Thu Sep 02 2010
BEREA (AP) -- There were pump fakes and faked handoffs in Sunday's game between the Browns and Lions.
Eric Mangini believes there may have been some other deception.
On Monday, Cleveland's embattled coach questioned whether Detroit's defensive players faked injuries to slow down the Browns' no-huddle offense, which racked up a season-high 439 yards during a 38-37 loss.
Mangini didn't flatly accuse the Lions of cheating, but noted the high number of players who were helped from the field -- only to return.
"I'm just saying there were a lot of them (injuries)," he said.
Mangini's suggestion of foul play was rebuffed by Lions coach Jim Schwartz.
"He's way out of bounds on that," Schwartz said. "That couldn't be further from the truth. Both teams were running no huddle, and the officials did a very good job of standing over the ball, so there was no need to do that."
It isn't the first time Mangini, who worked with Schwartz when the two began their careers under Bill Belichick in Cleveland, has pointed a critical finger at a friend. When he coached in New York, Mangini accused Belichick and the New England Patriots of videotaping the Jets' defensive signals during the 2007 season opener.
The episode, known infamously as "Spygate," damaged Mangini's relationship with his mentor.
Mangini first raised the possibility that the Lions were pretending to be hurt during his postgame news conference.
"There were multiple, multiple, multiple injuries throughout our no-huddle process," Mangini said Sunday.
Browns wide receiver Chansi Stuckey supported Mangini's theory that the Lions were faking. According to the official play-by-play, there were six instances -- with five different players -- where a Detroit player went down with an injury during the no-huddle and then returned.
"Definitely," Stuckey said. "I knew that. That's what their coach does. If someone tries to do that (no huddle) to us, I would expect our guys to do the same thing. Unless it gets into that under two-minute situation where that causes a timeout, any other time it's fine and I would do the same thing.
Stuckey said the injury ruse can be effective in slowing down a hurry-up attack.
"Once you're going, those defensive linemen can't run in and off the field," he said. "They're getting tired, they do four, five pass rushes in a row, they're getting tired, so someone has to do something like that to try to slow us down and stop the rhythm and try to get some fresh guys on the field."
Lions linebacker Larry Foote was offended by Mangini's veiled charge that Detroit was cheating.
"We've been getting banged up all season," Foote said. "It doesn't matter if teams play the no-huddle or not. I don't know what is going on (with the injuries). Maybe we need to drink different water. Coach Mangini just needs to stop making comments about our team."
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