Browns’ woes more than QB

By Nate Ulrich

Akron Beacon Journal

BEREA

Regardless of who plays quarterback for the Browns on Sunday, the offensive line desperately needs to make amends. Of course, earning redemption will be easier said than done against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Browns’ top two quarterbacks, Seneca Wallace and Jake Delhomme, were both under siege this past Sunday when they faced the Atlanta Falcons. They literally limped off the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium with mangled right ankles.

Meanwhile, banged-up running backs Peyton Hillis and Jerome Harrison had only 28 and 6 rushing yards, respectively. As a whole, the offense produced only 48 yards on 20 carries (2.4) after compiling 173 and 116 yards on in the ground the previous two weeks.

If the Browns can’t pose a threat running the ball, they become susceptible to a relentless pass rush. Falcons defensive end John Abraham proved it’s a recipe for disaster. He repeatedly manhandled Browns left tackle Joe Thomas, resulting in two of the Falcons’ three sacks and three of its four quarterback hits.

‘’Everything that happened kind of was exactly the way they wanted it,’’ Thomas, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, said. ‘’We feel like we’re a good running offense, and we knew how good they were at rushing the passer and we didn’t want to let them get a chance to just tee off in the pass rush. We knew we had to run the ball to win the game, and we weren’t able to do that.’’

So the Browns (1-4) know they must pound the Steelers’ defense with a running attack to give whomever plays quarterback — Colt McCoy and Brett Ratliff appear to be the top candidates if Delhomme and Wallace are unavailable — a chance to walk away from Heinz Field in good health. The Steelers (3-1), though, have the NFL’s fourth-ranked defense and are No. 1 against the run, allowing only 62.2 yards on the ground per game.

Plus, Hillis aggravated a pulled quadriceps Sunday, and coach Eric Mangini declined to reveal the status of his top running back during his news conference Monday. With Hillis in and out of the lineup against the Falcons, Harrison failed to provide a spark, averaging only 1 yard per carry.

‘’I think there were runs that he could have run better, but believe me, he wasn’t alone,’’ Mangini said of Harrison, who, like fellow backup James Davis, has been dealing with a thigh injury of his own in recent weeks. ‘’We didn’t block it well and that was across the board. Whether it was the O-line, whether it was the backs, whether it was the receivers, [the Falcons] did a better job than we did defending the run than we did running the ball.

‘’I’d like to be able to say it was just this one thing, but it wasn’t. It was a group effort. ... Sometimes he could have been better, could have hit the hole better. Sometimes there was no hole to be hit, and [the Falcons] did a nice job with it. It’s collective.’’