2019 Browns Chronicles: Week 3 & 4

It comes with great pain that The Cornercube must report that it has received, after over a year of being an active and thriving publication, its first “hate mail.” As The Cornercube prides itself on full transparency and disclosure to its loyal readers, we have printed the editorial comments so that the readers, themselves, can be the judges of journalistic truth.

“It is not the critic who counts…The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.” – Teedie, Manhattan, New York, New York.

This letter should be dissected piece by piece and actually, believe it or not, the editorial compliments this week’s installment of the 2019 Browns’ Chronicles!

This publication is bathed in factual analysis but was birthed and derived out of fandom for the Cleveland Browns. Fans, short for “fanatics”, are what create sports, any sport, entertainment. It could be argued that without fans there isn’t sport, but rather just a “game.” In professional sports, and major college athletics (division I football and men’s basketball) the coaches are paid by their market value and that is derived strictly by level of fandom that that sport is able to raise. So, in a way, Teedie, the fan actually puts the most risk into any sport and has the potential to lose the most, yet gain the least.

According to TicketCity and CBS Sports the average ticket to Super Bowl LI (i.e.– Super Bowl 51) was $4,744. So, although the fan saw his Patriots win the Super Bowl, it was at a personal loss of nearly $5,000. In 2019 the Patriots, the victors in the last Super Bowl, each walked away with $118,000 (before taxes), while the losing Rams each walked away with $59,000 (before taxes) just for appearing. In 2017 (Super Bowl LI) the fan’s $5,000 loss excludes additional costs for food, lodging and travel. That fan is arguably willing to trade $10,000 just to see his team win the Super Bowl and enjoy temporary bragging rights. At least the Patriot fans in attendance walked away with bragging rights while on the other hand the Atlanta Falcons’ fans walked away with nothing except short a few thousand dollars and witnessed their team be the victim of the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. It seems that many would consider a fan willing to lose $10,000 for something that isn’t guaranteed as “actually in the arena.”

The Browns Sunday night game against the Los Angeles Rams was, as the readers know, a loss. It was brutal because it was as though the game was played in slow motion. The offense looked anemic, again, while the defense played quite well especially with a completely injured backside defense.  The offensive line looked just as horrible, if not worse, than in its previous two games. Freddie Kitchens’ play calling, surprisingly, reached to new heights of stupidity. In the Rams’ RedZone, knocking on the goal line, with all three of their timeouts and the Browns chose to throw it on all four downs. On fourth down, with the field shrinking, Brown’s QB Baker Mayfield threw a pick. Why Kitchens elected not to give the ball to his best player the whole game, running back Nick Chubb, is inexcusable, especially having time outs to burn. Perhaps if this example doesn’t make all Browns’ fans throw their arms up in disgust, then possibly Kitchens electing to run vertical passing routes, instead of running or throwing quick routes when the offense is within its own five-yard line, would.

As reported in the last installment, Freddie Kitchen’s recipe for a successful offense is quick passes and a steady run diet. Due to the lack of consistent offensive line pass protection, it makes no sense in trying to develop deep passes only to have Baker Mayfield fleeing for his life and either getting hit, throwing a pick, or taking a sack. Even Cris Collinsworth, who was commentating during the game, kept stating that the Browns have luck on offense when Baker throws his pass within two seconds from the snap of the ball.

Teedie, the Browns faithful criticize these mistakes and miscues because although our bodies may not be lathered in sweaty spandex, stinky jock straps, orange Gatorade and our brains aren’t pumped full of pain killers, our faces too are “marred by dust and sweat and blood.” It’s just that our dust, sweat and blood come in the form of screams of agony, buckets of fried food, the steady smell of Miller Lite laden breath, and the occasional bar stool fart (It happens. Don’t sit there like you haven’t experienced it.). Sure, the fan has the option of not watching the game, but then that wouldn’t be a Browns’ fan.  It would be a Cincinnati Bengals’ fan.

Each Sunday, the Browns’ fans place their vulnerability on the line. They are willing to have that vulnerability in the form of hope, pride, and faith be trampled, massacred, embarrassed, in ways some people couldn’t even think possible – The Fumble, The Drive, The Move, The Defeated Season, Hugh Jackson, Johnny Manziel, and the list goes on. The Browns fans know what it is like to fail and we fail “while daring greatly” because that’s what it takes to be a Browns fan.

To be a Browns fan one must be able to unequivocally, without hesitation step into the “arena,” for the chances that your face will be bloodied, covered in dust and eventually fail is extremely likely. Nevertheless, it is on those occasions, like this past Sunday, when those barstool farts, Miller Lite drinking Sundays pay off; when the Browns take revenge on the team which caused much of their heartache – the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were out manned, out gunned, and out played in their own stadium. The short passes worked, the run game held, the defense did what they have always done, and the Browns, players, fans, coaches, covered in blood, marred in dust came out victorious.

The CornerCube is not a publication that seeks to demean or constantly complain about players, coaches, or front office personnel of the Cleveland Browns (although with the Browns, it is quite easy to find mounds of material). The CornerCube is to speak for the greatest, yet least thought of warrior in the arena – the faithful, fans who make the Cleveland Browns, the Cleveland Browns.

 

Onto San Francisco!

The 2019 Browns' Chronicles: Week 1 and Week 2

Ladies and gentlemen the Browns’ Chronicles are back! That’s right. The people here at The Cornercube are grateful to be your guiding hand as we, the Browns faithful, endeavor on this soap opera of a journey that is called, The Cleveland Browns 2019 Football Season.

As many of you know, the Browns 2019 campaign objectives have changed drastically in comparison to the previous campaign’s objective (noticed how I used objective in its singular form.  That’s because 2018’s goal was to win A game). With the addition of Odell Beckham Jr., Sheldon Richardson, and Olivier Vernon in the offseason, coupled with the immensely talented Jarvis Landry, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb, Myles Garret and promising quarterback, Baker Mayfield, expectations were reasonably set at a higher bar. I’m talking a bar that Browns fans haven’t seen since the 2002 – playoffs. Now, reaching the playoffs is a long-term goal. It obviously doesn’t happen over night as the NFL season is a sixteen-game affair, and I’m sure most of our readers’ blood pressure can attest to that fact, but it’s also important to have short term goals.

A short-term goal that seemed attainable was something that has not been done by the Browns since 2004. That is to win their season opening game. The Tennessee Titans were thought to be the Browns’ sacrificial lamb to end the fifteen-year drought. This makes total sense and was not a wide-eyed immaculate fantasy, made up by some blogger oozing away in his cube. No, the Titans were a team that most resembled a chicken with its head cut off. Yes, the Titans had three consecutive winning seasons, but that’s because the Titans are playing in a division with three other headless chickens! When a team’s depth chart consists of Marcus Mariota at quarterback, then trades for Ryan Tannehill, and Mariota still maintains his starting job, not even the French in World War II could have made a more symbolic gesture of surrender. The Browns had this in their sights; they had it within reach, and they had the better players on both sides of the ball, but they failed to win.  

They failed to win because, and as you know, they committed eighteen penalties for almost 200 yards. The Browns had more total yards, more time of possession, and more passing yards. However, the Browns were inefficient on third down, mainly because penalties backed us up and made the third downs unreasonable – plus the offensive line was atrocious. First, it obviously did not help that Greg Robinson was ejected in the first quarter for attempting to imitate Jaden Smith from the Karate Kid by kicking Titan’s defender Kenny Vaccaro in the head. Secondly, other than JC Tretter and Joel Bitonio, the offensive line looked like a human version of the New Orleans’ levies being demolished by Hurricane Katrina. Such poor performance led to Baker Mayfield getting sacked five times for a loss of 41 yards.

The other issue seemed to be the play calling. It might be with the new-found talent at the wide receiver position, but it just seemed that the Browns were trying to force these long passes which inevitably failed. On a third and one in the second quarter, at midfield, the Browns took a fifty-yard pass instead of trying to gain a yard on the ground. Although The CornerCube only has experience playing “Madden” and not real life football, it seems that if a team has a poor offensive line but talented receivers, that short, quick passes, may be the recipe for success. If the players with the most talent on the field can work in space, then yards will be picked up after the catch. The Browns attempting these deep passes are recipes for short duration, stalled drives.

The Browns second game against the Jets was a vast improvement over their opening game debacle, but there were still areas to improve. Again, the play calling focused on deep passes instead of simple, quick passes to Odell or Jarvis. However, when a short pass was called in the third quarter, Odell was able to take it 89 yards for a touchdown. That should be the mentality for the rest of the season – West Coast style of play. The defense looked good other than Myles Garrett committing two personal fouls and one which sidelined the Jets backup-turned-starter, Trevor Siemian, after their usual starter, Sam Darnold, caught mononucleosis which, considering he plays for New York, was probably given to him by a life size subway rat, more so than any Manhattan prostitute (we aren’t doctors or medical personnel so don’t take that as fact, but rather just laugh at the joke. Thank you.). The sole threat posed to the Browns by the Jets was from their stellar running back, Le’Veon Bell. However, Bell’s former romantic partner and baby mama, may be causing him some mental distractions as she is now posting about her all not so inconspicuous relationship with the “all too famous for the wrong reasons” Patriot’s receiver, Antonio Brown. The Cornercube was unable to corroborate whether this truly did play into Le’Veon’s performance, but nonetheless, The Cornercube thanks you Cherise for your poor choices, possibly causing a distraction to the father of your kid(s)!

Overall the Browns won a game that they should have won, and they did it convincingly, but there are noticeable issues that must be fixed if the Browns are going to make an attempt at making the playoffs. The Cornercube hopes they can correct these issues before they go on national television against the defending NFC Champions, Los Angeles Rams.