Tag: Tampa Bay

It Isn’t Easy to Dominate NFL Teams, Even the Bad Ones.

Cleveland Browns’ fans overestimated this team after they routed the Pittsburgh Steelers in week six.  With Jacksonville, Oakland, and Tampa Bay coming up on the slate, most supporters figured three blowout wins would follow and the Browns would go to Cincinnati with a 6-2 mark.

However, that’s not how the NFL works.

Instead the Browns lost to the Jaguars, and then won two home games, both in workmanlike fashion, and head to the Queen City at 5-3, still very much in the playoff race as the calendar turned to November.

The truth is that the Browns are not an elite NFL team, they aren’t even a very good team.  They are in the middle of the pack, and that is good enough to play meaningful football at this point in the season.

After years of hopelessness regarding this football team, we should all be excited about that.

Cleveland’s offense couldn’t get into the end zone in the first half, getting only three Billy Cundiff field goals (49, 29, and 43 yards) and trailed going into the locker room 10-9.

After a touchdown a little less than six minutes into the second half, Mike Pettine’s team took a 16-10 lead.

The lead was short-lived, as the Bucs’ went deep to Johnny Manziel’s former teammate at Texas A & M, Mike Evans, caught a 24-yard throw from Mike Glennon to give Tampa a one point lead.

But Brian Hoyer led the Browns back, hitting rookie WR Taylor Gabriel (with the aid of a crushing block by Terrance West) to give the home team a lead it would never surrender.

As we said before, it isn’t easy in the NFL.

Look at today’s results.  Cincinnati didn’t blow up Jacksonville either, although they did beat them, and San Diego, thought to be one of the AFC’s best teams, were dominated by Miami, losing 37-0.

Earlier this year, this same Tampa Bay team went into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers.

Style points do not matter, but wins do, and right now the Browns have collected five of them, one more than they had all of last season.  In fact, the last time Cleveland won more than five games in a season was 2007, when they went 10-6.

That’s not to say the Browns are a team without problems.

The running game continues to sputter without Alex Mack, averaging less than two yards per carry again (50 yards in 28 attempts), and Mack’s replacement, Nick McDonald was dominated by Tampa Bay DT Gerald McCoy, who sacked Hoyer twice.

Another problem is the run defense, which to be fair, did improve in the second half, but still allowed 113 yards in total.  Former Brown, Bobby Rainey, deemed unusable by Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi, picked up 87 yards on 19 carries.

Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil did make an adjustment in the second half, as Rainey gained just 17 yards on his last nine carries.

The special teams were also a huge factor in today’s win.  Billy Winn blocked a field goal in the first quarter, and Craig Robertson blocked a punt that set up the winning touchdown.  It was the second blocked punt of the season, and both were major factors in victories.  We can’t remember the last time a Cleveland special teams unit blocked two punts in a season.

Donte Whitner had his best game as a Brown too, getting an interception off a pass batted away by Joe Haden, and he forced a fumble on a play that was called back because of a penalty.  The former Glenville product is starting to make his presence felt.

And we have to mention Hoyer, who threw for 300 yards despite two interceptions, one a horrible throw, and the other off a deflection.  He evened up the two picks by throwing two touchdown passes.

It’s a short week for both the Browns and Bengals as they play Thursday night.  Because the AFC North is so good and so bunched up in the standings, any divisional game is huge.

Cleveland is 5-3, but they need to start playing better if they want to stay in the race for a playoff spot.

JD

 

Tribe Bats Just Couldn’t Come Through.

The Cleveland Indians were a hot ball club coming into tonight’s wild card game against Tampa Bay, winning 10 in a row and going 21-6 in the month of September.

This is more evidence that baseball is a funny game.

The 4-0 loss that eliminated Cleveland came down to the Rays taking advantage of their chances and the Indians not being able to go so.

After a dominant first two innings, Danny Salazar gave up a leadoff home run to famed humanitarian Delmon Young, and after that, the young flamethrower lost his ability to get guys to swing and miss.

He escaped the third allowing just the one run, but Desmond Jennings’ double down the leftfield line with two outs in the 4th gave the Rays a 3-0 lead.

After that, the Indians had threats in pretty much every frame after that, but couldn’t push a run across.

In the fourth, with bases loaded and one out, Asdrubal Cabrera hit into a double play.

In the fifth, the Indians had runners on first and third with no one out, and Michael Bourn struck out, Nick Swisher hit into a fielders’ choice, and Jason Kipnis hit a comebacker to the mound to end that threat.

In the seventh, one out singles by Yan Gomes and Lonnie Chisenhall, who had three hits on the night, went for naught when Bourn flew out and Swisher fanned again.

All in all, Cleveland collected nine hits on the night, and couldn’t push a run across.

That’s the nature of baseball though.  Sometimes, you get the big hits and sometimes you don’t.  The Indians just picked a bad night to be on the wrong side of that statement.

To be sure, many of the national pundits will bring up Terry Francona’s team’s record against teams with an above .500 record as a reason for the loss and say the Tribe didn’t deserve to make the playoffs.

That’s a load of crap.  Cleveland won 92 games this season.  If any other team had won that many contests, the same people would have clamored to add another wild card so teams with that kind of record can advance to the playoffs.

For those who want to question the decision to start the rookie, Salazar, in this game, keep in mind the Indians still had a chance to win this game until a couple of defensive miscues gave the Rays a fourth run in the top of the ninth.

Salazar, and the guys who followed him, Mark Rzepczynski, the seemingly always reliable Bryan Shaw, Justin Masterson, Cody Allen, and Joe Smith pitched well enough to give the offense a shot.  They simply couldn’t get the big base knock.

You can’t win any games when you don’t score a run, and although they hit the ball fairly hard tonight, no one crossed home plate.

Tampa manager Joe Maddon said before the game that his team catches a lot of line drives, and they certainly lived up to their skipper’s prediction.

We will discuss the Indians’ future at a later time, but there is no question the 2013 season was a huge step forward for the Indians.  Here’s hoping they build on it over the long winter.

MW