On a night where the Browns’ special teams played perhaps their worst game of the year, they won the game with special teams play. Phil Dawson’s 56-yard field goal provided the margin of difference in the 29-27 win at Buffalo last night. Coach Romeo Crennel’s bunch tried to be become the first team in NFL history to blow leads of 13 points or more in three straight games, but Jerome Harrison and Dawson wouldn’t let them.
The Browns will take the victory after blowing two straight games at home, but this was far from a well played game by the brown and orange. There were still dropped passes, blitzes that weren’t picked up by the offensive line, and incredibly poor tackling by the defense. Yet, they made just enough plays on offense to win. Brady Quinn had a Derek Anderson type game in terms of stats (14 of 36, 185 yards), but he put up 29 points.
Because of these mistakes, the game wasn’t the blowout it should have been. The Browns caused four turnovers and committed none, yet had to kick a late field goal to take the lead, and sweat out a late miss by Bills’ kicker Rian Lindell for the win. It shouldn’t have been this close.
Besides Dawson’s heroics, he kicked five field goals, including the game winner; the player who stood out most was the little used Harrison. Why he is not used is getting to be one of Cleveland’s great mysteries. He scored on a 72 yard touchdown run to put the Browns ahead 23-13, and then was a big factor on the drive which increased the lead to 26-20 after a curious decision to kick off to Bills’ return man Leodis McKelvin, who hurt the Browns all night.
Harrison had a ten-yard run that was aided by an unnecessary roughness penalty and then caught a pass on a wheel route, which set up Dawson’s fourth field goal. On the season, Harrison has now touched the ball 27 times and gained 310 yards, an average of 11.5 yards per touch.
No one is saying Harrison should be the team’s feature back, or he should get the ball 20 times per game. However, he definitely should be getting the ball more than three times per game. How about giving Harrison ten touches per contest? The one thing you can say about him is he makes people miss and he makes big plays.
Defensively, the Browns are still a mess. After promising changes on that side of the ball, Crennel didn’t follow through. After saying CB Travis Daniels would get time at cornerback, he started, played the first play, and wasn’t heard from again. The coaching staff went back to Brandon McDonald, who had poor games against Baltimore and Denver.
The linebacking has been suspect all season long, yet rookie ILB Beau Bell was inactive for the game. The defense has allowed 84 points the last three games (eliminating kick and interception returns for touchdowns), yet no personnel changes are made? Let me say that I doubt Bell and Daniels could do any worse than the men who are playing. Heck, they might actually tackle someone.
Can the Browns follow up a win with a solid performance at home against Houston on Sunday? Their track record this season says no.
How many passes will Braylon Edwards drop this Sunday? He had a key drop in the first quarter yesterday trying to break his fall! Doesn’t he realize he has all sorts of pads on?
Will Jerome Harrison get more touches? Will the defense really make any changes in personnel?
After ten games of this NFL season, we still are faced with more questions regarding the Cleveland Browns than answers. That’s the worst part of this season.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 