There were plenty of big plays that went down this past Monday night. But without a doubt, Eric Wright’s interception that was returned for 95 yards and a touchdown was the single biggest play of Monday night’s win over the Giants.
The defensive backfield had been iffy at best going into last week, and for the unit to perform as well as it did definitely deserved some praise. And with this week’s awards being handed out, the aforementioned Wright has received some recognition of his own:
Cleveland Browns DB Eric Wright was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week. Wright had three solo tackles, two passes defensed and one interception returned for a touchdown in Monday Night’s 35-14 win over the New York Giants. In the contest, Wright’s fourth quarter interception sealed the victory as his 94-yard interception return for a touchdown turned a 13 point advantage into the 35-14 final. The interception return also was the fourth longest in club history.
Wright currently is tied for fourth in the NFL with three interceptions. In five games this season, Wright ranks third overall on the club with 25 tackles, including 21 solo, leads the team with three interceptions and is tied for first on the club with four passes defensed.
Had the interception-turned-six not have happened, the entire landscape of the game would have been changed. Wright’s play not only added points to the board, but sucked all of the momentum away from the defending champions and their leader Eli Manning.
The last defensive player on the Browns to win “Player of the Week” honors was Sean Jones in 2006. I was baffled to find out that Courtney Brown also won the award multiple times; once in 2000, and again in 2003. Given the way that Wright has played since joining the Browns, let’s just hope that he is more in the Jones camp than that of the Courtney Browns. While I think we can all agree that his tendency to get burnt on occasion has haunted the Orange and Brown from time to time, Wright took a huge step forward this past week, and his recognition is much-deserved.
Now let’s keep it up this week as we head to Washington. It should be mentioned that Jason Campbell has yet to throw an interception on the season…
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 2088 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
“It should be mentioned that Jason Campbell has yet to throw an interception on the season…if only for jinx purposes.”
/fixed
I just hope Jones can come back soon. I’d much rather see Mike Adams as the nickel back than Terry Cousin. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how Cousin ended up covering Burress on that TD catch. Total mismatch.
yeah i was saying the exact same thing. Why the hell would terry-older-than-dirt and smaller-than-a-child cousin be given plaxico-i-can-catch-any-ball burress
IN addition to his stellar play this weekend. How about a little shout out for his act off the field.
I do remember reading about “EASY E” having some off the field problems in college … and that was the ONLY reason he was able to fall in the draft and land in the Browns lap when he did.
So with all the off-field garbage around the league going on… aka . Pacman.
Lets give Easy E some love for apparently cleaning up his act, and not getting into any trouble since joining the Browns and staying on the field and out of the police cruisers.
Jeremy that’s a fantastic point. Excellent.
Didn’t Courtney Brown have a monster game against the Bears in 2000? Something like two sacks, a forced fumble-recovery and a few batted passes.
/Sigh.
Yeah, it was in 2001. When healthy, Courtney Brown could play. He just couldn’t stay healthy. That Bears game, though, was the 14 points in 30 seconds comeback that culminated in Mike Brown intercepting Couch and returning it for the game winning pick-6. The thought of that game still makes me sick. Between that and the bottle throwing game, 2001 was just a star-crossed season all around.
I guarantee Jason Campbell won’t go the whole season without throwing an interception. No reason to think Sunday won’t be the day.
Jason Campbell hasn’t thrown an INT on the season?
Neither has Brady Quinn.
wait, he starts?
FYI,
That’s now 8 INTs in the past 3 games for the Browns…