WFNY dicusses the growing frustration within the Browns locker room as head coach Pat Shurmur takes most of the blame.
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AP Photo/Michael ConroyTen carries left last-season's leading rusher understandably upsetPeyton Hillis stood outside of his locker dejected and stoic, a man casually going through the motions of his duties as a professional football player, fielding questions surrounding the most recent 60 minutes of football which just so happened to result in
another disappointing loss in front of the deserving and dedicated home crowd. With his travel bag slung around his shoulders and draped across the chest of his black collared shirt, Hillis may as well have had one boot out of the door - after all, who wants to bemoan the unfortunate result?
Belaboring the fact that the man who would otherwise be considered a featured back - one who graces the cover of Madden 12, one of the best-selling video game franchises in the history of the industry - received a mere 10 carries only dumps salt into the still-fresh wounds.
The Browns locker room included 50-something professional athletes, a complete training staff, room attendants and various media types. Yet in what would normally provide a setting for relative chaos, this very afternoon would be so quiet that one could hear the shorthand being scribbled on to the various notepads which would accumulate the reportage for the coming two weeks. Stone silence aside from the painful back-and-forth, Hillis' body language would say more than his actual words.
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Following a 31-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans, one which couldn't be a story solely told by numbers, the Cleveland Browns were still a unit, but one which was visibly frustrated. Hillis' teammate Colt McCoy took to the podium following the unfortunate defeat, a game that saw the second-year quarterback break the team record for most completions within a contest, yet the tone of his voice was one akin to a eulogy. Strong safety TJ Ward, typically the Teller to cornerback Joe Haden's Penn, spoke of the disappointment derived from blown assignments and missed tackles.
"You can hear a pin drop [in here]," Ward quietly condemned. "This isn't the Browns that we have been. The effort was there, but we didn't play how we should have played."
Tight end Evan Moore would attempt to partake in his turn within the media scrum, but would provide little more than one-word answers before an abrupt conclusion would end things before the recently-extended receiving threat would say something he would soon regret. Though, to see Moore's side of the story, he went from being one of the most-used weapons in training camp, the preseason and even the Opening Day contest against the Bengals to getting a handful of snaps ever since, caching one ball for 15 yards against the Titans. Certainly, a win would justify the means; a loss only compounds the annoyance.
"Take it up with the coach," said Hillis replied when asked about his usage, including but not limited to being a decoy on
a failed 4th-and-1 attempt. "I'm just running the plays that he tells me to do. He's the head coach. We just run the plays he gives us."
And in the event there was any confusion, the "coach" referenced by Hillis is not a 6-foot-6-inch, 250-pound tight end.
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“I’m not the coach," said Moore, obviously perturbed about his lowly pair of targets in a game that featured 61 pass attempts. "So I don’t know. Talk to coach.”
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If there is any silver lining to be had, it is that the man who is in fact "Coach" admits that these issues start at the top; his tone a bit different than the one which opted to point fingers, blaming the officiating during the Week 1 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. This loss to the Titans represents the second time in four weeks where the Browns seemingly abandoned their initial gameplan once the scoreboard began to tilt in the opponent's favor. There's a fine line between making adjustments and chasing your tail. Unfortunately, this past Sunday, Pat Shurmur's group did the latter.
The down side to Shurmur accepting responsibility for the loss is that there are only so many times a coach can say that the outstanding issues start at the top. Before too long, after hearing repeated "my bads" coming from the postgame podium, players will start to question whether or not they are in the proper hands to ensure progress. Sure, the silence and frustration this past Sunday evening can be fueled with emotion and sparked by choice questions, but two long weeks can let things linger beyond a point anyone involved with the organization would prefer.
Four games is certainly a small sample size, but what was hopefully an aberation is starting to look more and more like a pattern.
Questionable player combinations, questionable play calls and questionable decision-making and execution within said plays. These Cleveland Browns are a young team with a first-year head coach, but also one that plays within an excuse-free environment that stresses the need to learn from mistakes and make progress week-to-week. The team opted to come into the office last Monday to ensure optimal preparation, the result could not have been a bigger arch-enemy of such.
In a setting where the only consistency is inconsistency, the Browns coaching staff and players alike will have two weeks to iron out the wrinkles and prepare for an up-and-coming Oakland Raiders team. Sure, they may use the first two or three days to look back on the big plays and blown opportunities which may have forced this game into the out-of-reach realm it entered all too early in the contest, but the team will have no choice but to put this game behind them and focus on the task at hand.
The coaching staff will have to fire up the film, scrub every inch of every play and make the necessary tweaks; the players will have to ice the soreness, patch up the wounded pride and sleep off the frustration. The big question which will remain to be answered: Can they? A winning culture is not exactly something that has permeated Berea since 1999. Moore would answer the question with honest uncertainty; Hillis, however, is a bit more optimistic.
"We got to," Hillis said postgame. "There's no ifs or buts, we got to do this if we want to win ballgames so we have to take it upon ourselves to get it done and that's what we're going to do."
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Cleveland Browns President Mike Holmgren (R) talks with quarterback Colt McCoy. 
