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September 24, 2015Cleveland Indians prospect Bradley Zimmer has hairline fracture in foot
September 24, 2015The Cleveland Browns won their first game of the season last Sunday, beating the Tennessee Titans 28-14. Even though Johnny Manziel may not be starting this week, he had a very solid game versus the Titans, earning his first career win. The game was determined by big plays from the Browns offense and defense. These plays changed not just the score, but also the momentum of the game.
Let’s take a look at some of these big plays that helped the Browns earn their first victory of the season in this week’s Browns film room.
Browns Film Room: Week 1 | Week 2
Opening Drive Touchdown
The Browns first touchdown of the game gave them the early momentum and confidence to win the game. The rainbow pass from quarterback Johnny Manziel to receiver Travis Benjamin was the second offensive play of the game and Manziel’s very first pass. Here is how the play transpired.
The Browns are in an offset I-formation with one receiver out wide on both sides of the line. The play has Brian Hartline on the left running a dig route and Travis Benjamin running a go-route. The players in the backfield provide two drop off options for Manziel.
The key to the play is the play-action. Manziel fakes the handoff to Isaiah Crowell, causing Titans safety Michael Griffin to bite hard on the run. Griffin takes just a few steps in, but the hesitation is all that Benjamin needs to speed past the secondary. Benjamin is too fast for corner Coty Sensabaugh to guard one-on-one in the go-route. With Griffin biting on the play-fake, Sensabaugh has no help and this leads to the first big play of he game.
First Fumble by Mariota
The Browns second forced turnover was one of the game’s bigger moments. Prior to the play, quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Titans offense were driving to get their first points of the game and cut into the 14-0 Browns lead. In just three plays, the Titans had covered 51 yards. But, a huge sack by Paul Kruger and John Hughes forced Mariota to lose the football, giving the Browns another huge play. Here is how the play went down.
The third-down play starts with Mariota rolling out of the pocket looking to pass. The Browns cover this play perfectly. The Titans had only two real options to throw to on this play because of the rollout cutting out the right side of the field. The Browns have two players covering the deep out route, making him unavailable for Mariota to throw to. That just leaves receiver Kendall Wright as the only realistic passing option for Mariota, but the Browns have him covered. Cornerback K’Waun Williams picks up Wright quickly after the two Titans do a rub route to try and get Wright open. Williams breaks on the route quickly enough to force Mariota to hesitate. When Wright changes direction, linebacker Barkevious Mingo, who is covering the area underneath Wright, then covers him up. These two players cause Mariota to hesitate and hold onto the ball.
The other big aspect of this play is the pass rush, in particular from linebacker Paul Kruger. Kruger is huge on the play, not just for sacking the quarterback, but also for holding his position and keeping Mariota inside the pocket. Kruger sets the edge well on the play, forcing Mariota to try and change directions, which causes him to lose his footing. This eventually leads to the big strip-sack by the Browns defense and fumble recovery that stalls a promising drive for the Titans.
Punt Return Touchdown
This punt return by Travis Benjamin might have been the biggest play of the game for the Browns. It gave them a three-possession lead at 21-0 going into halftime. The play was filled with great blocks from Benjamin’s fellow special teamers. The first block comes immediately from Jordan Poyer, allowing Benjamin to gain his momentum at the start of the return. The other big block comes at the end of the return, when Pierre Desir levels a defender, allowing Benjamin to get to the end zone by leaping over the blocked defender. The rest of it is just due to Benjamin’s elite speed.
Clinching Touchdown
Just as important as the Travis Benjamin punt return was this game-clinching 50-yard touchdown pass from Johnny Manziel to Benjamin. This was one of the plays where Manziel flashed back to his days from Texas A&M. Here is how it happened.
The play starts with all of the receivers running routes only on the right side of the field. This is problematic for Manziel because he is immediately pressure from an unblocked Brian Orakpo, along with another rusher on the other side. Manziel does a great job avoiding the pressure and giving himself and the offense more time. But, all of the passing options are on the other side of the field.
As you can see here, Travis Benjamin caps off his exceptional day by abandoning his assigned route and cutting across the field to provide an option for the scrambling Manziel. Benjamin uses his speed to separate from the corner and goes over the top of the coverage to find the end zone for the third time of the game. Manziel shows great anticipation on the throw to hit Benjamin in stride.
Highlight of the Game
Travis Benjamin is once again the highlight of the game for me. He followed up a good game in the season opener with a career day versus the Titans. He caught three passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns, along with a punt return touchdown. Benjamin was a true playmaker for an offense that sorely needed one to step up for their young quarterback. Benjamin’s speed was unguardable on Sunday, often leaving defenders in his dust.
Lowlight of the Game
The third quarter and most of the fourth were the lowlights of the game. These quarters, the Browns let the Tennessee Titans back in the game after they put them in a 21-0 hole. The offense got conservative and out of sorts, and didn’t move the ball much down the stretch. The defense was also a little too conservative, allowing Marcus Mariota to regain confidence and score 14 unanswered points. The Browns need to learn how to put away an opponent and not let them back into the game.
12 Comments
I’ve seen highlights of Sundays game a million times and I still don’t understand how they can bench a QB after that…
Browns…
and many browns fans said we had no play-makers … now , if they can just get duke johnson going , it should get fun.
hi AK … i think the poll on nfl network last night had 83% of the fans favoring manziel to start. i am not against mccown starting sunday , but he’d better win or the second-guessers will have a field day.
I hate to buy into media-driven stories, but I think there might be something to the notion that Pettine doesn’t care too much for Johnny…or greatly favors journeymen.
Don’t get me wrong—I like Pettine a lot. But this is a coach last year who went with Hoyer for at least two more games longer than he should have. That signals something about his feelings.
I keep vacillating between two ideas. 1) Pettine is not a fan of Johnny’s skill set and sees him as nothing more than the team’s backup QB. 2) Pettine thinks of Johnny as the future QB of this team and the best way to get through is to show him tough love and make him push himself to be better. Right now I am leaning more toward #1.
Agreed. Good points. And it’s hard to read too much in Pettine’s coachspeak. He’s across the board a man of faint praise. That said, his praise for Johnny this year has been really freaking faint, as in–Johnny is learning what it takes to be a pro, etc. Even after making the big play last week, the praise was–yeah, we caught a glimpse of what Johnny used to do at A&M (and seemed to imply that he’s not all that impressed with the bob & weave, run around and chuck it skill set).
Yes true. The thing I hear over and over from Pettine and DeFilippo is the fumbles. That’s the one negative point they keep making in press conferences. Almost as if Johnny is definitely the better player, but they are terrified of the turnovers. Pettine’s aversion to risk seems to be driving this decision more than anything McCown is doing. Sometimes you have to stick your hand down in the garbage disposal if you want to find that diamond ring, you know?
Well, I would argue that Johnny’s play when he made the move last year explains why he may have been reluctant to do it…
I do think he may be a little risk averse, (defensive coaches, amirite?) but that would be in keeping with the plan to a certain extent. This team is supposed to win by playing great defense, running the ball, controlling the clock. And the number one enemy of that plan is turnovers. If he’s got a potentially potent quick-strike offense on his hands, then you live with the turnovers because you can make up for them. That’s not the team he has.
I do genuinely believe that part of the plan this year was to give Johnny some room to learn and grow in a lower pressure situation, but I also think Mike Pettine believes the best way to keep his job is to win games, and that the best chance he has of that for now is McCown. I don’t think he’s as interested in “seeing what they have” as he is in winning right now.
Good point, I thought that last paragraph today as well. So I am pretty indecisive it seems.
Hoyer did not look good at all, but Johnny looked even worse last year, and the team didn’t even seem to like him or respect him. He was so woefully underprepared that it inspired a total lifestyle change, and he’s done great THIS YEAR. I hated watching Hoyer as much as the next guy, but think how much worse Johnny could have looked considering he would be even less prepared. I understand both sides of the debate here right now, and I think both options this year are better than both options we had last year. I am wanting to see Johnny, but I think we have to trust the coaches and at least give McCown a game to show what he has. Johnny was good last week, but he still has areas to develop.
JM looked like he knew what he was doing, for the first time ever. He made a sweet play at the end. Overall, he played adequately against a bad team. He played badly against a good team.
I would say that McCown is going to be reinjured this year. That is almost guaranteed. If I were the HC, I would try to get as much out of him as I could before putting it all on Manziel. Because once I commit to Manziel, I have to ride him all the way. If I pull the plug on him, he’s basically done with the Browns, as am I. So I would hedge my bets on how to have a less-losing season.
I also think the Browns are lucky to have Mike Pettine. Ray Farmer strikes me as a bit rigid and over-controlling. Jimmy Haslem seems like a big old conman, plain and simple. I don’t know how any HC could really succeed with that combo and no real QB. And the NFL kinda sucks for that reason: there are almost no good QBs.
“Answer me this: if you are encouraged by what you’ve seen from Manziel the past two weeks, and you should be, how do you think he’s made the progress he has? Is it just luck?
“Or is it possible that the Browns have actually developed a plan for rebuilding Manziel the player, he’s bought into it and, because of McCown’s injury, we got a sneak peek at what Manziel could possibly be if he keeps on the plan.
“Doesn’t that argue for the Browns to stick to that plan and get Manziel to the point where, instead of making a a play a couple of times a game, he can actually make those plays on a consistent basis?”
-Tom_RedRight88