Romeo MUST go!

"Oh Romeo. Oh Romeo. Wherefor art thou Romeo?" (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

Romeo Crennel is not a good coach. I'm sorry but this is a fact. I will pass on making fun of his personal weight issues. I won't comment on his stubborn effort to be vague in his injury reports. I won't go on about unsubstantiated positive outlooks in the interviews after we just lost by 3 or more touchdowns and continued a 5 game losing streak....again. No, I will just get to the reality of this situation with no personal attacks on who seems to be a perfectly nice guy. I doubt there is anybody I'd rather sit next to at the doughnut shop then.....nope, not gonna do it.

The Love Doctor, Romeo, was brought into Cleveland after Butch Davis was unceremoniously escorted out of town. Davis had a whirlwind of a stay in Cleveland acquiring some questionable draft picks and leading the team through some wild and crazy seasons. The two most memorable seasons were his first two when he posted a 7-9 and 9-7 record in 2001 and 2002 respectively making the playoffs by a wing and a prayer in '02. Davis finally ran out of gas midway through the '04 season leading to the Romeo Era in 2005.

Before his stint as head coach of the Browns (he was our defensive coordinator in 2000 as well), Romeo was highly regarded as one of the best assistants on the market while he coached Belichick's defense in New England. His Patriot defense was a big reason why they won those three Super Bowls earlier this decade. (clevelandbrowns.com)

But as most athletes and coaches experience, as soon as he set foot in Cleveland, all that success quickly evaporated. At first, one could understand. The cupboard was dry. Davis didn't leave much talent and what little was there, Kellen Winslow Jr., was busy riding motorcycles and injuring himself for seasons at a time.

Now he is in his fourth year. His 3-4 defensive scheme should be well in place. The talent should fit his plan. Phil Savage has gone out and signed a number of highly regarded players on both sides of the ball. Lerner is paying the money. The people surrounding Crennel are doing their jobs. To Romeo's credit, the team found some success in 2007 going 10-6 and looked poised to make a move. Savage signed legitimate defensive players at areas of need. He shored up the defensive line with Shaun Rogers and Corey Williams for instance. he drafted some young, talented linebackers. He also made moves on offense even though that was an area of strength from 2007.

So the excuses are done. This year is the year Romeo has to prove himself. So far he has failed miserably. Now comes my opinion.

I have not liked Romeo from the start. Last year's success was "fool's gold!" (Kevin Kasper, 9/22/08) I couldn't have said it any better Kevin. The 10-6 record created a positive feeling that covered the huge deficiencies. Derek Anderson is not as good as he looked. They won games against inferior opponents. They only beat 1 winning team last year. 7 of the 10 wins came at home. They couldn't run the ball consistently when they had to contrary to a casual observers look at Jamal Lewis' numbers. Lewis, with a history of injuries, his one year older.

All of this adds up to disaster that I was hoping wouldn't happen. I kept getting a hard time from people claiming I am such a pessimist and I can't ever be positive about anything because I said Romeo isn't any good even after last year and I predicted the Browns would be lucky to go 7-9 this year. I tried to be positive. I really felt like 4-12 was more realistic and even stated it to some friends, but when on the record I stuck with 7-9....just to show some "positivity."

Looks like I was right. Looks like this teams isn't any good. Braylon Edwards can't catch ANYTHING. Anderson is proving to be fool's gold himself not nearly playing like the first half of last year. Lewis can't get any carries due to our constant deficits. The defense is hanging in there against bad offenses but still not getting pressure on the QB. I guess the run defense has shown some improvement but we shall see how that holds out.

Anyway, I blame this on Romeo. The team is not prepared. They are already fighting with one another (see Edwards v. Anderson) There are undisciplined penalties. The game planning is weak. Players are STILL getting staff infections (i.e. Joe Jurivicius). Players are still getting injured left and right (i.e. Donte Stallworth in warm ups??? for 6 weeks???? What secret STD did he acquire?) Bottom line, we aren't winning games.

Why blame Romeo you ask? He can't be blamed for all of that. He is the head coach. He needs to bust some heads when this happens. He needs to motivate these players. He needs to get Edwards to catch a FREAKING BALL THAT MY DAUGHTER COULD CATCH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!! He needs to get Quinn in there. He needs to get on Tucker's butt to scheme better defensive blitzes that don't get absorbed by a sorry Bungle offensive line. He needs to get on the trainers to prepare these guys to play without constantly getting hurt....EVERY YEAR!!

Changes need to be made. I love the new offensive coordinator Chudzinski. Keep him. I still trust Savage. He keeps signing big name guys. Freak things keep them from panning out...or their head coach does. He has drafted well thus far too.But everyone else including Romeo needs to get gone!

The only difference between now and 1999 is that we have some talent. Otherwise, we might as well start all over again. It is sad that we haven't even turned our calendars to Roctober and we are already forced to look to next year. Again. This is an all too familiar feeling. I am absolutely sick of it.