Steelers use Browns as a big punching bag

Monday, September 10, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CLEVELAND -- Hired as head coach of the Browns in the dead of winter 2005, Romeo Crennel no doubt professed the obligatory excitement, but the timing was unfortunate. Had he waited just two years, not only would the Steelers job have popped open, but he could have absorbed the vital wisdom of an unlikely football prophet.

"If ever I saw myself saying I'm excited going to Cleveland," quothe the prophet, "I'd punch myself in the face because I'm lying."

So all right, that was Ichiro Suzuki this summer, and what the verbal spasms of a Seattle Mariners outfielder could possibly have to do with the beleaguered coach of the Browns might be too much of a stretch, but if ever there was a man who looked as though he could punch himself in the face, it was poor Romeo in the minutes after the Steelers bludgeoned his fellas, 34-7, to start his third season at the wheel.

"The turnovers, the sacks, the drops, the long TD passes we gave up," he said in evident exasperation.

Yeah, and then the second quarter started.



Deshea Townsend #26 of the Pittsburgh Steelers intercepts a ball intended for Tim Carter #86 of the Cleveland Browns.

In the two-plus years that Crennel and general manager Phil Savage have run the Browns' football operation, they've chopped from the roster all but nine players they inherited from the previous regime.

Boys, keep a choppin'.

To be accurate, the entire philosophy hasn't been an attempt at addition by subtraction, because the Browns added no less than 11 new coaches to Crennel's staff for 2007. In fact, to figure out starting quarterback Charlie Frye's passer rating in the first half yesterday, all you had to do was take the number of new coaches on Crennel's staff, and subtract one. That's right, 10, of a possible 158.3.

Charlie started 4 for 10, not counting the one he completed to Steelers corner Deshea Townsend, so Romeo brought in backup Derek Anderson, who promptly went 3 for 10.

The Cleveland Browns Stadium crowed, bored, beery, and beside itself in frustration, pleaded for first-round draft pick Brady Quinn, who couldn't possibly have done worse but stayed near the safety of his clipboard, cataloguing the catatonia that was the Cleveland offense.

"No," Crennel said flatly when asked if he considered throwing Quinn into the fire, "because he's a kid and the game is out of hand. What am I going to do, throw him to the dogs? That wouldn't have been good for him."

Crennel was probably right, given the terror the Steelers' defense was delivering to the Browns' offensive line. Starting left tackle Joe Thomas, Cleveland's other first-round pick, got himself scorched by Clark Haggans for one sack, starting right tackle Kevin Shaffer was similarly tutored by Aaron Smith for another, and two secondary Blitzburgers -- Ike Taylor and Ryan Clark -- felled quarterbacks as well on a day when the Steelers piled up six sacks, or 12 percent of their 16-game total from a year ago.

The Browns set a spirited pace in the opposite direction in at least one aspect -- their five turnovers and minus-4 on the takeaway/giveaway ratio puts them on pace for minus-64, and they were only a minus-15 a year ago. Good luck with that.



Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark, left, knocks the ball from the passing hand of Cleveland Browns quarterback Derek Anderson in the second quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007, in Cleveland. The ball was recovered by Pittsburgh and the play was ruled a fumble.

You could make the case that the home opener was not wall-to-wall misery, but only to the extent that second-year fullback Lawrence Vickers scored on a 1-yard flip from Anderson in the third quarter and immediately went into his famous hey-we're-not-down-24-0 anymore dance, always a crowd favorite.

The Browns have never beaten Ben Roethlisberger (they're 0-6 against him), and with this secondary, it's going to have to wait until at least next year. Roethlisberger's career-high four touchdown passes yesterday where contested mostly in theory. Safeties Brodney Poole and Sean Jones were easily split by Santonio Holmes for a 40-yard scoring strike in the first quarter, Hines Ward beat rookie second-rounder Eric Wright to the back of the end zone on the Steelers' first possession, rookie tight end Matt Spaeth slanted in front of Poole for a another score, and Heath Miller took a lazy swing pass 22 yards for a touchdown when Jones whiffed on an open-field tackle late in the third.

"They had a nice game plan against us," Jones said. "They had us schemed up pretty good."

Schemed up? You can scheme a missed tackle? This Mike Tomlin guy is incredible.

"It's not about Pittsburgh," Browns wideout Joe Jurevicius said. "It's about us. I like to think we got the bad one out of our system."

It's better than thinking there are plenty more where that came from. Too bad there are.

First published on September 10, 2007 at 12:00 am
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.