While We’re Waiting… Young players showing progress, or are they?
December 3, 2012Is this the beginning of a Browns running committee?
December 3, 2012Who caught your eye? Did someone stand out? Who blew it? That’s what were interested in this morning. Winners and losers.
What’s this? Consecutive weeks in which we get to run this feature after a win? Interesting. A guy could get used to this…
WINNER: Josh Gordon. Before we get too crazy, we all agree that Oakland’s defensive backfield is pretty bad. That said, this was a really nice game for Gordon. Six catches for 116 and a very nice TD. Should have had a second as well, but a badly under thrown ball prevented it. Gordon has been solid and getting better. He is well worth the second round pick the Browns used on him in the supplemental draft, at least early on. Given an offseason to further develop should help make Gordon a real weapon next year. If he can stay out of trouble.
WINNER: Greg Little. We’ve mentioned Little’s blocking in this space before, but yesterday it was pretty visible. I’m not entirely sure the big block was legal, as it seemed maybe Little hit him in the back a bit, but it was aggressive. He also didn’t didn’t hurt the team at all with his hands. Four catches for 48 yards. Good game Greg.
WINNER: Sheldon Brown. Well, maybe this is just the day for popular whipping boys to get some credit. Brown was very good yesterday, and was targeted a lot. His interception was obviously a huge play in the game. He had other nice pass breakups as well. Helped support the running game. Just a solid effort.
LOSER: Josh Cribbs. Sometimes Josh, you need to take the knee. You really do.
Ok, it’s your turn. I left plenty of meat on the bone for you.
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WINNERS: Weeden and Shurmur. For a while there in the second half, this game had come-from-ahead loss written all over it. That would have been devastating. But Weeden got ‘er done with that beautiful long drive, and Shurmur didn’t have to hyperventilate all throughout the flight home.
LOSER: Phil Dawson. What an unfortunate way to have the streak end.
WINNERS: The rest of the rookies/sophs on offense. Greg Little appears to have grown up and is putting the team ahead of his own ego, and it’s great to see. Gordon, Richardson, and Schwartz are making a strong case for Heckert keeping his job.
LOSER: Buster Skrine. That cannot happen. If you can’t make a play on the ball, at the very least you have to make the tackle. Buster butchered that play, whiffing on both.
WINNER: Montario Hardesty. He’s definitely making the most of his opportunities.
LOSER: Browns fans in Columbus without the NFL Package because the local affiliate here showed the Bengals (just like they did at the end of last season when the Browns were out of contention and the Bengals were still in it).
Watching on an internet stream is better than nothing, and it’s better than the days when I had to go outside in the snow to turn the aerial, but c’mon Columbus TV! People in Cincinnati don’t even care about the Bengals
Winners: How about the offense with a game closing drive for once!!!!!!!!! Pat had a good day as well. Starting to come together pepper. Starting to come together.
Winner- Gordon. I feel confident in saying we have a #1 WR.
Winner- Hardesty. What a nice surprise he has been. Great change of pace. He has earned 5-10 carries per game.
Winner- Weeden. Good game against a bad defense.
Winner- progress. It’s cliche, but the first step to become successful is beating the teams you should beat. We did that.
Loser- scoring efficiency. Almost 500 yards of offense and only 20 points? Need to do better
Grow up and go to a Bar.. There are plenty to choose from plus the plethera of other members of Browns Nation
Winner: PHYSICALITY (suck on that, Nerd Club): if an identity is emerging, this is it. Three of Oakland’s defensive players left the game with concussions, none on illegal head shots, and their coaches are complaining the Browns really beat them up for their upcoming Thursday game. Good job, Heckert.
Winner: Weeden. If you’ve got the arm but lose touch when you’re too geeked up, gotta learn how to shake it off and figure out how to win. Very nice poise down the stretch.
Loser: consistent refereeing. How was Little’s block on the MoMass long-gainer ok, but Gordon gets fined for a blindside last week?
Loser: TJ Ward’s pass coverage. Relax, half-kidding. But last week a would-be interception bonked off his head, yesterday not sure how another long pass missed it. In neither case did he ever turn around. TJ is to deep pass coverage what Jose Canseco was to outfield play.
Loser: Cribbs keeping his head. As inevitable as winter chill, when the opposition kicks after a momentum-changing play Cribbs tries to do too much himself, either rip a return with such ferocity that he exposes the ball for a fumble or tries to bring one out against better judgement. Control yourself, Josh.
Benedict Arnold. I remember what happened to Bobby Brady. You would do well to keep that in mind.
Seriously. A member of the Nerd Club betraying the Nerd Club. I never!
LOSER: PHIL DAWSON. HORRIBLE CUT HIM NOW. GAHH. WHAT A LOSER.
Winner: You stole it, but Sheldon Brown. He played a stout game. I stand absolutely convinced that Sheldon gets a far too disproportionate amount of criticism because of the amount of targets his receivers get. Yesterday proved my point, and that he is still a bona fide NFL DB. I love this guy.
Winner: Greg Little. He’s getting stouter and stouter by the day.
Winner: Joe Haden. The lack of passes to any receiver he was covering proves how stout of a player he is. He’s the reason Sheldon’s receivers always get targeted.
Winner: Stockyard Oatmeal Stout. Had two during the game. Not bad. Not bad.
Loser: Physicality. The word, not the supposed activity or state of being that the word supposedly depicts. Indeed, I thought the Browns played, and have consistently played, with great physicalosity.
Loser: Harv21. By extension.
Loser: Buster Skrine. My goodness. Two consectutive bad, potentially costly plays. It’s just a good thing that Buster Bluth has forever redeemed that name. “Hey brother.”
For sure!
Even when he screws up, he’s awesome. His accuracy in nailing that guy’s hand was a thing of beauty! He meant to do it.
Loser: Browns fans….because somehow Owen Marecic was on the active roster again.
Phil Dawson once missed a FG, just to see how it felt. His team, the Browns, still won the game.
Harv is not a man to stab you in the back. No, he will go straight for the aorta to ensure the job is done properly.
OK, maybe still nursing a grudge from what I perceived to be unprovoked internecine (benedictine?) warfare last week, a veritable pecking party in the coop after a ridic accusation that I poach ESPN-speak. I intend to use this word 3 consecutive weeks and then I’ll feel better. Let me purge, brother, I’ll be all right.
Brother Owen, let us convene The Tribunal.
ooooohhhhhmmmmmm ….
On the play where it looked like the Browns got a bad spot on the QB on 3rd down why did Shurmur not throw the red flag? If he planned to take a timeout anyways why not? The worst that could happen is that you lose a timeout and its fourth and inches (which happened anyways) and it is possible that the refs could have changed the spot and an additional QB sneak was not needed.
and BTW, I’ve been labeled a loser by far lesser lights than Your Stoutness.
(and isn’t it a little early in the day for a thread hijack?)
This, well done.
On a recent visit to the beach in Florida, Phil Dawson kicked a field goal into the wind of Hurricane Sandy. It split the uprights in Pittsburgh.
a mass of humanity makes the likelihood of actually having the play overturned miniscule. why have the delay and then have the refs tell you the play stands anyway?
I liked the call because the OL looked angry at the spot (Lauvao waving his hands like crazy to go for it) and Shurmur went with that emotion and told them to show the refs where to put the ball.
Sometimes, you have to just go with the emotion and let the team do it’s job. And, they did.
Really. Really?
It is, indeed. But you called down the thunder, ripping on the Nerd Club.
As with all great conflicts, the history books will have to sort out the “who started what and when they started it,” but I hereby withdraw my forces to my borders.
I still would not have called the TO, though. If you’re going with the emotion, just go with it!
fair point. maybe he wanted to get a good Mel Gibson rant in there before the play. definitely don’t want to see our OL mooning the opposing sideline though.
so much stout physicality yesterday. those football players really played some football on the gridiron.
…stout…
Winner: Browns in the elements. Bad weather day vs. SD & Oakland this year have yielded 2 wins. Sure, the worst of the wind/rain was gone, but the field didn’t look great (sloppy). That is when you show what toughness you have and our team sure seems tough.
Winner: Weeden throwing beyond the 15yd mark. Hey, remember early in the year when Weeden would throw the ball past 15yds the LOS? Well, the safeties were cheating to stopping our run (which still wasn’t working) and that meant Weeden was free to go deep again.
Winner: WR corps – Gordon is legit, Little is feisty, everybody else was catching the ball when given the opportunity. Sure, it was the Raiders, but still good to see.
Winner: Prevent Defense – you will rarely, ever, ever, see me put the Prevent as a winner. But, our defense played it to perfection on that last drive. Sure, the Raiders could have been smart and kicked a FG with a minute left to actually give themselves a shot at winning the game (41yd FG opportunity), but they played right into our hands and it worked out beautifully.
Winner/Loser: Carson Palmer – the absolute king of garbage time stats this season. He puts up HUGE numbers, after his team is down by double-digit points and the opposing defense gives him yards/pts in exchange for a ton of clock.
Winner: Browns OL – time to throw, lanes to run. Didn’t matter what we did, we did it well on the OL.
Winner: Piggybacking on that last one, the Browns 4th quarter offense. 9:31 left in the game, up by 3. Let’s take a 15-play, 6min drive to take the life out of the opposing team and make it a 10pt lead. Man, does that feel good? yeah it does.
Loser: Skrine – not just the not being physically able to cover some WRs, but that interference penalty on the punt could have really cost us. He has to be smarter than that.
Loser: FS – anyone we put at S opposite Ward needs to be a coverage fiend (as Ward’s main skill is underneath and run support). We have failed again here and let up another big over-the-top TD. sigh.
Loser: Ok, there are a bunch of other little things. For as well as we moved the ball and controlled things, we should have scored more points. We also had breakdowns at LBer (Maiava especially) and our coverage was geared towards stopping the WRs but allowed some more underneath stuff that we could have done better on. Also, the DL which has been great lately, was merely average as they didn’t get the pressure or clog the running lanes as they have been doing. But, we controlled the game and put it away, so alot is forgiven there.
agreed.
After a brief cooling off period we’ll assign the duty of drawing up the permanent treaty language to the nerds (hahaha- hohoho …as if … can’t … breathe)
It’s like a game of Risk, or Axis and Allies, with 20 pages of additional player rules . . .
Heart palpitating . . . palms sweating . . .
Don’t you mean those National Football League football players, particularly those playing the quarterback position? If you’re BenRM, you’ve just got to make those word plays.
I liked it also. If the refs review a play it could take 45 secs or 3 minutes. Shurmur controlled the time he thought he needed to talkto his players and his coordinator. Best of all, he looked certain about what he was doing, and just maybe his players fed off that. They were saying nice things about this and his coaching to reporters after the game, and that’s the first time we’ve heard that all season.
Don’t worry. However passionately and vigorously pursued, it’s a toothless tribunal. Something like a Kangaroo Court League of Nations. (Is that redundant?)
In favor of our Two Game Winning streak, i’m going double on my Winners/Losers.
Winner: The Gordon/Little 1-2 punch. Their day could have been even better if not for some under thrown balls, but yesterday was a great glimpse of what these two can bring. A deep threat, using hands to catch, physical running after the catch. No drops. Beautiful.
Winner: Watson/Cameron. Watson still has it, and Cameron continues to show signs of improvement. Not sure if we will resign Ben, but I think it would be smart to do so. Yesterday the two combined for 8/110, I love it.
Winner: The Richardson & Hardesty Combo. Honestly, all he’s done this year is prove he can stay healthy and deserve more carries. Great job. And with TRich, I’d like to see him get more draw plays and runs out of a spread, give our Stallion room to run!
Winner: Haden&Sheldon. Outside of really just the one TD, the WRs didn’t do anything. Sheldonwas full of highlight plays, and Joe made sure to stay off film. I still think a 2nd CB might be the way to go in the draft, but yesterday was great.
Winner: Second half Weeden. First half was MEH. Second half was NICE. Aside from that NonAudible after the big gainer that every Browns fan ever instantly complained about, I have few complaints about him. Yes he made some arrant throws (2 picks, and could have had 3 others), but I really loved the deep throws. Very nice.
Loser: Cribbs/Skrine. I hate to say it, but I think it’s time we see what TravBen can do in the return game. Maybe Cribbs is just a gunner at this point. And if he is, then I don’t want to hear crap from a gunner about who should be starting at QB. STOP IT CRIBBS, you are frustrating me with your dumb comments. Also, Skrine gets picked on every game now, maybe he is just ST as well.
Winner: Haslam and Banner. Enter. Commence Browns Winning. Simple as that.
Loser: Pass Rush/TE coverage. I know a lot came on that final drive, but Palmer made Myers look like Jason Witten. We need to work on that. And I think we need to get a starter across from Sheard just as much as one across Haden.
Unfortunate would have been a missed fg in a game against the Steelers that would have sealed the W but instead fueled them to go on a long game winning TD drive. Yeah it stinks it was a chip shot and we should have had a TD anyway, but it came in a W. I call that fortunate if that’s his only miss this year.
Oh, I see. Let’s be enablers. Let’s just shut our eyes, and turn our heads, and stick our minds in the sand. LET’S JUST LET THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD GO TO HELL IN A HAND-BASKET!!!!! FINE!!!! LET’S . . . *gaackkkk . . . gaaa . . .
no. the world will not go to hell in a hand-basket for 19 more days.
Max has a good point. Maybe there are us Browns fans that want to watch the game at home (we pick up the Cbus stations where we are) because we could actually catch all the action and get food/refreshments whenever we want, and can be as raucous as possible, like cussing out most of the ST unit when they let the chip shot get blocked: INEXCUSABLE.
Palmer looked a lot better than I expected him to look. All I’ve heard and read was fairly negative, but I thought he looked decent. On a good team, he’s probably completely serviceable.
Have a hot towel, Carson, you’ve been damned with faint praise.
I don’t really consider a blocked FG a miss, but I see your point.
Winner — Yards-after-Catch and whoever got Weeden settled down after a terrible start and got him throwing 1 to 5 yard passes that broke for long yards because our receivers are big and fast and because Oakland could rarely cover them.
Grow up and learn to spell plethora. Judging by your second “sentence”, some grammar lessons might be in order as well.
I heard Phil Dawson actually blocked that kick himself when he realized that the defender would lose his hand if it got in the way of a Phil Dawson kick.
I also heard Phil Dawson has to wear a specially made shoe, designed by Area 51 scientists, that prevents the ball from exploding on contact.
Winner: Pat Shurmur and Tom Heckhert. I know Haslam may have already decided on what changes will be made. But this year we’re seeing a team coming together and being very competitive. They both are making a strong case to stay on.
Loser: Josh Cribbs. Play it cool Josh, play it cool.
WINNER: Tom Heckert. I think I’ve said this one a few times already, but give credit where it’s due. With every game his picks look better and better. Look at his draft history (http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cle/draft.htm) – it’s really, really good, especially if you add in Gordon. On top of that, the undrafted rookies they’ve gotten have performed tremendously. Jimmy and Joe have to give serious thought to keeping him.
WINNER: Gordon/Little. I don’t know if they’re a 1/2, but they’re certainly no worse than a 2/3.
WINNER: Hardesty. If he can keep building off this role, and continue to be really good in these short bursts, that’s just gravy for this team.
LOSER: Josh Cribbs. Da Man used to be all about what’s best for the team. Lately his attempts to make returns he shouldn’t be and his desire for more touches when that was clearly not helpful to the team are pointing the other way. He’s got to find his old self a bit.
WINNER: Sheldon Brown. Ugh. I still hate him, but great game.
WINNER/LOSER: Weeden. I only saw three quarters, but he looked pretty bad for most of it. Somehow, though, he ended 25/36 for 364, so great turnaround, and fantastic finishing drive.
LOSER: Buster Skrine. He’s tough, he stays with everyone, yet he just can’t seem to handle big WRs, and teams seem to have started picking on him when he’s got man-to-man responsibility on a big wideout.
Winner: Heckert. Right now with Hardesty making a few plays I feel like Ward is probably the weakest pick and hes not awful. The argument that his players are starting because the geam is so bereft of talent doesnt wash. Anybody notice Mclain and Aaron Curry both got cut by the Raiders?
I don’t know if this was mentioned, and haven’t the time or patience to read through the comments….
On Weeden’s second interception, his arm was clearly hit. I was surprised the announcers didn’t say anything, but they were busy looking at the review of the intercepted pass.
The reason I even rewound the play was because as he stepped up to throw the ball, all I could think is, “Oh man, don’t overthrow this one.” And it ended up woefully short of the “arm” he put behind it.
Which of the 3 completions over 15 yards did you like? Everything else was short, mostly 1 to 6 yards in the air and then great yards after catch. Or did you just like the long passes Weeden throws that aren’t complete?
Any time Weeden throws over 15 yards there’s only a 1 in 4 chance he’ll connect with a receiver.
Weeden completed only 3 passes over 15 yards on Sunday. He’s one of the worst in the league on these over 15 yard throws (25% completion rate). All the other throws were shorter, often in the 1 to 6 yard range but picked up big yards because our big and fast receivers had great runs after the catch. Dink and Dunk at its best..
it’s not always just completing those passes though. sometimes it is just taking the shots that help open up the underneath stuff. he was completely ignoring even trying to go deep the past couple of weeks and I was happy to see him make those throws.