Browns lead Dolphins 7-6 at halftime
September 8, 2013
While We’re Waiting… The aftermath of an opening day disappointment
September 9, 2013
The Browns and Dolphins played a very ugly offensive game Sunday afternoon. Both offensive lines struggled to protect their quarterback or open holes in the running game.
The Browns sacked Miami’s Ryan Tannehill three times and allowed only 20 yards rushing on 21 attempts.
Cleveland’s Mitchell Schwartz had a tough time trying to stop DE Cameron Wake, who got to Brandon Weeden three times. Oniel Cousins, starting at right guard for the injured Shaun Lauvao and Jason Pinkston also had a rough game with costly penalties, including a holding penalty that nullified a late touchdown pass.
Trent Richardson ran for 47 yards on 13 carries, many of those yards coming on second and third effort.
Brandon Weeden threw three interceptions in the game. Two of those interceptions belonged to former Brown Dimitri Patterson, who was in the right place at the right time twice grabbing passes that had deflected off Browns’ receivers. Weeden finished with 289 yards passing.
Jordan Cameron led the Browns in receiving with 9 catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.
87 Comments
In a bad team match-up, I thought it came down to the pass protection for two inexperienced quarterbacks. The Browns stopped getting any pressure on Miami’s long 4th quarter drive, despite Owens and Skrine getting burned play after play. Meanwhile, Weeden was getting pressured immediately almost every play of his 4th quarter drives with no effective protection adjustments.
The FO has put a lot on the shoulders of Horton and Turner to cover some gaping holes. Too much.
this team looked ill-prepared and even at end of game no different than the Shurmur regime which was stunning. It was also amazing how horrific the O-line was even with loss of Lauvao and Pinkston. I know those guys are good but is the drop off THAT bad? and the few rushes for TRich was another staple people complained about during Shurmur regime. looked like same old same old which was shocking considering who we have on the coaching staff.
The only thing I liked about that game was that it ended.
HOW ABOUT THEM FIRST PLACE CLEVELAND BROWNS!!!!
{sob}
Oniel Cousins is not able to play OL in the NFL, sorry. And Josh Gordon’s suspension is really looming large right now.
Why does Trent Richardson look like he’s not putting in much effort? The run-blocking is horrible, though.
Not sure why the Browns’ pass rush disappeared in the 4th quarter. Until then, the D looked stellar.
Lauvao and Pinkston are not that good,but the drop off to the next men up is just huge,unfourtunately and something that should have been dealt with in the draft or free agency but was not. TRich is tough but overated,he dances a bit to much instead of running upfield,he left quite a few yards on the field by dancing and trying cutbacks and often NOT following the blockers,even the announcers made a point of commenting on some of it, maybe Jim Brown was correct on TRich.
You can say the defense looked good at times, but there are some huge flaws with this team…flaws that outweigh any positive gains.
Skrine is not good enough. Every team will take a look at this game tape and build their offense around throwing at Skrine all game.
This team is a joke. The Front office is all talk and full of it. They looked worse then last years team. What a joke.
Bottom 5 QB + no speed on O = not many wins. Until the Browns find a legit QB it’s going to be the same thing every year. Doesn’t matter who is coaching, who is playing G, or how “thin” our secondary is.
I don’t even see how you can pin this on Weeden. He had no WRs and no O-line on the right side today. On the rare play where he had time, AND someone actually got open, he hit them.
I liked the draft pick trades, but the Browns didn’t have a single player from this year’s draft on the field today (and you can include Gordon in that) for a single snap. That’s not exactly hopeful.
you’re not going to like those draft pick trade out when alex mack walks and oneil cousins is your center instead of barrett jones who couldve been had in the fourth round.
Wow that was disappointing.
Not bringing in another sufficient corner will the bonehead move of the offseason. Teams will just simply never throw at Haden and continue to pick apart the pathetic coverage of Skrine and Owens.
What happened to Mitchell Schwartz?
The drops are one of the most mind-numbing things I’ve ever witnessed. Not only do Little and company drop easy passes, they slap the ball straight up into the air and feed it to the defense.
Weeden and Richardson were not even close to being the biggest reasons for that embarrassing showing. I’m not sure why they are taking so much blame amongst fans. No quarterback can succeed with receivers who can’t catch and offensive lineman who can’t block.
people should be quite a bit more peeved at the FO than they are.
the biggest problems today were the biggest problems last year: bad/small secondary gets picked on; lack of depth at OG leads to ryan-miller types jammed into starting roles and being overmatched. all was easily fix-able with the cap space left to banner by heckert. banner still has that cap space; we still don’t have OG depth and we still have the shortest/youngest secondary in the league.
ps: can we end the happy-talk about ‘aggressive attacking defenses means you don’t need to invest in d-backs’ now?
what a disappointment….looking forward to the draft…same old browns
That’s the undercurrent here that no one is mentioning (and which I think you alluded to in your blog.) The current regime is trying to rebuild from scratch, semi-tanking by not addressing the short term at all, and washing their hands of everything that was here before, no matter how little sense it makes. That’s what happened with Dawson. That’s why they didn’t replace Skrine. That’s why they didn’t bother replacing the journeymen on the line with slightly better journeymen. And that’s why they’re not thinking about Mack.
Next year, Schwartz will likely be gone, Cameron will likely be gone, Little will likely be gone, and they will not facilitate Gordon succeeding any more than trotting him out on the field each week. It will be like year one of a rebuilding – twelve draft picks on the team, and nine of them starting. But they’re hoping to avoid the attendance hit (and criticism, because frankly, it’s stupid) that they would have taken if they’d announced it openly.
Agreed
Look at the mighty division after week one!!!
C’mon man! But seriously that trade this past draft may haunt this regime like many others have in the past. There’s still time to sign Mack but like I said in a previous section the Browns need Mack more then Mack needs the Browns.
Did Ward get hurt in that game?
I wanted Claiborne too but what can you do. The fact that they didn’t do something in the secondary and Busted Skrine was out there starting was trouble. I wish he had missed the game myself.
Next week expect Baltimore to do much of the same load the box just cover Cameron and you don’t have to worry about the rest. The fact that Cooper and the other big WR played on the last drive was a little to late.
The decisions being made by the people in charge of personnel directly factored into the loss today. Up until now I gave them the benefit of the doubt but when games are lost because of it there’s a problem. Cousins and Skrine were once again definite weak links.
God is that a depressing analysis. And that’s why this franchise has been in a perpetual void of suck for 14 years. New front offices swapped in to fix old mistakes, only to get the hammer after 3 yrs and start the process again.
it sure looks that way. and in gutting everything, they buy themselves a fresh three year grace period. why shouldn’t they, i guess.. it’s not like they have any news outlets or blogs calling them out for the punt that this season surely appears to be.
On the bright side Phil Dawson missed a 48 yard field goal in his first attempt for SF!!!!
Disastrous effort, and so much problems. BUT a big culprit was the WRs. Terrible effort by Benjamin and Little. Driving killing drops (Benjamin’s fourth quarter one could have been a TD), poor routes, failure to get space & get open (Little) tipped balls leading to TOs. Also Cousins needs to be cut tomorrow. I find it impossible that Gilkey could be worse.
Weeden wasn’t solely to blame but he wasn’t exactly good. He was a good soldier however in the fourth quarter when Miami was teeing off on him. Just a horrible debut a tremendous letdown for the people who for whatever reason thought this team was better then it was last year. There was a particular poster who had them winning 10 games and the division, yea right. 15 weeks left but I’m liking my 6-10 prediction.
Our offensive line must have been in the muni lot drinking cause they didn’t show up today.
Buster Skrine, again with a pass interference call. This time in the end zone. Why did we pass on Milliner for Mingo again?
while BannerLomba certainly want to stamp the team themselves, we have every reason to think they’re trying to sign Mack (Banner said as much) and not signing him before the opener could have been on the player. Schwartz had a crappy game against an elite rusher but there’s no reason to think he’s going anywhere.
I am smelling FO hubris, guys outsmarting themselves. Still don’t get the deferring of mid-round picks for future mid-round picks/”flexibility,” not when they end up with 8 undrafted FAs and not when they really have no idea what value such chits might bring next year. And it makes no sense to tank part of your own draft – that does not buy you any more time with the public or owner. It only makes you look foolish. I think they hatched some Plan A that bombed and were left with Cousins and Skrine at positions they should never be. Smartest Guy in the Room Syndrome, again.
Skrine has no business starting in the NFL. Unfortunately, neither does Chris “10 Yard Cushion” Owens. They threw at Owens every single time he was in the game. On Miami’s long, early drive 4 or 5 plays in a row were all passes thrown at Owens, all for completions.
The defense gave up less than 25 yards rushing, and Mike Wallace had one catch and was not a factor. If you had told me that 6 hours ago I would say that’s a “W” for sure. Shows what I know.
Dolphins have a really good defense. They will cause a lot of problems for people this season.
We missed Josh Grodon a lot today. Get him back in the fold and get someone even somewhat competent at guard and I think the offense will be OK. Not great, but OK. Good enough to win some games.
Our Front 7 was outstanding, and that’s without Rubin and Mingo. I’m excited to see what they can do this season, especially in the division.
It’s a disappointing loss to be sure, but I’m not as despondent as most people seem to be. If the run defense can play like they did today the next two weeks, I like our chances in BAL and MIN.
Travis Benjamin should strictly be a special teams player. His drops were costly and he is such a liability as a route runner because he has to be completely uncovered to not get pushed off his route. He’s just too small. Hopefully he disappears from the offensive gameplan once Gordon returns.
đ
It’s not supposed to be this hard.
– Other team’s’ WRs catch the ball
– Other teams’ DBs disrupt 5-yard routes
– Other teams’ RGs don’t accumulate 40+ yards of penalties
These are just the simple things. Performing the most basic job you have on the team.
Other teams have bad QBs. Rough running games. Offensive lines that aren’t playing well. DBs that drop INTs. Players injured or under suspension.
But come on already! I’m sick of it already. If the Browns weren’t afflicted by those 3 things, they probably win this game even considering all of the other bad things they did.
On a side note: Did you see Dawson miss that field goal?
TRich’s shortcomings are mental, not talent based. That’s why Jim Brown was wrong.
While Cousins is terrible and shouldn’t be on an NFL roster, I don’t fault the FO for him. He’s a 3rd stringer, they’re almost always going to be terrible.
Just wait til they play good offenses. Those games could get ugly quick.
The coaching staff for thinking he could play anywhere on the OL deserves some blame but the FO needs to find another OG. I thought for sure when the Moffitt deal was rescinded they’d get someone else. Cousins made Schwartz look like a rookie.
Oh and Obiwanna at FB, um, failure!
Ugh! I’m watching GB v SF and it makes the Browns look like division III.
Absolutely you see why Benjamin is strictly a backup at that position. But this shows just how weak the WR corps Gordon or no Gordon.
Yes I commented on Dawson’s missed FG above but how about former Brown Dmitri Patterson? He sure looked good against a bunch of bad WRs. It’s no wonder he lasted all year for Cleveland last year.
agreed about obie for sure.
I don’t even want to think about it but can you imagine this offense if/should Richardson get hurt? That is scary!
I have to admit after just one game I can’t see what the personnel people were seeing/doing/envisioning. I’m willing to wait though I mean it is after all just one game but still.
Even if you just choose two of those points the Browns probably win. The drops and Cousins were Miami’s best weapons. I’m also really sick of being forced to watch the Browns starting players that do not even belong in the NFL. Cousins, Skrine, Owens, and Benjamin (as a WR) don’t even belong on any NFL roster, let alone getting significant playing time.
I’m glad you like the chances because I don’t. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson are no Lamar Miller. Yes the Browns stopped the Dolphins but why should Miami run when they could throw?
The game wasn’t really that close which is the sad part.
I thought our front 7 was good, but not outstanding. Certainly, you give them the credit for shutting down the running game. But, they routinely could NOT get to Tannehill, and that’s going to be a bad recipe for this team with our secondary. The front 7 has to be stellar in both facets of the game, or this secondary is going to give up a lot of plays.