In acknowledging the disappointment, Lerner has agreed to meet with two longtime season-ticket holders organizing a protest to show their disgust with the team's decade of losing.
An upset Lerner told the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon-Journal on Sunday that he would not fire coach Eric Mangini during the club's bye week. Lerner did say he would like to bring in a "strong, credible, serious leader" to help run his team.
Lerner did not expand on who that person might be or if that person currently worked for the Browns. He recently brought in former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar in an unspecified consulting role.
SportsNation: Approval Ratings
After Sunday's loss to the Bears, only 5 percent of SportsNation approves of the job coach Eric Mangini has done with the Browns this season. Ratings
"We need as many credible, serious eyes and ears assessing this situation as is possible," Lerner said, according to the Plain Dealer.
Two fans, Mike Randall and Tony Schafer, have been urging fans to stay away from their seats for the opening kickoff of the Nov. 16 nationally televised game against Baltimore. The pair have a meeting scheduled with Lerner on Tuesday morning at the team's headquarters.
Randall, who's also known as "Dawg Pound Mike," plans to present Lerner with over 2,000 e-mails he has received from fans since announcing the "walk-in" protest. Randall says he hopes to persuade the ultraprivate Lerner to speak directly to Cleveland's fan base.
Mangini believes his process for turning around the team will work despite a horrid first half of the season. Mangini said he and Lerner share the same vision for improving the Browns. The Browns dropped to 1-7 on Sunday with a 30-6 loss in Chicago.
Mangini added he had a positive phone conversation with Lerner on Monday morning, and he feels he still has Lerner's support.
"I've never gotten a feeling otherwise in all of my conversations with Randy," Mangini said.
Mangini and his coaching staff will spend the bye week evaluating and analyzing every aspect of the team. He has no plans to change his offensive coordinator and will use the time off to decide whether to start quarterback Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn when the Browns play Baltimore on Nov. 16.
Anderson had a 10.5 rating on Sunday and was replaced late in the fourth quarter by Quinn, who began the season as Cleveland's starter but was benched after 10 quarters.
Anderson has the lowest QB rating in the league. Against the Bears, he completed just 6 of 17 passes for 76 yards and got intercepted twice.
"We'll look at it," Mangini said after the game. "We'll look at every single position."
Asked why he didn't lift Anderson sooner, Mangini replied: "I thought we actually moved the ball at times earlier."
Anderson, meanwhile, said he's "not happy about anything."
"I'm not happy that I got pulled out, I'm not happy we lost, I'm not happy about anybody's play, my play, nothing," he said. "I haven't been happy."
Randall said he and Schafer spoke briefly with Lerner before Sunday's game. In planning their demonstration for before the Monday night game against the Ravens, the fans had hoped to force Lerner and Cleveland's front office to address growing concerns about the club's direction as well as a lack of connection to the Browns' storied past.
"They are listening," Randall said. "We know that Randy cares and we don't want him to sell the team. Our goal is to get him to talk to the fans so we know what's going on. We're going to talk to him about a lot of things from stadium operations to the atmosphere on game days to our frustration that the fans are not being heard."
Randall said he and Schafer would spend Monday night putting together a formal presentation for Lerner, who took over ownership of the Browns after his father, Al, died in 2002. Lerner has been criticized by some Cleveland fans for not being more outspoken and available.
Lerner's ownership of English soccer club Aston Villa has been viewed by some as proof that he doesn't care about the Browns, who are on their fourth coach since 1999.
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