Teams breaking in a new quarterback, running back, right tackle, and two new wide receivers generally don't win a lot of games. That's understood in this town right now. After last season, hell my expectations were just that the games would be watchable, which Sunday's loss to the Bengals certainly was. But at some point this team and these players have to make the little plays that win football games, regardless of youth or inexperience. It's simple, fundamental things that lose games. All things being equal, if LJ Fort makes the interception that hits him in the hands against Philadelphia in the closing minutes, the Browns beat the Eagles. I'm not putting the loss on him, that's not my intent. But that one simple, fundamental play ultimately was the difference between a win and a loss. And while I tried to focus on the positives last week, this week I won't. I'm sick of seeing this team lose when the opportunities are there for them to win. Playing well enough to lose a close game just doesn't do it for me anymore, this team has to start pulling out a few of those types of games.
The mistakes started early in this one, when they gave up an 80 yard punt return to Pac Man Jones. Since Chris Tabor took over as special teams coach, a span of 18 regular season games, the Browns have allowed two punt returns for touchdowns and one kick return for touchdown, not to mention the fake field goal TD they gave up last year to Oakland. That's 4 special teams touchdowns against the Browns in 18 games. That is why this team consistently loses football games. In the two seasons prior to Tabor's arrival, they gave up zero. Giving teams points on special teams when you are a team that struggles to score points and/or stop people (depending on the week), is absolutely unforgivable. There were at least 6 missed tackles on the return, including Johnathan Bademosi (who made the team for his special teams work in the preseason), Kaluka Maiava, Christian Yount (hard to fault the longsnapper), Eric Hagg, Craig Robertson, and Alex Smith. Chris Ogbonnaya gave chase at the end as well. He was active and Brandon Jackson was not (??) because Shurmur said he could help on special teams. The Browns never dug out of this hole, and ultimately it was the difference in the game.
The mistakes were not limited to the special teams, defensively they made plenty. Dimitri Patterson, a cornerback, actually lined up offsides twice. Two times. Absolutely inexcusable. He also played 15 yards off of AJ Green on the Bengals second touchdown, a curious move seeing that the Bengals were on the 10 yard line. Green caught it, slipped the tackle, touchdown. Buster Skrine was given the start over Sheldon Brown, who was active but played one snap. Shurmur said that Brown was fine after the game, that they just opted to go with Skrine. If Buster Skrine is a better option than Sheldon Brown at cornerback, then Sheldon Brown is probably ready to be put out to pasture, because Skrine was victimized pretty regularly and was called for a 37 yard pass interference penalty. It would've been much worse for Buster had Dalton not overthrown two long passes into the endzone. Eric Hagg was also torched on a long touchdown reception, and has done nothing to justify the hype he was getting in training camp.
Cincinnati's final touchdown came when Andy Dalton slipped the pocket and found Andrew Hawkins, who slithered through the Browns defense for a 50 yard score. Ugh.
The defense failed to stop the Bengals when they needed to at the end of the game, letting the Bengals run off nearly 5 minutes before kicking a field goal to essentially seal the game. The Browns committed a penalty on a 3rd and 1 early in the drive, giving the Bengals a first down, and Jermaine Gresham made a crazy juggling catch to extend the drive and get them into field goal range. One play can change the outcome of a game, and it may have been that catch by Gresham. It was a hellava play.
Yes, Joe Haden was missed, but it is what it is. It has to be next man up. That's how it is in the NFL.
In total, the Browns committed 10 penalties for 103 yards, compared to 6 for 54 for the Bengals. Ogbonnaya also fumbled near midfield when they were building some momentum in the second quarter. Not. Good.
Hard to complain much about the offense, especially after how they looked last week. Brandon Weeden looked like an NFL quarterback. The offensive line played much much better. Trent Richardson looked like an all-pro running back, powering through tackles, showing burst to the outside, and catching the ball well in the passing game. Both of his touchdowns were things of beauty. We haven't had a player of his caliber on offense around here in a long time.
From a clean pocket Weeden should be deadly as he builds a rapport with his receivers, but he showed the ability to stand in the face of the rush and deliver the ball with strength and accuracy. That was extremely encouraging. The touchdown pass to Little was a rocket put on the money. He looked far more comfortable, as did all the rookies, and they should continue to improve as the season goes on. By the way Greg Little does NOT care what you think.
The growth from week 1 to week 2 was exponential from an offensive point of view, and that's the reason fans of the team feel better today than they do about most losses. But they still lost the game, despite a 300 yard passing game from their quarterback and a 100 yard game from their running back. It's still a loss. It's still little things that should be easily cleaned up that cost this team games. Whether it's coaching or the players or both, there has to be some accountability. They're still 0-2, which means they ultimately have a lot more "progress" to make, hopefully starting this week against the Bills.
Random sports gifs:
This was nasty
And I love this guy. NO.
Truth bombs! P.S. that last gif made my whole day
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