Anyone souring on Crennel?

[consigliere]

I never liked this hiring. Never. Unfortunately, my worst fears are coming to pass.

Do we can the coach and start over again? Would be a ton better than canning the GM and going into a complete rebuild.

They should make a sequel to the movie: "Romeo Must Go"

[furls]

Not sure yet. This team has looked so horrid in the first 2 weeks that it is seriously hard to figure out why. I can't decide what the hell the problem is, except that they really seem to suck on offense.

Maybe we need a new coordinator and a new line coach? or maybe the line is really that bad.

[swerb]

The next two weeks will tell me alot about Romeo, who has me really starting to doubt him with this teams terrible start.

The following things have me very concerned ...

~He knows nothing about offense and has a weak offensive coordinator.

~The team has looked absolutely unprepared and inept in the first half of their first two games. Including the home opener versus the Saints, a game they had 8 days to specifically game plan for.

~His lack of fire. As mentioned several times during last nights MNF broadcast, teams take on the personalities of their coaches as Jacksonville and Pittsburgh have. Im not saying you have to be an evil prick like Parcells to be a winner in this league ... but look at the AFC right now. It's loaded with great teams that are physically and mentally tough. 9-10 of the top 12-13 teams in football, including 3 of them in our division. Belichick, Cowher, Del Rio, Schottenheimer, Shanahan, Saban, Lewis, Billick. Can the mild mannered Crennel commandeer a football team past all of these experienced and tough minded coaches? If not, why not cut your losses now?

[furls]

Some people are coordinators by nature some are head coaches.

In the military, some guys are executive officers and some are commanders; this is generally a funciton of their personalities. I think there are some pretty obvious parallels here.

I think Crennel may be a coordinator. In general, there is a saying that says people are usually promoted exactly one level beyond their competence level (that is how you discover someone's competence level). I feel we may have done that here, but we will see. Who knows he may kick the living crap out of Carthon and get something going.

[dpdad]

There's a reason Crennel is in his mid-fifties and never been a head coach before...it's the same reason Charlie Manuel had never been a manager at the big league level before the Indians hired him, or Bud Carson (R.I.P., Bud) had never been an NFL head coach before the Browns hired him. He's simply not up to the job! Otherwise, these guys would have been hired long before.

Carthon as an offensive coordinator makes a Woody Hayes offense look imaginative. Carthon seems to have no concept as to how to take advantage of his players' strengths on offense. Third down calls with Winslow on the sidelines, draw plays on 3rd and 8, toss sweeps on short yardage, etc. Crennel is responsible for hiring an inexperienced OC who had never called plays before. Even when Mo Carthon was OC at Dallas, it was Bill Parcells that did the play calling.

If the Ravens come into town next Sunday and start dominating the Browns, it's going to get really ugly down at the stadium. Just think: it's been about 17 seasons since the Browns went deep in the playoffs. That means that anyone under the age of 20 has no memory of the Browns as a really good football team. Hard to make many young fans with that record. If the losing continues, Randy Lerner will have to step in and demand some changes. Would he allow an inexperienced manager to run MBNA into the ground?

[swerb]

Great post dpdad ... and welcome to the boards.

That's a great point I forgot to add. Crennel has many, many interviews for head coaching spots in the three years before he got the post here in Cleveland. The reasons we are now complaining about are likely the reasons he didn't get hired by those other teams.