After Sunday’s win over the Raiders, the Browns are officially on a 3-game winning streak. They now have the potential to finish out the season with 4 straight wins and actually top the ‘W’ total from last season.
In the midst of this, it seems like everyone in Cleveland has changed his tune about the quality of PAD’s (Post-Alpha Dog) coaching and the fate of his job once Holmgren comes in to run the team.
Now I’ve openly admitted to having a bout of this type of thinking after the second Pittsburgh game. Since then, it can certainly be argued that PAD’s body of work has only gotten more impressive, and that as a result, he should be given another year to show what he can do with this new foundation for the team.
However, I think it’s critical to keep in mind the big picture.
I have to give credit to Holmgren for recognizing this during his conference call to the press tonight:
“Eric and I talked about this,” said Holmgren. “I’m not a big fan of the quick hook. I never did that with quarterbacks and I really don’t think one year is enough to prove what you’re trying to get done. Sometimes the team is suffering because of things that were out of your control. Sometimes it’s because of poor decisions you made. That’s what I have to evaluate.”
This is a key point — and one that I think is being lost to some extent in the blinding glory of the Browns’ consecutive wins over Pittsburgh and perennial co-bottom-feeders Kansas City and Oakland.
Yes, the Browns are on a 3-game winning streak. Yes, they are now guaranteed to win at least as many games as they won under RAC last season. Yes, this can be interpreted as a sign of improvement and a buy-in to the coach’s philosophy. Yes, it can also be interpreted as a sign that PAD’s personnel moves and system changes were sound.
But it can also be interpreted in an alternative way, which is that if Lost in Space hadn’t cleaned house completely at the end of last season, the team may not be in a situation where the potential for a 5-win season is cause for excitement and optimism.
PAD is the guy who cleared out many of the known playmakers (Winslow, Edwards) and brought in “system” guys (Chansi Stuckey, Abe Elam, Kenyon Coleman). PAD is also the guy who — if we’re judging by impact made in their rookie season — went 1 for 3 on second round picks in the draft this year, with one of those players (David Veikune) apparently not even performing well enough in practice to earn time on special teams. PAD is the guy who canned the GM of his own choice 8 weeks into the season, as well as the guy who has led both the Great Quinn and DA to a season of stagnation and noticeable regression, respectively.
In short, there’s an argument to be made that had some of these changes not been made, the Browns could potentially be in even better shape than they are now. And since PAD was the trigger man on every decision after his hire, it would be best for the fan base and the pundits to keep in mind that he bears as much responsibility for the 11 losses as the 4 wins.
Obviously, there’s no clear-cut evidence that leaving Phil Savage in place and / or hiring a different head coach would’ve produced appreciably better results for the team this year. But I do think it’s naive to make judgments based on only the last 4 games of the season — only one of which will have been against a team that has a winning record going into week 16.
So just as I encouraged everyone earlier in the season not to lose sight of the big picture and where the team could go, I would encourage everyone now not to lose sight of the big picture and how the team got here.
-T.
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