Browns lose to Broncos, 34-30
November 7th, 2008 at 12:50 am by Displaced Cleveland Fan
First, the positives.
Brady Quinn made his first NFL start for the Cleveland Browns. The picture above of Brady with former Browns QB Bernie Kosar was taken before the game. Hopefully Brady has a long and productive career in a Browns uniform like Kosar, with the added accomplishment of a Super Bowl championship. (Hey, one can dream.)
Despite a short practice week before his first start. Brady looked good. He was 23 for 35 passing (65.7%) for 239 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions. At least after one game, his future looks promising.
It was also nice to see Brady hook up with Kellen Winslow for both touchdown passes. Winslow had only 1 TD reception through the first 8 games. I’m looking forward to more through the final 7 games (and hopefully beyond this year too).
The offensive line also played well. Eric Steinbach was out, but Seth McKinney did a good job filling in. All the guys played solid, helping the team rush for 160 yards and giving up zero sacks.
Now, the negatives.
Dropped passes. This time it was Winslow, not Braylon Edwards, that missed the crucial pass. Winslow let a pass sail through his hands on a 4th and 1 play with about a minute remaining to seal the loss.
And the play calling. Why did we pass on that 4th and 1 instead of running Jamal Lewis up the middle? I hate second guessing the play calling most of the time, because you have the unfair advantage of hindsight. But it seems like that would be the safer choice since (1) you have an inexperience QB, even though Brady was not at fault for the incompletion, (2) the O-line had looked good all night, and (3) Jamal Lewis is a tough back to bring down. But in any case, the pass was called. It didn’t work. Game over.
The big problem tonight, the defense. Wow. Tonight they played like everyone expected them to play from the beginning. Coming into this year, the offense and special teams were supposed to be good and the defense would be the weak link. As it had turned out, the offense has had problems and the defense has been surprisingly decent most of the year.
But after letting the Ravens come back and win Sunday, the defense once again imploded and squandered a 23-10 lead and let the Broncos outscore Cleveland 24-7 in the final 25 minutes. They gave up 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter. They let Denver rack up 564(!) yards, 441 in the air. And the defense gave up all those passing yards knowing that the Broncos were going to pass. Injuries had left them with Peyton Hillis as their go-to running back. Never heard of him? That’s because he’s an undrafted rookie who has carried the ball 3 times all year coming into this game. And so the Browns, knowing the Broncos would have to rely on the pass, still surrendered 441 passing yards. I know we don’t have the greatest secondary, but come on. What in the world?!
Right now, the Browns are 3-6. If the defense would have held the lead the last two games, we’d be 5-4, right in the playoff hunt. I realize that the offense, namely Derek Anderson, is partially to blame for the loss last week. But still. The defense let this team down.
If there was any faint hope of a playoff berth left after the loss to the Ravens, it is gone now. The Browns would have to win their remaining 7 games to finish at 10-6 to have a shot. That’s not going to happen. Brady Quinn has a lot of potential, and he showed some in this game. But he can’t carry this team to a 7-game win streak into the playoffs. Peyton Manning couldn’t do that with this team. But as I said in my last post, the remainder of this year is to help prepare Brady Quinn and the rest of this team to make a run at the playoffs next year. Sure, the Browns may finish at 5-11. But if all goes well, they should be in position for a much better year in ‘09.
Tags: Bernie Kosar, Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Eric Steinbach, football, Kellen Winslow, scores, Seth McKinney
