If you can’t run the ball and can’t stop the run in the NFL, you have little chance to win.
That’s why the Cleveland Browns now sit at 5-9 on the season following a 19-17 defeat at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals, which broke the Bengals 10 game losing streak.
Cincinnati ran for 189 yards, Cedric Benson accounting for 150 in 31 carries as they remembered the style of football they played last season when they made the playoffs: Run the ball and play solid defense. The Browns had no answer all day for this formula as the defense was dominated by the Bengals’ offensive line.
The Cincinnati offense dominated so thoroughly that their punter, Kevin Huber, was needed just once on the day, and that was in the fourth quarter.
The defense takes the brunt of the blame for this defeat.
Because of the success of the running game, mistake prone QB Carson Palmer wasn’t needed to make plays. The Bengals longest pass play was a wide receiver screen pass to Andre Caldwell, which went for 53 yards. Cincy didn’t turn the ball over and didn’t allow a sack, and that usually leads to taking the victory formation at the end of the game.
Cincinnati had the ball for 38 minutes compared to just 22 for the Browns, and ran 68 play for the contest compared to just 43 for Cleveland. In an odd statistic, the Browns actually gained more yards per play than the Bengals. They just didn’t run enough of them.
You know there is a defensive issue when the top two tacklers on your unit play in the secondary on a day where your opponent is running the ball. Rookies T.J. Ward and Joe Haden each had six stops to top the team.
On offense, another rookie QB Colt McCoy returned and played well, hitting 19 of 25 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns, both to unlikely targets. On the first drive of the game, McCoy hit TE Robert Royal with a 20 yard strike, and on the last drive, he hit WR Brian Robiskie with a 46 yard throw to put the Browns within two points.
The other impressive drive for Cleveland came at the end of the third quarter, but stalled because of the stubbornness of coach Eric Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who kept running Peyton Hillis up the middle inside the 10 yard line instead of trying something out on the perimeter. The Browns settled for three instead of seven, and they lost by two. You do the math.
Hillis carried for just 59 yards on only 14 attempts, but the Bengals were playing the run, and Cleveland didn’t run enough offensive plays anyway to establish the ground game more.
TE Ben Watson had another good game, catching 7 aerials for 92 yards.
Besides the aforementioned drive at the end of the third quarter, a couple of other coaching decisions bear review.
The end of the first half was a mess. The Browns were going to go for a first down on 4th and 7 from the Bengals’ 34 yard line in an effort to get into field goal range before intermission. After a false start penalty on OT John St. Clair, who had a terrible game, Mangini decided to punt. There were only 16 seconds remaining. Why not try again for the first down, and it you turn it over on downs, the Bengals probably only have ten second left anyway.
The other occurence was after the Bengals recovered the onside kick with slightly more than two minutes left. Benson was tackled with 2:06 remaining and Mangini elected to let the clock tick down to the two-minute warning. Why not use a timeout there, with another one to come at the 2:00 mark?
Had the defense stopped the Bengals, the Browns could have had six to ten more seconds to work with.
Anyway, the buzzard will be circling above Berea this week. Team president Mike Holmgren cannot be happy his team lost to two 2-win teams on back to back weeks. Despite winning games against New England and New Orleans earlier this season, you make gain in this league by beating the teams you should beat consistently. Mangini hasn’t done that this season.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 