Cleveland Browns (2008 Season)

[osugrad21]

CPD

Clear the air? Savage is to blame for the Browns' hazy week, says Bill Livingston

by Bill Livingston Monday October 27, 2008, 8:21 PM



Better late than never, Browns General Manager Phil Savage said in 29 seconds Monday what he should have said days ago.
Appearing in the interview room at the Browns' Berea facility before the scheduled session between the media and head coach Romeo Crennel, Savage said tight end Kellen Winslow was hospitalized for a staph infection. There was no secondary illness.
"Everybody got that?" said Savage.
But as recently as Sunday night, everybody got a slightly different story.
"If there's going to be disclosure, there's got to be full disclosure. We were trying to do the right thing by him and his family," Savage said then.
A second time on Sunday, Savage failed to end the controversy, saying, "I think it's all in a gray area right now. You can ask [Winslow]."

Thursday, Savage said, "Due to the nature of this particular situation, it seemed that the people involved wouldn't want it out there."
The implication was that Winslow suffered from an embarrassing ailment.
Winslow had had a staph infection before with the Browns and lost 30 pounds while fighting it. He had seen LeCharles Bentley and Joe Jurevicius go down with staph infections that were only reluctantly admitted by the team. Denise White, Winslow's publicist, text-messaged reporters Sunday that it was "staph, pure and simple."

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Browns Insider: Florida win puts some sunshine in Crennel's day

by Mary Kay Cabot Monday October 27, 2008, 7:57 PM

John Kuntz/The Plain DealerSome Browns fans cheer Derek Anderson as the Browns leave the field in Jacksonville on Sunday after defeating the Jaguars, 23-17.
The Browns' 23-17 victory over the Jaguars kept them in the thick of the AFC playoff chase. "It was a game that we needed to win to keep ourselves in the middle of the pack in the AFC," said coach Romeo Crennel. "It was versus an AFC opponent which, as you go down the road, the tiebreaker implications have an impact.
"We played a playoff team from a year before at their place in a hostile environment and I'm really proud about the way that our guys fought. They played hard, they fought, and we tried to limit mistakes, tried not to give them free yards and just played until the end.
"As you watched the game, and I know it was a nail-biter, but our guys never quit. There were some opportunities where they could have folded probably had they chose to, but they chose to persevere and go win a game. That was really good and I'm proud of that."
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[osugrad21]

Canton

Heiden receives praise for play against Jaguars
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
BY STEVE DOERSCHUK
[email protected]

BEREA Kellen Winslow Jr. does things Steve Heiden can't. Just watch them cut and run, and you see that.

Yet, Heiden did something no one expected with Winslow out of the Jacksonville game. He contributed glue that has been missing when Winslow plays.

Head Coach Romeo Crennel was in the middle of a state-of-the-team soliloquy Monday when he launched into a tribute to No. 82.

"Heiden has been around here a long time," Crennel said. "He is an all-around tight end, a tremendous teammate.

"And when you call on him to do something, he does whatever you call on him to do. If that is to be the starter, he is the starter. If that's to be the No. 2 guy, then he's the No. 2 guy, and he's always for the team, always for the Browns.

"That is the kind of attitude a coach likes on his team."

As Crennel spoke, Winslow was in another part of the building, re-acclimating himself to Berea.

He returned to the same locker he has used the last few years, eight feet across from an area where Heiden used to dress. Heiden moved this year to the opposite end of the locker room, near the offensive linemen.

From his stall, Winslow said, "I'm ready to move on and just play football."
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[osugrad21]

Canton

Sports Spotlight: Pro Bowler Rogers lays it all on line
Monday, October 27, 2008
BY TODD PORTER
[email protected]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

Finally, when it was over, Shaun Rogers ? all 6-foot-5, 360-pounds of him ? could rest. He could relax both his mind and his body for the first time on a sticky hot fall day near the beach.

Big guys and beaches get along together about as well as bleach and blue jeans. But Rogers knew his team needed an effort like the one he laid out at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

So when the Browns hung on, and after the ball bounced their way and out of Jacksonville tight end Matt Jones' hands, Rogers put his left knee on the grass and rested. Maybe it left a crater.

Cleveland inched closer to .500 Sunday after the Browns dug themselves a hole big enough to bury Rogers and the rest of his teammates in it to start the season. Their 23-17 win didn't come without hesitation. It didn't come without struggle.

Heck, the struggle began in a locker room in Washington, D.C., when tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. called out his general manager and the entire organization. Winslow made himself a distraction. He made it about him.
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[osugrad21]

Canton

Savage talks about Winslow situation
Monday, October 27, 2008
By Todd Porter
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. For the second time in three weeks, the Browns won without brash and outspoken tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. Cleveland General Manager Phil Savage did little to silence growing suspicion the team may have to do more of that in the future.

Savage rescinded Winslow's suspension Saturday evening after the tight end criticized the team and accused the organization of trying to cover up a staph infection that led to him spending a few days in the hospital. Winslow revealed the staph infection last week when he said he sometimes "felt like a piece of meat."

ALMOST A THURSDAY DEAL

Although Savage said the team and Winslow's agents and attorneys were close to working out a settlement Thursday, the suspension wasn't rescinded until the team became aware of text messages sent by a Browns media relations assistant to Winslow that warned him not to mention the staph infection.

Savage spoke about Winslow's situation for the first time with writers after Cleveland's 23-17 win at Jacksonville, but did little to dispel the thought that Winslow's games in Cleveland are numbered.

Winslow has two years left on his contract after this season, and said he thought about asking Savage for a trade before the deadline.

Savage was asked about Winslow's future, particularly in light of the fact Winslow asked for a new contract before this season.

"That's a question for a different time," Savage said. "Not in this format."
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[Jake]

Don't look now, but the Browns are 1 game out of a playoff spot in the AFC.

 

[schwab]

While true, check out that logjam... ugghhhh

NFL Standings: Conference

 

[Mike80]

The way Heiden played yesterday and against the Giants, it would not bother me if they deactivated Winslow for the rest of the season. I mean two wins without him might be saying something about him. Not as an athlete but what type of disruption he might be in the locker room or even on the field.

He's a better blocker than Winslow is and he is still an above average receiver.

I think the offense has more flow when he is in.

 

[IronBuckI]

I'm really looking forward to the last week of the season when Pittsburgh has their playoff spot wrapped up and they rest their starters. All while Indianapolis needs Pittsburgh to beat us to keep us out and let Indianapolis get into the playoffs.

 

[LitlBuck]

I did not realize until yesterday night that Shaun Rogers had 9 solo tackles in addition to that blocked FG. That is one hell of a game for a NT who is constantly being double teamed. It's almost like he is a one-man line was 2 LB's (Jackson and McGinnis) and that's about it for the front seven.

I think I will hold down my enthusiasm regarding the playoffs for a few weeks because they have some Division games that they really need to win for tiebreaking purposes. I am also not dismissing the fact that Anderson can play another woofer:(

 

[osugrad21]

ABJ

It's back to football for Browns, Crennel Distractions in the past, coach says improved Ravens a formidable foe
By Stephanie Storm
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008
BEREA: With the Kellen Winslow injury saga finally put aside, Browns coach Romeo Crennel appeared relieved to spend a majority of his weekly chat with the media this week focusing on football as the Browns prepare to play the Baltimore Ravens at 1 p.m. Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Crennel spent the day in team meetings emphasizing that the Ravens are a better team than the version the Browns faced in a 28-10 loss in Baltimore on Sept. 21. He also doesn't want to see a letdown after the Browns beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 23-17 Sunday.
''It's been five weeks since [we've] played [the Ravens] and they are a team that is evolving,'' Crennel said. ''We have to look at the tape, and we have to study these guys. We can't leave a stone unturned as we prepare for those guys because it's a huge game.
''It's in front of the home crowd and in the division, and it will say a lot about the division
and what we can do in the division.''
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[osugrad21]

Canton

Analysis: Browns can still make playoffs
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
BY STEVE DOERSCHUK
[email protected]

BEREA The Browns can dream, can't they? While they're at it, they can calculate.

Here's how Cleveland is back in the playoff race despite its 0-3 start:

? The Browns can reach the halfway point of the season at 4-4 and be tied for the second wild-card spot if they beat Baltimore on Sunday in tandem with the Jets losing at Buffalo.

? Cleveland will pull to within one game of AFC North leader Pittsburgh if the Browns win their next two games ? at home against Baltimore and Denver ? while the Steelers go 1-1 at Washington and at home against the Colts.

One key for the Browns is to be no worse than a game behind Pittsburgh for the Dec. 28 season finale at Heinz Field.

If the Browns beat Pittsburgh and those two teams wind up with the same record ? assuming Baltimore fades ? the AFC North title will come down to the tiebreaker formula.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. A Dec. 28 Browns win would make it 1-1.

The second tiebreaker is games within the division. That's where the Browns' Sept. 21 loss at Baltimore could sting. If the Browns win out against the Ravens, Bengals and Steelers, they would be 4-2 in the AFC North. Even if that happens, Pittsburgh must lose Nov. 20 to Cincinnati or Dec. 14 at Baltimore to match the Browns at 4-2.

Still, trailing the Steelers by two games puts the odds against a Browns division title.

On the other hand, a wild-card spot is realistic. That's what a 3-1 hot streak can do for a team in the hole.

At the moment, New England (5-2) has the first spot. The Jets and Ravens, both 4-3, are tied for the second.
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[osugrad21]

DDN

Staph may cost Browns wide receiver entire season

The 33-year-old Jurevicius one of six Cleveland players to suffer the infection since 2005.


By Tom Withers
Associated Press

Thursday, October 30, 2008

CLEVELAND ? Browns wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, whose routine offseason knee surgery was complicated when he contracted a staph infection, could be done for the season.
Cleveland coach Romeo Crennel said Wednesday, Oct. 29, that the club is planning to release a statement to update Jurevicius' status later this week or early next week.
"Generally, it doesn't look very good," Crennel said.
The 33-year-old Jurevicius, who signed with the Browns in 2006 so he could play for his hometown team, has been inactive all season. He had arthroscopic surgery on his knee in January and was expected to make a full recovery before he got staph ? one of six Browns players to get staph since 2005.
Citing an anonymous source, ESPN.com reported Jurevicius will be out for the rest of the season. Agent Neil Cornrich did not respond to a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.
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[osugrad21]

DDN

Browns defensive lineman making big impact

Rogers wore out his welcome in Detroit, but a change of scenery is paying off.


By Tom Withers
Associated Press

Thursday, October 30, 2008

BEREA ? His sweatshirts are labeled XXXXL, and Shaun Rogers' game has been supersized, too.
The humongous nose tackle, who arrived in Cleveland with a reputation for not playing up to his potential on the field and undisciplined off it, has been the Browns' best defender this season. At 6-foot-4 and 350 ? or so ? pounds, Rogers has been a disruptive force in just one place ? opposing backfields.
With an uncommon blend of size and speed for such a big man, Rogers has silenced critics while astounding others with his all-around talents.
Browns head coach Romeo Crennel has never seen anyone like him.
"A guy like Shaun comes along once in a lifetime," Crennel gushed Wednesday, Oct. 29. "You just don't find guys who have that kind of size and that kind of quickness and speed every day. I'm glad we got him."
Despite being double- and sometimes triple-teamed last Sunday in Jacksonville, Rogers had perhaps the finest game of his eight-year NFL career. The mammoth man in the middle wearing No. 92 was all over the field. He was credited with five tackles, including four solo, three pressures on Jaguars quarterback David Garrard and one sack.
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Rogers at fullback? Browns coaches admit they brainstorm over new uses for players

by Tony Grossi Wednesday October 29, 2008, 6:38 PM

John Kuntz/The Plain DealerCelebrating after sacks and fourth-down stops is one thing. What would Shaun Rogers do if he blasted through a defensive wall to score a touchdown on the goal line?



Shaun Rogers devoured running backs. He sacked the quarterback. He caught the quarterback from behind trying to run for a first down. He blocked a kick and recovered it. The Browns' nose tackle did just about everything in Jacksonville on Sunday except score.
Hmmm. Say, wouldn't the mammoth yet agile Rogers look good in the Browns' offensive backfield on goal-line plays?
"You know what? We talked about that a little bit," coach Romeo Crennel disclosed on Wednesday.
Seriously?
"Well, yeah. We as coaches talked about it," Crennel said.
Moving players from one side of the ball to the other to fill a role is coming back in vogue in the NFL two decades after Mike Ditka first sprung behemoth tackle William (the Refrigerator) Perry on the nation in 1985.
Ditka first used Perry in the offensive role as payback to San Francisco coach Bill Walsh, who repositioned 270-pound guard Guy McIntyre as a fullback in the 49ers' NFC title game victory over the Bears the year before.
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