Edwards wants chance to make some plays
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
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[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]By Steve Doerschuk REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER[/FONT]
BEREA - With a little cooperation from the Dolphins, Vikings, Jaguars, Bengals, Raiders, Steelers and Ravens, Cleveland can be a wild-card team. If the Browns beat those seven teams, they will be 10-6.
Or, just as likely, you’ll win the next three multistate lottery jackpots and buy your own NFL team.
With postseason talk rendered silly in the wake of a 34-21 loss at Pittsburgh, it might make sense for the 3-6 Browns to switch full bore to setting up 2006. That figures to mean bigger doses of rookie wideout Braylon Edwards.
“Obviously,” Edwards said, “I want to make plays. I want the ball, but ... when the ball comes is when I’m going to have the chance to make plays. So until then, it is what it is.”
In Sunday night’s game at Heinz Field, quarterback Trent Dilfer overshot Edwards on a first-quarter slant that might have produced an 82-yard touchdown.
“It would have been a big play,” Edwards said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
The game was over — Pittsburgh led 27-7 — by the time Edwards beat soft coverage from Deshea Townsend for a 27-yard fourth-quarter catch.
With garbage time almost over, Edwards worked on Townsend again for a 37-yard gain, and Pittsburgh up 34-14.
Pittsburgh pulled into a prohibitive 24-7 lead early in the third quarter. At that point, wideout Antonio Bryant had three catches for 52 yards, and wideout Dennis Northcutt had three catches for 24 yards. Northcutt had a couple of glaring drops; Bryant lost a third-quarter fumble.
With the Browns out of any team race, it might be time to involve Edwards earlier in games.
“I’m in a tough spot,” the No. 3 overall pick said. “All I can do is ... when plays present themselves, make them. I can’t complain about them, and then when they come not be ready and drop passes and run the wrong routes.”
Edwards came away from the Pittsburgh game in a feisty mood.
“We practice hard, as if we want to beat somebody,” he said. “Then we have the kind of first drive we did against the so-called invincible Steelers.”
That covered 66 yards and produced a touchdown. Had Dilfer put the ball in Edwards’ hands on the next drive’s slant, it might have been a 14-0 game.
“The Pittsburgh curtain ... the Steel Curtain is dead,” Edwards said. “That was ’79. That’s over with.
“We’ve just got to come out here and do what we did in the first quarter the whole game.”
Reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail:
[email protected]
The rookie wideouts
A look at how rookie wide receivers drafted within the top 40 picks are faring in 2005:
Drafted Player, team Rec.-Yds. Avg. TDs
No. 3 Braylon Edwards, Browns 17-294 14.8 1
No. 7 Troy Williamson, Vikings 19-287 15.1 2
No. 10 Mike Williams, Lions 19-224 11.8 1
No. 21 Matt Jones, Arkansas 24-285 11.9 3
No. 22 Mark Clayton, Ravens 14-98 7.0 0
No. 27 Roddy White, Falcons 10-116 11.6 1 No. 35 Reggie Brown, Eagles 14-202 14.4 1 No. 39 Mark Bradley, Bears 18-230 12.8 0
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