Time after time this season, Jerome Harrison has been productive whenever he has been inserted into a game. If he receives one touch, it goes for over 10 yards. If he receives two touches, he totals over 20 yards, and so on. The problem has been that after that short spurt of playing time, Harrison doesn't see the field the rest of the game.
In this morning's Plain Dealer, head coach Romeo Crennel had another baffling quote:
"We planned to try to use him [Harrison] and that's why we got him into the game in the first half. Sometimes it happens that maybe the ball doesn't get in your hands. The ball wasn't in his hands as much the second half. We're going to try to see if we can be a little more consistent about getting the ball in his hands."
To me, that sounds like pure stubbornness, either from Crennel or Rob Chudzinski. Heading into the game, the coaches have one little package or series in mind to dedicate to Harrison, with the rest designed for Lewis. No matter how well or how poorly each running back does during the game, adjustments are not made to the "flow" or "tempo" of the game.
The same thing happened with Derek Anderson earlier this season. Brady Quinn was on "high alert", but that didn't mean a thing because the coaching staff was too reliant on what they had planned heading into the game (I'm referring mainly to the Cincinnati Bengals game here, where Anderson played poorly enough to be benched after the first half).
Nonetheless, I suppose it's positive to hear that an effort will be made to give Harrison more touches, although I could've sworn I heard the same thing from Crennel two or three other times this season.
On another note, remember Shantee Orr? He has been neglected so much in terms of playing time that I completely forgot about the possibility of using him in the linebacker rotation. Orr is expected to be brought into the mix this week, which will slightly decrease the playing times of Kamerion Wimbley, Alex Hall, and Willie McGinest.
Crennel's assessment of Wimbley provides some entertainment too:
As for Wimbley, Crennel said, "It has been an unproductive year as far as sack totals. But Wimbley's been a consistent player, [and gives] consistent effort. I think he's improved as a player. We'll just keep working with him to see if we can improve that [sack] total so that everyone feels a little better about him."
Consistently sprinting around the left tackle with no results, indeed.