LeBron and Kyrie to sit out tonight’s preseason game
October 14, 2014WFNY On Location: Nike Hyperschool
October 14, 2014Fifteen years of pent-up frustration was released in the form of the Browns’ 31-10 thumping of Pittsburgh on Sunday. It was a day that will hold a special place in the memories of the long suffering Browns’ faithful. The day when the big bad wolf huffed, puffed, and was hit over the top for a 51-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Cameron. The Browns dominated the Steelers where it matters most, on the scoreboard, but let’s take a look beyond the 31-10 scoreline and go behind the box score.
42 – Since the whistle blew on the depressing first half of a football Week 1 in Pittsburgh, the Browns have outscored the Steelers by six touchdowns over the last five quarters, 55-13.
58 – The Browns’ 58 points scored vs. the Steelers this season is the highest point total against Pittsburgh in a season since 1989 when the Browns thrashed the Steelers 51-0 and lost 17-7 a month later. You have to go back to 1986 to find the last season the Browns surpassed the 58 point mark vs. Pittsburgh. That season, Bernie Kosar led the Browns to wins of 27-24 and 37-31 in route to the AFC Championship game when John Elway decided to do that drive thing.
156.3 – Brian Hoyer’s quarterback rating on plays when the Steelers blitzed. Dick LeBeau has had a long and illustrious career as a defensive mastermind, but the NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” league and on Sunday the Browns shredded LeBeau’s blitzes. Hoyer was 6 of 8 for 169 yards on plays the Steelers brought pressure, including the shiny, silvery dime of a throw to Jordan Cameron for Hoyer’s sole touchdown pass of the day. Not once was the Browns’ quarterback touched on one of LeBeau’s famous blitzes.
50% – Ben Roethlisberger’s completion percentage on the day. Big Ben thew 42 passes against the Browns on Sunday, a large enough sample size for a 50% completion percentage to be meaningful. For comparison’s sake, Mike Glennon ranks 32nd in the NFL for the season with a completion percentage of 57%. In today’s NFL it is almost unheard of for a quarterback to have so many passes hit the ground. Hats off to Jim O’Neil and the entire defensive side of the roster for stepping up and holding Roethlisberger to his worst completion percentage ever against the Browns.
118 – Yards receiving for Steelers’ wide receiver Antonio Brown. Despite Roethlisberger struggling, Brown once again showed why he is in the penthouse when it comes NFL wide receivers. His route running is spectacular.The crispy clean way in which he breaks off of one route and into another seems to defy everything you’ve ever learned regarding momentum. As frustrating as it is to watch him come down with catch after catch against Browns’ DB’s, few receivers in the league are as fun to watch as Brown.
74 – The number of the newest Brown under the microscope, Paul McQuistan. McQuistan stepped in at right guard following John Greco’s move to center to replace the injured Alex Mack, playing 41 of the team’s 59 offensive snaps. The results were mixed for McQuistan who was at the point of attack for some big runs, but Pro Football Focus graded McQuistan as the 56th best out of 61 guards to play on Sunday. Stepping into a zone blocking scheme without considerable practice time with that unit is a tall task. A zone blocking scheme is like a choreographed dance for the offensive line, needing each member to be right on track, step for step. Without reps with the first unit it’s hard to expect McQuistan to step right in and not miss a beat. Still, despite his struggles on Sunday, McQuistan comes with a pedigree. The former Seahawk started no fewer than ten games each of the previous three seasons in Seattle, including a start at left guard in last year’s Super Bowl.
73.2 – Yards per game receiving from Travis Benjamin and Taylor Gabriel. The Browns came into the season with a Grand Canyon sized hole out wide, but week after week the receiver position has been one of the Browns’ most stable groups. Neither Benjamin or Gabriel looks the part of a prototypical receiver, but both have come up big when needed. Last week it was Gabriel keeping drives moving with big catch after catch on his way to a career high 95 yards while Benjamin basked in the glory of two 4th quarter touchdown catches. Against Pittsburgh neither receiver lit it up as the team only completed 8 passes, but both kept their yards per reception numbers high with catches longer than 20 yards. Benjamin’s 31-yard grab was a textbook display in going up and high pointing the football for the catch, rewarding Hoyer’s trust in taking a shot down the field. Cleveland’s small receivers are showing they’re more than capable of making big plays.
25-11 – The split in carries between Ben Tate and Isaiah Crowell. Terrance West was an unexpected healthy scratch on Sunday, leaving Tate and Crowell to shoulder all the carries. Mike Pettine and his coaches made an example out of West by inactivating him last week, letting the team know that if you don’t come ready to work every day in practice then don’t expect your spot to be safe on Sunday. With West inactive, the running game hardly missed a beat. Tate pounded and prodded his way to 78 yards on 25 carries, allowing Crowell to use his fresh legs to provide a spark with his 11 carries for 77 yards.
6.45 – Yards per carry on runs behind center. The Browns favored the right hip of the center against Pittsburgh, running it there 9 times for a total of 59 yards, including Isaiah Crowell’s 24-yard scamper with Greco and McQuistan leading the point of attack. With two linemen jumping right in to unfamiliar waters, it may have been easier to use them as the focal point of the run instead of needing them to be in sync with the other linemen’s steps when trying to create a seal on the backside of the run.
4.3 – Yards per target given up by Buster Skrine. With Haden banged up and Gilbert still in his rookie cocoon, the Browns were in desperate need of some secondary help. K’Waun Williams provided a spark against Tennessee, but suffered a concussion vs. Pittsburgh, leaving Buster Skrine in the spotlight. The Steelers threw Buster’s way a game high 11 times, managing a mere 47 yards. If you remove the the garbage time touchdown scored on by the Steelers’ Lance Moore, Skrine locked down the Steelers’ passing game for just 21 yards on 10 targets. A 2.1 yards against per target is an outstanding number, and something the Browns’ secondary can build on as they get ready to face Bortles, Carr, and Glennon.
56 – The number of the Browns’ best defensive player on Sunday, Karlos Dansby. Dansby was a menace against Pittsburgh, recording 8 tackles, 2 assists, and a sack on Roethlisberger. The veteran out of Auburn was also a blanket in coverage, holding the Steelers to just 11 yards on the 5 throws in his area. However, the play that best describes Dansby’s value was Roethlisberger’s incompletion in the end zone to a wide open Markus Wheaton. A broken coverage on the play between Gilbert and Skrine allowed Wheaton acres of open space in the end zone, but luckily for the Browns, Roethlisberger flat out missed the throw. Immediately after the play, Dansby and Donte Whitner grabbed Gilbert and Skrine and had an animated chat to hash out the mistake right then and there in the end zone. You love to see the leaders of your defense taking charge and holding players accountable, especially in a game where the win is already secured.
10 Comments
Who would have EVER thought that we’d be talking SO much about Skrine as a focal point of the defensive backfield?
At some point, an opposing OC is just going to say…”Screw the run, just start winging it!”
11 – The number that the awesomeness dial was turned up to this game.
http://media.giphy.com/media/6VewXyf1MQiIg/giphy.gif
McQuistan isn’t a world beater, but he didn’t look bad at all in limited work–so that ranking surprises a bit.
Does anyone know how they grade out the OL, beyond sacks allowed and penalties against? It seems to me that the eye test can tell when say, an Oneil Cousins is terrible, but how relatively terrible he is across all NFL lines, seems to be tough to quantify.
He is a marked improvement over The Matador, The Turnstile, et al.
Agreed. I thought he looked admirable being rushed in without the normal preparation. Greco looked solid at center as well.
It’s a somewhat subjective ranking, but I think what’s supposed to happen is that someone watches every play that a player is in the game. If the player contributes to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the play, they receive a grade for that play. If not then the play is skipped. Something along those lines, I’ve heard somebody from PFF on a podcast talk about it before. The people doing the grading are often not the same people as the ones writing the articles.
Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Whether it was recorded or not, Taylor Gabriel had 2 clear drops, the first on a beautiful pass inside the Pittsburgh 10 when he was clobbered and hit the ground, the second behind the line of scrimmage on a sweet Shanahan call that might have gone big had Gabriel not gotten antsy (maybe because of the previous clobber). Hope they remind him that hands, not just speed, put him on the roster.
Hoyer reads blitzes well, but interesting how LeBeau is suddenly human now that Polamalu has lost a step, James Harrison is an actor playing James Harrison, etc.
When I watched the game again it became obvious that Ben had a really, really crappy day throwing the ball despite ideal weather conditions. Can’t remember him missing so many open receivers. Will be interesting to see if he presses with a defense that no longer consistently gives him good field position.
…
…this one goes to 11.