Sporadic offense concerns Crennel

[Style]

Sporadic offense concerns Crennel
Browns seeking consistent play
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Mary Kay Cabot
Plain Dealer Reporter

Chicago- Heading into tonight's preseason finale against the Bears, coach Romeo Crennel is looking for more consistency from his first-team offense.

"We have one good play, and then we have a play that's not so good," said Crennel. "We'll run 9 yards on a play, and then get stopped for no gain. It's part of foot ball, but we haven't been as consistent as we need to be. Hope fully, we will be."

This preseason, the first-team offense scored only two touchdowns in its 14 series, a 51-yard pass from Trent Dilfer to Antonio Bryant and a 4-yard run by William Green. Also, it's only produced three big plays, the TD to Bryant, a 34-yard catch-and-run by Reuben Droughns and 39-yard pass from Dilfer to Dennis Northcutt that led to Green's TD run.
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What's more, the receivers, who were the highlight of camp, struggled in the last game against the Panthers. Bryant had a ball snatched out of his hands by Chris Gamble and Northcutt dropped a pass that was intercepted. Bryant also had a catch wiped out by offensive interference.

Bryant went without a catch in two exhibition games and has only three receptions this preseason for 78 yards. Northcutt has six catches for 92 yards and rookie Braylon Edwards, who missed the first game because he had just signed, leads the team with seven catches for 24 yards, but caught only two from Dilfer last week for 4 yards and later dropped a pass on a hitch route.

Asked if the receivers need to step it up, Crennel said, "I need everybody to step up . . . because we're not good enough where a segment of the team can fall down and expect the rest of the members to pick it up. We need all phases of the game to complement each other."

Because of the lack of continuity - both on offense and defense - Crennel probably won't pull the starters after a series like many teams do in the preseason finale.

"Our starters still need some work," he said.

"I might go a quarter, I might go a quarter and a half, but I don't think we're to the point where you can say, 'Starters, you sit down.' I told everybody to be ready to play 60 minutes, and I told them 'Even if I take you out of the game, that doesn't mean that I can't put you back in.' "

Despite the lack of production, Dilfer said he feels good about this offense.

To be continued...

 

[Style]

"I feel like we're getting better, and we're growing into a group that's willing to help each other succeed," he said. "Guys are willing to run dummy routes to get another guy open, and we have no prima donnas."

Asked about not getting the ball to Bryant much yet, Dilfer said, "We're not calling plays to get guys balls. We're calling plays to install the system, so it's very hard to judge productivity on preseason. Don't worry. A.B. is going to catch plenty of balls this season."

Bryant, who threw the key block that sprung Droughns for an extra 20 yards on his catch and run, said he's not concerned about the preseason stats.
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"When the season starts, the involvement of the major role players and the evolution of the offense will all take place," he said. "We have great potential and we can do anything we want. It just depends on if all of our guys are going to be committed and make the personal sacrifices to put forth the maximum effort for the team."

Dilfer said he and Northcutt spent extra time after practice on Sunday working on the two plays they failed to execute against the Panthers.

"That's the kind of thing these guys are willing to do to get better," he said.

He also said his timing with Edwards is improving.

"We have a lot of work to do, I think he'd be the first to tell you that," said Dilfer. "There's a lot of nonverbal communication that needs to get good between us. He's handling it like a professional, but this whole year will be a learning process for him. The key is, we still need him to make plays for us while he's learning."

Green, who's in his fourth season, said, "This is the best I've felt about the offense since I've been here."

He said Dilfer is the main reason for that.

"I think that's what we were missing," he said. "You've got a guy that everybody respects and listens to, rather than having two guys that nobody really respects, so that even when they talk, nobody really listens. When Trent talks, people definitely listen."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

mcabot@plaind.com, 216-999-4670

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[hughes1988]

Difler looks really good and browns got some good WRs and a decent running game, so i think browns will be ok and if everyone stays healthy and plays hard every down i think browns could be a playoff team and if not this year then next year for sure. but i hope its this year.

 

[cavincali]

as "bad" as the O looks now, doesnt come anywhere close to what it did last year.

 

[PIP]

I blame William Green :chuckles:

 

[Mac]

O snap..

 

[Style]

Difler looks really good and browns got some good WRs and a decent running game, so i think browns will be ok and if everyone stays healthy and plays hard every down i think browns could be a playoff team and if not this year then next year for sure. but i hope its this year.

I hope you're right, but I just don't see it. Our offense is average. We have good backs and WRs, but our qb and ol are a concern. I think the ol can run block ok, but the pass blocking is very suspect. Especially Shelton. He's gonna get owned going against the opponants best pass rusher week in and week out.

Our offense only looks good b/c our defense is so bad. There simply just isn't alot of talent in the front 7, and the CB situation is a bit scary too. I think McCutch is a solid #2 cb, but he has yet to play a game. So far Baxter has been unimpressive, and now he's banged up. Lehan is also hurt, and he's not very good anyway. The only position on defense I feel good about is safety.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long year. I'm expecting 5 or 6 wins. I think Romeo will have the boys kicking and fighting, and that's a start, but it's going to take another two offseasons for Phil to get enough talent in here for this team to make the playoffs. Sadly, we aren't much better than an expansion team talent wise, and we won't get the extra picks that an expansion team would get.

 

[Mac]

Its actually the very opposite of what you said style..

The running game is horrid. Terrible blocking, the RBs arent anyhting special. With all the cap room we have, i cant believe we didnt fork over a second rounder for Alexander.

The passing game is actually what can help us. We have a very good WR in Bryant, potential in Edwards and sure hands in Shea and Heiden. THe pass blocking is actually good, and Shelton is not getting abused.

He is out of shape and gets beat occassionaly, usualy later in the game, but he there is very little pressure from the strong side. 90% of the time, the pressure Frye gets is from his weak side, where ive been stressing for two years that Tucker be moved back to guard.

With a non existant running game, we will have a lot of short series drives this year. They will sit in a zone on our passing and it will stop us..

Our running game needs a big boost, and neither RB is going to cut it IMO. Both are just average and an avg back with a bad line isnt going to get the job done.

 

[cdt]

I'm more concerned about or defense one injury to fisk or roye and we are going to get seriously run over by jamal lewis and rudi johnson..we could have seriously used corey simon law or boulware sure they arent like their former selves but still better then what we have..

 

[PIP]

Mac- there is no way in hell we want TUCK at guard... The rams learned this quickly during their superbowl runs (mainly 1999)... He just gets over powered and was always getting pushed back..

If you think the run game is suffering now, you take TUCK away from the book ends and put him in the middle... There will not be one hole..

He plays the ends, or retires. Scratch that, HE'S slow, put him at RT or he retires.. He is horrid at LT as well as the guard spots..

 

[Mac]

Hed be more effective at the Guard than RT. With a real RT next to him, he isnt a bad guard.