The game against Cincy felt like a loss to me.

[DeadWombat]

We showed signs of having a good offense on Cincy in the first half. We had a couple good plays and even ran a few plays that we never do. Seneca looked good. I wish I could find all his stats just for the first half, because all I remember were some really, really good throws to Watson. Accurate throws.Short throws. Long throws. Throws on the run. Throws in the pocket. You know, the interception wasn't even his fault. It went in and out of Chansi Stuckey's hands. Wallace didn't play amazing but he was definitely playing well and spread the ball around.

However, in a trend that will no doubt continue, our passing looked horrible in the second half:

• Cleveland's last pass completion was at 12:17 in the 3rd quarter.
• After getting at least 1 first down every drive in the first half, Cleveland went 3 and out 2 times on 5 possessions in the second. A penalty saved us from it happening a 3rd time.
• Wallace was 14 of 20 attempts in the first half, and 4 of 10 in the second half.

That's downright ugly. Damn. I can assure you this is not because our players are magically getting sucky after half-time.... this is about the defense adjusting to our plays. And our offense not doing a damn thing about it. The first half was exciting.... really, it was! I was enjoying myself and felt electrified, jumping out of my seat several times. But after half time. The game became so frustrating to watch.... No one was ever open downfield, the running was bland, the 3-and-outs were frequent, and even when we won, I was too frustrated at our inept offensive showing to feel much relief. It was just such an ugly win that if you covered up the score you would swear we would have been down by 17 points by watching the second half.

Other thoughts:

• Our defense played very well again and that's what caused a win. Props to the defense in the second half for limiting scores.
• I'm glad we're finally getting Evan Moore out there and throwing to him. Lets do it more often. PLEASE! Its not like we have anyone else to throw to...
• We still aren't using the Wildcat or Cribbs very much. We still tried sending him up the middle and expected something. We still aren't putting him in space and letting him make plays. The one time we did do this, it was an immediate pass to Cribbs who was lined up wide right and he got 15 yards after juking his defender. And we never tried anything like this again.
• I remember when the coaches were saying they were confident in their recieving corps before Preseason. I was laughing at them then. I'm still laughing at them now. Our number 1 WR has 4 catches in 4 games.
• Hillis always manages to get yards after the hit. I love that. But he was the only back out there the entire game.... wow. We can't use him like that every week.
• Playcalling was still boring and unimaginative, but at least it showed life once in awhile in the first half. It reverted yet again to the classic Daboll we saw last year in the second half.
• I love the pressure we were able to put on Palmer. Roth getting more sacks is always a good thing. I think the fact that Shaun Rogers being back helped a lot because he demands so much attention by the other team.
• Eric Wright made a few good plays but also got burnt by T.O. really bad several times. Brown got burnt by him as well. At least we did a good job of containing Chad Ochocinco.
• Haden and Ward continue to make plays. I hope their progress continues to move swiftly.

Overall, I'd say that if we had a rematch we would lose. And as the year goes on and other teams get more film on how the Browns offense is run, I bet we'll just find it even harder to pass the ball than ever before. We simply cannot continue to allow other teams to just walk all over us in the second half. I'm getting really tired of it. Our defense saved us this time, but we need to continue to move the ball and score after halftime. And to do that, we need to come up with some better gameplans and make good adjustments.

Unfortunately, neither Mangini or Daboll is known for making good adjustments. That's what frustrates me.


Sorry to be the usual debbie downer I find myself being, but it was just flat-out an ugly win. I'll still take it, though. We needed a win badly. Wallace, Hillis, and the defense definitely deserved it.

[Masters]

If the getting burnt by T.O. for the long TD pass is what you are refering to, where the CB fell down, that was Brown, not Wright.

[ramrod]

Wow, I was actually excited to come on this board this morning. Why dont you go and hide in your negative world why the rest of us enjoy our positive one. We won a fucking game. My god. Either you or Masters has to be the most negative people on here. Go stick your head in the toilet and when you're done, try again Sally.

[Pedros Gaff]

in the least offensive way possible you are a idiot for complaining about a win.....

[Masters]

DeadWombat, you are not alone. I am happy the Browns won, but that game could have easily gone the other way. But when you win the turn over battle, you are more likely to win a game. Fortunately CLE did win that battle.

[sofakingwhat]

I felt like they could have won any of the first 3 games, so what. WE WON!

[PlaygroundLegend]

totally agree wombat, your posts lately have been gold

[Pedros Gaff]

your all haters who cares if it was close or sloppy a win is a win

[OzDawg]

The Replacements movie.

"What's the difference between winners and losers?"
"The score"

[DeadWombat]

Originally Posted by Pedros Gaff

your all haters who cares if it was close or sloppy a win is a win

If we go out every week and win I would be happy regardless of how close the game is.

But our "sloppiness" caused us to lose against Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Baltimore despite having the lead against all three teams in the 4th quarter. We gave those games away because we couldn't move the football down field after those teams made adjustments at half time.

The fact that this week our defense managed to compensate for our pathetic 2nd half offensive showing does NOT remediate the problem. That was one game. The other three games tell the real story. The offense has not shown any real adjustment, growth, or improvement since game one. The defense has, however... at least I can say that.

We simply cannot depend on our defense to save us every game after we go out and fail to make any effort move the chains in the second half.

[DeadWombat]

Originally Posted by ramrod

Wow, I was actually excited to come on this board this morning. Why dont you go and hide in your negative world why the rest of us enjoy our positive one. We won a fucking game. My god. Either you or Masters has to be the most negative people on here. Go stick your head in the toilet and when you're done, try again Sally.

I would much rather have a good football team that lost a close game than have a bad one that won a close game.

Because in the former situation... I could at least say we played well.

Like I said earlier... if we didn't give away 3 winnable games by using the same approach I would not be anywhere near as concerned as I am now for my team. But you can't honestly expect us to go out and play this this every single week and win. Thats why I'm upset. I'm not just thinking about this one week, but I'm looking down the road ahead... and you can't depend on a team to go out and win when we play like we do in the 2nd half.


EDIT: Sorry for the double post.

[Masters]

Add in DeadWombat the CLE got a blocked FG in the game. You can't expect that every week.