Browns release Ray Agnew, sign Kiero Small
October 20, 2014LeBron James bringing new leadership style in return
October 20, 2014Despite an awful showing in Jacksonville against a really bad Jaguars team, it’s not time for Johnny Football. Brian Hoyer and the Cleveland Browns offense had a miserable day, but there’s little reason to think it would have been better with Johnny Manziel under center. His mobility might have helped at times, but it’s silly to think that the Browns were one player—even a quarterback—away from winning that game. Anyone could look at a few Brian Hoyer plays and imagine a scenario where Johnny Manziel might have done a better job, but consider the rest of the things that went wrong for the Browns on offense.
The Jacksonville defensive front gave the Browns’ offensive line fits yesterday. They overpowered Paul McQuistan—frequently. John Greco had a pretty mediocre day at center for the Browns as well, highlighted by his snapping of the ball on a play designed merely to draw the Jags off-side or take a delay penalty. The offensive line had its worst day of pass protection (three sacks, seven QB hits) and didn’t offer many holes to running backs either.
As much as I like Johnny Manziel, he wouldn’t have fixed the Browns on Sunday.
Which leads me to the coaching staff yesterday. I don’t dislike Terrance West, but he wouldn’t have been my choice in what the staff deemed four-down territory in need of a yard. I think Terrance West has potential to be the Browns replacement for Ben Tate down the road, but he’s clearly third on the depth chart right now and probably shouldn’t have been in the game much at all yesterday.
None of this is to defend Brian Hoyer. He was bad. He threw balls into the arms of defensive linemen. He was off target on all sorts of routes including anything that could be considered deep. He was even missing when the Browns escaped pressure by moving the pocket, which is particularly frustrating to watch. If Brian Hoyer is a rhythm passer the the Browns were a band without a drummer.
As much as I like Johnny Manziel, he wouldn’t have fixed the Browns on Sunday. It’s always possible that a player like Manziel could have given the team a spark, but we’ve seen Brian Hoyer lead comebacks as well. The Browns still had a very solid chance to win the game, even as poorly as Brian Hoyer had played, pretty deep into the fourth quarter.
The Browns easily could have won it after Hoyer’s 65-yard completion to Andrew Hawkins down to the Jacksonville 29-yard-line. The Browns might have been in position again with the score 10-6 if Jordan Poyer gives Hoyer the ball at the 20 instead of muffing it at the 1-yard-line. That was another game-winning drive opportunity that we’ve seen Hoyer thrive in this season that was ripped away from the offense.
I’m recounting all of this to simply say that Brian Hoyer still gives this team a very good chance to win. We all watched that game into the fourth quarter thinking there was still time for the Browns and Hoyer to take advantage of a team that might start thinking about protecting its lead on defense. But maybe someday it will be obvious that Brian Hoyer is a limiting factor for this offense and this team. When that day comes, we’ll all be looking for Manziel. It will be pretty obvious. This past Sunday afternoon against Jacksonville just wasn’t that day.
56 Comments
Or Derek Anderson could be the quarterback. Impossible too know until it’s here
I’ll take half the 50/50 this year. It’s the step we need towards competency
Sometimes good teams have bad games. Remember 2012 when the Ravens won the superbowl? They had 2-3 Clunkers that season. It happens. Here is the trick – When a team wins a (regular season) game, that doesn’t mean they are going to the superbowl – When they lose a game, that doesn’t mean they will lose every remaining game for the season. Right now, they Browns are a .500 team. At the beginning of the year, most people would have been happy with an 8-8 record. Guess what, they are what we thought they were…
Also, I think Manziel would have been better than Hoyer on October 19th against Jacksonville. That doesn’t mean he is the better QB for this weekend or for the rest of the season. IT’s like fantasy football, you look at your lineup and think “man, should I start Manning against or should I good with the rookie and see if I get lucky? WTH, you always start manning! If manning has a bad game, you can look back and say “man, I should have started the rookie”. Heck, almost any QB would have been more effective then Hoyer, but that’s OK. Right now, Hoyer has played 5 good games and 1 bad one. Not a bad ratio – so far.
hmmm the game was 10-6 with 6 minutes to go. There were certainly many players that under performed, but you look at Hoyer and say “man, if he makes 2-3 easy throws, this is totally different game”. The only other person who comes close is Poyer for the muffed punt. Heck, if Hoyer makes the throws that “good Hoyer” normally makes, it’s a win – we don’t even need Manning for this one.
I’ve always had the feeling that Manziel’s time is very soon. Not because Hoyer will get pulled, I just see him getting hurt. Nothing to base this on except a simple gut feeling, and I’m not hoping he gets hurt, but it is just one of those things that will happen to allow Manziel to take the field – in the middle of a game when we least expect it.
This is really the first game all year where we really misses Gordon. His YAC ability and the ability to stretch the field would have helped since they were daring us all day with 8 in the box…..Also, yeah Poyer made a bad play trying to field that punt, but people forget they jumped offsides and it would have been Jacksonville ball again, just not as close. Not comparing Hoyer because he isn’t at the same level, but everyone thought the world was ending when Big Ben had a bad game against us last week and then looked good against the Texans. Same with Tom Brady in that epic beating against the Chiefs; Brady hasn’t lost since.