The Sports Mixer Looks Back - Browns vs. Bills

It's been a while since I've written.

I've tried to stay away from it while focusing on my YouTube channel, but last night's game was something else between the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills.

For starters, it was a game of momentum shifts. The Bills jumped out to a 10-0 lead, then the Browns stormed back to take a 17-10 lead, then the Bills regained the momentum and took a 24-17 lead before the Browns scored the last 20 points to grab a 37-24 win.

Of course the big story was the season-ending injury to Brian Hoyer, who tore his ACL attempting to run along the side-line. That brought Brandon Weeden and the boo-birds out as Weeden's first couple of passes were a tad off to say the least. He did make a couple of nice throws, but for the most part, it was the same old stuff we've come to expect from Weeden.

This game demonstrated to me the differences between Hoyer and Weeden. See, I was one of the supporters of Weeden who claimed the line wasn't giving him the time needed to make a good throw. I said a running game and better blocking would help Weeden.

Truth is, after watching Hoyer for 2+ games, I've come to realize that while the line has sometimes had its ups and downs, but with Hoyer, the protection didn't seem to be much of an issue. The ball would get snapped, Hoyer would take his drop, and the ball came out.

Last night after Weeden came in, the ball was snapped, Weeden would take his drop, and stand there. And stand there some more. Then get sacked or throw the ball very late.

So I sat and thought about the things I've seen from Weeden and the things I've seen from Hoyer and came up with some simple conclusions that most rational fans should be able to agree with.

With Weeden, the biggest problem is his inability to make a quick decision once the ball is snapped. He holds the ball and if he doesn't get sacked, he throws late and the receiver has little chance of making a good, clean catch. He also has a very bad habit of staring his receiver down from the moment he takes the ball, which helps a defense tremendously. His lack of mobility and feel for the rush work against him as well.

That said, his arm is strong and he can throw a mean deep pass when he has the time to get the ball off as demonstrated on his successive throws to Greg "Mr. Dependable" Little and Josh Gordon to tie the game at 24 in the third quarter.  Unfortunately, he still continues to be off with his throws more often than not, mostly throwing behind his receivers, again giving them little chance to make a good play on the ball.  In essence, if he learned to look from one side to the other and throw the receiver open, he'd be a successful quarterback.

Which brings me to Hoyer. He may not have the same arm strength as Weeden, but his accuracy and timing are far better than Weeden's. He often would throw the ball with the receiver not yet out of his break yet and when the receiver would turn his head, the ball was on its way. This helped the receivers tremendously and the chemistry was immediate between Hoyer and Jordan Cameron, as well as with Gordon.  Whereas Weeden holds the ball, Hoyer would take his drop and more often than not, the ball was gone when it was supposed to be.

Whether his decisiveness would hold up for a full season remained to be seen, but for two games, his ability to make quick decisions, get the ball in the endzone, and not make terribly costly mistakes had endeared him to Browns fans. Weeden will need to show that he can do the same if he wants to remain viable and I'm not sure he can correct his biggest issues during the season.

Brownie Bites

• The biggest spark in the game was clearly the punt return for a touchdown by Travis Benjamin. It gave the Browns the lead shortly after the Browns had tied the game and then forced a quick three-and-out by the Bills. Benjamin took the ball from the right sideline, weaved his way through traffic to the left, dodged the punter, spun out of another tackle, and darted to the middle of the field before running it in. Bills fans will complain about the lack of a block in the back call, but the contact was minimal at best and I doubt those fans would be crying if it had been the Bills returning the punt.

• The defense was gashed a couple of times by the Bills running attack, but the Bills are unique in that they have three running backs who can hurt you. CJ Spiller had the biggest run, a 54-yard scamper that tied the game to start the second half, which for the moment sparked the Bills again. But after that run, the Browns locked back down against the run and forced the Bills to pass, which became a huge issue once EJ Manuel had to leave with a knee sprain. Jeff Tuel was clearly overmatched and the pick-six to TJ Ward sealed the deal late after the Browns had regained the lead.
• Buster Skrine continues to impress and the biggest thing I've noticed his he's getting his head turned around now to find the ball, something he hadn't done very well even early in the season. He's demonstrated he can run with the best of them and get to the receiver, but more often than not he'd plow into the receiver without finding the ball, thus drawing the pass interference penalty. Several times he has now batted the ball away without the extra contact and his open-field tackling has been superb. He and Joe Haden have both made sure that once the ball is caught, that's it.
• You can't say enough about the job the coaches have done with this team so far. Dead and buried at 0-2, Trent Richardson traded, Weeden hurt, Hoyer given the starting job, and it seemed like the Browns were ready to throw the towel in. Except the team itself didn't get the memo. Rob Chudzinski deserves props, as does Norv Turner for optimizing the offensive talent on the field and Ray Horton for getting the defense up to play week in and week out. You can't say enough about the last three games, but let's hope this isn't a flash in the pan type of situation.
• Greg Little is such an enigma and probably always will be. Clueless off the field, sometimes with it on the field, it becomes frustrating when he does make a play because you can see the talent he has. Unfortunately, he and Gordon sometimes have concentration issues, although Gordon's aren't nearly as frequent as Little's. On the tying touchdown drive in the third quarter, Weeden unleashed two good throws, the first to Little who peeled the ball off his helmet and secured the ball. After a bad, bad penalty on John Greco, Weeden launched a pass into the end zone for Gordon who caught it off a couple of deflections, got the feet down, and made sure to keep possession. It's maddening sometimes.
• I'm neutral on the Jim Brown topic, but it was nice to see he and the team stop squabbling and put together a nice halftime ceremony celebrating his legacy and induction into the ring of honor. He then received a gameball after the victory, which I'm sure meant a lot to him.
• The team has 10 days to get as healthy as possible. The hope is Jabaal Sheard, Quentin Groves, and others will be back and ready to play the Detroit Lions, who will present a tougher challenge, especially for the offense. While I don't think Josh Freeman is in the cards for the Browns, I would be surprised if they don't try to sign another quarterback.
• The Browns are for now leading the AFC North at 3-2. Go ahead and try and tell me you saw that coming, especially after the first two weeks of the season. You can't. Now I'm not sure they can maintain this (Weeden scares me tremendously at this point), it's at least nice to be above .500 for once and leading the division, rather than 2-3, 1-4, or 0-5 like we've been so many times in the past.
• Props to Willish McGahee for stepping in and keeping the running game stable if nothing else. His numbers won't jump out at you, but he ran hard and had a couple of decent runs during the game. Not the long-term solution by any stretch, but isn't giving you much less than you got from Richardson, which is what makes getting a first round pick for Richardson all the more remarkable. It will be tough sledding, but McGahee has helped keep the ship afloat.

The Sports Mixer - After further review

Each week the Sports Mixer takes a look back at the previous Browns game, this time a look at the Browns 30-7 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, and discusses what was learned.  This intro is never the same, is it?

Jamaal Charles came to play, unfortunately, the rest of the Chiefs took Sunday off.  He ripped off an 80-yard touchdown run on the first place from scrimmage, ultimately compiling 165 yards on 18 carries.  That 9.1 average is gaudy, and averaging 5 ypc on his other 17 runs is still high, but considering what happened on that first play, the defense did a nice job clamping down on Charles and hitting him hard every time.

Trent Richardson appears to be hurt, but continues to soldier on and has picked up 9 touchdowns for his pain.  Montario Hardesty has done a nice job filling in for Richardson from series to series, picking up 52 yards on 10 carries in this game.  He could've had a touchdown, but he fumbled at the goal line, which prompted Pat Shurmer to reinsert Richardson to pick up the touchdown.  Hardesty was upset, but he had only himself to blame.  His fumbling problems in the preseason landed him third on the depth chart early on.  That said, he doesn't waste any time in the backfield.  He gets the ball, finds the hole, and runs through it quickly.

Josh Gordon continues to impress, not just with his hands, but with how much better his routes have gotten and how much better he sheds defensive backs at the line of scrimmage.  Simply put, he's developing into a top-tier wide receiver at an alarming rate and it's not out of the question that he could reach 1,000 yards receiving.  The other thing is he had a drop early in a drive that essentially helped stall it out on a slant.  It was a good pass, he just dropped it.  He made amends by making the grab on the exact same type of route later on to pick up a quick first down.  Is he immune from drops?  No, but he makes up for it and doesn't seem to become infected with the dropsies that his counterpart has struggled with.

Speaking of Greg Little, he's really come on strong of late.  Since the bye week, he's had maybe on drop, made several tough grabs, and has been superb blocking downfield for other receivers and running backs when he's not getting the ball.  Toss in a toss play where he lined up as the running back, and it seems like the Browns and Little are finally figuring out how to put it all together.  He's been a different player with the emergence of Gordon, and that's a very good thing.

The defensive line has been impressive, this despite getting gashed at times by Charles.  Fact is, Charles has gashed a lot of teams but the Browns made the proper adjustment and limited the damage after the first possession.  Then they went after Brady Quinn after the Browns took command of the game in the second half, leading to five sacks.

The secondary looks so much better with Joe Haden out there, but it helps having better play from the defensive line and linebackers.  It's allowed Sheldon Brown, Buster Skrine, and Dmitri Patterson to play in more comfortable roles.  Quinn isn't a very good quarterback, but they didn't allow him to gain much confidence with his passes.

Travis Benjamin may have played his way into lead returner with his 93 yard return on what was supposed to be a punt block play.  In the open field, you can see how challenging it is to bring him down.  He blew past the first wave of defenders, then essentially ran past everyone, including his escort of blockers that was initially ahead of him.  The punter saw Josh Cribbs coming and said no thanks.  From there, Benjamin ran the Browns into the lead and possibly showed Cribbs the door after this season.

The offensive line doesn't do a great job of run blocking, but the improvement in the pass game is clear.  Sure, Brandon Weeden gets a number of passes knocked down, but some of that is just because the defense isn't getting to Weeden and is jumping up to block passes.  Steve Tasker mentioned on the TV broadcast that Weeden could benefit from a pump fake, a move he tried later in the game.  It would have been successful if the defender hadn't managed to grab a hold of Weeden's jersey on the way by, preventing Weeden from putting enough on the pass to score an easy touchdown.  Overall though, the line has played well.

Weeden has taken his lumps this season, but he's passed for over 3,000 in his rookie season, won five games, hasn't sustained any major injuries, and has managed to lead sustained drives at critical points the last couple of weeks.  You'd like to see the batted passes drop and a little better accuracy, but overall, he's done well enough to earn the starting nod next season in this corner.

Pat Shurmer has taken lumps for his decisions, but he's drastically improved over the last few weeks.  Some will question his challenge on the Cribbs run, but this observer couldn't tell if the knee was down and Cribbs deserved at least a chance at that score.  The timeout wasn't wasted in the long run as the Browns time management was the best it's been all season long.  At one point, this corner had realized that it was late in the game and not once had the Browns used a timeout due to the playclock running down.  The imagination on offense was a welcome sight as well as the Browns used the wildcat twice, a double-reverse with Benjamin, and Little out of the backfield for nice gains.

It isn't entirely out of the question for the Browns to run the table and finish 8-8, although it's highly unlikely given the level of competition they have coming up.  That said, they're in the playoff hunt still and that's something we haven't been able to say in a few years now.  The Redskins game may be the most winnable game on the schedule though, seeing as trips to Denver and Pittsburgh follow this final home game.  We'll see how far this team has grown over the next three weeks, or if they falter, how far they still have to go.

Finally, the NFL is such an unpredictable league in that few probably saw the Falcons losing to the Panthers, the Steelers getting rolled by the previously lethargic Chargers, the Texans failing to show up against the Patriots, or the Bears getting run over by the Vikings.  It was a tough week for picks but that's what makes football great; any team can win any day.