Cleveland Browns Lose to Washington Redskins 14-11
Nobody expected the Browns to look like they did on Monday night against the Giants; and everyone was right. The defense was actually somewhat impressive, with the exception of giving up 175 rushing yards to Clinton Portis, who has rushed for at least 120 yards per game four games straight (and has already racked up 818 yards rushing in six games this season). Outside of that, the Browns defense held their own and are ultimately not to blame for today’s loss.
The game started slowly, with 13 consecutive punts before Shaun Suisham missed a field goal in the closing seconds of the first half. Both teams were tied at zero until Clinton Portis broke the tie with a 3-yard touchdown run in the middle of the third quarter.
The Browns offense then appeared to wake up, if only for a moment, and answered back with a 37-yard field goal before the end of the 3rd quarter.
The there were several more failed third down conversions and punts by both teams until Jason Campbell hit Santana Moss in the endzone with an 18-yard touchdown pass.
Cleveland put together a few impressive, albeit scoreless, drives before they cracked into the red zone with 5 minutes left to play. Washington was able to stop the Browns on 4th and Goal, and the game appeared to be over.
A fumble by Portis on the following play gave Cleveland another chance, and they quickly capitalized by driving the ball 29 yards on a 5-play drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Cribbs (Anderson really sold the run on a fake-naked-bootleg-pass). After a successful 2-point conversion, they Browns had cut the Redskins lead to three.
Cleveland got the ball back with just over two minutes to play, and drove the ball to the Redskins 36 yard line, where Phil Dawson missed a 54-yard field goal with 27 seconds left in the game.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
–Derek Anderson looked shaky, at best, until the last few minutes of the game. Perhaps this is because of the pressure he felt to put on a repeat performance of last week, or perhaps EVERY quarterback looks good against a bracket-defense guarding an eleven-point lead with 5 minutes to play. You be the judge.
–Dropped passes (see: Braylon Edwards).
–Jamal Lewis couldn’t punch it in when we needed him to.
–Romeo should have taken the field goal on 4th down. We needed two scores, and the first one didn’t necessarily have to be a touchdown. Perhaps he didn’t trust Dawson to make a 22-yard field goal.
–Phil Dawson can’t hit the deep ball. Had his game-tying kick been good from 54-yards, it would have been the longest field goal of his 10 year NFL career. He has not made made a field goal longer than 38 yards all season, and his career long 52-yarder was in 2003. You can’t win close games if you have to get inside the twenty to have faith in your kicker…
Tags: Cleveland Browns, football, NFL, washington redskins
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[...] It was a game they could have won. Ryan Russell detailed some of the things that went wrong in today’s loss. I will chime in here with a few thoughts of my [...]
I for one truly enjoyed this past “Reality Check Weekend” as the Pittsburgh Steelers tightened their vice-like grip on the division, and the Brownies woke up and remembered how much they suck.
Kudos to Rusty here for his “Steelers will be 4-5 by week 9″ prognositication. Nice call there, Nostradumbass. Really, you should be a bookie or something.
Today Steelers fans are feeling like Rusty Russell when he performs in his Partridge Family cover band (he insists on being Keith of course!): “C’mon get happy!”
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The Steelers next four games:
vs New York Giants
@ Washington
vs Indianapolis
vs San Diego
The Giants and Redskins are both better than the Steelers, while the Colts and Chargers are talented teams that will be desperate. When Pittsburgh goes 1-3 in these four and is sitting at 6-4, while the Browns right the ship and get to 5-5, there will be only one reality check needed: The final game of the season in Cleveland will still ultimately determine the AFC North champion.
And Big Ben and the Steelers will have to hope for the Wild Card.
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Partidge Family? Really?
Way to show your age, Old Man.
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Ah, Midwest Sports Fans, where false hope springs eternal.
Giants and Redskins both better than the Steelers, Jerod? Uh I don’t think so. Actually I look for the Steelmen to do no worse than 2-2 down the next stretch, but we’ll have to see. I mean, I’d HATE to make a prediction that didn’t come true; you look so foolish when you do. Like say, when you forget the words to “I’m All Out of Love” when you’re doing that cover band thing. Not good. Not good at all.
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Air Supply? REALLY!?!?
You take all of the fun out of making you look stupid when you do such a bang up job of it by yourself.
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