It’s abundantly clear where Romeo places the blame for yesterday’s deflating loss to the woeful Raiders: the poor effort and performance of his own players.
In his brief post-game comments, the beleaguered honcho threw most everyone under the bus. The guys in uniform anyway. The offense lacked “focus and concentration.” Regarding QB Derek Anderson, “there was some pressing and trying to make some plays.”
The defensive-minded head coach offered no defense for his defenseless D.
“We couldn’t stop the run, no matter what front we seemed to be in, they was able to run through us. We were out of position, and they gained over 100 yards rushing. That seems to be par for the course around here.”
Sounds like a pretty helpless and hopeless position for the poor coaches, huh? Maybe not. You could always seize the opportunity after a tough loss to publicly threaten to demote a rookie corner who sold out in run support:
“If you got other people to take a look at, maybe you try and take a look at other people if they can’t stay back and do their job.”
Don’t let it affect your confidence, Eric Wright. That’s just leadership on display.
Getting suckered by a screen pass on third-and-23 couldn’t have anything to do with being in the wrong defense, right? Hey, it’s not coaches’ job to tackle. This was clearly just a case of “overpursuing a little bit instead of maintaining good angles on the ball.”
Yep, the problem with Romeo’s boys was that they were just too darn aggressive. Except when they weren’t. Like on the would-be game-winning field goal.
“When you relax, you get them blocked.”
Ouch.
For the record, the Browns’ wall of protection on the blocked field goal was, from left to right: Darnell Dinkens, Ethan Kelley, Nat Dorsey, Seth McKinney, Ryan Pontbriand, Hank Fraley, Joe Thomas, Kevin Shaffer, and Steve Heiden. The successful surge split Dorsey and McKinney. McKinney angrily refuted the notion that he would relax on the game’s ultimate play, so that leaves the onus squarely on the broad shoulders of a reserve tackle.
Leave it to the newly matured Detroit Diva to put it all into perspective.
“It’s a tough lesson,” wideout Braylon Edwards said, “but it’s one we’ll definitely eat up and swallow and – whatever – regurgitate.
Mental bulimia is the logical conclusion here. Better than choking, right?
