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Tavern talk: Lerner says Mangini will be back

Also, a big game for the Texans, and the Seahawks are in a tailspin. Michael Lombardi

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More on the Browns

Browns owner Randy Lerner agreed to an email interview today with Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Tony Grossi. Here is the link. Lerner shed little light on the reasons behind the removal of general manager George Kokinis, but he did say that coach Eric Mangini would be back in 2010. Good luck, Browns fans. Maybe since Lerner doesn’t want to make a change, he can ask Mangini to get the Browns out of those bad-looking brown pants. That might help.

Houston Texans: Can they beat Indy?

Andre JohnsonAPWill Andre Johnson continue to deliver for Bowen?

Quietly, the Houston Texans have put themselves in position for a meaningful game in Week 9 against the Colts. If the Texans are able to defeat the Colts on their own field in front of their own fans Sunday, they’ll make a huge statement to me and the rest of the NFL. Matt “I Love Me Some Texans” Bowen has been sitting back and not bragging, but he’s feeling better and better with this three-game winning streak. Beating the Bills is not impressive, but dominating the Bengals on the road and holding off the 49ers late in the game have me concerned for the first time that I might actually have to watch wrestling. Ugh, the thought of it. (FYI, in case this happens, I will load my iPhone with Season 3 of “The Sopranos.” Re-watching that season always seems to make everything much better. Who could ever get too much of Gloria Trillo?)

Can the Texans give the Colts their first loss of the season? That will be difficult, but it’s possible. The underlying factor in the game will be pressuring Peyton Manning. Last week, Manning said he had to grind out a win, but closely watching the tape, he did not have a typical Manning day against the 49ers. He missed some throws that he normally never misses. The first pass of the game was a touchdown, but he overthrew the ball — which rarely happens. The Colts are beatable, but only when Manning is not on his “A” game. This is a big stage of the Texans to be on right now, and given the state of the AFC South, they can make huge statement about the playoffs and me possibly losing my bet. I shudder to think how obnoxious Mr. Bud Heavy will be next week if his Texans win. We all know he’s a horrible winner. Just ask “The Tipper.”

Where are the Seahawks?

The Seattle Seahawks play in the northwest and rarely do I ever write about them. For some reason, they just do not impress me as a team in terms of their offensive and defensive lines. They have a different approach to building, which doesn’t always appeal to me (I don’t agree with spending all that money on wide receivers and linebackers. To each his own, I guess). But watching them lose in Dallas, they just are not able to play well on the road because of their two lines — and because they have such a home-field advantage in Seattle with crowd noise, they might want to consider only using the road games to evaluate their team this offseason. Loud stadiums create a significant advantage for the home team, which can lure it into false expectations.

Matt HasselbeckAPMatt Hasselbeck is beat up and not playing at the level Seahawks fans have come to expect.

Seattle needs to repair both lines, and the most critical factor is that they can’t seem to keep quarterback Matt Hasselbeck healthy. When he’s not the Matt Hasselbeck of old, this team is a bad team with no quarterback — and that means another top-10 draft pick. They have no long-range solution on their roster at quarterback, which is not good for anyone involved. If Hasselbeck was playing like he did in the past, he could mask some of their inadequacies as a team. But he’s not the same as he was, which happens to quarterbacks when they get hit too often. Their eye level is down and more focused on the coming pass rush than the play down the field. Not many people thought the Seahawks would be this bad, but with another year of debilitating injuries to key players, they’re a team in transition and may not have hit rock bottom just yet.

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Comments

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drewthorn
Nov 05, 2009
06:17 PM

Wow. Did Lombardi just admit that geography plays a role in perception? Pretty harmless in this context, but probably not so much so to guys like Steve Atwater and Terrell Davis, who'll never see the HoF for being unlucky enough to play their prime in the wastelands of Denver.

Mr.Murder
Nov 05, 2009
06:18 PM

Losing Hutch was a long term item for the offensive line, the quality isn't the same. They can be competitive at times but usually not for the entirety of games and certainly not for a season.

Mebane got a tackle to start a game last week, and was pretty much silent after that. They need a playmaker in the middle to keep people off of Tatupu, when he can be a true linebacker and roam the middle they can be in things.

The loss of a feature back also put more hits onto Hasselbeck as well.

Jeremiah Habets
Nov 05, 2009
07:34 PM

I'd like to hear more about why the Seahawks are having "another year of debilitating injuries to key players". Is it the Front Office failing to generate depth? Is it in the way the players are used by the coaching staff? Is there something in the off-season training or medical staff that's falling short? Injuries are part of the game... but do some teams to a better job of preparing and keeping players healthy? For example, the Phoenix Suns seem to have a huge advantage with their medical staff in the NBA.

Mr.Murder
Nov 05, 2009
08:15 PM

Losing Hutch was a long term item for the offensive line, the quality isn't the same. They can be competitive at times but usually not for the entirety of games and certainly not for a season.

Mebane got a tackle to start a game last week, and was pretty much silent after that. They need a playmaker in the middle to keep people off of Tatupu, when he can be a true linebacker and roam the middle they can be in things(now on IR).

The loss of a feature back also put more hits onto Hasselbeck as well.

SaintSavan
Nov 05, 2009
08:30 PM

Mike,

Instead of watching Season 3 again, try a different show. I recommend Dexter.

Umberto
Nov 06, 2009
06:14 AM

I agree with Murder, everything started with the loss of Hutch, the best left guard in the game. I think that this could be considered as one of the greatest mistake ever made by a GM (including the silly Burleson vendetta...) Right now the Oline is a mess, it's not able to open gaps for the running game and it's not able to protect Matt. The Dline drives me crazy, they've everything to be a good and solid group but they always underperform, they don't play with the intesnity and desire you expect from those guys. I really miss the old days when we had Sam Adams and Cortez Kennedy at DT and Michael Sinclair at DE and that group of amazing players that coach Erickson wasted so much (Joey galloway, Shawn Springs, Kevin Mawae, Chris Warren, Chad Brown and so on...)

deljzc
Nov 06, 2009
09:01 AM

The "jump the shark" moment for the Seahawks has always been the Hutchinson mistake. They have never recovered from that blunder.

Lombardi is also correct in being critical of their #4 overall draft choice last year. While I am not sold on Sanchaz as much as some, when a team that rarely gets to pick in the top-10 gets the opportunity to get the heir apparent at quarterback, you don't pass it up for a linebacker.

Sanchez needs to mature and watching Hasselback from the bench would have made a big difference I think in his overall development. West coast coaches like backup QB's to sit/learn the system very slowly.

I don't know if it was the owner, GM or Mora that made that call, but I think it was the wrong one.

Eric Green
Nov 06, 2009
10:01 AM

Steve may have been one piece, but I would think one of the best left tackles in the game going downhill is more important. I am curious if Mora and company think they can do like they did in Atlanta and get production out of late round draft picks on the OL. As for LB, I thought they were trying to reduce their investment in the position after they traded away Peterson. Curry would have to turn into the best LB in the game for that pick to work. I think they would have been better off with Raji or Monroe.

Heater
Nov 06, 2009
10:34 AM

Curry was a 'safe pick' that Ruskell knew would produce right away. Some thinking would suggest that the Curry selection was the key component to Seattle's defense becoming elite. Curry was a great pick up for Seattle. But continuing to igonre areas of weakness on your team, especially with the fourth choice in the draft, is a decision that may cost Ruskell his job.

I can't say that Ruskell has completely ignored the offense based on his draft picks, but it's certainly easy to say that he has missed on most of those picks. Due to the amount of success Seattle has enjoyed during Holmgren's era, most of those picks were late first rounders. So many resources used to build the defense that hasn't lived up to expectations.

Frank
Nov 07, 2009
12:35 PM

For Browns fans, this is great news. Finally we'll have some stability...

Or is that stagnation?

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