize different plays, and different players, but by and large, some of the character guys we brought in have stepped to the forefront and brought us through this,” Savage said.

More important, the towel wasn’t thrown in. Oakland is a long trip. NFL teams flying across three time zones with losing records don’t typically win here.

Yes, the Raiders are bad — but a team with a good defense, LaMont Jordan at running back and Randy Moss at receiver shouldn’t be this awful bad.
The Browns are going places, and when they get there, they may point back to this game as the starting point.

Oakland lacks both a plan and pride. The Browns are bad, but they’re not quitters. Not any more. Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail: todd.porter@cantonrep.com.
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