Another game, another loss today for the Cleveland Browns who fell to 2-8 with a 23-20 loss in overtime to the Dallas Cowboys in Jerry Jones’ football palace.
Yes, the Browns played well once again. Heck, they dominated the first half leading 13-0 going into the intermission.
Actually, that’s where the game was lost, because Cleveland should have led 21-0 at that point in the game, but they missed opportunities once again.
Defensively, the Cowboys offensive line couldn’t handle the Browns front seven, and they forced Tony Romo into bad throw after bad throw.
In the second half, the Dallas QB got into a rhythm, and the Cleveland secondary, minus starting cornerback Joe Haden couldn’t stop the Cowboy passing attack.
Still, after a Josh Cribbs punt return and a resulting horse collar tackle penalty, the Browns took the lead 20-17 with a little over a minute to play on Benjamin Watson’s second TD of the day, a 17 yard strike from Brandon Weeden.
But Romo drove the Cowboys right down the field, aided by two big penalties, an unsportsmanlike conduct call on S T.J. Ward and a pass interference call on CB Sheldon Brown for 35 yards.
One change the NFL needs to make is making pass interference a 15 yard maximum call. There shouldn’t be any penalty, especially a judgment call that results in that much yardage.
Dallas had the ball inside the Browns’ 10, but had to settle for a game tying field goal by Dan Bailey.
In overtime, Dallas ran 14 plays with just three runs, as they obviously decided they couldn’t run the ball against Dick Jauron’s defense. The Browns ran three play too…total.
That was kind of the story of the game, especially in the second half.
After the Browns first drive after halftime in which they ran 11 plays, moving 41 yards, their next two drives were three and outs, the one following that lasted just four snaps after a Weeden fumble. Dallas had the football pretty much all the time from 10 minutes left in the third quarter until five minutes remaining in the game.
The offense didn’t do its part to give the defense some valuable rest.
In the first half, Weeden, who would up 20 for 35 and 210 yards was erratic with his accuracy. He missed a wide open Josh Cooper on the drive that led to Phil Dawson’s first field goal, and was high and wide
A Watson dropped pass led to another field goal instead of a touchdown in the first half.
Trent Richardson didn’t break any long gains, but he and Montario Hardesty did total 118 yards on the ground, and Richardson added 49 more catching the ball.
Josh Gordon was productive again with five catches for 53 yards and Greg Little did well too, making three grabs.
Despite some predictions of Weeden having difficulty with the Cowboys pressure, he had plenty of time to throw for the most part, getting sacked just twice.
On the other side, Cleveland got to Romo seven times, with eight different players accounting for the plays. However, the absence of Haden once again hurt the Browns as WRs Dez Bryant and Miles Austin combined for 18 receptions and several pass interference or holding penalties.
It seems trite to say the Browns are the best 2-8 team in the NFL, mostly because there aren’t many teams with just two wins.
Still, it is disappointing that Pat Shurmur can’t put more games in the win column, especially because other teams with similar records last year and won more games.
For whatever reason, the play calling for the Browns gets very conservative when they get near the red zone. Why? That’s a question for the coaching staff.
Unfortunately, that lack of aggressiveness will likely cost the staff their jobs at the end of the season.
This season will likely be dubbed, “Close, but no wins”.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 