Just some stray observations in the wake of a rare win:
Chaun Thompson: opens two straight games with a fine stuff of the kickoff returner. Also gets a key sack, the Browns' only one of the day. He's rarely played in the defensive rotation this season, and I'd like to see more of him.
I suppose I should be grateful that Braylon is even on the field at this point, but the last three games he's been virtually absent anyway. Aside from bailing out Charlie with a good gain on a late throw over the middle, BE has not been getting open, not been getting plays called for him, or most likely both. He also has a disturbingly ingrained habit of leaving his feet unnecessarily and then dropping the ball.
Of the two plays I saw designed to go to Edwards, one was the first-play fly pattern, which I liked in concept, even though he wasn't open. It immediately stretched the defense, but they never went back to it. The other was a new wrinkle: lining him up in the backfield on third-and-three for a quick swing pass. Maybe it would have worked if they hadn't tipped the formation, called timeout, and then used it anyway.
When an offense hurries and runs a QB keeper to prevent a review of a questionable catch, I don't blame them at all. But I'm not too sympathetic when they call a timeout in the game's final minutes hoping to get a reversal of a judgement call.
Great to see the Browns' defense mixing up their blitz packages. Sending corners and safeties at Pennington was directly responsible for both interceptions and some other key stops.
Props to Jones, but thank God for Bodden. What's that I hear about a good team needing three difference-makers on each side of the ball? He's one of them. Without him, the Jets complete a hell of a lot more than 11 passes, and they win this game.
It's a shame about Andruzzi getting hurt. He was actually having his best game of the year. We'll see: I can imagine him gritting it out and getting back next week, but it also wouldn't shock me if yesterday was his last football game.
My only complaint about Dawson missing that short field goal before halftime: the Browns should have taken more shots at a touchdown. Immediately after the two minute warning, exactly 36 seconds elapsed between Browns plays, twice in succession. As a result, only one pass (a failed fade to Winslow) went to the end zone before Dawson's doink. Clock management ultimately falls on the head coach, and in this regard Romeo has repeatedly ticked me off.
When an offensive line is struggling, and the O-line coach gets the chance to call the shots, what happens? Bring in the tight ends! I've never seen the Browns run so many different multiple TE formations. Frequently noticed: one on each side with the fullback as lead blocker. Most effective: overloading the left side with two tight ends and letting Reuben run by. They weren't just blockers, of course: ten of the Browns' 15 catches came from Wheelie and Heiden.
However, I could die in peace without ever seeing another empty backfield set (unless it's an obvious passing down and the running backs are off the field entirely). Could a three-step drop and short slant be any more obvious?
Yes, I'm very glad for the win, any win, no matter how ugly it was at times. I'm glad three other teams have worse records than we do, and that we're tied with Pittsburgh (which, remarkably, has still outscored its opponents). I don't want to be drafting in the top six positions, and the schedule ahead looks perilous, with road games at San Diego and Atlanta on tap. I can't see the Browns as favorites in any game until Christmas and New Year's Eve, and I don't want to think that far ahead yet.
But seriously, what's the deal with trying to run out the clock so early in the fourth quarter, and so dreadfully later on? Chart Reuben's yards gained per carry over the course of the game, and you'll see something resembling a playground slide with a mightly long tail. No self-respecting kid would even scootch his butt forward to get to the end of it. He'd climb over the side to dismount, with no hazard of falling. I can understand burning the clock, but geez! No misdirection, nothing to the outside, no play-action to go for the jugular, nothing. It was an embarrassing lack of cojones, betraying a lack of faith in the quarterback this franchise has already invested this season in. And it took some of the luster off of what had been a very solid rushing attack.
Anyone else wonder why the backup rookie linebacker Leon Williams was in coverage on that crucial fourth-down play? He was bailed out by Brodney Pool's big hit and the officials' extreme reluctance (a league-wide trend, by the way) to rule a force-out as a completed catch. And
at least one other observer is grateful that the zebras' general hands-off policy applied to the uncalled contact to Pennington's helmet on that play. I'm not the least bit bashful in saying that it's about time things like that went our way.