The powerful running of Peyton Hillis, acquired in the Brady Quinn trade, should be part of the same physical offensive approach the Browns developed last year.
It hasn't taken much exposure to Browns running back Peyton Hillis to realize that he can help deliver some of the power game the offense will need to succeed this season, says Bill Livingston.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- While Brady Quinn will always be the great what-if to some fans, what the Browns got in his trade is as obvious as the road pizza Peyton Hillis just made out of a defensive back or two.
The new running back hit the line and whoever was behind it with malice aforethought Saturday night in the exhibition loss to St. Louis. He is one of the small, but increasing, number of Browns who can rile up the crowd and energize his teammates with one bulling, battering, bowling-ball effort. His nine-yard run, leaving would-be tacklers trampled and other helpless Rams piggy-backing along for the ride, seemed to involve every available St. Louis defender.
Josh Cribbs can be like that out of the wildcat formation.
Seneca Wallace can also make plays with his legs.
Jerome Harrison, for his part, ran down the usually forlorn final stretch of the season last year as if someone had unsealed the time capsule, and the short, violent, one-dimensional approach of Ground Marty was back again.
But we're really not back in 1985 when Marty Schottenheimer turned Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner loose to play smash-mouth football. Harrison does not have the body type of either of those slam-bang former Browns. Hillis is something of a 'tweener -- not really a fullback, possessed of good enough hands to be a third-down back, a reliable producer of second-effort yards.
A quarter century ago, the offense became much more diversified as soon as Bernie Kosar was ready to play quarterback. Current team president Mike Holmgren knew the same thing had to be done as soon as he took over. A playbook that looked like a drawing on a cave wall was not the shortcut to success in today's NFL.
Coach Eric Mangini went to the Harrison/Cribbs game plan because his training camp-long quarterback derby last year did not undermine the confidence of either Quinn or Derek Anderson close to as much as it sapped their coach's confidence in both of them. The substantial, but not transformative, upgrade to Jake Delhomme and Wallace now does not mean the Browns should completely change the identity of a tough, physical offense they developed last season.
This is where Harrison, Hillis and the healing rookie, Montario Hardesty, come in. At ramming speed, in Hillis' case.
For all the talk about getting playmakers in "space," for all the astro-formations designed to do just that, there will always be a place in big-time tackle football for power. Physicality is hard-wired into the game, part of its DNA. It was what made losing so frequently to the Pittsburgh Steelers so galling. It wasn't just the closeness and great success of the turnpike rival. It was the way the Steelers could often outmuscle the Browns.
That changed on one brutally cold night by the lake, when the Steelers were the hittees, not the hitters. Now it must continue.
Hardesty was expected to challenge Harrison for a starting job, but his knee injury gave Hillis his chance. If his playing time dwindles when Hardesty returns, Hillis has been there before, too. Despite several strong games under former Denver coach Mike Shanahan in 2008, Hillis rode the bench as new coach Josh McDaniels' prize draftee, rookie Knowshon Moreno, got the carries last year.
Fans always wondered what Quinn could do if spared injuries and given ample opportunities. Hillis, however, already deserves a meaningful role here. He came in saying he wanted to prove the Browns got the better of the trade with Denver. At that, he is making progress.
There's no telling what nickname all those H's in the backfield will lead to. But Hillis and Harrison, to opponents, could be "Hell" and "Gone."