Browns Performance Workmanlike, Dominant

Anybody else doubt that things are different for the Cleveland Browns under Mike Pettine?

The Browns broke their losing streak against divisional foes on the road with a dominating performance at Paul Brown Stadium, winning 24-3 over the Bengals to move into a first place tie with the Steelers at 6-3.

It’s the most wins for Cleveland since 2007 when they went 10-6.

Pettine likes to use the expression “play like a Brown”, and tonight his entire team did just that. They played tough defense, ran the ball effectively, and avoided mistakes.

First, the running game returned for Kyle Shanahan’s offense as the three-headed monster of Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell, and Ben Tate combined for 170 yards on the ground with each scoring a touchdown. West was the feature back, getting 94 yards on 26 carries. And Crowell reemerged to give the offense a boost in the second quarter.

Brian Hoyer was incredibly efficient, completing 15 of his 23 throws for 198 yards, with Miles Austin being the primary target. Austin caught five throws for 48 yards.

On a windy night, Shanahan obviously wanted to keep the ball on the ground, and his offensive line and backs didn’t let him down.

The offense played efficiently. The defense was dominant.

In fact, it was the kind of defense fans thought they were going to see from the opening game, as they held Cincinnati to just a measly 165 yards in total offense, and QB Andy Dalton was particularly dreadful, completing only 10 of 33 passes for just 86 yards. He compounded that by throwing three interceptions, including one on the Bengals’ first drive, which was picked off by Craig Robertson.

Joe Haden was criticized early in the season when he struggled a little bit, but tonight, he took All Pro wide receiver A.J. Green completely out of the game, as Green caught only three passes for 23 yards.

Another player who gets called out when beaten on big plays, Buster Skrine, picked off two passes. Truth be told, Skrine is a solid NFL cornerback and is excellent in the slot.

Besides the interceptions, Dalton was also sacked twice on successive plays by DE Desmond Bryant in the third quarter.

And the Cincinnati running game wasn’t a factor either, getting just 86 yards on 22 carries, an average of less than four yards per carry. It was by far the Browns best performance against the running game all season.

Cleveland dominated the time of possession, holding the ball for 36 minutes, partially because of the success of the running game, but also because Jim O’Neil’s defense held Cincy to just three of 17 on third down conversions.

In short, the Browns has an answer for everything that Cincinnati threw at them.

Punter Kevin Huber was perhaps the busiest Bengal, having to kick the ball away to Cleveland eight times.

The win ensures that Cleveland will be playing meaningful football in November and should be in the mix for an extended period. That, of course, should end any thought of playing Johnny Manziel unless Hoyer is injured.

The Browns have won two divisional games in dominating fashion and the two games they lost were on field goals on the last play of the game. In order to be a playoff team, you have to be competitive within the AFC North.

Right now, the Cleveland Browns have shown the rest of the teams in the division they can no longer be taken lightly. And they showed the nation they are no longer the doormats of the NFL.

Bengals Show How to Score Without the Ball

After the first quarter of today’s game against Cincinnati, the Cleveland Browns looked like a team bound for the post-season.

They dominated the Bengals. Andy Dalton threw two interceptions to Joe Haden, one resulting in a touchdown, the first pick six of his career. The Bengals couldn’t run the ball either, and it appeared the Browns were going to get a huge win on the road and put themselves in great shape for an AFC North division crown.

Cleveland was even running the football well, as Chris Ogbonnaya had a 43 yard run, the longest of the year by a Cleveland running back and led 13-0. The era of good feeling ended on the Browns last play of the first quarter, when Jason Campbell was picked off by James Harrison.

Then came the nightmare of the second quarter and all of that went up in smoke as the Bengals scored 31 points in the stanza, and without any real offense either.

Dalton hit TE Jermaine Gresham on Cincy’s first play of the quarter to cut Cleveland’s lead to 13-7.

After a Spencer Lanning punt that was deflected giving the Bengals the ball on the Browns 38, it took five plays, one a flea flicker pass from Mohamed Sanu to Gio Bernard, to take the lead 14-13.

The momentum officially shifted.

On the subsequent drive, the Browns’ offensive line fell apart as Campbell was sacked and TE Jordan Cameron picked up a holding penalty.

The Browns started to throw the ball almost exclusively underneath, and did pick up two first downs the next time they had the ball, but Lanning’s next punt was blocked and run in for a touchdown. It was now 21-13 Cincinnati.

After another holding penalty, it took two plays for the Bengals defense to strike, forcing an Ogbonnaya fumble after a reception and Vontaze Burfict returned it for another score and the Bengals scored 28 unanswered points with their offense running just 10 plays.

And even though they were down just two scores and there was still more than a half to play, and the conditions weren’t exactly ideal, Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner decided to stop the running game almost completely.

They ran just once more in the first half, and the passes thrown were mostly of the checkdown variety.

The punting unit capped off a dreadful quarter by allowing a 27 yard return by Adam Jones to set up a Mike Nugent field goal. The 13-0 lead at the quarter had been turned into a 31-13 deficit.

At that point, Cincinnati had demonstrated no ability to move the ball against the Cleveland defense, yet they led by 18 points.

That fact made it very curious when Chudzinski went for it on 4th and 5 at the CIN34 on the Browns’ first series of the second half. He could have pinned the Bengals back with plenty of time.

He got away with it because Campbell hit Josh Gordon for a 74 yard touchdown pass on the next possession, closing the gap to 31-20.

Chudzinski’s gambling tendency got the best of him early in the fourth quarter, as he went for it on 4th and 3 at the Browns’ 27 with almost 11 minutes left in the game. The Browns were down 18 at the time, and that quickly became 21 as Nugent hit another field goal that didn’t need any gain by the Cincinnati offense.

The Bengals gained just 224 yards on the game and caused two turnovers. Horrible play by the punt block team (resulting in 14 points) and a huge fumble recovery which put another seven points on the board won this game for Cincinnati.

The coaching staff (once again) put their quarterback in a horrible situation by ignoring the running game and when they did run it was only on first down. There was no creativity. This on a day the Browns averaged five yards per carry.

In an ironic twist, former Brown Bobby Rainey, cut a few weeks ago by Cleveland, gained 160 yards for Tampa Bay today.

Maybe the offensive line simply doesn’t block for the run very well.

Despite the loss, the Browns are still very much in the playoff chase, just a game back for the second wild card spot, just a game behind the Dolphins and Jets.

A win next week against the Steelers at home and then against Jacksonville will put the Browns at 6-6 and right in the thick of it.

As long as the special teams improve and the coaching staff stays with the running game.

Browns Defense Shows the Way

When the Browns traded Trent Richardson less than two weeks ago, many people thought the Browns were tanking the season in order to get a top flight quarterback prospect in the 2014 NFL Draft.

We said that Ray Horton’s defense was too good to allow the team to wind up 2-14 or 3-13.

That was never more evidenced than today’ 17-6 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, the team’s second straight win. The Browns now sit at 2-2, tied with the Ravens and Bengals for first place in the AFC North.

The key match up was to be Cincinnati’s A. J. Green against Cleveland’s Joe Haden, and if so, then the decided edge went to Haden, who held Green to just 51 yards receiving for the game, with a long play of just 16 yards.

Cincy QB Andy Dalton hit on just 23 of 42 passes for the day for 206 yards and the Bengal offense was held out of the end zone by Horton’s crew, getting just two field goals.

The Cleveland defense boasted last week that no one runs on them, and it was true again today, with the Bengals getting just 63 yards rushing on 20 attempts, a 3.2 average.

It makes playing defense much easier when you can eliminate one facet of offense, and the Browns seem to do that week after week. Opponents simply haven’t been able to mount much of a rushing game.

And Horton’s group was able to get off the field most of the time, allowing just 4 of 14 third down conversions.

Rookie first round pick Barkevious Mingo got his first start and is now three-for-three. He has a sack in each game he has played thus far. The only other sack by Cleveland was a huge one, with CB Chris Owens jarring the ball loose from Dalton and then recovering it, the first Cincy turnover.

And besides Haden’s blanket job on Green, kudos must also be given to much maligned CB Buster Skrine, who continues to show improvement and intercepted Dalton in the fourth quarter to basically put a lid on this victory.

Keep in mind, the Browns were missing Jabaal Sheard, who is off to a great start in this contest.

Offensively, it wasn’t spectacular like last week, but QB Brian Hoyer was very effective, particularly on third down, converting 9 of 18 chances. Hoyer hit on 25 of 38 throws for 269 yards and touchdown tosses to TE Jordan Cameron, quietly developing into a very good player and RB Chris Ogbonnaya, who ran five times for 27 yards and caught five more passes.

Cameron was Hoyer’s primary target, grabbing 10 passes for 91 yards.

Josh Gordon had four catches for 71 yards, including a tremendous catch on a 33-yard play in which he reached over the defensive back.

There is no question that even if Brandon Weeden’s thumb is healthy, Hoyer should be behind center this week against the Bills.

RB Willis McGahee promised more production in his second game with the Browns, and he delivered, gaining 46 yards on 15 carries, but had 36 of those yards in the fourth quarter.

And you can’t forget the contribution of P Spencer Lanning, who averaged 42.8 yards on his kicks, and put three of them inside the Cincinnati 20 yard line.

Billy Cundiff, hurt last week against the Vikings, missed two field goals, but converted a 51-yard field goal, his second of over 50 yards on the season.

The Browns have a short week now, having to take on Buffalo this Thursday, and the Bills knocked off the Ravens today.

Suddenly, the improvement we thought this football team could accomplish may be attainable. The Browns may just be a contender.