Week 8 - 2014 - Oakland

Well, honestly, that was a little bit boring.  A four o'clock game against the Raiders in Cleveland, on a gorgeous day, turned into a bit of a snoozer.  Maybe it seemed worse because we had to wait for it, but generally it was a workmanlike 23-13 victory over Oakland, the worst team in the NFL (except maybe Jacksonville but we know how that went last week).  The Browns were able to avoid being the first team to lose to two 0-6 teams in consecutive weeks in NFL history, so that's good.  What's better is them being 4-3, and what's best is that they sent the home crowd home happy.  They're now 3-1 at the Factory of Gladness.

Last week against Jacksonville was abysmal for the offense, and the blueprint for defending the Browns was drafted by Gus Bradley.  And Oakland tried to follow suit, by loading the box against the run and daring Brian Hoyer to beat them.  And last week, against a marginally talented Jacksonville defense, he couldn't do it.  And this week, against a marginally talented Oakland defense he could.  And the question last week was "Was this the real Brian Hoyer?"  And I think this week he definitively answered the question.  No, that wasn't the real Brian Hoyer.  What you saw against Oakland is.

We now have a body of work on Hoyer, and he's 7-3 as the Browns starter.  He is an above average quarterback.  He can win and manage football games.  With a good running game and a good defense, Brian Hoyer can win you games.  He's not very accurate.  His ball placement is below average.  He's got a quick release.  He's more brains than balls, which makes defensive coaches like Mike Pettine happy.  He has an average group of receivers, and it will be certainly interesting to see what he looks like with Josh Gordon in the lineup.  But that's who he is.  And 100% disclosure I'm as excited as anybody to see what Johnny Manziel can do as a starter.  But I'm willing to wait, because Brian Hoyer is winning football games.  It's not always pretty, and in this case it was harder than it had to be.  But the guy wins.

I've said from the beginning that the divide between Browns fans on Brian Hoyer is totally crazy.  Brian Hoyer is either the second coming of Otto Graham or he is garbage.  There is no in between.  And I go back and forth a little with how I feel about him as the starter, and I'm probably as hard on Hoyer as anybody, but frankly I care only about the Browns winning.  And Brian Hoyer gives the Browns the best chance to win right now.  Down the road, next season, all that can wait.  For now, Brian Hoyer is the best option for the Browns, and he is what he is.  He's not Joe Montana.  He's not Bernie Kosar.  He's not Charlie Frye.  He's Brian Hoyer, he's all the things listed above.  There are far worse options that are starting in the NFL than Brian Hoyer, and there are far worse things than a 21 year old rookie quarterback learning on the sidelines.

So having said that, Hoyer had a pretty Brian Hoyer like game against the Raiders.  He made some good throws, and there are some throws that I'm sure he'd like to have back.  And he made a couple of awful throws that could have been interceptions.  But the final score had the Browns in the lead, and comfortably.  And that my friends is what it's all about.

I legitimately am super sorry for anything mean I've ever said about Alex Mack.  Because it seems to be really hard to run the ball without him.  I actually thought Nick McDonald played respectably considering the circumstances, and they should get better as they go, but man the offensive line has had better days.  And I'm not a football coach, but it's hard for me to understand why the most talented running back on the roster only played a handful of snaps and got one carry.  We should be feeding the Crow more.  Losing Jordan Cameron in the first half definitely hurt.  But the offense needs to score touchdowns, not kick field goals, and it took until the 4th quarter to finally punch through.  And against possibly any team except the Raiders that might be too late.

But these were the Raiders, and they are just awful.  From their first drive, when they were gutting us with the run but decided to have Darren McFadden throw to Derek Carr, to faking a field goal with Matt freaking pick 6 Schaub, you knew that it was going to take a lot to lose to Tony Sparano and the pardon my french shitty shitty Raiders.  I liked Derek Carr for a few weeks last year before the draft, but then I decided that I hated him for the Browns because he's not that good in my opinion.  And for all the praise that has been thrown that guys way this season they are now 0-7.  Oakland's offense is terrible.  But they were just the tonic that the Browns defense needed to get well.

And the Browns defense played their best game of the season.  All the Browns defenders.  I can't think of a single player I thought that had a bad game on the defensive side.  And a bunch had their best games, including Joe Haden (who was AWESOME), rookie Justin Gilbert, and Donte Whitner, who made the play that really turned the game the Browns way when he stuck Darren McFadden and forced a fumble that bounced into Haden's arms and led to the Browns first touchdown.  The second biggest play of the game was in the third quarter when Paul Kruger smashed Carr on a sack, because that guy does not like getting hit.  After that shot by Kruger, Carr was not the same.  The defense forced 3 turnovers, and Kruger had 3 sacks against a team that had only allowed 5 in their previous six games.  My man Tashaun Gipson also had an interception giving him 5 on the season and 8 in his last 10 games.  The guy is a ballhawk.  The porous run defense also only gave up 71 yards on the ground.  That is encouraging.  Oakland added a garbage time touchdown, but the game was over by then.  The defense seems to be finding it's footing, and with some of the offensive struggles that is a really good thing.

Even the special teams didn't do anything too stupid, although Travis Benjamin probably owes Eric Martin dinner for pouncing on yet another fumble on a punt return.  Just put Leonhard back there and let him fair catch for crying out loud.

The Browns struggled to run the ball, their quarterback didn't play his best game, and they played probably the worst team they'll face all year.  But the fact is they won comfortably 23-13.  It wasn't pretty.  I'd call it boring.  But every week, we hear about how this is a results business, and the Browns won.  And they are 4-3 for the first time since 2007, with Tampa Bay coming to town next Sunday giving them a pretty decent chance to be 5-3 halfway through the season.  And whatever side of the Brian Hoyer debate you are on, I think if you are really honest with yourself you'd be thrilled with that.  So boring, game manager, and aesthetics aside, lets just enjoy the wins, they've been too few and far between around here to complain about them.  I'll take W's, boring or not.


Random gifs

Bosa.

Honestly not sure I've ever seen a facemask ripped off during a play

Can't stop watching this.

 

Week 7 - 2014 - Jaguars

That giant thud you heard around 4pm?  That was Brian Hoyer coming back down to Earth.  Or maybe it was the horrid Paul McQuistan getting planted on his back again by the Jacksonville defensive line.  Or maybe it was a collective groan after one questionable coaching decision after another.  Or perhaps, it was the sound of expectations being lowered.  As only the Browns can, they disappointed their ravenous fanbase with one of the worst eggs they've ever laid (and that's saying something), losing to the previously winless Jaguars 24-6.  It was pure hot garbage from the start.

This isn't Penn Hills High School, Mike Pettine.  This is the NFL.  Teams can't overcome their head coaches too often.  I understand that Pettine is a first year head coach and that maybe he deserves some leeway.  But good lord the list of bad decisions that he made in this game alone could fill this page.  They have looked incredibly unprepared to play every game on the road so far.  However they were 3-2, on a two game win streak, and had looked like a team that was ready to make some noise.   Pettine talked all week about how they weren't going to overlook Jacksonville, blah blah blah, and then they did.  This was an 0-6 team they played!  They hadn't scored more than 17 points in a game!  They are the worst ranked offense in the league, and the 30th ranked defense.  This is a game that a good team, a well coached team, would have come out and dominated.  But it's possible that the Browns are neither.

Pettine couldn't get out of his own way in this one, from the get go.  The most egregious coaching mistake he made was when he opted to go for it on 4th and 1, up 6-0 in the second quarter.  I'm all for aggressiveness when the time is right.  And the time was way wrong on this one.  They should have kicked the field goal and gone up by two scores, especially when it was clear that points were not going to come easily.  Instead they failed to convert and gave Jacksonville back the ball.  The Jags promptly moved down the field and scored a touchdown, going into the half with the lead.  He also made an absolutely ridiculous decision to try and trick the Jaguars on 4th down by trotting out the punt team, then running them off and bringing the offense back.  They were trying to catch the Jags sleeping, but they weren't.  Instead Greco snapped the ball to Hoyer who had no idea what was going on, and gave the ball away on the 50 yard line with the game still in the balance.  He looked absolutely clueless.  It was Shurmur-esque.

He wasn't the only coach that had a rough game.  My good buddy Chris Tabor, the worst special teams coach in football, was back to his old tricks.  Absolutely embarrassing performance by his unit.  Between Spencer Lanning kicking the ball into the endzone for touchbacks and longsnappers getting penalties, he decided to trot Jordan Poyer out to return punts in the 4th quarter with the game on the line, with the reliable Jim Leonhard on the bench.  Poyer tried to catch the punt on the 2 !!!!! freaking yard line, had the ball bounce off his facemask and into the arms of the Jaguars defender.  Jacksonville scored and essentially put the game away after that blunder.  Not only was the catch muffed, but the Browns jumped offsides anyway, so either way Jacksonville was keeping the ball.  How Tabor is still employed is a mystery to me.  I just don't get it.  Every other game his unit does something detrimental.  He is just the worst.

All week long we heard about Brian Hoyer and his contract.  That's what Brian Hoyer was talking about this week, his contract, and whether he did or didn't want to be here if Johnny Manziel is.  Yeah it might be time to table those contract talks.  Brian Hoyer was AWFUL.  16-41, 215 yards, an interception and a fumble, and somehow it looked worse than those numbers.  He was spraying the ball all over the field.  High and low, wide and far, he did his best Derek Anderson impression.  The receivers will shoulder some of the blame but it's the quarterbacks job to deliver catchable balls, and Hoyer just didn't do it.  They had a chance to go up 10-0 in the first half, but Hoyer never saw Travis Benjamin streaking open on 2nd down and then airmailed a pass to a wide open Jordan Cameron on 3rd, leading to a field goal.  This was Hoyer's worst game as a starter.  And get used to it Brian, that's what you're going to see going forward.  Teams are going to bring 8 and 9 guys into the box and make Brian Hoyer throw accurately and beat them.  We'll see how that goes.  It's amazing what good defensive coaches do to quarterbacks once they get some film on them.  I love Gus Bradley by the way.  For the record I would have thrown Manziel in for a series in the third quarter.  The offense was stagnant under Hoyer and I would have seen if I could have found a spark.  If nothing else maybe it would have woken Hoyer up. 

The offensive line looked pretty bad without Alex Mack.  Paul McQuistan can crawl back into whatever hole he came out of because hopefully we've seen the last of him.  He was abused.  Ideally Nick McDonald (great story here by MKC) can slide in at center and move Greco back to guard.  Isaiah Crowell is clearly the most talented back on the team, but Ben Tate gets more carries for some reason.  Crowell should be the feature back.  Let him loose.  FEED THE CROW.  What does Ben Tate do better than Crowell?  Nothing that I can think of, don't say block because he got Hoyer smashed on the fumble that somehow magically went 15 yards forward but was still ruled a fumble.  Those refs sucked, too.  I'm also going to only refer to Terrance West as "Two Step" now, because all he wants to do is dance.

It's clear that the defensive line has been decimated by injury, but to let the Jaguars, who came in averaging like 67 yards per game run for 185 yards is absolutely disgraceful.  My man Tashaun Gipson looked like he could have scored had he cut upfield instead of running sideways on the interception, but he's a player.  They intercepted Bortles 3 times, but the offense let them down.  The defense wasn't great, but they were hung out to dry big time by the offense and special teams.

This was your typical Browns game.  Play like a Brown says Pettine, and they did.  As a life long Browns fan I knew that there was a real possibility that they would get beat by the 0-6 Jaguars.  Once you've seen so much disappointment you steel yourself for games like this.  Instead of moving to 4-2 for the first time since 2001 they fall to 3-3.  This was a game they should have won, but they didn't.  This was a ready for primetime test and they failed miserably.  It should serve as a reset of expectations.  Were these the real Browns?  Was this the real Brian Hoyer?  Is this team a real contender in the AFC North?  Or are they a .500 team?  Time will tell, but this thud will reverberate loudly through this town this week.


Random gifs

This probs hurt

So did this

Oh those sneaky Rams.

Bonus pic - Darnell Dockett is so mean to Oakland fans.  Browns looking to avoid losing back to back games to 0-6 opponents next week when Oakland comes to town.

Week 6 - 2014 - Steelers

You could feel it in the air.  The excitement had been building all week.  The weather was perfect.  The most important game since 1999 they said.  But with the Browns, there's always that feeling.  That feeling that the other shoe is about to drop.  And why shouldn't we be nervous?  Ben Roethlisberger was 18-1 against the Browns.  The Steelers had won 27 of the past 32 meetings since 1999, including that awful playoff loss in 2003.  We've seen just about everything go wrong that could go wrong, we've been let down before.  So yeah, with the excitement of the game there was that nervousness that accompanies any hope for these Browns.  But not this Sunday, not these Browns.  This day was Cleveland's.  This day belonged to the Browns.  And it wasn't a nailbiter.  There was no last minute heartbreak in the offing.  Nope.  This day, the Browns took the fight to their old nemesis, the bully that had beaten them up and down over and over.  They took the fight to them and kicked their asses.  The Steelers, with their aging stars, their suspect defense, their sex predator quarterback, turned tail and ran back down the turnpike after a thorough beating.  AND IT WAS AWESOME.  The Browns whooped the Steelers 31-10 in front of the home crowd.

It was a big win.  It was in the division and it was a home game.  So yeah it would have been important if it was Baltimore or Cincinnati.  But this was a big one psychologically.  The Browns, as discussed before about Baltimore, needed to beat Pittsburgh to announce that they aren't a punching bag anymore.  That the trash that had been going on for the past 15 years wasn't going to happen again.  They failed that test against Baltimore.  They found a way to lose.  But Sunday they had a mulligan, got a redo.  Another opportunity to announce their legitimacy.  And they took full advantage.  This wasn't the win in the freezing cold in a lost season under Eric Mangini.  This wasn't the escape against Charlie Batch when they forced 8 turnovers and barely managed a victory.  This was a legit big game victory against their rival.  They dominated up front on offense.  They found ways to get off the field on defense.  And they played mistake free special teams.  And that my friends will win a lot of football games.

The Steelers plan was clear from the beginning.  They were going to run the ball and wear down a thin defensive front that was missing some key players.  The plan looked like it was going to work for the first quarter.  But the bend but don't break Browns held the Steelers to a field goal made and a field goal botched, and then the offense got going, and they never looked back.  The Browns scored on three straight drives in the second quarter, and Pittsburgh never recovered.  Brian Hoyer had perhaps the best 8-17, 217 yard 1 TD performance I've seen in my lifetime.  He was completely in command of the offense.  His pass to Jordan Cameron on the second Browns touchdown was a thing of beauty.  Just enough air to get it over the oft out of position Troy Polamalu and just out of the reach of Cortez Allen.  It was a beaut.  He was outstanding.  Brian Hoyer is better than I ever thought he could be, and I'm really glad to be wrong about him.  He's now 6-2 as a Browns starter.

Kyle Shanahan called another gem of a game.  The success of the running game makes play action passing incredibly effective.  And the Browns had success running the ball.  They averaged 4.2 yards per rush on their 38 runs, but that average is brought down by a fourth quarter where they were just running out the clock.  Ben Tate and Isaiah Crowell ran hard behind an offensive line that is as good as any offensive line in the NFL.  Losing Alex Mack will hurt.  A lot.  I will admit I've been hard on old Alex.  But he is really great in this scheme and his injury is going to hurt.  It's clear by the reaction to the injury how respected he is by his teammates.  But they were still able to run the ball after his injury, and that is part scheme and part running back talent on this team.  Crowell needs to hold onto the football but he and Tate played very well.  And lets be honest the Steelers defense is not that good.  In the 6 quarters against Pittsburgh after that abysmal first half in the opener the Browns have outscored the Steelers 55-13.  That is not a fluke.  That is one team being better than the other.

Defensively this was the best the Browns have played all year.  They had multiple contributors missing and were still able to limit what the Steelers were able to do.  They bottled up LeVeon Bell, and mostly contained Antonio Brown.  They seemed to dial the pressure down a bit, which helped take some heat off Haden and Skrine, both of whom played pretty good football.  The strategy seemed similar to the Saints game, giving up a little on the ground and playing more coverage.  But the best thing the defense did was tackle, they tackled better than they have all season.  There were not too many free yards for the Steelers, they earned what they got which wasn't much.  And not for nothing but Todd Haley is an idiot.  I have no idea why he would run the ball on first and second downs, get into third and short, and pass, but hey...

But this was a team win.  The whole team seemed to play well, they beat the Steelers in just about every facet of the game.  And what matters is that they are now 3-2, with an extremely soft next few games.  They have a chance to make some noise in the AFC.  And man will this offense look nice with Josh Gordon, and that day is coming.  But the biggest takeaway from this win is that they are finally a better team than the Steelers.  This is the beginning of the Browns time, the Steelers time has past.  And those frontrunning fairweather fans know it.  There seemed to be a lot less black and gold in the crowd than usual.  And they made the sad walk this time, marching out to joyful barking.  This Browns team took a big step, and it was awesome.


Random gifs

Poor Purdue

Jeremy Hill busted out the Ickey Shuffle and it was awesome

Rodgers hit em with the Kosar special fake spike (ask Marino it was Kosar's idea)

Bonus pic umm buddy are you seriously taking a picture of that cheerleaders ass on the sideline like a creep?  Yeah you are......

Week 5 - 2014 - Titans

Well that was an interesting game.  The Browns won yesterday, 29-28 over the Titans.  Just your average 25 point comeback on the road, the largest deficit ever made up on the road in NFL history, and the largest comeback in Browns history.  Once again they fell behind in the first half, only to have Brian Hoyer lead them to victory.  This Brian Hoyer guy is moving rapidly from "game manager" to "captain comeback" and "a winner" if you're keeping score on quarterback cliches.  How they ever got down 28-3 to the Titans is another story, but the fact is they won, and as we all know it's a results based business.  The Browns have evened up their record at 2-2, with all four games decided by a field goal or less, and all 4 games decided in the final 2 minutes.  The Kardiac Kids are back.

Let's start with the Titans, who are basically the Ravens without the success.  They were owned by a scumbag named Bud Adams who moved them from Houston where they were the Oilers.  Adams basically held Houston hostage for 10 years before moving the team, much like Art Modell did here.  Adams employed huge ahole Jeff Fisher for 16 (!) years.  Jeff Fisher is the WORST.  They also decided it was a good idea to honor Rob Bironas, their former kicker, before the game and with a decal on their helmets.  What happened to Rob Bironas you ask?  Well a few weeks ago he got ridiculously drunk, went driving, nearly ran two cars off the road (explicitly threatening to kill one carload of people) before smashing his own vehicle into a tree, killing himself.  (For the record it's obviously a horrible tragedy that Bironas died but I'm not sure the manner he did is something that you should celebrate.)  They also drafted noted scumbag Taylor Lewan, Michigan Man.  Your Tenneessee Titans everyone.

Going into the game with the Browns, the Titans were 1-3.  They had lost 3 straight games, getting outscored 100-34 in the process.  They hadn't scored a point in the first quarter all season.  They were led on offense by Jake Locker, who should have been a welcomed sight to the Browns after facing Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, and Joe Flacco, all Super Bowl champion quarterbacks.  Basically, the Titans stink, and the Browns were coming off a bye to shore up their defensive problems.  It should be an easy win, right?  But part of the problem is that teams also look at the Browns as easy wins.  That's part of the reputation that this Browns team needs to shake.  And the Titans came out like they were the better team, and they expected to win.  And the Browns came out and looked like the team that played that disgusting first half against the Steelers.  They couldn't tackle.  They couldn't get off blocks.  They couldn't get off the field on third down against a team that was the worst in the league at converting them.  They certainly couldn't cover anyone.  They were rushing six and getting no pressure.  They fell behind 28-3, it was awful.  The best thing that happened to the Browns in the first 25 minutes or so was that Jake Locker hit his thumb on Buster Skrine's helmet and had to leave the game.  That sent Charlie Whitehurst into the game, one of Nashville's most beautiful people.  And while that didn't help immediately with Whitehurst torching Buster Skine, once Charlie Whitehurst realized that he's Charlie Whitehurst, the Browns were able to start chipping away.

It was not a pleasant first half though.  Mike Pettine, I kind of think your team should have been a little more prepared, a little more ready to play.  Pettine is a defensive guy, that's his background.  But man his defense has looked bad at times.  It seems clear that what he wants to do right now on defense, isolating corners in one on one coverage and pressuring the quarterback, he cannot.  It hasn't worked.  Haden, Skrine, and Gilbert have all been torched at times.  It may be time to pare it back a little.  I still wonder what is going on with the defensive play calling, if it's O'Neil or if it's Pettine.  Whatever is going on, it hasn't looked good, especially early in games.  This is a very poor tackling team also.  The Browns were able to score a touchdown before the half and went into the locker room down 28-10. 

And much like the Pittsburgh game, they came out of the locker room and stuck with the plan.  I love Kyle Shanahan.  I think there were times that he could have run the ball even more.  On both possessions that the Browns went for it on fourth down and were stopped in the second half I thought they could have kept pounding with the run game, but it's easy to second guess.  But he never abandoned the run game.  They never panicked.  They went more uptempo, and it worked (shocking), and they were able to move the ball in the second half.  The balance on offense is outstanding, for the year they've had 138 pass plays and 127 runs.  Ben Tate looked great.  Travis Benjamin went from goat to hero with two great touchdown catches.  Amazing how no one talks about the receivers anymore.  Hawkins, Gabriel, Austin and Benjamin all made big plays in the second half.  And Hoyer is becoming captain clutch.

There were other factors that worked into this comeback, most notably that the Titans stink and make stupid plays and coaching decisions.  Penalties by the Titans wiped out two HUGE Browns turnovers.  One was on a Benjamin muffed punt (probably need to leave him off of punt returns), and one was on an interception.  So those were huge plays in the game that went the Browns way (that even feels weird to type).  And Ken Whisenhunt made some absolutely idiotic coaching decisions, from throwing the ball with the lead 3 straight plays when they needed to run the clock out to the ill-fated quarterback sneak on 4th and 1 that gave the ball back to the Browns in Titan territory.  He exasperated the problem by challenging the play and burning a timeout.  The Titans are a bad team.  The Browns outgained the Titans in yardage in the second half 278 to 126, and scored the last 26 points of the game.  However, the Browns hadn't won a road game since last year against Minnesota, losing their previous 7, so this was a big win regardless of the opponent.  And credit has to go to Mike Pettine for challenging the spot on that key 3rd down reception by Walker.  Pettine won the challenge and that proved to be a gamechanger.  And the special teams shockingly didn't blow it, and Tank Carder made a huge play, which just goes to show what a weird weird game this was.  Carder's blocked punt was the first by the Browns since November 2003.

The Browns are back to .500, 2-2, with the Steelers coming to town next Sunday.  After that it goes at Jacksonville, home against Oakland and Tampa Bay, at Cincinnati, then home against Houston.  They really do have a chance to make some noise, that is not a murder's row of opponents.  They have scored at least 21 points in their first four games for the first time since 1969.  They are stressful but apparently never out of the game.  They have a local boy leading them.  There is a lot to like here.  Although it wasn't pretty, they won.  And a win is a win.  The Kardiac Kids are back, keep your defibulators close by.


Random gifs

Hoyer's got some wiggle

Damn Julio

Not great defense on the Hail Mary, USC (sorry D)

Bonus Pic - Saddest Browns fans