The Sports Mixer - After further review

A look back at last night's Browns-Ravens game...

The Browns lost to the Ravens 23-16 last night.  The following are some things I took away from this game as I've had time to digest what I saw and come to some reasonable, if not biased conclusions.

The Brandon Weeden debate will probably rage on, but he's continued to show improvement from week to week despite Pat Shurmer's reluctance to run the ball after halftime.  Trent Richardson wasn't lighting the world on fire, but he was gaining yards against a good defense.  Weeden made one very bad throw on the pick-six, but outside of that and his final airmail, his passes were catchable.  His receivers didn't help him by dropping at least five passes.  The drop by Greg Little that would've made it 23-20 was particularly rough.  Weeden did enough to win this game though.

The offensive line wasn't as offensive tonight.  Yes, Weeden was hit, but for the most part, he was able to get the passes off before the hits came.  There were a couple of times where that wasn't the case, such as when Haloti Ngata shoved Alex Mack up against Weeden, completely disrupting the play and causing a sack.  Overall though, it was a good enough performance.  They still need to open up more holes in the run game though.  Joe Thomas was hit with another holding penalty, his fourth this season.  It was a weak hold, but a hold nonetheless.

Trent Richardson needs the ball more and someone needs to remind Shurmer of this.  14 rushes for 47 yards isn't a lot, but his average of 3.4 ypc was better than Ray Rice's, who was held in check by the Browns defense.  Richardson did catch 4 passes for 57 yards, but it still feels like he's being underutilized.  Maybe the coaches are still being cautious, but he's seen the endzone four times in four games.  Get him the ball.  Also, kudos to him seeming to pick up on blitz protection when he was in there.

Josh Cribbs should be lucky to be standing today.  The hit he took on a punt return wasn't malicious, but it was still a hard hit that caused his helmet to fly up in the air, knock him out, and cause a fumble.  The referees had to review the play to make sure his helmet was on still when he fumbled (a rule I wasn't aware of; if a helmet comes off the ballcarrier while being tackled, the play is whistled dead), but Cribbs was clearly out for a few moments.  He has a few extra days to recover from the apparent concussion before the next game, which is good because the Browns need him.

Greg Little still can't reliably catch the ball, but he made a couple of tough catches to help his cause.  Unfortunately, the ones he dropped are the ones we all remember, particularly his drop as he fell in the endzone that would've made it 23-20.  Instead, the Browns had to kick a field goal to make it 23-16.  Little has the ability to make plays, but he just can't seem to consistently do so.

Josh Gordon made a nice catch in the fourth quarter, his lone catch.  It was good for 16 yards and he was hit almost immediately after cradling the ball.  He held on though and the drive continued after that.  He needs to pick it up and show he was worth the second round pick the Browns spent on him.  His size and athleticism are apparent, but he still seems to be figuring out the speed of the NFL.

The Browns miss Joe Haden in a bad way.  Three games, three big passing days from opponents despite the defensive line and linebackers doing a pretty good job.  Dmitri Patterson was picked on in the second half last night while Buster Skrine was attacked last week.  Skrine was also hit with a defensive holding on the Ravens final drive that prolonged things and took time away from Weeden on his final drive.  It's clear the Browns need another corner to play opposite when Haden comes back regardless.

Phil Dawson just keeps hitting field goal after field goal, no matter what the distance is.  He hit three last night, all from 50 yards or beyond to keep the Browns in the game.  The scary part?  All three could've been good from 60 or beyond.  He had that much leg in each kick.  The man should get one long-term contract to help finish his career and retire as a Brown.

The defense overall played a solid game, despite the secondary's issues.  Craig Robertson played an inspired first half, picking off a Joe Flacco pass in the end zone.  Billy Winn continued to show that he belongs in the rotation even after Phil Taylor comes back.  Between Ahtyba Rubin, Taylor, Winn, and John Hughes, the Browns have the potential to have a very deep interior in the defensive line. Frostee Rucker was in the backfield a couple of times and Jabaal Sheard picked up his first sack and pressured Flacco on a few other occasions despite being double-teamed at times.  D'Qwell Jackson was in on several plays as he continued his strong start to the season.

Travis Benjamin is giving the coaches a reason to keep him in, catching two passes for 26 yards and bringing a punt back 40 yards in relief of the injured Cribbs.  Jordan Norwood and Benjamin Watson also played well, although Norwood dropped a couple passes, including a potential touchdown pass.  The group needs someone to step up and Benjamin looks like he wants to.

A lot will be made of the wasted time in the first half, as once again Pat Shurmer played it safe when there was plenty of time to try and get a score.  Down 9-7 the Browns forced a punt after taking a timeout to stop the clock.  They had over 1:30 to move the ball with two timeouts still, yet the first play after the punt was a draw to Richardson for two yards.  Maybe Shurmer was trying to catch the Ravens napping, but if not for a big stand on defense, this could've backfired as the Ravens got the ball back with time to spare.  However, Sheard picked a great time to get his first sack and the Ravens ended up running out the clock.

Finally, the real referees made their return and the flow of the game was so much better.  There was still some chippy play, but the refs were quick to jump in and separate the players involved.  Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called on either side, Shurmer was hit with one after a questionable intentional grounding penalty was called on Weeden, and Paul Kruger was hit with one with two seconds left when he shoved Thomas down (who did a great acting job to boot; nevertheless Kruger still shoved him and the ref caught him), allowing one last play for the Browns.  The refs were decisive and there were no issues with reviews, penalties, spotting the ball, or clock management.  In short, they weren't really noticed, and that's a good thing

Going forward, when will the Browns win a game?  It doesn't appear to be next week, as they venture to the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants in New York.  The Giants are a pass-happy team and this will be the last game missed for Haden, which means a depleted secondary could get scorched one last time unless something crazy happens.  After that is a rematch with the Cincinnati Bengals at home, which seems like a much more likely time to get a win.  Haden will be back and Richardson and Weeden should have one more game under their belt.

The Sports Mixer - Stop the madness already

Here at the sports mixer, I've wanted to do a week-by-week look at the NFL schedule and do some picks.

Obviously, that hasn't happened as of yet.

There's an explanation for it though, I promise, and it has little to do with being lazy, although I could certainly see where you'd come to that conclusion given that I haven't written a thing overall in 3 weeks.

Okay, so lazy is part of it.

There's another reason though, and last night's Monday Night Football game epitomized that reasoning; the referees can't be trusted.

What does that have to do with picking a football game?

Consider this: if I had picked the game last night, my initial instinct would have been to pick the Green Bay Packers.  Good team, albeit a little dysfunctional to start the season, playing an underdog Seattle Seahawks team in a very loud environment.  Yet if anyone can overcome crowd noise and a feisty team, it's Aaron Rodgers, right?

Well, after watching the final play of the game, I would have been sabotaged by the replacement refs.  Simply put, they blew it.  Two different guys made two different calls, and in the end, they both were wrong in agreeing that it was a touchdown.  Then they decided they couldn't overturn it on replay and I think it's simply because they would've been mauled by the Seattle crowd that wanted that win.

In the end, anyone who picked Green Bay was done in by the refs, something you couldn't say until last night.

Sure, they've botched several calls, couldn't get the clock timed correctly in some instances, marked off penalties incorrectly, called phantom penalties, and have done everything short of forget that it's a football game.  So what that they seem to forget that they're officiating an NFL game, not a lower level game (see CJ Spiller's touchdown against the Cleveland Browns last Sunday when an offensive lineman was illegally downfield).

It's made the decision to start doing that sort of a column much more difficult.  Granted, there have been plenty of people reminding us that the regular refs missed calls, pointed the wrong way on turnovers and penalties, and so on, but we've never seen anything like what we've been seeing since the preseason started.

Who's to blame?  Who cares?  Just get it done already.  I'm sure the NFL can find a little bit of money in it's pool to give out to the refs and no longer lock them out.  Do it before someone gets seriously hurt since players and coaches clearly do not have any respect for the replacement refs.  Just watch the activities going on after the whistle blows.  Players shoving each other around, coaches running on to the field, and both players and coaches lobbying for calls.  It's out of control and Roger Goodell knows it.

He has to.  Does he not watch the replays of the games?

I understand that these refs are in over their heads.  I don't blame them.  One week, you're preparing for a D-III matchup with two schools no one outside of the students has ever heard of, next you know, you're trying to figure out if that was roughing the passer or a clean hit involving Tom Brady.  It's not fair to them, it's not right, and unfortunately, they're receiving the brunt of the criticism.

Except for that ref that was a blatant New Orleans Saints fan.  He deserved what happened to him.  Remember kids, if you're going to officiate a game involving your all-time favorite sports team ever, hide the pictures of you tailgating in the parking lot decked from head to toe in its apparell, and for God's sake, don't go posting on Facebook that you get to officiate that game.

This isn't to take blame away from the refs though.  A lot of things they've messed up, they should know from the game they're used to officiating.  While it's true that the NFL game has several different rules from college and high school, enough of them are the same that they shouldn't be botching those, but they have.  For instance, allowing the clock to run after a player ran out of bounds with the ball.

In the end, the regular refs have to be laughing at all of this.  They have to be loving that fans, players, and coaches are hoping and praying for them to return soon.  They have to think they're going to get a standing ovation in every stadium when they do come back.  When they mark off a penalty correctly, you know they'll love the fact that players from both sides will be applauding them.

Until they screw up a pass interference call, thus giving Kevin Kolb and the Arizona Cardinals a win they didn't deserve.  Then it's back to them being crappy refs again.

But all will be right in the NFL world again.