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By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:46 p.m. EDT, Sep 27, 2008
BEREA: There might have been a simple reason ''Touchdown Tommy'' Vardell crossed the goal line only five times during his four seasons with the Browns. He wasn't at Stanford running behind left tackle Bob Whitfield anymore.
There might be a similar reason why a Browns offensive line thought to be one of the best in franchise history last season now looks average. Injuries to guards Ryan Tucker and Eric Steinbach might have taken the other three out of their comfort zones.
That's not to say left tackle Joe Thomas wouldn't have made the Pro Bowl in his rookie year without Steinbach. But it seemed like the Browns' line had a perfect symbiosis in 2007. It appeared that left guard Tucker made left tackle Kevin Shaffer better, Steinbach made Thomas better and center Hank Fraley was more efficient running the show with Steinbach and Tucker beside him than with Seth McKinney and Rex Hadnot.
''I had five different guards one year,'' said Doug Dieken, who played left tackle for the Browns from 1971-84 and is now the team's radio analyst. ''Each game was an adventure because everybody played differently and everybody had different skill levels. You might have to help one guy, where the other guy you didn't have to help. [With some of them] you knew the center wasn't going to be on your back if your guy came through. There's a lot to be said about five guys playing together for an entire season.''
Going into Sunday's battle of winless teams in Cincinnati, Steinbach has missed one game with a sore right shoulder that Channel 3's Jim Donovan reported was a strained rotator cuff. That was last week at Baltimore, when the Browns fell behind 28-10 in the third quarter and gave up a season-high four sacks of quarterback Derek Anderson.
Steinbach is listed as questionable Sunday for the game against the Cincinnati Bengals, his former team. If he can't go, that would mean McKinney would be at left guard for the second consecutive week after starting the opener on the right side, with Hadnot at right guard for the third consecutive week.
Hadnot was presumed to be the sixth man when the former Miami Dolphins player was signed in March. A right tackle for nearly his entire career, Tucker found a new home at right guard for the final eight games of 2007 when McKinney's season ended with shoulder surgery. The starting five of Thomas, Steinbach, Fraley, Tucker and Shaffer clicked.
But Tucker fractured his hip during offseason training activities in May and the surgery included the insertion of a plate. He has practiced for only two full weeks and hopes to return after next weekend's bye.
The disruption of the line's perfect chemistry is just one of the factors contributing to the Browns' offensive nose dive.
''We've kind of been through that all preseason and into the season, moving guys in and out,'' offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski said Friday. ''I don't really attribute any percentage to it. I'm getting a feeling with guys coming back and getting back in here, there's a synergy, some feeling in the air about how we're coming together. That's really what I'm building on.''
That may have more to do with the return to health of receiver/returner Joshua Cribbs (high ankle sprain) and the expected improved concentration of No. 1 receiver Braylon Edwards, who has dropped six passes.
Last year Anderson was sacked just 14 times in 16 games. This year he's already gone down eight times. A running game that ranked 10th in the league in 2007 with 118.4 yards per game now stands 30th with a 72.3 average. An offense that ranked eighth during a 10-6 campaign with 351.3 yards per game is 32nd with a 194-yard average during the 0-3 start.
Browns linemen downplay the presumption they've had problems adapting to the curveballs thrown their way.
''I don't really think so. The guys who have been coming in are guys who we've played with in the past,'' Shaffer said. ''Rex is new, but we got used to him real quick.
''Seth was there the first eight games last year, so I'm used to the things he does and the way we do it together. The same thing with Rex. Rex has been around long enough. Guys in, guys out, [there are] little changes, but we've already experienced those changes in the past.''
But Thomas knows much of his success last season could be attributed to Steinbach and those around him. He became the first Browns offensive lineman to reach the Pro Bowl since left tackle Cody Risien in 1987 and the first Browns rookie to go since linebacker Chip Banks in 1982.
''No question, the offensive line is five guys who have to work together and maybe one guy gets more accolades than the others,'' Thomas said. ''They're all just as important. If the guy next to you isn't playing well, you're going to look bad as well. You've got to have everybody playing well, otherwise nobody looks good.
''If you win, everybody looks better. If you don't win, everybody looks worse.''
Great players might have an easier time adapting. But Hall of Fame left tackle Anthony Munoz, who played for the Bengals from 1980-92, had just five different starting left guards during his career (not counting games missed for brief injuries). Bruce Reimers played beside Munoz for five consecutive seasons, Dave Lapham for three, Brian Blados for two.
When circumstances force a patchwork line, Dieken said if the new man alongside lines up a foot or two different and it's not recognized, it can spell disaster.
''If you've got two guys who set short and one guy comes in and he [doesn't], now you've got a gap there where you're going to get penetration,'' Dieken said. ''Combination blocks, you know the guy is going to take over for you and you can go to the second level. If the guys haven't played together, the other guy might be a little slow. There's a rhythm and continuity to it.''
It's not just the rhythm of movement, but also communication.
''If you've got two guys who have played together a long time it's a lot easier,'' Dieken said. ''When you start getting new people, even the communication and the calls. . . .It's almost like if you get a new quarterback and he's got a different cadence, a different rhythm.''
Dieken said one thing that made last year's group so good together was the styles of the five linemen and where they lined up.
''Tucker and Shaffer are power players, Joe and Eric are a little more finesse. Hank is a finesse guy,'' Dieken said. ''You've got one side that's one way and one side that's the other way. But when you start mixing and matching a power player, then all of a sudden you don't get the continuity because of the styles.''
All that considered, Dieken doesn't place a high percentage of the blame for the bad start on the offensive line.
''I attribute more to the fact they haven't been able to establish a running game,'' he said. ''It's not always the number of yards, it's the number of carries a running back gets that helps you out.''
BEREA: There might have been a simple reason ''Touchdown Tommy'' Vardell crossed the goal line only five times during his four seasons with the Browns. He wasn't at Stanford running behind left tackle Bob Whitfield anymore.
There might be a similar reason why a Browns offensive line thought to be one of the best in franchise history last season now looks average. Injuries to guards Ryan Tucker and Eric Steinbach might have taken the other three out of their comfort zones.
That's not to say left tackle Joe Thomas wouldn't have made the Pro Bowl in his rookie year without Steinbach. But it seemed like the Browns' line had a perfect symbiosis in 2007. It appeared that left guard Tucker made left tackle Kevin Shaffer better, Steinbach made Thomas better and center Hank Fraley was more efficient running the show with Steinbach and Tucker beside him than with Seth McKinney and Rex Hadnot.
''I had five different guards one year,'' said Doug Dieken, who played left tackle for the Browns from 1971-84 and is now the team's radio analyst. ''Each game was an adventure because everybody played differently and everybody had different skill levels. You might have to help one guy, where the other guy you didn't have to help. [With some of them] you knew the center wasn't going to be on your back if your guy came through. There's a lot to be said about five guys playing together for an entire season.''
Going into Sunday's battle of winless teams in Cincinnati, Steinbach has missed one game with a sore right shoulder that Channel 3's Jim Donovan reported was a strained rotator cuff. That was last week at Baltimore, when the Browns fell behind 28-10 in the third quarter and gave up a season-high four sacks of quarterback Derek Anderson.
Steinbach is listed as questionable Sunday for the game against the Cincinnati Bengals, his former team. If he can't go, that would mean McKinney would be at left guard for the second consecutive week after starting the opener on the right side, with Hadnot at right guard for the third consecutive week.
Hadnot was presumed to be the sixth man when the former Miami Dolphins player was signed in March. A right tackle for nearly his entire career, Tucker found a new home at right guard for the final eight games of 2007 when McKinney's season ended with shoulder surgery. The starting five of Thomas, Steinbach, Fraley, Tucker and Shaffer clicked.
But Tucker fractured his hip during offseason training activities in May and the surgery included the insertion of a plate. He has practiced for only two full weeks and hopes to return after next weekend's bye.
The disruption of the line's perfect chemistry is just one of the factors contributing to the Browns' offensive nose dive.
''We've kind of been through that all preseason and into the season, moving guys in and out,'' offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski said Friday. ''I don't really attribute any percentage to it. I'm getting a feeling with guys coming back and getting back in here, there's a synergy, some feeling in the air about how we're coming together. That's really what I'm building on.''
That may have more to do with the return to health of receiver/returner Joshua Cribbs (high ankle sprain) and the expected improved concentration of No. 1 receiver Braylon Edwards, who has dropped six passes.
Last year Anderson was sacked just 14 times in 16 games. This year he's already gone down eight times. A running game that ranked 10th in the league in 2007 with 118.4 yards per game now stands 30th with a 72.3 average. An offense that ranked eighth during a 10-6 campaign with 351.3 yards per game is 32nd with a 194-yard average during the 0-3 start.
Browns linemen downplay the presumption they've had problems adapting to the curveballs thrown their way.
''I don't really think so. The guys who have been coming in are guys who we've played with in the past,'' Shaffer said. ''Rex is new, but we got used to him real quick.
''Seth was there the first eight games last year, so I'm used to the things he does and the way we do it together. The same thing with Rex. Rex has been around long enough. Guys in, guys out, [there are] little changes, but we've already experienced those changes in the past.''
But Thomas knows much of his success last season could be attributed to Steinbach and those around him. He became the first Browns offensive lineman to reach the Pro Bowl since left tackle Cody Risien in 1987 and the first Browns rookie to go since linebacker Chip Banks in 1982.
''No question, the offensive line is five guys who have to work together and maybe one guy gets more accolades than the others,'' Thomas said. ''They're all just as important. If the guy next to you isn't playing well, you're going to look bad as well. You've got to have everybody playing well, otherwise nobody looks good.
''If you win, everybody looks better. If you don't win, everybody looks worse.''
Great players might have an easier time adapting. But Hall of Fame left tackle Anthony Munoz, who played for the Bengals from 1980-92, had just five different starting left guards during his career (not counting games missed for brief injuries). Bruce Reimers played beside Munoz for five consecutive seasons, Dave Lapham for three, Brian Blados for two.
When circumstances force a patchwork line, Dieken said if the new man alongside lines up a foot or two different and it's not recognized, it can spell disaster.
''If you've got two guys who set short and one guy comes in and he [doesn't], now you've got a gap there where you're going to get penetration,'' Dieken said. ''Combination blocks, you know the guy is going to take over for you and you can go to the second level. If the guys haven't played together, the other guy might be a little slow. There's a rhythm and continuity to it.''
It's not just the rhythm of movement, but also communication.
''If you've got two guys who have played together a long time it's a lot easier,'' Dieken said. ''When you start getting new people, even the communication and the calls. . . .It's almost like if you get a new quarterback and he's got a different cadence, a different rhythm.''
Dieken said one thing that made last year's group so good together was the styles of the five linemen and where they lined up.
''Tucker and Shaffer are power players, Joe and Eric are a little more finesse. Hank is a finesse guy,'' Dieken said. ''You've got one side that's one way and one side that's the other way. But when you start mixing and matching a power player, then all of a sudden you don't get the continuity because of the styles.''
All that considered, Dieken doesn't place a high percentage of the blame for the bad start on the offensive line.
''I attribute more to the fact they haven't been able to establish a running game,'' he said. ''It's not always the number of yards, it's the number of carries a running back gets that helps you out.''
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