Cleveland Browns HC Pat Shurmur Shows Inexperience Again, Fails to Get Peyton Hillis Involved

Monday, October 17, 2011

Daniel Wolf/National Football Authority

By Bob Evans
Senior Writer

The drama surrounding the Peyton Hillis situation in Cleveland just won’t go away.

One year removed from being one of the games’ most feared running backs, Hillis has slipped into obscurity in first-year head coach Pat Shurmur’s installation of the West Coast Offense. What started as missing a game due to strep throat has snow-balled into one of the most talked about situations in all of the NFL.

After taking a lot of heat from the media and fans during the bye week, Shurmur vowed to get Hillis more involved in the Cleveland offense when they hit the road to take on the Oakland Raiders. After accumulating just 54 attempts for 197 yards and two touchdowns against Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Tennessee, it seemed as if a heavy dose of Hillis would be just what the doctor ordered on Sunday for the Browns' offense.

Instead, Hillis carried the ball just six times for 14 yards in the 24-17 loss to the Raiders. Hillis was relegated to the bench in a situation which has received conflicting reports since its occurrence during the game. Initially, ESPN’s John Clayton reported Hillis had been benched by the coaching staff, and his frustration could be seen during a conversation with the Browns’ running backs coach. However, Browns officials reported he had sustained a hamstring injury, which was the reason for his absence.

This contradictory report would have been believable, if it wasn’t for Hillis’ appearance back in the game minutes after the reported “hamstring injury.” If you go back and watch some of the sideline film from the game, Hillis was never seen on a bike attempting to loosen his hamstring, or working with trainers.

While the situation with Hillis continues on a pace which could result in a trade request before Tuesday’s trading deadline, one has to wonder what has happened over the last 10 months to warrant the complete 180-degree turn the organization has taken away from Hillis as the feature back of this organization.

At this point in time there is only one viable answer—the Browns’ new head coach is in way over his head.

Shurmur’s inexperience over the first six weeks of the NFL season can be easily seen as he struggles to manage the team and run an effective offense as the team’s offensive coordinator. There have been a number of clock management issues (the failure to use the remaining time outs on the final drive against Oakland is an example), an inability to provide a game plan Colt McCoy can find success with and the obvious problem with Hillis.

His choice to serve as the head coach and offensive coordinator was highly criticized when the announcement was first made, and it is safe to say this decision is one of the big reasons the offense hasn’t been able to get going this season either. You would be a fool to ignore the impact he had on then-rookie Sam Bradford last season as the offensive coordinator in St. Louis, but there is a major responsibility difference between head coach and coordinator.

The head coach is supposed to be the person uniting the team, managing the entire game, watching the clock and ensuring the correct personnel are on the field at any given time. When he takes on the responsibility of calling the offensive plays and reading defensive schemes on top of this, well, you have seen the results first-hand.

As the Browns return home for a matchup with the lowly Seattle Seahawks, Shurmur needs to look in the mirror and realize his inexperience is holding this team back from being much better than 2-3 at this point in the season. He needs to return Hillis to the unquestioned No. 1 running back, develop a game plan tailored to McCoy’s strengthens (more shotgun please) and get the ball to the likes of Ben Watson, Greg Little and Evan Moore in the passing game.

Because if he cannot get these three issues addressed, not only could Shurmur and the Browns be staring a 4-12 record in the face—the team could ruin the young duo of McCoy and Hillis before they had a chance to shine.


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