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Do we like a coach that calls out the players in the media? I go back and forth on this. A big part of the reason that it feels uncomfortable is because Jeff Fisher and Mike Munchak really never did it. Fisher never did it until a player was past the point of no return (i.e. Billy Volek).
Whisenhunt has done it a few times since he took over as coach. The most notable was Zach Brown, who was pretty much the only player that Whiz said anything about from last year's film. It was clear that he was trying to motivate Brown with that. It seemed to work OK with Brown, I guess.
Anyway, Whisenhunt called out his offensive line in yesterday's press conference. You are familiar with the play. It was 4th and less than 1 with a little over three minutes left in the game. The Titans had the ball at their own 41-yard line. The score was 28-22 and the defense had been on the field for most of the 2nd half. A first down there pretty much puts the game out of reach for Cleveland.
The play call was a QB sneak. Whisenhunt gave his reasoning for that call as something like 85% of QB sneaks in 1-yard or less to go situations were successful last year. The number drops into the low 70's percentage-wise if you hand the ball off to the running back (IIRC).
Aside: I get the numbers, but this is the exact reason you have Shonn Greene on the roster. When are you going to use him if you are not going to use him here?
Aside II: The Browns had stuffed the Ravens on pretty much the exact same play 2 weeks earlier. Did Whisenhunt take that into consideration?
Aside III: I love the call to go for it there. The defense was gassed. Go out and try to win the game. Don't kick it away and hope that you can hang on. I just would have liked a different play call.
None of that is what the post is about. The post is about the fact that Whisenhunt called out the offensive line for not firing off the ball. He talked about young guys not understanding the situation. Kuharsky then asked him if he considered center Brian Schwenke and guard Chance Warmack "young" players. He said something along the lines of "they play like it sometimes."
Hopefully Schwenke and Warmack take the message to heart and start mauling people from the first whistle to the last. Something has to go right for this team eventually, right?
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