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.
