Week 6 - 2013

"Hope is a waking dream", according to Aristotle.  Well the dream of the first place Browns, the dream of a division championship, and probably the dream of the playoffs turned into a nightmare against the Lions on a warm Sunday afternoon in Cleveland.  Yes, there are still ten games left, and yes, the Browns are only one game behind Cincinnati, and yes, it seems early to despair.  But after watching Brandon Weeden's second chance at being the starting quarterback, I'll be stunned if the Browns win more than three more games the rest of the season.  If that sounds overly pessimistic, watch this play over and over.  One play, one bad decision, but no one play has ever summed up a quarterback quite like this one does.

I don't want to blast just Brandon Weeden.  There is plenty of blame to go around after that disastrous second half which saw the Browns give up 24 straight points.  Craig Robertson was systematically targeted and exploited by Detroit.  An average Lions offensive line kept moon faced Matt Stafford clean and upright for a majority of the game.  The coaching was questionable at best, both offensively and defensively.  And the officiating was downright awful.  But the game was in the hands of the quarterback and he failed.


First off, the Browns have had the lead at halftime in every game this season.  And they've managed to lose 3 of those games.  In the first half, they were able to mix in creative running plays with effective passing.  They didn't put it on Weeden.  And it worked as they went into halftime with a 10 point lead.  It was like an entirely different team came out of the locker room.  In this, and every one of those losses, they have been awful in the third quarter.  I'm not sure if they're being out coached in the locker room at halftime or what the issue is, but the fact is they do not execute well after halftime especially with Weeden at the helm.  They have pulled the plug on the running game in each of the three losses, putting the game entirely on Weeden's shoulders.  And quite simply they are not going to win that way.  Against the Lions, they ran nine plays in the third quarter.  NINE.  Three series, three and out on all of them.  They called three running plays.  They were awful, horrible, lousy.  The coaches have to do a better job.

Defensively, this was probably the worst game the Browns have played this season.  The defense is going to keep them in a lot of games, but they weren't that good on Sunday.  In the second half Detroit exploited matchup problems and Ray Horton had no answer.  They got no pressure on Stafford, allowing him to dink and dunk down the field.  They let the Lions convert 8-15 third downs.  Tashaun Gipson, who is really becoming a solid player, had an interception, the only turnover the Browns forced.  And they only sacked Stafford once.  Craig Robertson had a really really tough day.  Joe Haden was called for two horrible pass interference penalties but shut down a hobbled Calvin Johnson.  But it was the inability to get pressure and to stop the Lions on third down that hurt the Browns on Sunday.  This defense will have better days.

But the problem for the Browns, the real problem, is the quarterback.  I stuck up for Brandon Weeden.  I convinced myself that the things that were wrong with him were fixable, that he would get better with a new coaching staff.  But they aren't and they haven't.  The same issues he had in college, and last year, still exist.  He locks on to his primary target and holds the ball too long.  He has trouble throwing receivers open.  He truly is a baseball player who is playing football.  He has no football instincts.  The second the Lions went up by 4 points early in the fourth quarter the game was essentially over.  He proved it when he stupidly took a penalty for intentional grounding, and proved it with that stupid flip pass that was intercepted.  He even proved it on the last series of the game when he didn't throw the ball near the endzone when the Browns needed touchdowns, although more than likely the game was decided.  He missed a wide open Travis Benjamin and a wide open Greg Little for big plays in the second half, although the Little play would've come back on a penalty.  He limits what the offense can do.  It is clear that when he is the quarterback the Browns will not run screen passes.  It is unclear what other limitations the offense works under with Weeden, but after seeing this team with Hoyer and then again with Weeden, there are definite limitations.

And I don't like to blame the officials but Walt Coleman and his crew were criminally bad.  Rarely are games as horribly officiated as this one, and the Browns were on the short end of every bad call.  The pass interference on Joe Haden on 3rd and 2 in the first quarter was awful.  The catch by Greg Little on 2nd and 25 in the fourth quarter sure looked good from the limited angles that were shown by Fox, but was called a no catch.  And the roughing the passer call on Quinton Groves was an abomination.  I still feel the NFL should grade every officiating crew and publish those grades, but this crew was downright awful.  Walt Coleman has now secured his place with Jeff Triplette in the awful referee hall of fame.  So congrats Walt and crew, you are absolutely dreadful.

So this is where we're at.  The Browns are 3-3 and trending down.  Whereas just last week we were celebrating being in first place, this week it seems we're destined for a top ten draft pick.  Such is life as a Browns fan.  Snapped out of this waking dream, back the reality of life in the NFL with Brandon Weeden as the starting quarterback.  He has ten games left to prove himself, otherwise that hope, that waking dream, will be of Bridgewater or Mariota or Boyd or Manziel in orange and brown.


Random gifs

Careful on those sidelines ladies

 

Holla at your boy Tom Brady

Case McCoy crash test dummy

And bonus picture because it's awesome.