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Despite wild win over Bengals, Crennel says team must focus
By Marla Ridenour Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Monday, Sep 17, 2007
BEREA: Were the Browns' stars perfectly aligned for a rare offensive show? Or will their playmakers continue to shine as they did in Sunday's 51-45 victory over Cincinnati?
If the Browns need someone to bring them down to earth after the shootout in Cleveland Browns Stadium, even-keeled coach Romeo Crennel certainly is the man for that job.
''The thing you have to fight is it's going to be 51 points every week,'' Crennel said Monday. ''That happens very seldom in an NFL game.''
Only five times in franchise history have the Browns scored 51 or more points, but Crennel knows what will happen after a victory that left his players riding high.
''A lot of these guys will be told they are the best thing since sliced bread, they can run for 200 yards in a game and throw for 500 (actually 328) yards, get five touchdown passes and put 51 points on the board,'' Crennel said. ''We have to get these guys to understand that nothing has changed. We have to go play a new team. The formula last week, we have to do the same thing this week: play solid, sound football, make good decisions, not try and force the ball, and try and make plays. We just have to do our job first. That's the challenge.''
There are veterans with a bead on reality as the Browns (1-1) head to Oakland to face the Raiders (0-2) on Sunday.
''You need more than one win to get to the playoffs,'' said eight-year veteran center Hank Fraley, who started for the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl after the 2004 season. ''We have to stay level-headed. Feel good about yesterday's win, but today see the mistakes we did make. Build off the good stuff. We've got to come out with the same intensity Wednesday in practice.''
Joe Jurevicius said this was what the team expected, which made the 34-7 season-opening loss to Pittsburgh more painful.
''When we played Pittsburgh, I was as shocked as anybody,'' said Jurevicius, a 10-year veteran who has played in three Super Bowls. ''I remember saying, 'That's not what we expected to put out there and we're going to be better.' I think we showed that.''
Tight end Kellen Winslow turned in the first 100-yard game of his career, and already was thinking about what needed to be cleaned up.
''We were 7-for-13 on third down, that's one thing we wanted to improve on,'' he said. ''There were still a lot of plays out there to be made. We can improve on a couple things. We could have gotten more yards for Jamal. There were a couple we could have scored on, especially on the goal line. We should have scored there to put the game away.''
Winslow was referring to a fourth-quarter drive that stalled at the Cincinnati 1. Jamal Lewis, who rushed for 216 yards, was stuffed for no gain on second down and Derek Anderson looked for Winslow on third down, but basically threw it away. The Browns settled for an 18-yard Phil Dawson field goal for a 51-38 lead with 5:44 to play.
It almost wasn't enough.
Anderson, the backup before Charlie Frye was traded to the Seattle Seahawks a week ago, played the game of his life. He threw for five touchdowns and had a 121.0 quarterback rating, but lamented an interception on the first play of the third quarter that set up a Cincinnati field goal.
''I got a little excited there coming out of the half. I was a little fired up,'' Anderson said of a throw intended for Braylon Edwards. ''For the most part I said, 'I'm going to take what they give me the rest of the way.'''
There are some things the Browns don't want to forget, like Edwards' diving 37-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that was Anderson's favorite play of the day because he slightly overthrew Edwards.
''We had some phenomenal plays Jamal with a 66-yard run, a 31-yard run, K2 doing what he does, he's become the pillar of consistency for great plays. Joe making two touchdowns, D.A. going through his reads,'' Edwards said. ''It didn't matter what (the Bengals) were doing.
''We needed a great performance. We needed to show that we care about this, we work at this, we're going in giving all we can. We love this city, we know we owe it to them to win some games, to get some excitement going. We've only started the bus. We've only started.''
Brownies . . .
Honored with game balls were the entire offense, defensive end Robaire Smith and return man Joshua Cribbs. . . . Crennel said defensive back Daven Holly, who suffered a concussion against Pittsburgh, could have played. Free safety Brodney Pool (mild concussion) is expected to undergo tests today. . . . Crennel thought his replay challenge of T.J. Houshmandzadeh's 23-yard second-quarter TD reception should have gone in the Browns' favor. As for whether the clock expired, Crennel said, ''I was excited 'zero' had happened. I thought they had run out of time. The official said he looks at the clock and if he sees zero, then he looks to the ground. If the ball is still on the ground he blows the whistle.'' Crennel is now 1-for-18 in replay challenges. . . . The NFL Network will replay the Browns-Bengals game in a 90-minute format at 8 tonight.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her Browns blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/browns/.
BEREA: Were the Browns' stars perfectly aligned for a rare offensive show? Or will their playmakers continue to shine as they did in Sunday's 51-45 victory over Cincinnati?
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