Terrelle Pryor is the Cleveland Browns’ healthiest receiving option
December 13, 2015Browns WR Brian Hartline to miss the rest of the season with broken collarbone
December 13, 2015Who was this team that I watched blow the doors off of the San Francisco 49ers? It couldn’t have been the 2-10 Browns team that was just recently blown out by 34 last week versus the Cincinnati Bengals. But it was the Cleveland Browns who beat the 49ers 24-10 on Sunday. What a wild and actually entertaining change of course for a Browns season that was heading directly toward the No. 1 pick of the 2016 NFL Draft.
First of all, I have to say this at the outset. The San Francisco 49ers are a horrible team. Quarterback Blaine Gabbert and running back Shaun Draughn could be the worst backfield duo in the league. Their defense was gouged by the Browns offense that just scored three points last week. San Francisco is just bad. Ok, now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about the success of the Browns in Sunday’s big win.
The Browns showed things that they haven’t done all season. The first and foremost thing was the emergence of a running game. The Browns were able to run the ball with great success, netting 230 yards on the ground versus the 49ers defense. The duo of Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson was able to run for big chunks of yards and actually make big plays on the ground for the first time this season. Crowell rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns, while Johnson gained 78 yards on the ground. Both runners averaged more than six yards a carry on the day. It was definitely a sight for sore eyes to watch this successful run game.
The other big surprise on the day was the dominating performance of the Browns defense. After giving up 30 points or more in each of the last five games, the Browns held San Francisco to just ten points. The unit held the 49ers offense to just 221 yards of total offense. The unit also became a sack machine, taking down Blaine Gabbert an incredible nine times in the victory. They didn’t let Gabbert have sort of time in the pocket. But, don’t forget the secondary that blanketed the San Francisco receivers for most the day. It was like a whole new defense replaced the one from last week.
But, I cannot end without talking about the performance of Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel. He showed patience in the pocket, even sometimes too much, allowing things to develop downfield. The young quarterback showcased his laser passes that some many raved about when he was being evaluated during the draft. Manziel was fun to watch, not just because of his occasional scramble, but because of his arm to rifle passes to receivers down field. He completed the game, completing 21 of 31 for 270 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He made some mistakes, like the interception in the first half, but overall we saw a quarterback who was able to move an offense and score points. He definitely has earned his chance to play the rest of the season and maybe even show that he could be the answer to the never-ending Browns quarterback question.
The Browns won their third game of the season, giving the fans at least a small break from watching horrible football. The game showcased big plays and a defensive performance where the team actually stopped an offense from scoring more than 30 points. What a concept! I know it was only one game versus a horrible 4-win team, but it was nice to see a win after losing seven straight. The Browns will most likely come back to reality next week, when they travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks in one of the toughest stadiums to play. But, let’s enjoy this win and celebrate Victory Monday!
30 Comments
Feels good to enjoy a Browns win. I can’t wait to wade into the tape to see what was working for the running game, but on live watch, it looked to be their poor D-line play and our early lead that made it happen.
I have no idea how Cam Erving can look so weak – I almost never criticize rookies, but this guy is so outmatched he’s even a liability on special teams. He has a college career and measurables that dispute what we see now- he’s either not trying at all, or something is seriously wrong with his body.
Great performances out of A. Bryant, Crow and Hartline today. Gaines and the entire O line did well also.
As I’ve been saying for a while, (I haven’t) we may not be so far away on offense. If Manziel can stay on the field, we can draft a #1 WR instead of a qb. We then have said #1, Josh Gordon (fingers crossed) Benjamin as a 3, as well as Barnidge. Doesn’t seem as crazy as it did a week ago.
Forget about the ‘Niners. Everybody should just bask in the joy of a win for the next 24 hours — hell, make it 48. Then everybody can get back to the daunting reality on Wednesday.
The drinks are on Johnny! No, wait . . .
Yeah, I definitely like trying to win games better than trying to win the draft.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UeKyQmgKUmU/UurPKyL6-DI/AAAAAAAAABQ/F1i0eYa2prI/s1600/LokiSoMuchWinGIF.gif
Despite all the missteps, Manziel continues to progress. He wasn’t mistake-free, but this was a far cry from what we saw last season. He’s going to play the rest of the season regardless, because either he’ll show the Browns he’s the real deal, he’ll improve his value for a trade, or he’ll crash and burn and at least we’ll know.
I know the caliber team they were playing, but I was encouraged by some of the young guys on defense, with Orchard and Cooper making their presence known, and Armonty Bryant really looking good. (he should be playing more) And Pasztor actually played fairly well on the other side of the ball.
It’s a quick reminder that the mentality of “we’re 2-9 so everything and everybody must be awful and we need to replace it all” isn’t really valid. There are pieces here. They need to not miss on an impact player in the first couple of rounds of next year’s draft, and they need to fill some holes in FA, but all is not lost. (except for this year – that’s lost)
I agree with this 100%. The bottom line is despite Johnny’s off-field issues, the rest of the team has major on-field issues. If Johnny can play well the rest of the season, I’m all for using draft picks to fI’ll other holes.
Too many times i saw receivers walking. They ran their quick 5-yard in or out, and then walked. The Browns had better draft a WR. Forget about the QB for a moment and realize there is NOBODY to throw to. In short yardage or goal-to-go situations, the offense is easy to cover because there is ZERO threat of an outside route or fade route.
Good game by Johnny. Someone try to tell me that kid isn’t an NFL QB. He’s good. And he’s getting better. Cleveland can’t afford to give up on him – and shouldn’t.
I totally agree. If the Browns give up on Manziel, I totally see him cleaning up his act and succeeding else where. At this point, I would like to see the Browns commit to him for one more year with strict rules in place for his off-field behavior, keep McCown as the back up, and spend draft picks at other skill positions.
You folks in Cleveland need to forget about the rumor mill and be grateful for what Manziel does on the field. All of the crap about his partying is just that, crap. It’s nothing but a camera phone shot or two that looks bad only because of the way it’s presented. I personally have no interest in NFL football – it’s nothing but a money-making scheme – but Johnny Football is entertaining and that’s what sports are all about, entertainment. The Browns coaching staff needs to be more concerned about winning games than trying to control what their players do on their own time. Manziel played poorly against Cinci last year because (1) he had been held on the bench and (2) the team sucked and let the Bengals score time after time. He did much better against them this year and against the Steelers. He also showed that all of the hype about how Mariotta was such a much better quarterback is just that, hype. Browns fans better press to keep him. We’d love to have him here in Houston but the Texans staff is too stupid. They could have had him instead of the no-performance Jadevon Clowney. If he leaves Cleveland, he’ll probably go to Dallas – and cram it down everybody’s throats.
I liked the uniforms today. I love the orange look. I also loved seeing Manziel celebrate with the veterans.
This times 1000. The Browns have so many playmaker needs, drafting 1 or 8th doesn’t matter.And it certainly should not come at the expense of developing a QB, WR, LB’s or CB’s.
You Sam McGowan need to talk down to me more! I like it!
“I personally have no interest in NFL football…”
You have a lot to say about football for someone not interested…
I forgot how much fun it is to dominate a team. Running games are especially great!
Manziel looked like he’s progressing. Run game came out of nowhere and probably helped Manziel look solid (as it would with any QB). It’s a shame that Hartline got hurt. He looked like he was playing well with Manziel.
The Niners are every bit the dumpster fire that the Browns are, and that should always be remembered. However, a friend tossed this my way yesterday, and it’s hard to refute: “At least Manziel is beating the bad teams.”
Yes, this entire post is about Manziel because what else is there to talk about?
Well he’s on an NFL roster (or the Browns, at least), and he’s cashing an NFL paycheck. So yes, definitely qualifies as an NFL QB.
What constitutes winning the draft? Getting the first pick, or drafting a player that actually succeeds?
My comment had to do with getting the highest pick as “winning.” Actually drafting an impact player with whatever pick we end up with would be a new form of winning I would support…
Yep. You have to temper the “Yeay, we got the first pick!” with “Oh, Farmer is making that pick”. lol
It’s way better to say, “Well of course you beat the 49ers” instead of “Of course you lost to the 49ers”. Crowell seemed like a different running back, he was decisive and patient all at the same time. It helps when you get live reps to fuel improvement for anyone, which includes Duke, Crow, and Manzeil. It’s always nice to win, even if it looked like an evaluation game for both sides.
I was thinking the same thing this morning (about Manziel beating the bad teams). Baltimore was a bad team, and we couldn’t beat them with McCown and Davis. Manziel, however, did it decisively yesterday (with back-ups to back-ups at WR). It may have been the 49ers, but I was impressed.
I honestly think that they probably win the Ravens game with Manziel instead of Davis. He has a lot of room for growth, but he can pull off things that neither McCown or Davis can.
Totally agree. Again, even though it was the 49ers, I’m sold on Manziel now. He’s the guy. Draft everything but a QB this year. If Pettine doesn’t want to coach him, Pettine’s got to go. That’s my line in the sand. (And I’m sure the Browns are listening. What am I doing? Do I really think I’m that important? Please don’t answer that.)
Pettine’s quote about people overreacting to a win just as they do to a loss absolutely applies here. San Francisco may well be the league’s worst team by a significant margin, especially with all of the defensive studs they lost and the numerous injuries they’ve sustained. It is absolutely encouraging to see us handle a team like that exactly as we did, as we are notorious over the years for playing down to bad opponents. The o-line looked like a whole new unit, the Crow was (appropriately) resurrected and ran with decisiveness, and the defense (particularly the line) looked like the unit it was hyped to be coming in to the season. Johnny was solid, actually appearing to be capable of hanging with the grownups, which should help with his trade value if he can continue to do so. But while I’d love for all of this to be the result of the players and coaches finally putting it all together, I believe the majority of the credit for how decent we looked rests with the quality of our competition. The next few weeks will be a far better indicator of just what (if any) progress as been made.
If Cam and Shelton suck at FG, find someone else. No other teams has these kinds of issues on FG. Pathetic. You should have enough guys on the team that can do that job. Why the DL on this unit!?!
One of the best things about having the top pick is that Farmer can’t trade up.
That ground game and defense is exactly the style I’ve been dreaming of from this team for 15 years now. I’m trying not to let the fact that it came against one of the worst assemblies of talent I’ve seen take an NFL field over that same period of time (which is saying something for a Browns fan) dampen the excitement too much.
I hope someone is mailing a copy of that performance to Valley Ranch (or Frisco, if they’ve already moved shop) with Jerruh’s name on it. Just maybe edit out that INT.
Yup. Ditto to all of that.
Hard to “be grateful for what Manziel does on the field” when the guy insists on doing ridiculous, immature nonsense off the field that leads to the team planting him firmly to the bench. He needs to grow up and act the role of professional first (the jury is out), maybe show up prepared when his number is called (getting better at that), and then maybe he’ll provide this entertainment value you speak of.
Mariota is the better quarterback at this level, and unless you have an official 12th Man t-shirt or five in your closet (and I suspect you might from the tone of your post), I’m not sure how you could argue otherwise to this point. Also, I’d trade Manziel for Clowney without a moment’s hesitation if Houston were even foolish enough to make that mistake. As it stands, I hope he does end up in Dallas, where I could enjoy that circus from afar instead of my preferred team dealing with it.