Preseason Game 1

I hate the NFL Preseason, it's an incredible tease.  However, it's football, and football kicks ass, and garbage football is better than no football, so FOOTBALL.

It's hard to know what exactly to takeaway from exhibition football games, even ones with Johnny MFing Football making his debut, but here's what I gleaned from the Browns 13-12 loss to the Lions in the famed GLC, the greatest of all meaningless preseason football games.

Sorry Brian Hoyer fans, but this will be Johnny's team, and soon.  We all know what Brian Hoyer is.  He's the girl next door.  Somewhat attractive, nice, friendly, easy to like.  Johnny Manziel is the stunner, the beauty queen.  Supercharged, smokin hot.  There's a chance he'll break your heart, but if you have the beauty queen you don't take out the girl next door. 

Hoyer had some decent moments, as he should as a 6 year vet in a preseason game with Josh Gordon to throw to and two pro bowl linemen in front of him.  He wasn't pressured.  He still doesn't look like he fully trusts his knee to me, but he looked exactly as he should, maybe a little better coming of the ACL tear.  And that's not to say that's a bad thing.  With the trash I've had to watch at quarterback the past few years I'd take it.  But Hoyer has a problem - Manziel can do things that Hoyer can't, and (probably soon, based on the rate he's supposedly picking up the offense) can do everything Hoyer can.

Manziel has plenty to learn, and was still pretty quick to take off when his primary read was covered, but it was tough to gauge with the trash playing offensive line in front of him.  Everything looked disjointed while he was in, and he was still able to move the ball.  (CATCH THE GD BALL WILLIE SNEAD)  He showed a live arm, quick feet, and after a couple of hits, figured out to slide and get out of bounds on two separate runs.  The game will slow down for him.  It will be his team soon though.

Manziel needs some time with the ones, with the starting o-line in front of him, to fully evaluate his comfort level within the offense.  But rest assured Brian Hoyer, Johnny's coming for you, and soon.

Speaking of the second team offensive line, they are terrible.  The problem in the NFL is that there are more roster spots around the league than there are good linemen to fill them.  Offensive line depth is an issue with most teams for that reason.  It's hard to find good linemen. 

At running back, you have to like watching Ben Tate see the hole and hit the hole.  Terrance West had some decent runs as well.  The Browns look to be in pretty good shape with those two.  Dion Lewis fumbled, and probably won't be on the final roster.  Edwin Baker or Chris Ogbonnaya should fight it out for the third running back spot.  MarQueis Gray is above average at fullback, a decent pass catcher who at least gives you that option off play action.

The wideouts dropped way too many passes, across the board.  Miles Austin and Josh Gordon both should have caught big passes from Hoyer.  Willie Snead and Jonathan Krause may have played their way off the roster.  Charles Johnson is an intriguing prospect who is worth watching more as the preseason goes on.  It should be noted that Jordan Cameron, Nate Burleson, and Travis Benjamin all didn't play.  I'm a big Andrew Hawkins fan.  I think he's going to be very good in this offense.  Gary Barnidge stinks.  But these guys need to catch the ball.

Defensively, the line is stacked.  Armonty Bryant is a stud, he's going to be hard to keep off the field.  With Rubin on the nose and Taylor, Winn, Des Bryant, Hughes, Kitchen the Browns are in really good shape.

Paul Kruger just does nothing for me, he did his classic hesitate, then slam into a blocker move a couple times and it was as ineffective as it always is.  Sheard and Mingo should be out there.  Robertson and Kirksey are going to battle it out to see who starts next to Dansby, both guys played pretty well.  Depth at linebacker is a concern, Tank Carder was embarrassing himself out there.  I'm rooting for you Justin Staples.

Come back soon Tashaun Gipson, I do not want to see Jordan Poyer as my starting free safety.  And welcome to the NFL Pierre Desir, you aren't at Lindenwood anymore.  He's clearly a work in progress.  It would have been nice to see Justin Gilbert out there.

I would have like to see what guys like Connor Shaw and Isaiah Crowell could do, but it's possible that the Browns are going to hold them back to sneak them on their practice squad and don't want to give other teams a look at them.

Also, NFL officiating still SUCKS.  And so does Soloman Wilcots GIVE ME BACK MY BERNIE!!!!!!!!!

The best thing that happened in this game is that no one got injured.

All and all it was a typical Browns game, a bunch of field goals until they find a way to lose in the end.  But Manziel is coming, and so are touchdowns and playoffs and excitement.  Hey it's early but we can dream, right?

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.