Tough times in Cleveland

[Randall]

Start all your Packer players this week?

 

After a week of injury and illness, can Cleveland Browns find enough to challenge the Packers?

By Mary Kay Cabot

October 24, 2009, 6:49PM

Jim Matthews/Green Bay Post-Gazette

 

Assuming he's recovered enough from the flu, Kamerion Wimbley (95) will have to find a way to pressure Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers without D'Qwell Jackson (52) in Sunday's game.

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns endured the kind of week that's the stuff of a Kenny Chesney or Garth Brooks hit.

 

They were stricken with the flu, lost one of their best defensive players in D'Qwell Jackson to a season-ending pectoral injury, and could've lost one of their other best defensive players in Eric Wright to a car wreck. Rolling Stone bashed their head coach, and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's wife left him. Okay, she only went on a mini-vacation, but it's a country music song, remember?

 

"Hopefully she's coming back," said a quick-witted Ryan. "It's been a tough week. You start questioning, maybe I should go to church more often, start living better. We've had a rough year so far. It just has to get better.

 

"We just have to keep working through it. My father [veteran NFL coach Buddy Ryan] always said, 'Tough times don't always last, tough people do.' Right now, things haven't been going great and it's unfortunate.

 

"We had a lot of guys miss practice this week. Green Bay has one of the better offenses in football. [Packers coach] Mike McCarthy's a tough guy and he couldn't care less. He's probably champing at the bit. That's just the way it goes, I guess."

 

Oh, did we forget to mention that they also survived the pay-or-trade saga of Josh Cribbs, the trade rumors of Brady Quinn and Corey Williams and the injury controversy surrounding rookie running back James Davis this week?

 

"We should have our own reality show," said Cribbs. "We've got a story to tell. We've been through a lot, but we're surviving and we're going to come out on top."

Not only has Ryan had to scramble to fill the shoes of Jackson -- who led the NFL in tackles last season -- he's had to spend most of the week preparing for Green Bay's high-powered offense without flu victims Shaun Rogers, Brodney Pool, Kamerion Wimbley and Corey Williams. Of the 12 players stricken with the flu, all were back in practice on Friday except Williams.

 

"Right now, with a lot of guys not being out there, you want to paint a picture of the opponent and right now I'm not sure if they have that picture or not," said Ryan. "Our coaches are meeting with those guys individually, and hopefully we'll all be on the same page come Sunday. We need to be."

Ryan acknowledged the loss of Jackson is a major blow.

 

"It hurts to see a young man work so hard and do the things he did, commit himself to this team and organization, to go out with an injury, it's devastating for him," said Ryan. "The bottom line is, it's hard to replace a great character person and a great player. The next man has to step up and that's Kaluks (rookie Kaluka Maiava). I think he's done an admirable job. He's working hard and he's trying to do the things that he can do to be a great player himself."

 

 

The Browns likely won't know if Eric Wright (24) will be able to go against Greg Jennings and the Packers on Sunday until the pre-game warmup.

If Wright can't play because of a shoulder injury suffered Friday morning when he rolled his Mercedes a couple of times on an I-490 entrance ramp, he could be replaced by Mike Adams, Hank Poteat or Coye Francies. Even if he does play, he won't be 100 percent. What's more, Brandon McDonald is also suffering from a shoulder injury.

 

It doesn't bode well, considering Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is tied for third in the league with 22 plays of 20 yards or more and that he's coming off back-to-back 300-yard games. Receivers Greg Jennings and Donald Driver are among the league's most dangerous.

 

"We'll have to wait and see on [Wright's] situation," said Ryan. "Obviously we hope he's out there."

 

Offensively, the Browns are trying to overcome 16 dropped passes the past two weeks and only four offensive TDs in 72 possessions.

 

"We're out here and we're working to get better, as best we can," said offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. "It's not good enough. There are no excuses. No excuses with the flu, or whatever that stuff is. Our job is to make sure we put a good product on the football field and we need to do that."

As for the drops, Daboll didn't put it all on the receivers.

"Dropped passes aren't fun, but I think the throws could be a little better too," he said. "The concentration has to improve. We just keep working on it. We have to put the ball where it needs to be, they have to come down with it and that's the bottom line."

 

The young receivers will have get all they can handle from cornerbacks Charles Woodson, a five-time Pro Bowler, and Al Harris. The Packers are tied for second in the NFL with 10 interceptions.

 

"They're going to be grabbing, they're going to be putting their hands on you and you're going to have to match their physicalness," said Daboll. "I don't think they'll be intimidated. I think they're very respectful of how good they are."

 

As far as the beating Mangini has taken from national publications such as Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated, Ryan, for one, is not amused.

"I can remember being in New England when they said they ought to fire us all," said Ryan. "In a couple months, we won the Super Bowl. We were posting them up, believe me, our players saw every one of them. They were comical. They were great. Hopefully one day we're up here laughing."

[flemingd]

It's not often a coach leaves the Raiders and begins questioning if he should start living better only AFTER joining the new one.

[Sunday Couch Potatoe]

What if u don't have any packers?

[pig devilz]

starting GB D

[Randall]

Wright is active today. 2 TE's are out.

 

The Cleveland Browns have declared OG Billy Yates, QB Brett Ratliff, RB Chris Jennings, CB Coye Francies, CB Gerard Lawson, PK Phil Dawson, TE Robert Royal, TE Steve Heiden inactive for Week 7.