Week 3: Browns-Vikings Open Thread
September 22, 2013While We’re Waiting… A Banner weekend for Cleveland sports
September 23, 2013In his first week back from a two game suspension, Josh Gordon caught ten passes for 146 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 22 yards on an end around play and gave the Browns’ offense a big spark.
Tight end Jordan Cameron caught three touchdown passes on the day, two from Brian Hoyer and one from Spencer Lanning on a fake field goal play. His final touchdown catch capped an eleven play, 55 yard drive to take the lead with less than a minute to play.
The Browns jumped out to a 24-17 halftime lead, their third straight lead after two quarters on the season. Like the previous two games, they gave that lead up in the third quarter. Unlike the games against Miami and Baltimore, they were able to come back from a second half deficit.
Brian Hoyer started the game and completed 30 of 54 pass attempts (!) for 321 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
The running game was non-existent for the Browns after the trade of Trent Richardson mid-week. The longest rush of the day was from Josh Aubrey, who took a direct snap while the up-back in the punt formation and ran 34 yards for a first down. Willis McGahee ran 8 times for 9 yards. Bobby Rainey had four rushes for 17 yards.
The defense entered the game as one of the top units against the run, and facing the most dangerous back in the game performed well. Adrian Peterson had 25 carries for 88 yards. That 3.5 yard per carry average is well below his career average of 5 yards per rush.
The defense also recorded six sacks, an interception and two fumble recoveries. Christian Ponder had 228 yards passing, and 46 yards rushing with a pair of scores.
Rookie Barkevious Mingo recorded a sack for the second consecutive game replacing Quentin Groves, who will be out a few weeks. Desmond Bryant sacked Ponder on the last play of the game to extend his sack streak to seven games. Sheard, Hughes, Winn and Taylor all recorded sacks as well. Jabaal Sheard hurt his knee during the game and did not return. T.J. Ward intercepted a tipped pass in the first half.
The big difference for the Browns was the success rate on third and fourth down. The Browns were 6-15 on third down conversions and 2-3 on fourth downs. They had 23 first downs in the game, much better than the 13 in their previous game against the Ravens.
The win victory was the first in Rob Chudzinski’s NFL career as a head coach. After the game, D’Qwell Jackson presented him with the game ball.
69 Comments
T-Rich had 3 days to learn the playbook. Let’s not start digging his grave quite yet. If you want to buy into the fantasy he’s a bust and our GM is a genius who can evaluate talent, I would like to direct your attention to the 1998-2008 Oakland Raiders.
I completely agree with you on all points. Although be careful with that kind of talk. It’s dangerous to side with the FO in any way.
Amazing win. I’d say yesterday was the best day of Cleveland sports in a long time. Did not even mind being kept up until 3 in the morning.
The fact that they won and scored 31 points getting nothing from their running game just illustrates what a madden game the sport has been turned into. Like I said, IMO, they will not miss Richardson over the long term.
FYI: the Oakland Raiders won their division three straight years from 2000-2002 and went to the Super Bowl in 2002.
nope 4 more this year!
They were definitely a top AFC team for a few years.
a win is a win right?
You sure it wasn’t Chud and the coaches being pissed at the front office and saying they don’t buy in to Banner and company plans about the future?
Re Gordon, the fan in me says Yes! You are 100% on. Until he get into trouble again and he is lost for the season and we get nothing but another round of woulda, coulda, shoulda’s.
The statistical odds that he keeps his nose clean the rest of his career are remote.
When Gruden was there, they were. They haven’t made the playoffs since Gruden emasculated them in the Super Bowl.
you didn’t have to read this article. You clicked it…
exciting to watch, great game by Hoyer (minus those picks), and think of what we can do if we could actually run the ball a few times?! This isn’t a playoff team, but they might be watchable
You really need to get over this. The only reason the Browns article was up quicker was because Rick and TD are two different people. Rick had a quicker recap and got it up faster. TD does the long weekend recaps and they take a while. There’s no WFNY bias against the Tribe.
Importance of having a top-tier QB vs. elite RB: The Browns beat the league’s best RB with their 3rd string QB.
Browns D made NFL’s best RB look mediocre.
So, now we are left wonder, which happens first?
A. Banner trades Gordon.
B. Gordon does something stupid…weed, sizzurp, bath salts…
Tick, tock, tick, tock…
Yeah but to not recognize that window of contention is a little ridiculous. And this is coming from a Lombardi hater.
No – I saw it as a team that was pulling out all the stops to make sure its fanbase didn’t riot. (That’s not a criticism.)
None of the players or coaching staff who were relevant during their Super Bowl days were Lombardi acquisitions.