May 24, 2013

Browns Capitalize on Colts Mistakes, Win 27-19

September 18, 2011 by 24 Comments

The Browns exorcised the demons of a week ago as they finally took the opportunity to build a lead of more than one score.  The Browns had a 17-12 lead when Peyton Hillis finally broke through in the fourth quarter for a 24-yard touchdown run with 4:01 remaining in regulation.  The Browns added a field goal to stretch their lead to 27-12.  They   gave up a meaningless touchdown in the two minute drill and end up winning 27-19.  That final score was only meaningless because the Browns finally went up by a comfortable margin.  It hasn’t happened a whole lot around here recently.

Pat Shurmur gets his first win.  Colt McCoy and the Browns get their first win of the season.  The Browns defense plays well and forces turnovers against a reeling Indianapolis team that misses Peyton Manning even more than I thought they would.  It wasn’t perfect, but it is what the Browns needed to do.  They aren’t enough of a known quantity as a team to be considered a “lock” in any game as we (and presumably they) learned last week against Cincinnati.  

Far be it for me to feel sorry for the Colts who were without Peyton Manning.  You don’t wish injury on anyone, and certainly it is impossible to argue that the NFL is better off with Peyton Manning out of action.  That being said, when your team has a chance to take advantage of an injury they simply must to take it.  Nobody has ever given the Browns any points when they’ve faced injuries.   There are no asterisks on the final NFL standings at the end of the season.  Back to the game.

The Browns defense gave the Browns offense a chance to go out and win by forcing field goals and that’s exactly what they did.  The offense wasn’t overly efficient as Brad Maynard punted five times (201 yards!) and Peyton Hillis gave a fumble away.  In fact, if there is one big negative to this win, the Browns fumbled the ball five times and six if you count Jabal Sheard’s ill-advised pitch even though he was eventually ruled down by contact.

There will be more time later for the negativities that go with constructive criticism.  For now, we’ll go with the positives.  The Cleveland Browns won as a team.  Josh Cribbs, Greg Little, Peyton Hillis, Phil Taylor, Jabal Sheard, Jayme Mitchell, and plenty more deserve recognition in the victory.

For the fans, this means a pleasant week.  Monday will be a joy to listen to sports radio and talk about the Browns on this site.  Enjoy it.  The Browns players deserve it and we fans deserve it too.

Your Cleveland Browns are 1-1 and will welcome a tough Dolphins team to Cleveland next week.

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  • MallaLubba

    For the record, I think that sign is in really bad taste.

  • Chris

    We’re tied in the standings with Baltimore and Pittsburgh, let’s enjoy that while we can…

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Craig Lyndall

    I don’t disagree MallaLubba… that was part of the reason I said what I did about Peyton Manning. There is no doubt the league is worse without that guy. Probably the best QB of most of our lifetimes so far. Certainly a guy who changed the game with all his audibles and game calls.

  • Subadai

    Manning is, in my opinion, a LITTLE over-rated…. just a little. As a Brown-fan, I would take him on our squad in a minute. But I always come back to the fact that Belicheck’s (sp?) full-strength Pats teams always owned him. They got physical w the receivers and gave up ZERO inside releases to them (I remember Vrabel assaulting Dallas Clark at the LOS and LAYING on top of him for the duration of entire plays).

    They made Manning throw outside the hashes and deep. The big secret is that Manning has never had a huge arm. The pats always made him pay for that.

  • C-Bus Kevin

    Yeah, the sign is in pretty poor taste. However, it was a lot of fun to see the camera cut to Hoosiers getting a taste of what it normally feels like to be a Cleveland fan.

    I still say the booing by the colts fans at the end of the game was pretty funny. They were probably in shock more than anything else. I just don’t know if I could boo a team that, over the last decade, has been able to take the last week or two off because they have already secured a home playoff game.

  • C-Bus Kevin

    @sub

    While I agree that the patriots have more or less owned the colts during mannings time in Indy, that is the ONLY team that can say that…and that’s win a couple head to head games going to the colts.

    Payton manning is one of the greatest players of all time. The stats and the eyeball test tell the tale.

    It might just be possible that the colts are dog poo without him, because he makes them look that good when he plays. He makes every receiver he plays with look like a pro bowler.

    Sorry to get on my stump Subadai. Don’t mean to snark. Just disagree.

  • http://Horace@yahoo.com Horace

    @MallaLubba:

    Agreed, it’s signs like this one that do nothing but embarrass our fine city. Fans need to keep it classy, don’t be like Raiders fans.

  • Subadai

    C-Bus.

    Don’t get me wrong. He’s in the top 3 of QB’s of his generation… We just need to remember that he’s not perfect.. no one is. If a team is built around one player and one player only, the team is flawed and it inherits its flaws from that one player. Manning is great. He bosses that team by running around at a million miles an hr w/ his hair on fire. But.. clearly that is not the way to build a dynastic team. Fact is, he and the Colts were eye-to-eye w/ Brady and the Pats in the prime of his career and he and the Colts failed. The pats were complete and the the Colts had Manning.

    You know what proves my point even more? The Pats have become the Colts (All-world QB. Average every where-else) over the last three seasons and have won… nothing.

  • Jack

    weird rxns to the sign. nbd, y’all.

  • Shamrock

    Who cares about a stupid sign, I mean seriously? Enjoy the win.

  • Cleveland12

    My reflections..
    Josh Cribbs all the way!
    Peyton Hillis – what a beast!
    Little is getting bigger
    Ward and Haden solid game.
    Our 12 is lucky, thank God!
    Miami fish, gutted and fried served Sunday please…

  • Stevo

    Glad they got the win…

    Hillis had 2.5 yds per carry until the longer TD run. Have to get the defense to respect something else.

    Why was Hardesty so absent? You’d think you’d see a more even he and Hillis split carries until late in the game. Hillis should be the closer.

    Something is still not clicking on offense. Play design/selection? No respect for WR’s? Stacking the LOS? I dunno…

  • -bobby-

    @ sub- you may have been right if they quit playing in 04 (going into playoffs), but since 05 the Colts are 5-2 against Indy including playoffs. I think Manning is certainly the best QB Ive seen in my life time. The problem in Indy is they let him have too much coach like control.

  • Grif_E

    I’m pro that sign! Mainly because next you guys are going to try and stop us from making Gloria James jokes and frankly that is something I cannot abide.

    Peyton/Peyton sign 2012!

  • Subadai

    Bobby:

    How old are you?

    I was born in 1974 and I’ve seen at least three QB’s better than Peyton Manning:

    In no particular order:

    John Elway
    Dan Marino
    Joe Montana

    I’ve said all along that I don’t mean to take anything away from the guy… Neck injury and all… I would trade Colt McCoy (or any other QB not named Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Phillip Rivers) for him right now. But I think he is over-rated because he is flavor of the month as far as the media (ESPN) is concerned. All I’m saying is that he has flaws and that those flaws have been exposed and exploited in the past. Also, what the Colts are about to go thru is an object lesson in why you don’t build an NFL team around just one guy for over a decade.

  • C-Bus Kevin

    I know we’ve taken over this article with a debate about manning, but I just looked at his wikipedia page.

    I’m sorry Subadai, bit your “flavor of the month” comment holds no water. Manning is clearly one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. That, and I’m pretty sure any NFL team exec would trade at least 5 to 7 years of mediocre to poor play for the incredible decade manning has given the colts.

    Do you really think the Colts are learning a tough lesson? Have you been to Lucas Oil Stadium. The guy might as well have built it himself withe the support he’s mustered for he colts in an Indy Car/basketball-first state.

  • oribiasi

    @ Subadai – Couldn’t agree more. You never, ever bet against Montana or Marino back in the day. How quickly we forget.

  • http://clevelandsportsupdate Travis

    Good to see the wide receivers have the most receptions for a change. Brian Robiskie needs to be put on special teams instead being on the field as a WR. He is a complete non-factor.

  • NJ

    Never bet against Marino? Except in the playoffs, of course.

  • Vengeful Pat

    I don’t think Robiskie is fast or strong enough to be a special teams guy. If he can’t make it as a wide receiver, he’s going to get released. That probably wouldn’t happen until after the season is over though. As much as we dislike him disappearing from entire games, he still provides better depth and a knowledge of the offense than random receiver X. I wish I had been able to watch the game yesterday… only saw updates. How did the offensive line do? Was our front four getting pressure on defense?

  • -bobby-

    @sub- I am not trying to say your wrong or anything by any means, because greatest QB ever talk is always something thats just opinion and not too overly factual. I will disagree whole heartedly that Manning is the 3rd or 4th best in the game (without the neck surgery). He’s been playing with that compressed nerve for 3-4 seasons I believe. And hes still the best in the NFL those years. Talk about not wanting it in Marinos or Montana’s hands, but Belichick (arguably the greatest coach this decade) would rather risk a 4th down play then punt it to Manning. While Brees, Rodgers, Brady and Rivers certainly have their strengths I dont know that any of them have such a command on the game that Manning does.

  • Vengeful Pat

    I’m not going to get too much into the Manning discussion other than to remind everyone that Manning has only once had a great defense to help him out. That was the year the Colts won the Superbowl and their defense was ranked 1st in the league. I looked at the defensive scoring-against rankings going back to 2002 on ESPN (that’s as far back as they go) and Tom Brady has had one of the best defenses behind him over that span with an average ranking of 7.1. The Colts over the same span averaged 12.2. That’s a big difference when you consider how many years it covers, and shows that the Colts have had a pretty average defense over those 9 years compared to a very good defense over the same span from the Patriots. So you could probably argue that if Manning had the Patriots’ defense over the same span, he might have a couple more Superbowl wins than Brady.

  • Keith

    In regards to the post from Subadai on QB’s better than Peyton Manning. What is your grading system? I am curious to know, if we were to look at Super Bowl wins or apperances, Dan Marino wouldn’t be in the conversation (that’s no knock on Marino and yes 1 SB appereance). Yes statistically. I would venture to say to your list, I would have added:

    Steve Young
    Jim Kelly (took his team to 4 SB)

    If we are going “old school QBs” or the ones that I have seen (I was born in 1972)

    IMO, you want a guy that can get you in the position to win year in and year out, but the bottom line with all of it, is how many rings are on the finger or at minimum got you to the SB. Again that is no knock on any of the QBs you listed, but if you are going to list Marino, you should at least add the two I mentioned.

  • B-bo

    The “Greatest QB Ever” Debate is pretty simple to figure out, actually.

    1. Who is the QB you are considering for G.O.A.T. status?

    If you answered “Joe Montana”, then you are correct.
    If you answered “(insert any name that is not Joe Montana here)”, then you are incorrect. Please try again.

    By the way, this approach also works for “Greatest RB Ever” (substitute Jim Brown for Joe Montana) as well as “Greatest WR Ever” (substitute Jerry Rice for Montana).