What a football game at Cleveland Browns’ Stadium today. It is good to see excitement back at the lakefront.
It is also nice to see the nation welcome the Browns back to the relevance in the NFL. Heck, CBS even had Jim Nantz and Phil Simms announcing the game, the first time they’ve been here in awhile.
As for the game itself, the Browns just couldn’t get the big play on defense they needed all day, and lost to the Jets, 26-20 with 16 seconds remaining in overtime. Eric Mangini’s crew now drops to 3-6 on the season.
Rob Ryan’s defense couldn’t force a turnover until late in the overtime, and if Joe Haden hadn’t made the instinctual play, picking off a long pass intended for Braylon Edwards, this game may have ended differently.
The smart play would have been to knock down the pass and force the Jets to punt from their own 46 yard line. Cleveland likely would have had more room to operate a normal offense. Instead they had to punt out of their own end zone and the resulting return set up New York on the Browns’ 37 yard line.
But that is nitpicking.
The defense had another chance for a big play with less than three minutes to go in overtime, but Shaun Rogers somehow did NOT sack Sanchez inside the Jets’ 10, and instead escaped to hit LaDanian Tomlinson for a 21 yard pass and run to get the Jets out of bad field position.
The Cleveland defense sacked the Jet quarterback twice, but seemed to have him locked up at least three other times, but couldn’t bring him down.
The Browns bent and bent, but did not break, allowing 456 yards and allowing New York to have the football for almost 38 minutes in regulation, but three missed field goals kept Cleveland in the game.
They would not give in to obvious fatigue, and even lost two starters, CB Sheldon Brown and LB Scott Fujita, to injuries in the first half. By the way, Haden replaced Brown and did a great job in coverage, giving more credence to giving him a starting spot.
Offensively, Colt McCoy faced another tough defensive unit and did just fine. The game plan was to mix up the run and pass, and get the rookie QB out of the pocket a lot when he did throw. McCoy hit 18 for 31 passes for 205 yards and engineered a drive to tie the game with less than a minute to go, hitting big throws to TE Benjmain Watson, TE Evan Moore, and then a touchdown toss to Mohammad Massaquoi to tie it up.
Peyton Hills rushed for 82 yards against an elite defense, and the offense made many big plays such as a 37 yard catch and run by Josh Cribbs to the five yard line in the first half. However, the Browns couldn’t punch it in from there and had to settle for a field goal. That was a tough mistake.
The other huge mistake was Chansi Stuckey’s fumble in overtime with the Browns either in range for a game winning field goal, or very, very close. Stuckey made a great move to take a small gain and make it into a big one, but coughed up the ball at the end of the play.
Next week, the Browns travel to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars, and a new set of challenges. With the performance of the last three games, wins over the Saints and Patriots and this game against the Jets, the Browns will be expected to win, even on the road. You have to go back three years since Cleveland had that burden.
One last thing, and this is directed to the head coach. Let’s not play games this week. Everyone knows that Colt McCoy should be the starter. Name him that at the beginning of the week.
Football is back in Cleveland.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 