THE MONDAY MORNING DUMP

The Browns look pitiful! They will be one of eight teams who will be (0-2) after the first two weeks of the NFL season.

Bad quarterback play, dropped passes, a porous offensive line, questionable play calling and personnel decisions, along with a secondary who has one guy who can cover somebody most of the time, ladies and gentleman and Browns Backers across the world, I give you your 2013 Cleveland Browns.

Quarterback Brandon Weeden doesn’t look like he’s improved at all. He’s still staring down receivers and missing wide open receivers and getting balls batted down at the line of scrimmage.  And when Weeden does make a good throw Greg Little or Devon Bess drop it.  And oh yeah one more thing on Greg Little, you’re supposed to be putting points up on the scoreboard, not on your driver’s license. Obey the rules of the road before someone gets hurt!

 The offense, which was supposed to take a giant leap forward under first year head coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner ‘s vertical system, looks very Pat Shurmur-esque through two games. They’ve scored the second fewest points in the NFL (16) through two games, only Jacksonville has scored less (11). They’re averaging 56 yards per game rushing with franchise running back Trent Richardson. The offensive line, which was considered one of the team’s strengths, has given up 11 sacks in the first 2 contests. Without suspended wide receiver Josh Gordon for the first two games, it looks like the receiving core doesn’t know how to run routes, or get open and when they do the drops continue to happen! The lone and I mean loan bright spot on offense has been tight end Jordan Cameron.

Defensively at times the Browns have played well. They’re holding the opposition to just 59.5 yards per game rushing and only 2 yards per carry.  They have registered 6 sacks in the games against Miami and Baltimore, but everyone in the secondary not named Joe Haden is a liability.  Both Ryan Tannehill and Joe Flacco eventually figured out just throw the ball to the side of the field where Haden isn’t, and Chris Owens and Buster Skrine are, and you’ll get a completion, or a third down conversion, or both! Those two have turned the likes of Brian Hartline, Brandon Gibson, Marlon Brown and Brandon Stokely into all pro’s!

The coaching staff hasn’t helped matters either with their questionable use of Trent Richardson so far. Should they have played the starters more in the pre-season? Theri inability to make half time adjustments is glaring, as the Browns have taken a lead into the locker room in both games, only to be outscored in the second half by a combined score of (31-3).

On top of all that, going into week number three, you may have a quarterback change because of a thumb injury Brandon Weeden suffered in the loss to the Ravens.  That means Jason Campbell, who looked awful in the snaps that he played against Baltimore, will probably be your starter.  Not the way Joe Banner, Mike Lombardi and company wanted, or expected their first season to start, but then again we are talking about the Browns, one of the worst franchises in the NFL since their return in 1999.

Next up for Jimmy Haslam’s franchise the Vikings at Minnesota on Sunday at 1pm.  The good news for that game is, the Vikings are winless as well through two games and wide receiver Josh Gordon will be back after serving his two game suspension.  How much that will help, who knows, but there’s only one way to go if you’re at the bottom right?