Browns Lose Great Game

The Cleveland Browns lost last Sunday to fall to 3-6 on the season. And I'm good with it. Read this @ WFNY first.

Back? Okay, great.

I agree wholeheartedly with WFNY. While we lost the game, and made some mistakes, the Browns are fun to watch again. Would it have been nice to have Chansi take the safe, smart play and step out of bounds? Sure. But I will never complain about a fumble when someone is putting in extra effort. Disappointed to be sure, but the reason the Browns were in the game at all was all the extra effort going into it - except for that final play. That's the only play I found to be inexcusable at this level. The same thing goes for Peyton Hillis' fumble, Joe Haden's pick and the attempt to throw long near the end from the 3 yard line. All of these are effort at winning the game.

But most of all, I'm excited so far by the play of Colt McCoy. That under two-minute drive for a touchdown was a thing of beauty. I'm really looking forward to his development as the Browns quarterback. Can you imagine if he actually had a #1 WR how much this offense would open up. And I'm also looking forward to Hardesty if he can stay healthy. Can you imagine what our offense could be with two good running back and the superb fullback we have?

Can you imagine? Last year, I just wanted the games to end so I didn't have to watch - not sure why I did. This year though, I'm looking forward to the games which in and of itself is a massive improvement over last year.

And at this stage of the re-building, that's all I'll ask. In a year or two, if we are not in playoff contention then I'll get annoyed. But for now, I'm just enjoying the fact the Browns play competitive with the best teams in the league.

Browns Pound Pats

Okay, so the game against the Steelers I thought the Browns played well even though they lost. Then they played even better and pretty much spanked the Saints. After watching the Browns since returning from Japan, they have been bad. So those two games were a definite improvement but I wasn't sold on them or the coaching staff.

Last year, I even called for Mangini's head early on in September. Since the didn't I gave him a free pass for this season, but in return I have called for Brian Daboll's head as this year was some of the worst play calling I have ever seen.

Crow, meet my mouth.

Browns Beat Saints!

What a great game to watch! The Browns beat the New Orleans Saints with a final score of 30-17. But more than winning, it was the way they won. The offense wasn't great, but it didn't need to be. It needed to be solid and it was. In particular with that long 7 minute drive in the fourth quarter. Mostly Hillis just doing what he does, running and hitting defenders as hard as he can.

And the Special Teams made some great, fun-to-watch plays. Cribbs throwing across the field on a punt return; the punter Hodges faking the kick and running up the wide-open middle of the field for 68 yards. Just not plays I would expect the Browns to call let alone execute effectively. And both lead to points.

And the defense was excellent. Yes we got burned on a couple of plays, but for the most part Brees looked completely confused. He was intercepted 4 times, two being pick 6s, and was sacked 3 times. So while the Saints racked up close to 400 yards of offense, in the end most of those yards were for naught as the Browns found a way to stop them.

I tweeted during the game that for the last two games I have been relatively pleased with the offensive play calling. I wondered whether that represents the impact of Mike Holmgren. And while that may be true, the reality is that I think it's the play of Colt McCoy. Granted, the offense didn't do much in this game. I read over at WFNY that we had grand total of 12 first downs and I know we only had something like 74 yards passing. And 12-13 of those on the trick play where Hillis threw a pass to Colt McCoy. The reality is that we don't really have any wide receivers that keep defenses honest, but we were still able to make a long time-consuming drive when we had to. And that's progress.

But I think the real reason that I've been pleased with the offensive play calling is Colt McCoy. In his first start he reminded me a little of Brady Quinn, or rather a deer caught in headlights. But that didn't last long and he started to show confidence and leadership. He looked that way for the whole Saints game. And I don't remember specifically, but I don't remember a boneheaded play. At a minimum, there were no turnovers.

My problem with Delhomme is not the picks, but the types of picks. Any quarterback is going to have picks. It's gonna happen when you have NFL caliber defenses to play against. What I don't like are the boneheaded picks, like the one Jake had in the first game as he was getting tackled. He's been in the league too long to try and make a pass as he's going down. That's boneheaded, and that's my only concern with Jake. Other than that, he reads the defenses well, can audible successfully.

I also like what Seneca brings to the table. With one exception - his throws to the sidelines are 10 yards out of bounds, not even giving the receivers a chance to catch the throws. Yes, the defense doesn't have a chance to pick it because in most cases the receivers have been covered, but its a waste of a throw. And I saw that multiple times with Seneca.

With Colt, though, I haven't seen a boneheaded throw, and for the most part his accuracy is dead on. Throws to the sideline are where only our receiver can catch it. Regardless of whether the throws have been successful or not, he puts it where it needs to be.

So I'm tempted to say Colt should start for the rest of the season. I hear many commenters say that's what the want so we can determine whether he's a "franchise quarterback". I disagree. We don't need a "franchise quarterback". What we need is a servicable quarterback as we get folks to fill the roster - like the right side of the line, some quality receivers(!!), something for better pass rush and coverage. We have so many holes still that Brown's fans obsession with quarterbacks is annoying.

Colt is more than good enough. But what I don't want is to rush him along and get him hurt. So I'll come down on the side of if Jake and Seneca are healthy Colt goes back to third quarterback on the team.

Browns Lose to Vikings

The Cleveland Browns lost to the Vikings today which is by no means a surprise. What I was pleased about was that with the exception of the third quarter, the Browns were actually competitive. That's the only criteria I have for this season is that they don't embarrass themselves, but are actually competitive. I don't expect alot of wins.

Importantly, the touchdown drought ended, granted it was in "garbage time", but a td is a td. We couldn't have gotten that last year. I think Brady Quinn did okay. Not sure what happened on the interception he had, but clearly it was a miscommunication/misread by either Brady or Braylon Edwards. The fumble was a boneheaded move as it would have been an awkward, weak throw even if he could have maintained his grip on the ball. Even subtracting those plays though, I was not overwhelmed by Brady's play. It'll be interesting to see how he progresses now that he's the QB.

Jamal doesn't have any speed anymore, but he is a punishing running back. It's clear he likes to hit. James Davis seemed to be a tad bit overwhelmed and was generally ineffective before getting hurt.

I thought the defense, particularly in the first half, did well. The worry I had was could they maintain it for the whole 60 minutes, and clearly they couldn't. Adrian Peterson had 155 yards in the second half alone. In general though the Browns D actually tackled for the most part. The lack of tackling last year drove me nuts. Poor tackling wasn't completely eliminated, but it was a big improvement.

Prior to the game, I was hoping that Vikes would only win by a score of 27-10. It ended up 34-20, which was more competitive than I thought it would be. And that's what I like to see.