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 1 - 2014 - Steelers

The hours before the season opener (besides the draft our Super Bowl) are usually the best time as a Browns fan.  Nothing awful has happened yet.  There is a glimmer of hope that maybe this year is our year.  Maybe the balls bounce our way this season, maybe we finally have a competent and functional organization, maybe this year's opener will be different then the last 9 (all losses) and 14 of the 15 since we've been back.  Maybe Mike Pettine will be a diamond in the rough and turn into a great head coach, maybe Brian Hoyer will write the hometown hero story, or maybe Johnny Manziel will take over and wreck this league.  There is hope, optimism, anticipation.  And then the games start and it's the same old same old, poor quarterback play, poor tackling, poor coaching.  It's the same play with a different cast of characters.  And yesterday, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, ultimately the result was the same.  A loss, which makes it ten (10!!!!) straight opening day losses for the Browns, who fell to the Steelers 30-27.  Only this time, the second act played out a little differently and may have kept hope and optimism flowing in this town for at least another week.

The game was really a game of two different halves.  Really different halves.  The first half caused this guy to make this, (warning - foul language alert) and I was right there with him.  It was an unmitigated disaster that made the Pat Shurmur coached Browns look like the 1964 championship team.  It was bad.  It was really really bad.  They couldn't block.  They couldn't tackle.  They couldn't execute simple football plays.  The punter got kicked in the face.  The Steelers racked up nearly 370! yards and staked out to a 27-3 lead.  It was Shock and Awe. 

It was clear to me anyway that Hoyer was not comfortable throwing in the first half, and was afraid to get hit.  Everything was off his back foot.  He did not trust his knee and did not want to get hit in it.  Travis Benjamin also did not want to get hit, jumping out of bounds short of first downs and fair catching punts with ample space in front of him.  Benjamin was awful in my opinion, but I suppose it's worth noting that he too is coming back off of an ACL tear.  The defense was embarrassingly bad.  The tackling was wretched.  Special teams was a disaster.  I don't even want to list the players who were awful in the half because they all played so bad.  All of them.  They were all horrible.  It seemed like Daryl Ruiter's prediction may not have even been safe.

This will be the first time in 3 years that the #Browns will return from Heinz Field and not fire their head coach after
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) September 5, 2014

Something happened though at halftime that has rarely happened in the recent history of the Browns.  The Browns decided they weren't going to get bullied anymore.  The Browns have LEADERSHIP in their locker room this year, and those leaders were not going to let them lay down and take it.  I honestly don't think they've had that in a long time.  They came back out ready to fight.  And they took it to the Steelers in the second half.  The offensive line was dominant for the most part.  The no huddle was effective (SHOCKING).  Hoyer looked far more comfortable.  The receiving corp that everyone was complaining about got open and caught the ball, and that was without Jordan Cameron.  And back the Browns came.  All the way back, behind the running game and offensive line and smart decisions by Hoyer.  Isaiah Crowell and Terrance West looked awesome.  Andrew Hawkins looked great.  Kyle Shannahan was in a groove calling plays, and never abandoned the run *cough cough Norv Turner*.  It all clicked.  Defensively, the Browns looked like an entirely different team.  They stuffed the run.  They rushed the passer.  They came back and forced a 3 and out after Pittsburgh converted a fake punt.  Jabaal Sheard played great.  Paul Kruger probably played his best game as a Brown.  They came all the way back to tie the game 27-27.  But they couldn't close the game out.  And a loss is a loss.  That's why I feel weird about the game.  The outcome was obviously not what they want but it's hard not to be encouraged by what they did in the second half.

And they probably could have won, but for a couple of calls that can be second guessed in hindsight.  The first was in the fourth quarter with the game tied, on a third and seven from the Pittsburgh 37.  The line had been outstanding and they were just outside of field goal range.  They had a tired Steeler defense on the ropes and all the momentum.  If they were out of Cundiff's range then the smart decision would have been to run the ball and either kick or go for it on 4th down.  They passed incomplete and ultimately punted (!!!) into the endzone.  If the kicker on your team can't kick a 54 yard field goal in perfect conditions then why is he on your team?  Honest question.  Not that he's automatically going to make it but that he doesn't even have the leg to try?  Disappointing.  The second decision was on the Browns final possession, after the sack on first down.  And I know Schwartz is going to take flak for giving it up but it looked like a three step drop and that ball should have been out.  They should have run the ball on second down and played for overtime.  Pettine is a rookie head coach.  He needs to learn how to win.  But there were encouraging signs, even in a loss.  And yes that pains me to think that way.

And I don't want to hear about what a great special teams coach Chris Tabor is.  I think he's terrible.  I've thought it since he got here.  Constant coverage breakdowns, Tank Carder is still on the team and he SUCKS, penalties, he left a gunner wide open so Pittsburgh could convert a fake punt.  He's terrible.  They better get that unit right they are not good enough to win if they lose on special teams.

And Justin Gilbert, it's hard to play cornerback in the NFL.  But boy oh boy you are a work in progress.  Hopefully there will be better days ahead for the rookie.

So the maybe the play that we've all seen so many times will be different.  Right now it looks the same, they are 0-1 in a bottom line business.  But this cast might play it out differently this time.  At least we get to keep our hope for another week. 


Random gifs

So this happened.......




Ouch Dez...



Your Tampa Bay Buccaneers everybody



Bonus Pic cereal guy is my new favorite fan.  Nice work buddy, sneaking in a box of Frosted Flakes.

On Mingo

 

I'll admit I was nervous when the Browns came onto the clock yesterday.  I would've been okay with Milliner, and okay with a trade down.  But I was not surprised, and I was not upset in the least, when they announced the pick of Barkevious Mingo.  I was happy in a way, because it was a good first pick by Banner and Lombardi.  They understand the need to get to the quarterback, and that's where they've built this entire offseason.  Adding Mingo to Kruger, Groves, and Sheard gives the Browns some legitimate edge rushers.  Pair that with Taylor, Desmond Bryant, Rubin, Winn and Hughes and the Browns should be able to have a fresh defensive front with some serious young talent.  Successful teams are able to get to the quarterback, and with a defensive coordinator like Ray Horton, who is known as one of the best, most creative, and most aggressive coaches in the NFL, the Browns front should give a lot of teams problems.  I'm sure there are experts who don't like the pick, I'm sure there are fans that don't like the pick.  I love the pick, I think it's the right way to build.

Mingo was used as a hand in the ground defensive end at LSU.  He was responsible for contain in most of LSU's defensive looks.  He was not an ears pinned back pass rusher like a Jarvis Jones, and his stats look underwhelming because of that.  However the same argument I used for Dion Jordan I'll use for Mingo.  There are only so many people on the planet who are that big, fast, and athletic.  I heard the Browns liked Mingo better than Jordan.  If you only watch one of the videos here - watch the Clemson game, where he was basically turned loose.  He's the first one off the ball on almost every play, uses counter moves to set up the tackle, and shows explosion and burst.  Horton should have a blast developing a player with this kind of athleticism.

 

The argument against the pick is "Who is going to play corner?"  I do believe the Browns will select a cornerback, either tonight or tomorrow.  If that player can't come in and start, then it'll be Chris Owens.  Or they'll sign someone, like a Quintin Jammer or Jacob Lacey.  I do know it's easier to play corner when you're getting pressure on the QB, and that even the best corners get beat by quarterbacks who have all day to throw.

Long story short I really like the pick.  I think it was the right move, and I'm looking forward to watching Barkevious, Paul Kruger, and Jabaal Sheard getting after the quarterback.  It should be a slow day today unless the Browns can add picks, and I'd look for a corner or safety in the third.  Maybe David Amerson, Leon McFadden or Jordan Poyer.