Weeden: We’re Going to Turn it Around
September 10, 2012Latest AP Poll: Ohio State Moves Up to 12
September 10, 2012While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“There’s a reason rookie quarterbacks struggled for the first nine decades of NFL history. It’s hard. Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck, Miami’s Ryan Tannehill, Cleveland’s Brandon Weeden and Seattle’s Russell Wilson all started Week 1 as rookies. They all lost.
Luck looked the best of the rookie quarterbacks, aside from Griffin. He also made rookie mistakes. He badly underthrew a pass his first interception, which was picked off by Tim Jennings. He was intercepted three times in all. When he did get his first touchdown pass, the Colts were trailing 34-14. Still, it was a promising debut:
The other teams starting rookie quarterbacks have to be a bit concerned that life will be difficult early in the season. Weeden was horrible. Even with Philadelphia’s Michael Vick trying everything he could to give the game away, Weeden kept giving it back. Weeden completed just 12 of his 35 attempts for 118 yards and four interceptions. That’s an almost unfathomably bad 3.4 yards per attempt. Cleveland lost by one point. A D-minus performance at quarterback might have given the Browns the upset.” [Schwab/Shutdown Corner]
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“Heartbreak and Cleveland Browns season openers. They just go hand-in-hand, don’t they? When D’Qwell Jackson returned an interception 27 yards with 13:59 remaining in the game, Phil Dawson kicked an extra point to put the Browns ahead by six points.
Every Browns fan thought the same thing. “Final: Eagles 17, Browns 16.”
They were right. Final: Eagles 17, Browns 16. Nine minutes after the Browns took the lead on Jackson’s pick-six, Michael Vick connected with tight end Clay Harbor on a four-yard touchdown pass, which capped a 16-play, 91-yard drive.
That’s 1-13 in openers for the Browns since 1999. Sunday’s game was another heartbreaking season-opening home defeat thrown on top of the pile tough-to-swallow losses to begin a season.” [Delco/The OBR]
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“I’m very disappointed with Weeden’s performance, because this is not the level of incompetence I expected. In the long run, though, we need to stay focused as fans. For as bad as Weeden was, you don’t give up on the quarterback you committed to after his first game as a rookie. Hopefully Weeden is humble about this, re-gathers himself, and comes back with a better performance next week against the Bengals.
At least we know the defense can bring it.” [Pokorny/Dawgs By Nature]
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“Looking at the basic team offense statistics, it’s easy to see where the blame might lie: turnovers and penalties. After the game Urban Meyer was quoted as saying: “Pick your poison,” he said. “Turnovers and penalties. You can’t win. That’s not a good team.”
After not turning the ball over once against Miami, the offense had two fumbles and a weird, back-foot, underthrown duck of an interception from Braxton. It’s easy to see that penalties and turnovers killed the offense’s momentum multiple times throughout the game, but the most worrisome statistic to me is 72%: the percentage of yards due to Braxton Miller. Of course he’s going to account for the majority of yards in a game – he’s a likely future Heisman candidate and quarterbacks generally account for the majority of an offense’s yards anyway. The problem is when the offense is solely dependent upon Miller – and specifically his legs – to be successful.” [Peltier/Eleven Warriors]
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This is really depressing. The last time the Browns won an opener… [Rebuilding Since 1964]