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| No amount of ass-kissing will save you now, Pat. |
The Cleveland Browns had a chance
to turn a corner today. The team had a three-game win streak in its pocket and
a home game against a pretty good Redskins' team missing its franchise
quarterback.
This was a statement-making game;
the kind that shouts "seize the moment!!" to a fanbase that hasn't
had a reason to be this excited in a long time. As is their wont, the Browns
did not seize the moment - in fact the moment eluded Cleveland 's grasp like an opposing
quarterback running the same damned play-action bootleg again and again.
The 38-21 defeat was just so
typical of this franchise: Give your fans a glimmer of hope that you're finally
climbing out of your deep hole of non-contention, then promptly dash those
hopes like candle in a hurricane. If the Browns are adept at anything, it's
sucking the life out of their supporters.
If nothing else, today's game will
provide a moment of clarity for Jimmy Haslam and the new ownership group. They
may see the previous three wins not as signs of progress but as an illusion
created by two really bad teams and another absent its Super Bowl-winning
quarterback.
Indeed, the embarrassing defeat may
be the final spark that ignites
the wholesale changes rumored to be swirling about this team since
Haslam handed the check to previous owner Randy Lerner. Right now, our
quarterback, general manager and coaching staff are about as safe as a
promiscuous camp counselor in a slasher flick. Haslam might sweep the lot of
them out the door.
It's a shame, because the last
three weeks in Browns
Town
The Redskins scotched those hopes
this afternoon in
what Shurmur called a "team loss." It's likely that today's
goose egg will result in this team's front office looking very different come
2013.