September 16, 2008

I hate it when football coaches don't coach to win. (Just ask Herm Edwards)

Take for example Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel.

Week 1: Cleveland is trailing Dallas 28-7 in the 4th quarter, meaning they need 3 scores to tie the game. On 4th down at the opponent's 17 yard line, they kick a FG to make it 27-10, meaning they are still down 3 scores.

Week 2: Cleveland is trailing Pittsburg 10-3 late in a game played in 60 mph winds. With 3 minutes to go, facing 4th and 7 at the PIT 21, they kick a FG to make the score 10-6. Your team needed a TD to tie the game. Your team has not scored a TD in the first 57 minutes of the game. Now you are going to depend either recovering an onside kick (which they did not do) or kicking off deep, using your timeouts and defense to hold them, then hope to get the ball back with at most 2 minutes left, and then score your first TD of the game? I believe going for the 7 yards would have been the better move.

Any doubt why Cleveland is sitting at 0-2? And because I had PIT -6.5, this gets CLE put on the blacklist. Usually I fault the team for failing to cover the points, but it was clearly CLE's inept coaching decisions that cost me this time.

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