Watch Johnny Manziel haul in a pass
September 21, 2014Browns lose, Joe Banner needs to come on the podcast – WFNY Podcast – 2014-09-21
September 21, 2014The Cleveland Browns lost the chess match. With the ball deep in their own territory, they punted it back to the Ravens with about two minutes to go in the game and an impossibly small one-point lead 21-20. It left the Ravens with plenty of time and only about 20 yards to get a game-winning field goal attempt. The Ravens had no timeouts left, and the Browns only had one. As the Ravens kicked the game-winning field goal, there was nothing left to do but bemoan the lost opportunities as the Browns head to their bye week losers 23-21.
The Browns missed two field goals. One was a bad snap that Cundiff ended up knuckling a bit from 51 yards. The other was blocked by an overloaded side of the line. The Browns won the turnover battle with another Tashaun Gipson interception. The Browns had some really big plays, including a bomb from Brian Hoyer to Taylor Gabriel. The problem? Both of those “game changing” plays resulted in zero points and two blocked field goals.
The Cleveland Browns were good enough to win that game. Despite the struggles of the defense against the run and the inconsistency of the offense, the Browns led the game for very long stretches. In fact, your Cleveland Browns had the lead with 13 seconds to go in the third quarter and led all the way until the game-winning field goal by Baltimore. That makes it all the more frustrating.
Wasted is Brian Hoyer’s otherwise good day with 19 of 25 passing. Wasted is Andrew Hawkins’ 87 yards and numerous shifty receptions for the Browns. Wasted were the Browns’ two rushing touchdowns by the “Baby Backs,” Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell. Wasted was Miles Austin’s pluck of a Brian Hoyer rocket in the end zone for a TD through the air.
That’s what this game feels like. Just a waste. There’s no singular goat, either.
Billy Cundiff missed the field goals, but it was a team effort between the snap and the block. The Browns didn’t score enough because they didn’t finish drives, but they got a couple of really big plays that they needed. If you ask me, I’d say the Browns ran the ball pretty well and passed it pretty well. I’d say they team had a good offensive gameplan for the most part. So, if you have to assign blame, you should probably look for the most crooked number in the box score. I see two specific things that will haunt the Browns over their bye week, if they’re not too busy working on things.
1. The Cleveland Browns lost the battle of penalties. You can complain about officiating, but the Browns had too many guys on the field twice. That’s on the team and coaching staff, not on the officials.
2. The Browns can’t brag about their defense if they keep giving up yards in chunks the way they do. They gave up 91 yards to something called a “Taliaferro” and another 63 yards to Justin Forsett. Taliaferro had a long run of 31 yards and Forsett had a long run of 22 yards. You just can’t give up chunks like that in the run game.
So the Browns head into the bye week 1-2 instead of 2-1 like they could and probably should be. The good news is that there won’t be a QB controversy. Brian Hoyer is still firmly atop the QB depth chart. The other good news is that the Browns can come out of that bye week knowing they have the Jaguars and Raiders coming up after the Titans and Steelers. Mike Pettine and staff will be tested in trying to keep this team’s collective head up and focused on improving over the bye week.
For all you Browns fans out there, it couldn’t be worse. While the team can take this L and go into the bye week with extra motivation to work hard and improve, we have to chew on it. And just know we will be chewing on it a lot over the next two weeks before the Browns finally suit up again in October against the Titans on the fifth.
111 Comments
magenta is rarer.
“Brown has it as a secondary color”
Doesn’t really look like a “secondary” color to me. However, you’re right about them not being FBS.
http://image.cdnllnwnl.xosnetwork.com/pics33/1024/ED/EDZBWGCYLNCUDLY.20130828202615.jpg
Completely forgot to include that punt/fair catch that TB allowed to drop in my recap of the final 4 drives. That INFURIATED me to no end yesterday. Even if it wasn’t outside the 20 (which it may have been), I’m 99% sure it was outside the 10. Wherever it hit is where it should have been fair caught.
Brown is beautiful.
I’ve got them at 5-3 going into Cinci (and losing) on my preseason guess, but I will gladly take 6-2 and a win 🙂
Wyoming and Bowling Green are FBS schools.
http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/bgu/galleries/112205_football/hl4l8302-lg.jpg
Also, rare does not mean it isn’t cool. Dragons and Spiders are much cooler mascots than wildcats or tigers, yet those latter 2 are more common.
Richmond Spiders
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/timesdispatch.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/6d/66d24444-c818-11e3-83b6-0017a43b2370/535303681ed8b.image.jpg
UAB Blazers
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8332/8079713232_d8810813c5.jpg
Agreed, but to me “chess match” implies that both coaches were making great moves and the Browns just lost out. I didn’t see it that way at all.
Fair enough. The Browns did have a number of nice moves, just a few horrible ones.
The problem is that Gilbert and Haden go up against our “sub-par” WR corp every day in practice. That doesn’t prepare them well for live action
…and Haden has always struggled against the smaller/shiftier guys like S. Smith and A. Brown
I always thought the brown was a bit of an advantage over other uniform colors that contrast more with the football. I’d think that the harder it is for defenders to determine who has the football, the better your play action is.
One of these things is a lot easier to do than the other..