Sunday in Tampa, Browns head coach Eric Mangini looked stuck between offensive philosophies -- his and Mike Holmgren's -- sports columnist Bud Shaw writes.
During the preseason, Browns coach Eric Mangini and quarterback Jake Delhomme could smile about pretty much anything that happened on the field. But with the games now for real and the Browns 0-1, Bud Shaw is wondering how wedded Mangini now feels to the quarterback and the passing offense championed by President Mike Holmgren.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Life is supposedly easier for Eric Mangini with Mike Holmgren around. So why did it look so complicated Sunday?
Mangini didn't believe in his quarterback last year, which is one reason why the Browns averaged 45 rushes a game over the surprisingly successful final month.
Sunday, Mangini looked like he was trying to show how much he believed in Holmgren's quarterback, Jake Delhomme, at the expense of running the ball in Tampa.
Mangini seemed stuck between trying to satisfy the appetite of a boss who wants to see strides made in the passing game and relying on the comfort food that sustained a 4-0 finish in 2009.
The hedged bet was opting for the more physical running back, Peyton Hillis, over Jerome Harrison. Remember Harrison? His last three games of 2009 went this way:
• Kansas City: 34 carries, 286 yards.
• Oakland: 39 carries, 148 yards.
• Jacksonville: 33 carries, 127 yards.
The Browns closed the season by running for 171 yards against Pittsburgh, 351 versus Kansas City, 164 against Oakland and 214 against Jacksonville.
Sunday, they rushed 23 times for 104 yards in a tight game. Hillis carried nine times, as did Harrison.
Since January, Eric Mangini and Mike Holmgren have offered a united front in reshaping and revitalizing the Browns. It's only fair to wonder, says Bud Shaw, how firm that relationship is if Jake Delhomme struggles to be the consistent QB the team needs.No one who understands the NFL would recommend the steady diet of one-dimensional football on display at the end of last year. The Browns passed for less than 100 yards in three of their four closing victories. Their high: 118 against Oakland.
That's fine in Pop Warner, but not where Holmgren hopes to take the Browns.
Mangini, though, is not just being asked to expand the offense, live with the results and hope it's good enough to keep his job at the end of the season. He's being asked to rely on a quarterback who last year threw eight touchdown passes against 18 interceptions.
I'm not sure the definition of "reliance" should be Jake Delhomme throwing 37 times in a close contest.
Mangini knows this drill by now. He adjusted once before in New York during his final season as Jets' head coach when management delivered him Brett Favre, who kept playing hurt and proceeded to throw 22 interceptions.
Mangini shouldn't have to tiptoe nearly as gingerly around Delhomme if the bad decisions that sabotaged the quarterback in Carolina keep cropping up here. Just don't expect him to reel in Delhomme right away. If he were of that mind, Delhomme's ankle injury in Tampa offered an early opportunity.
It was only one game. Mangini might've fallen more in love with the run if Hillis didn't fumble twice. The offensive line wasn't the battering ram it proved to be late last season. Nonetheless, it had to be troubling to see a team identity forged late last year forsaken so quickly in 2010.
The head coach and the offensive coordinator are the same. The difference is they have a new boss whose expertise lies in the passing game.
Holmgren says Delhomme is not here to merely manage the game. Fine. That's necessary for the evolution of the offense. It's also potentially risky for Mangini.
If I'm the head coach of a team coming off a 5-11 season, if I have an error-prone QB and a boss who hasn't ruled out coaching again, I might be tempted to cue up Sinatra's "My Way" after a couple more games like Sunday's.
If I'm gonna die, I'd be tempted to do so with my infantry boots on.