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Cleveland Browns expect Mike Pettine to survive bye

By The Sports Xchange
Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine watches the replay from the sidelines at Heinz Field during the first half of the Steelers 30-9 win in Pittsburgh on November 15, 2015. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI
Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine watches the replay from the sidelines at Heinz Field during the first half of the Steelers 30-9 win in Pittsburgh on November 15, 2015. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo

PITTSBURGH -- Owner Jimmy Haslam will not make any personnel changes during the Cleveland Browns' bye week.

That's good news for head coach Mike Pettine, has the Browns at 2-8 entering the bye after going 7-9 in his rookie season last year.

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"I had a good meeting with Jimmy the other day," Pettine said. "We discussed a lot of things, including what's going well and what hasn't been going well. We discussed what the plan is moving forward. Where we are right now isn't good enough. We're challenged as a staff to do a little soul searching, come up with some answers and make sure when we come out of this break, we're ready to go and ready to snap this streak."

Reports surfaced early Sunday that Pettine's preference to not start Johnny Manziel could hurt his long-term status with the Browns.

However, Haslam entered the NFL as a partial owner of the Steelers, who have had only three head coaches in Pettine's lifetime. Haslam wants to build consistency, but reserves judgment about his coach until the end of the season.

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Manziel might have earned another start Sunday, surviving six sacks to go 33 of 45 for 372 yards. But he did not lead the Browns to a touchdown until 12:28 remained in the game.

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