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Sunday, October 14, 2001

Instead of serving as sacrificial lambs for the Steelers at the opening of Heinz Field, could the Cleveland Browns be competing for a playoff berth when they finally play here Jan. 6?

There have been plenty of surprises through the first month of the NFL season and among them are the 3-1 Browns. They've already matched their victory total from last season and Coach Butch Davis has them believing they can do much more. They were 5-27 in their first two years of re-existence.

The Browns did something the Steelers could not, win in Jacksonville, and their defense has not allowed more than 275 yards in any of their four games. That's something no Cleveland team has done four times in a row in 28 years.

"They're playing hard," said Rick Reiprish, Jacksonville's director of player personnel. "Sure they're fired up. Motivation won't be a problem for them. When you play hard in this league, that's half the battle. You don't have to have the most talent, you don't need the highest-paid players. By busting your tail and running all over the place, you can win."

Reiprish knows because he saw his Jaguars reach the AFC championship game in just their second season after joining the league as an expansion team in 1995. Cleveland is in its third season. Carolina also reached the NFC championship game in its second season.

The Browns have carved out their 3-1 record -- tied for the AFC Central lead with those former Browns, the Baltimore Ravens -- without injured defensive lineman Courtney Brown.

"You have to go and play hard," Reiprish said. "Players realize that effort, stamina, endurance and toughness can overcome a lack of talent."

So, too, can coaches. Davis left the University of Miami for $3 million a year with the Browns. The NFL has reached such a state of parity because of the salary cap/free agency that the biggest edge a team can have is its coach and front office. A great coach should get more out of the same team than one not so great. A smart front office can determine the best ways to spend the team's available money under the cap.

Reiprish believes Davis has helped make a difference, but he also thinks Chris Palmer wasn't given enough time when he was fired as coach after two seasons. The Browns hired Palmer from the Jaguars, where he was offensive coordinator, as their first coach. He is the coordinator in waiting for the expansion Houston Texans, who start play next season.

"Chris had to start from scratch," said Reiprish, a native of Shamokin. "Two years are not enough to evaluate a coach, especially of a first-year team. I didn't think that was a very good evaluation of him as a football coach.

"It's not an easy job. To get a team and put it together like we did and he had to do, you have to get lucky. If Morten Anderson doesn't miss a field goal in the final game of our second year, we're not in the playoffs.

"Butch is fortunate that Chris and the group up there made good choices on players and made some wise decisions."

Said Palmer, "A lot of coaches and players put a lot of time and effort into it for two years, and it's starting to pay off for them. Butch and his staff are doing a great job."

The Browns have three new starters on defense -- tackles Gerard Warren and Mark Smith and linebacker Dwayne Rudd. Orpheus Roye, given a big contract last year as a free agent from the Steelers, is at defensive end in place of the injured Brown.

Quarterback Tim Couch started the first seven games in 2000 before a broken thumb ended his season. His passer rating of 76.1 is about average but he leads all AFC quarterbacks with a 106.1 rating in the fourth quarter, when he pulled out victories in games at Jacksonville and at home against San Diego.

Davis has compared Couch to Troy Aikman, whose first Dallas Cowboys team went 1-15.

"He rises to the occasion," Davis said, "and that's kind of what superstars do ... when their backs are against the wall, they find a way to win and that's the way Tim's persona is starting to develop."