I debated whether or not to wait for the final score to post this recap. The game was that over that early. Don’t let a fourth quarter of Browns offense against the prevent defense fool you. The Browns were schooled on Sunday. They were schooled so badly that there was a Jake Locker sighting after Tennessee had already put 31 points up on the board. The Browns defense managed to give up plenty of those and Colt McCoy and the offense gave one away as well. In the end, I did wait for the final score, Titans 31, Browns 13, but I really shouldn’t have bothered.
In the first half, the Browns gave up far too many big plays than they got of their own. The defense was gashed by Matt Hasselbeck and his tight end Jared Cook who connected on an 80 yard passing touchdown. The play was marred by bad coverage (Scott Fujita) and even worse tackling (Usama Young.) It is the kind of play that just can’t happen. The Browns bit hard on the draw and the completion was bad enough. For Usama Young to take as bad an angle to the receiver is unacceptable. He had the sideline and it should have worked to his advantage, but the big tight end evaded Young and squeezed up the sideline for the score to put the Titans up 14-6.
I’ll give the Browns an asterisk on the long 57 yard pass completion to Nate Washington, because the play should have been negated with a flag. Rather than run the prevent defense, the Browns sent pressure toward Matt Hasselbeck. A bit risky, but I can live with it. What happened though is that there was man-to-man coverage on the two receivers outside and they were allowed to execute a perfectly illegal pick to spring Nate Washington. Of course the Titans went on to score and go up 21-6 to end the first half.
For now, the rest doesn’t really matter. It was just bad.
The Cleveland Browns had a chance to head into their bye week 3-1, but they laid an absolute egg instead. The Browns lost to the Titans in pretty much every phase of the game. Colt McCoy looked like an absolute rookie. The defensive line failed miserably putting pressure on Matt Hasselbeck. The Browns offense moved the ball on occasion, but were unable to score much at all, let alone touchdowns.
And so the Browns head into the bye week at 2-2 instead of 3-1 and feeling as if they could have been 4-0 if they hadn’t given up a freak play to Cincinnati. Instead of positive thoughts heading into the bye, the Browns will be looking to regroup. They can regroup. They can do better. They need to do better. They must do better.
On the bright side, there were some Brian Robiskie sightings. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
(Also, yes, I know Montario Hardesty had four drops. I can only pack so much negativity into a single post. Stay tuned to WFNY this week and next for more.)
