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October 6, 2014#SoCrow: Understanding Isaiah Crowell Through His Hype Video
October 6, 2014Holy Crap. Like, seriously—Holy. Crap. This Cleveland Browns unit has been the tale of two halves all season long, but there has been nothing like what they did on Sunday. The first 24 minutes of football looked like some of the most embarrassing play the orange and brown have managed to muster in quite some time. The second 24, well, with many thanks to Charlie Whitehurst and some head-scratching play calling by the Tennessee Titans, your Cleveland Browns are two game-winning field goals away from being undefeated. Or are they?
WINNER: Brian Hoyer The Destroyer may have thrown his first interception of the season—it was bound to happen eventually—but the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback managed to do enough work in the second half to more than compensate (by a single point) for the lack of such through the game’s first half. His final stat line won’t turn many heads (completing less than 60 percent of his passes), and his deep balls were once again suspect at best, but the guy managed to buckle in when it mattered most and lead the Browns to a victory. Assist may go to the Titans and their questionable play-calling, but you’ll be hard-pressed to not score 29 points in a game, bring home the win, and not give a nod to the team’s starting quarterback.
LOSER: Jim O’Neil To the contrary, the Cleveland Browns defense was embarrassed through the entire first half, missing tackles, blowing assignments and committing penalties. Sure, they may have forced several key three-and-outs when it mattered most, but it took Charlie Whitehurst to realize that he was, in fact, Charlie Whitehurst. Brian Hoyer and the rest of the Browns offense were forced to feverishly dig themselves out of a hole created by his unit’s ineptitude. This is now four games, one of which the team had two weeks to prepare, wherein the side of the ball that was to be the team’s strength has looked clumsy, unorganized and inept—especially compared to their peers. I’m not sure what the answer is, but if it’s Mike Pettine having more say in what this unit is to become, then it has to happen immediately.
It's like a chalk outline of the Browns' first half. pic.twitter.com/bkbTVjnOiz
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) October 5, 2014
WINNER: Travis Benjamin A personification for why play-by-play and immediate, unfiltered reaction on Twitter continues to be the worst, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver went from a player who should be cut to the savior of the entire game. It’s obvious that Benjamin has a severe case of the yips when placed in the return game, and he was incredibly fortunate that the Titans were flagged on a muffed punt that wound up in the hands of the blue and white. But when unfurled as a route-running pass catcher, Benjamin hauled in all four of his targets for 48 yards and two huge touchdowns. Give Hoyer and the Browns’ offensive line credit for providing Benjamin the time to get open, but the dreadlocked speedster made all of you overemotional fans with a Twitter log-in look silly.
WINNER: Kyle Shanahan Becoming a staple of the weekly Winners and Losers column, Kyle Shanahan continues to exceed expectations with the Browns’ offensive play-calling. It’s incredible to think that he is doing exponentially more than his predecessors despite having exponentially less. His zone-blocking scheme continues to work wonders for whomever is carrying the ball (more on this later), and the pass protection and schema has been on point. Sure, the Browns could have executed better when it mattered most against the Baltimore Ravens, or in the first half against Pittsburgh, but Shanahan has done what many before him have refused to do when things look bleak—he sticks to his system, stays with his gut, and does what has worked for him for many, many years. Where others would abandon the run game after falling down 28-3, Shanahan stayed with Ben Tate. He stuck with the play-action. And he won himself a football game.
WINNER: Mike Pettine Pettine should have had his team more prepared for this game. If he doesn’t have much in the way of input on his defensive unit, he needs to. But whatever this man said to his team at halftime needs to be on loop as it could replace the epic scene from Any Given Sunday. The Cleveland Browns head coach is 2-2 and is staring down at what is to be the easiest part of his schedule for his rookie season. The team cannot afford to come out like they did this past week, but here’s hoping that the way this one ended leads to a little bit of momentum.
WINNER: Ben Tate Welcome back, big man. Though he never found the end zone, Tate was huge in several drives—especially the one that resulted in a touchdown for tight end Jim Dray. Interestingly, Tate did the vast majority of his damage running over Joel Bitonio at the left guard slot and to the right end—these two lanes accounted for 84 of Tate’s 123 rushing yards. (Running between Joe Thomas and Bitonio allowed Tate to average 9.8 yards per carry!) Perhaps most importantly, Tate managed to stay healthy, toting the rock 22 times and being utilized in the passing game (despite his one drop). Having the ability to ride the hot running back is something that the Browns have not had in a long, long time. It’s almost a reminder of what football is supposed to look like. In Cleveland, nonetheless.
LOSER: Buster Skrine Good Lord, Buster. Talk about a step back. Skrine allowed five catches on six targets for 122 yards and two touchdowns. On both touchdowns Skrine was beaten easily. One could blame Joe Haden for not busting out of his zone route once his responsibility cut inside on that corner route, but Justin Hunter managed to get behind the speedy Skrine on a fly route to score a 75 yard touchdown. Titans had a perfect quarterback rating when targeting Cleveland’s No. 22. Not a good showing to say the least.
WINNER: Joe Thomas I love giving offensive lineman some light in this space. Thomas was flawless in his pass protection and, as noted above, was very instrumental in the team’s success on the ground. Sure, he received an unnecessary roughness penalty in the fourth quarter, but things were chippy and if I want anyone leading by example in defending teammates, it’s Thomas. For an added bonus, he showed that he would be one hell of a wedding guest.
WINNER: K’Waun Williams Thankfully, where Skrine (and Haden and Justin Gilbert) have lacked, Williams stepped up—immensely. After getting some spot work earlier in the season, the undrafted rookie out of Pitt more than earned his playing time during Week 5. While he did allow a touchdown to Kendall Wright in the first quarter, he rebounded well only allowing 7.1 yards per completion, made stops on all five of his tackles and did not miss a single one. Williams owned Nate Washington, giving him a goose egg on two targets. He also, if my memory served, came up big at the end of the game, batting down a pass on a right-sideline out route that would have moved the ball up-field and stopped the clock for the Titans. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
114 Comments
That kind of coincides with my Hoyer being a winner contract wise because the Browns surely can’t get a top 5 pick next year now. Add in that Tennesee and the Jets are fighting for QB’s along with Buffalo(2nd round), Houston, and Tampa, and the Browns have no chance of drafting a good one if Hoyer leaves or gets hurt.
Speaking of mud, I can’t wait to see this team play Indy in the outdoors. We are built for it. Hoyer hasn’t been touch passing anything, and our pass defense might be helped by some windy Sundays.
Maybe we did over rate our D linemen. At least Kruger is showing promise that he will actually change a game sometime in the near future. Rubin looks like he is trying not to get hurt. Did Mingo play yesterday?
Mingo was very limited. The story goes that Pettine and O’Neill were as enamored with Mingo as Banbardi. While he may not turn out to be a QB seeking missile I’d be surprised if they didn’t explore every possibility before giving up on him. Just doesn’t seem like he has the size or moves other than speed to be a special pass rusher.
Seems like Rubin as NT and Taylor as DE isn’t working. Not sure why they’d move Taylor to end, he seems like such a natural disruptive force over center.
I think Sheard will become a force as the season goes along.
I wasn’t able to see the game, but one recap I read made it seem like we were head-hunting their QB.
Is that a fair assessment?
no.
I am being admittedly hard on Gilbert. But I don’t feel good about a guy with poor technique whose athleticism won him the day too many times against lesser athletes. There are no lesser athletes in the NFL.
I agree with starting the best player. In fact, I am very excited about Manziel possibly sitting all year and next year, too, if that means Hoyer is winning. No doubter.
I remember their Cedar-Lee location. And i remember the little 92Q ditty, too.
hughes is the guy who’s been missing. no snaps yesterday.
Inactive….coaches decision right?
yes, he was a healthy scratch.
Here’s a product (friends have told me they’ve used it) that syncs radio with TV, I presume there are apps for this as well…
http://sportsyncradio.com
Rubin should get a winner, with Taylor, Hughes and Kitchen out.
I finally got to watch the second half last night (just like week 1, I watched a horrible first half then went to coach my daughter’s soccer game, only to find out at the end of her game that I missed an incredible 2nd half).
My quick hits:
– Holy cow, but Brian Hoyer played well. To my eyes he made the right decision most of the time, but most impressive is just how quickly he gets the ball out. His throwing motion is so quick it’s almost unbelievable (as long as he doesn’t do the little pump fake thing first, ugh). Also that play where he avoided the sack and found Benjamin in the end zone, WOW.
– All the credit in the world to Kyle Shanahan, he’s putting all of his offensive players in position to succeed, unlike any OC I can remember for the Browns.
– I’m not going out on a limb by saying Joel Bitonio will prove to be the best Browns pick in the 2014 draft. He already is, by a mile. (I’m not high on JFF)
– Like Harv says, it’s incredible what having good pass catchers does for your offense. I was also thinking about Greg Little at multiple points during the game, and how we probably don’t win if it’s him out there dropping passes instead of Austin or Gabriel or Hawkins grabbing them.
– Rubin had a better game, but Armonty Bryant was the star for me on D. Props as well to K’Waun Williams, Sheard, and Gipson.
– Just want to reiterate, Brian Hoyer is playing at a shockingly high level and if this keeps up the Browns might just find themselves on a real tough spot trying to re-sign him.