Jeff Walcoff, Staff Writer
11.03.2006
The Browns offense will slowly evolve into what new play-caller Jeff
Davidson envisions, the team's assistant head coach/offensive line
coach said Friday.

In his first meeting with the media since being named to his new post
last week, Davidson outlined some of his offensive philosophies as
well as his hopes for the future.

But most of all, he tried to focus on the present, stressing the
mentality the team will employ as it moves forward through the second
half of the 2006 season.

He said he's treating the team's midseason like a video game.

"A lot of these guys play video games and the easiest analogy we
talked about throughout the week, is, we got into a situation where
we hit the reset button," Davidson said. "Everyone was starting fresh
and new and we were starting with a new approach."

His overall plan for improvement employs the emphasis of two main
concepts: precision and cohesiveness.

"Precision is about everybody being responsible for their own actions
within the play. If one guy does the wrong thing the whole play is
messed up and our guys have to feel accountable for that. (With
cohesiveness), they all have a piece in each one of the plays. I've
tried to make sure they understand where their fit is."

As for the nuts and bolts of the offense, Davidson stressed that the
scheme the team currently employs is still that of former offensive
coordinator Maurice Carthon. The terminology and basis of the offense
remains the same. Davidson is simply calling the plays.

What have changed, however, is the play-calling strategies. Davidson
said he will concentrate on what he calls, "simplifying the plays and
multiplying the looks."

"When I learned under (former Patriots offensive coordinator) Charlie
Weis, we tried to find the plays we did best and find more ways to do
those under multiple personnel groups," Davidson said. "That becomes
the strength of the offense."

So far, so good. The team improved to 2-5 last week with a 20-13 win
over the New York Jets. The Browns posted a season-high 147 net yards
rushing.

Davidson, however, said fans shouldn't necessarily expect to see the
team run the ball 39 times per game, as they did during the win. Each
game plan, as well as what takes place as the game transpires, will
dictate how the team chooses to attack the opposing defense.

As for adapting the offense to a scheme more fit to Davidson's
liking, he said he simply hasn't had the time.

"I wish I could say I've gotten that far down the road," Davidson
said "We're trying to live in the here and now. We have one game to
play this week. Each week we hit the reset button. We get rid of what
just happened, good or bad, and move on to what will happen in the
next game. To try to figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow let
alone next year is very hard."

So in the mean time, the offensive coaching staff gathers under what
Davidson describes as a relatively democratic group of meetings where
each coach can present ideas and have them debated in front of the
group.

Another big change Davidson has employed is a move to the team's
aerial coaching box. About half the team's coaches view the game from
the press box level in order to better view formations and player
movement.

Both Carthon and Davidson viewed the game from the field prior to
Carthon's resignation with a few of the other offensive coaches in
the booth. When named signal-caller, Davidson made the decision to
move to the booth.

Davidson has a history of viewing from the booth from his time in New
England.

"I would see the play as it played out," Davidson said. "I was able
to see what the whole defense was. Also with all the papers I had to
put in front of myself, I needed a little space and it's hard to do
that on the sidelines."

In some ways it's just a series of small changes to an already-
installed offensive scheme. In other ways, it could drastically
affect the effectiveness of the team's offense for the remainder of
the 2006 season.

"The most important thing I see with this is that we, as a staff,
take this for what we think is and move forward (in the way that's)
the best for us," Davidson said. "The things that have happened in
the past are in the past."