If you’re a regular reader of the sports pages, you know that folks love reading about quarterbacks. This means that writers like to write about them because their articles get a good readership. So, a lot has been written about the Browns feel-good story, Joe Flacco, and justifiably so: He’s been amazing since leaving his couch and putting on a Browns uniform.Fans make signs and hold them up in the stadium. “Flacco Around and Find Out” memes fly across the Internet. Gear bearing his name flies off the shelves. And outlets even write stories about which donut shop he goes to get coffee.
As Jeff Schudel points out in the Morning–Journal, the Texans just aren’t sure what to do about Cooper, after he torched them for 265 yards on eleven catches on Christmas Eve. Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans laments: “Watching it again, he had some of the best catches I’ve seen all year. Even though guys were in coverage and in position, he still made unbelievable catches.”
Sometimes, you can just tip your cap.
I’m not in the locker room or hanging around the players like Fred Greetham is, but I can get the sense from videos and how he interacts with his teammates that Cooper is very respected. He doesn’t seem to be a very vocal guy, but when he speaks, his teammates listen. Like Flacco, he brings playoff experience with him from the Raiders and Cowboys. What he doesn’t bring with him are diva attitudes and prima donna problems.So, if you’re DeMeco Ryans and the Houston Texans, how do you deal with Amari Cooper? As I offered in my usual paranoid delusions
during OBR Weekly last night, I’m not sure you do. The Texans should try to deal with the Browns run game first – a much easier target – and try to make the Browns offense one-dimensional. They had better hope that their edge rushers Will Anderson, Jonathan Greenard, and Jerry Hughes – none of whom practiced yesterday – are able to play and get pressure on Flacco, not allowing Cooper the time to get open downfield. Focus on the weak spots in the Cleveland offense: The offensive tackles and the running game, which struggles at times, and hope that takes down the whole operation.
