Good 'bye': Browns get chance to heal

After a week off, Cleveland will play back-to-backroad games.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns will have two weeks to commiserate over Sunday's failure, and not the least of their worries is a 4-5 record with back-to-back road games staring at them.
"It's real tough, no doubt about it," said a talkative Earl Holmes, the former Steeler now Cleveland linebacker. "You have a chance to be where you want to be, especially in an open weekend. It is a setback ... there is still a lot of football left. We just have to go back in and correct the mistakes we made, and the things that we are doing well, continue to work on them."
Holmes made a good point: the Browns have a great number of players who are either hurt or suffering from nagging injuries. The off week will give them a chance to heal.
"I'll tell you one thing," said coach Butch Davis. "We're going to win some games this year. We're 4-5 with a lot of season left. We're going to see if we can't win some games and get back into the race."
Recipe for success
To do that, the Browns must get some kind of a rushing attack going and protect quarterback Tim Couch.
Sunday, Cleveland rushed for only 36 yards -- Jamel White left in the third quarter with a shoulder injury -- and Couch was sacked four times.
"We talked all week about getting off to a better start and we did that," said Couch. "All of a sudden their defense just started to play well; they forced me into some bad throws and it was tough to get into the flow of the game."
Davis said he was disappointed in the way the Browns lost their composure.
"We had too many penalties and we had a difficult time getting enough pressure and getting them out of third down," he said. "We started off OK, but we couldn't break the quarterback's [Tommy Maddox] rhythm. We didn't get enough hits and we didn't get enough pressures."
Conversely, on offense, "We had some big plays and we were able to take a lead, but the protection just broke down," continued Davis. "The quarterback [Couch] got hit way too many times. You can't have that volume of pressure on the quarterback and expect to be as efficient as you want to be."
Browns defensive back Devin Bush was upset following the loss.
"We had it right there for the taking," he said. "We came out playing hard and should have taken control of the game. We let them hang in there, just like the first game, and they came back on us. Now, we have to dig ourselves out of another hole."