Bird Droppings

Franchise Kicker

Ravens 23 – 16 Browns

The Browns lined up against their mutant half-brothers, the Baltimore “Ravens”, in their only nationally televised game of the year. The game had an added sense of nostalgia to it, due to both the recent death of Art Modell and the upcoming Cleveland ’95 special on NFL Network. Although the Ravens were relatively sub-par, the Browns were unable to pull off the cathartic shock as they came up short for the fourth week in a row.

The main story of the night for the Browns offense was drops. Tons and tons of drops. The running theme of crucial drops was turned up to 11 against the Ravens as just about every person associated with the organization dropped the ball at some point Thursday night. I think even Ozzie mighta dropped his coffee. In general it was a similar sight. Not enough touches for #33 and a zillion passing attempts.
They managed to stay in touch with the Ravens throughout the first half, managing not to add anything to the current huge first-quarter deficit over Shurmur’s reign. They also managed a first down on their first drive this week. Baby steps people. Trent Richardson kept up his touchdown streak when he capped off a 94-yard yard drive (!) with a 1-yard run on a toss play, beating everybody (including his own blockers) to the corner. The drive included an impressive 43-yard pass from Weeden to Little, who caught the ball over corner Carey Williams in an otherwise wildly inconsistent night. He dropped multiple passes, most notably one on the edge of the endzone for what would have been a huge touchdown. He wasn’t the only offender as it seems that Ben Watson looks like the only guy that can consistently catch the football. Brandon Weeden was fairly magnanimous when asked about the drops, saying that he could make it easier on the receivers with his ball placement. He also back-handedly called out the playcalling, saying “We’ve got to find a way to get 33 the ball, whether it’s [throwing] out of the backfield or handing it to him.” Richardson was again underused, only attempting 14 rushes and catching the ball 4 times. He still gained over 100 total yards on top of his touchdown.
Weeden himself had a fairly up-and-down day. He was again over 300 yards (and would have pushed 400 had the drops been catches) and threw a number of encouraging passes. But on the flipside completed under 50% of his passes and threw an ugly pick that was returned for a touchdown on an all-round clusterfuck of a play. He also was accurate in his assessment of the drops, as he threw a few passes high and hard in relatively challenging conditions. His worst moment came on the final play of the game, when after getting a reprieve (thanks to an Oscar-winner from Joe Thomas) he threw his pass out the back of the endzone (though he was clearly affected by the pressure from Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger).
All in all, almost enough but not quite making it over the top.

“Heck, I remember when I was at Michigan State, we had five plays and some of the guys only knew four of them.” – Coach Shurmur

Everything is making sense now.

It was a fitful day on the opposite side of the ball as well. They managed to hold the Ravens’ new no-huddle high-scoring offense in check for the most part, but looked paper-thin at times. They clearly keyed in on Ray Rice and managed to hold him to under 3 yards per carry on the ground, as the Ravens put it on Joe Flacco to win the game. Which he did. Just. The combination of Flacco-to-Boldin managed to drag the Ravens through more of a fight than people were expecting, as Boldin ended the game with 131 yards. At times Flacco carved apart the Browns’ blighted D, most notably finding rising star Torrey Smith all alone in the endzone for the first score of the game. The D was also slow to react to some (obvious) draw plays, most memorably letting Bernard Pierce through for a decent gain when the Ravens were trying to eat some clock. There were more bad angles taken, the worst culprits being Kaluka Maiava and Dimitri Patterson. Maiava managed to completely lose his bearings and allowed Flacco to saunter into the endzone for a 1-yard touchdown, seemingly trying to take the long way round and then fell over. Patterson likewise wildly overpursued on a short pass, somehow flying massively past the receiver who then had an easy route for a first down.
There were some good points. Craig Robertson got another interception to go with the one he got in week 1. He read Flacco’s intentions and wheeled out then back and picked the ball off in the endzone, as the Ravens were looking threatening in the endzone. It was a wonderful play. The D-line also had a much improved game, getting pressure and pushing the pile. Jabaal Sheard picked up his first sack of the year, speeding by Kelechi Osemele like he wasn’t there and stalling the Ravens at the end of the first half. Overall they gave the Ravens’ O-line a lot to think about.

“The guy is finding a way to make a play.” – Coach Shurmur on linebacker Craig Robertson

Keep ‘em coming Craig.

Very good special teams day. No punt return yards for the Ravens, so a massive improvement from week 2 when bodies were flailing everywhere and week 3 when Reggie Hodges struggled with direction and hang time. After Cribbs went out, Benjamin took over and showed off his immense speed on a 40 yard return, only spoiled by being tackled by punter Sam Koch. Phil Dawson was money as ever, nailing 3 50+ yard field goals in the rain. He became the seventh player to convert 3 50 yarders in a game, and the first to do it in a single half. Money.

“Hey Cleveland, what you are seeing is not the same old Browns. Trust me. I feel it. I can hardly wait until it explodes.” – Phil Dawson via his Twitter account last Friday

Money.

Offensive Play of the Game: Undoubtedly Weeden’s 43 yard pass to Greg Little, who caught the ball strongly over Cary Williams.

Defensive Play of the Game: Again little doubt here. Craig Robertson picking off Joe Flacco in the endzone after wheeling back to double team the WR in the corner.

Player of the Game: Pretty much has to be Phil Dawson. Perfect on the night. He gets better when it’s 50+ yards.

Honourable Mention: The D-line. They gave the Baltimore offensive line a lot of trouble throughout the night, most notably tackles Kelechi Osemele and serial holder Michael Oher.

Phil Dawson Award: Yup you guessed it. “Money” Dawson picks up his second award of the night. Impossible not to agree with Shurmur’s assessment that he is the best kicker in the league.