Browns Jaguars Live Game notes.

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The first pass to TE Harbor was actually incomplete.  BAD CALL.  The receiver MUST maintain control of the ball to the ground.  He did not.

Jones-Drewdoes not look anything like he did before the injury to his foot.

Nice hit by Skrine right on time with the arrival of the ball on Jones-Drew

Punt returns were only one thing I liked about Poyer.  He has starting CB skills but is raw.  Great return!

Nice throw under pressure by Weeden.  Great adjustment by Gordon.  Schwartz let the DE in to hit Weeden as he threw.

McGahee for the TD.  47 yard drive on 3 plays

CL 7 JK 0

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No contain allows the end around to get the 1st

8 guys in the box so Henne throws for 8

Todman for the 1st and no contain again

JONES-DREWis a lot slower than he used to be but still gets the 1st.  No contain again.  They are running the edges.

Ward called for pass interference.  Ref said “prior to the snap illegal contact”  WHAT?

1-10 CL 31 Todman for 13 up the gut.  This D does not look organized.

18 yard TD to TE Harbor ties the game.

CL 7 JK 7 80 yard drive

Gordon gets open again and Weeden gets him the ball for 23

Again Ogbonnaya hit behind the line.  Loss of 1.

3-7 Again Weeden is under extreme pressure but gets the ball out.  Gordon had it stripped by 27.

32 yard punt less 5 yards for illegal formation.  Not a good start for special teams

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Kruger bad angle Henne gets by him but not Rubin

Skrine misses Jones-Drew and he gets the ball to the 40

Swing pass to Sanders gets 7 and the 1st

Jags catch the Browns unprepared.  But offsetting penalties negates the play.

1-10 CL 49 Todman gets 7.  The Browns are struggling with the zone blocking of the Jags

WOW A McFadden sighting!  Coverage sack by Sheard.  Henne had more than enough time to throw.

1-10 8yl McGahee gets 8 because Barn got a good block

3-.5 yard McGahee gets the 1st but was hit at the line

END OF 1ST QUARTER

 

Weeden overthrew Gordon by 6 yards

Gordon jumps way up and caught the ball 1st down

1-10 CL 48 Great catch by Gordon under pressure

Weeden finds Cameron to the JK 21 Protection was pretty good

Penalty on Cameron for false start

Little did a great job preventing a pick that Weeden threw into coverage.

Weeden shows touch to Gordon for 21 and the TD.

CL 14 JK 7

Great pick by Haden.  Timed it perfectly and undercut Shorts.

Marks gets by Lauvao and sacks Weeden.  His fumble recovered by Whit.

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Despite a tackle for loss by the Browns, Henne gets the 1st on 3rd and 2

Browns struggle to tackle against the bubble screen

Sheard lost contain.  Todman breaks 2 tackles and gets 13 yards and the 1st

Winn gets Todman for a loss of 3.

Blitz by Mingo and Skrine fails to get there but Henne throws it away

A guy in the stands had a Weeden jersey on but had a pumpkin on his head so none of his friends would know who he was.

The Jags had the screen set up.  If Todman had caught it he would still be running.

So far Weeden has looked good.  7-11 with no picks is a lot better than usual.  Does that mean we will see the Bad Weeden in the 2nd half?

Poz almost picked off the pass to Cameron.

Another Weeden Flip underhand but this one is INC.  Greco let the pass rusher in that cause the flip.

Poz tips another pass to Cameron away.

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36 yard punt.  Not good.

Mingo blocks the pass.  Nice play

Mingo gets Jones-Drew for just a yard.  Two good plays in a row

Ward gets Jones-Drew on a swing pass at the LOS.  Jags go 3 and out.

Weeden throws to Cameron who had 3 guys around him.  The ball was 2 yards off target and was PICKED.  Cyprian returned it for 23 yards to the Browns 17 2:29 left  Sorry Weeden, that was my fault for saying it earlier.

Weeden trusts his arm way too much.

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Run for 6.  2 min warning

Eubanks gets a tackle of Jones-Drew for 2.

3-1 Jones-Drew throws a TD pass to TE Lewis.

CL 14 JK 14

Weeden is picked AGAIN!  Ball was 3 yards off target.  It was picked by Gratz.  The right side of the O line collapsed and Weeden wet himself again.

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1-10 CL 28 Screen pass is blown up by McFadden who read the play.

Throw to Brown INC.

Browns call a TO after a Jones-Drew run to give Weeden time to throw another pick.

44 y FGA Good

JK 17 CL 14

Throw to Gordon very low.  He had to go to his knees to catch it.

2 passes net 7 yards.

Weeden fumbles and the Jags get it.  Schwartz gives up the sack and allowed the fumble.

Jags get a FG.

JK 20 CL 14 HALF TIME

 

Weeden is worse than Charlie Frye and Frye got traded at halftime of the 1st game of the season.

 

 

No passes yet.  That is good.

Throw to Gordon for 21.  Nice throw and good catch

1-10 JK 41 CB Ball tips the ball on a pass to Gordon but it falls INC.  It was off target again.

3-9 Pass to Little was too far out of bounds.  PN on JK Def. Holding

1-10 JK 35 Weeden hangs ball out to Gordon into double Coverage.  Hit to the head likely Concussion.

Gordon could be out for a while.

1-10 JK 20 Whit makes is average per run of 2 yards.  Mack and 82 can’t push 1 defender out of the way.

Nice throw to Cameron for 9.

Weeden throws the ball from the 4 directly at a CB but Little snatches it for the TD.

CL 21 JK 20 But it won’t last.

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Henne throws at the feet of his receiver against the blitz.

Ward gets Jones-Drew for a loss of 3.  He is playing LB which makes the D vulnerable to the pass.

Shorts drops a pass but he was WIDE open

McGahee and Ogbonnayaget several good runs in a row.  Maybe the effort to make all those interceptions and fumble recoveries tired out the Jags D.

Weeden on 3rd and 5 is sacked.  Lauvao missed the blitzer LB Poz completely.  That was combined with the ET game.  The sack took the Browns out of FG range

53 y FGA NO GOOD

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1-10 42 Jags go 3 and out.

Lauvao again blows the block and lets Whit get caught for a 4 yard loss

GORDON IS BACK.  He caught a short pass.

McGahee for the 1st

END OF THE 3RD

 

The ET Stunt still confounds the Browns pass protection.  Weeden is forced to throw it away.

TE Barn helping Schwartz with the DE.

Lauvao flagged for false start

Marks pushes Lauvao right into Weeden’s grill.

Cameron WIDE open vs. LB but Weeden overthrew him.

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1-10 JK 15 Jackson blocks the pass.

D Bryant almost gets a sack.  That is what we are down to in watching the Browns.

Throw to Todman takes advantage of Jackson in coverage for the 1st

1-10 27 Browns fail to cover bubble screens well and JK uses them to get the 1st

1-10 40 Blitz fails to get the Henne passes to Sanders for the 1st

1-10 CL 49 Mingo gets Henne as he throws.  One of the few times the blitz caused an incompletion.

On 3rd pressure combined with good coverage causes Henne to throw the ball away.

1-10 14 The ball is snapped over the head of Weeden and the Browns give up a safety.  Weeden kicked the free ball out of bounds.  That was a smart play.

JK 22 CL 21

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31 yard free kick return

1-10 CL 43 Face mask on Taylor.

1-10 26 Pass to Lewis to the 12

The Jags fail to get the 1st.  25 y FGA Good

JK 25 CL 21

Special teams strikes again.  The return is out to the 30 but the foul puts it on the 5.

95 yard TD pass to Gordon.  He caught it on the 22 and took it the rest of the way.

With the luck of the Browns he will probably celebrate with a joint and be out of the league for a year.

Or the league will declare he had a concussion and invalidate the TD

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Sanders catches the pass to the 50.  No pressure and Ward was up on the line and Gipson missed the tackle.

16 yard gain because Haden was trying to rip the ball out rather than tackling the receiver

1-10 38 2:30 left

3rd 1 after a run and pass at the Browns 25.  They are well in FG range.

Jones-Drew gets the 1st 1:35 left 3 TO S

Browns had 10 guys on the field but Haden bailed the D out with a tackle.

Jones-Drew got 5 tough yards on 3rd and 1.

Bryant gets to Henne.  The QB almost threw a pick.

Shorts beats Haden for the TD.  Haden was looking for the short pass and was beaten on a double move.

JK 32 CL 28

The Highlight of the last Browns’ series was another Weeden flip.

 

Final Thoughts:

This was as disgusting a game as I have ever seen.  It reflected poorly on the players, the franchise, the league and the city.  As bad as it was for me, it was worse for those that spent good money and sat in the bitter cold to watch this debacle.

 

Offense:

When Campbell was hurt I predicted that Browns would not win another game with Weeden at QB.  So far I am correct.  Weeden is not an NFL quality QB.  Please understand I have nothing against the young man.  I am sure he is a wonderful person that is doing his best.  But this is Big Boy Football.  Not everybody has the skill or temperament to play at this level.  In my opinion Weeden has neither of those qualities.

Flipper is back.  How can a professional QB do that?  While none of the Weeden Flips were picked off in this game, his propensity to throw them is an indication of his lack of poise in the pocket.  Just before the 1st flip I wrote the following: “So far Weeden has looked good.  7-11 with no picks is a lot better than usual.  Does that mean we will see the Bad Weeden in the 2nd half?”  The answer was YES beyond my worst expectation.

Two picks and a fumble lost were made worse by a lot of near misses on picks:

1 Weeden throws to Cameron who had 3 guys around him.  The pass was picked.

2 The second interception was 2 yards behind Little.  It was caused by pressure from a leaky O line.

3 The Fumble resulted from Weeden running into pressure with the ball hanging out like a fish on a line.

4 When Mack snapped the ball over his head, Weeden showed the awareness to kick it out of bounds.  Giving up 2 is preferable to giving up 7.

5 Weeden throws the ball from the Jags 4 directly at a CB but Little snatches it for the TD.

6 Weeden’s 1st fumble recovered by Whit.

7 Weeden on 3rd and 5 is sacked.  Lauvao missed the blitzer completely.  The sack took the Browns out of FG range.

8 Cameron WIDE open but Weeden overthrew him.  This was one of a number of open receivers that were missed by Weeden.

9 He blamed the helmet for not getting the calls on time.

10 Weeden’s 2nd fumble was recovered by the Jags and they got a FG.

 

Weeden trusts his arm way too much and he tends to fall apart when something goes wrong.  He was

24-40 370 yards 3TDs and 2 picks and a lost fumble.  But many of the yards were by WRs not the pass.   For example Gordon caught it on the 22 and took it the rest of the way.  After the disaster, the administration claimed he had a concussion.  That was probably to get him out of the post game and Monday press conferences.

He is still panics every time he is rushed.  His footwork is horrible.  Weeden’s high throws result from bad footwork.  He is going to get someone killed like he almost did to Gordon.  When Weeden has a clean pocket, he can throw deep accurately.  With this O line that doesn’t happen often.

RBs:                                                                           

McGahee gets several good runs in a row.     He averaged 4.1 yards per attempt.  Maybe the effort to make all those interceptions and fumble recoveries tired out the Jags D.  It entered the game with one of the worst yards per attempt against the worst Rush D in the league.  The other guys did very little as well.  Ogbonnaya averaged just 2.9 per attempt and Whittaker ran for just 2.1.  The O line did not help much because again Sunday the backs were hit at or behind the LOS way too often.

WRs:                                                                          

Gordon set an NFL record with his 10 catches for 261 yards and 2TDs.  It was the first time in NFL history that a WR got 200+ yards in consecutive games.  He was hung out to dry by Weeden but came back to play.              Cameron caught 4 for just 28 yards on 7 targets.  The others had a total of 10 catches.

O Line:                                                                                  

The line gave up 3 sacks for 28 yards lost and a total of 6 QB hits.  The line still can’t figure out ET game.  The Jags got 2 sacks that way.  Lauvao, Schwartz and Grecco each gave up a sack.  Beyond that there were many more pressures against Weeden.  Mack snap to the 3rd row of the cheap seats didn’t help.  That turnover cost the Browns 5 points including the field goal that resulted from the field position provided by the free kick.  RBs are getting hit behind or at the LOS way too often.  It is impossible for any back to make yards when they are hit behind the LOS.   And again even the veterans were called for pre-snap penalties.

Defense:                                                                                 

Browns DC Ray Horton said the team needs to do a better job leading to turnovers. “We didn’t get enough turnovers,” Horton said.  Even when Haden got the pick, the offense wasted the good field position.  Ward complained about the O not holding up their end.  He is absolutely right.

The Browns defense has consistently lost contain on wide runs.  The Jags who were at the bottom of the NFL in rushing gashed the Browns D time after time on the edge.  No adjustment was made and they continued to take advantage of the inability to set the edge.  The Browns also struggled with the zone blocking scheme of the Jags.  Ward was at the line to help against the run.  That made the Browns vulnerable to long pass.  Gipson struggles in deep coverage because he takes poor angles.

 

The pass rush was not a factor in the game despite the injuries on the Jags O line.  Blitzes are not getting enough pressure on the QB.  They fail to force the quick throw and put the pass coverage at a disadvantage.  The Browns made Henne look very good.

The throws to Todman and other backs took advantage of Jackson in coverage.  The linebackers have struggled in coverage all year.  Even Haden did not have a good game again.  Shorts beat Haden for the game winning TD.

But by far the worst part of the D was allowing an 80 yard drive in less than 3 minutes.  A top D can never allow a game to be stolen by a lesser offense with that kind of drive.  There was a 16 yard gain because Haden was trying to rip the ball out rather than tackling the receiver.

Special Teams:                                                                                  

Punt returns were only one thing I liked about Poyer.  He has starting CB skills but is raw.  His first  return was very good.  But again the special teams were inconsistent.  The punting and coverage was not acceptable.  The 32 yard punt in the first quarter was made worse by the 5 yard penalty for illegal formation.  Special teams errors struck again with a return out to the 30 that was negated by the foul that put the Browns at the 5.

Long return off the free kick added three points to the lead after the safety.

Coaching:                                                                              

Chud was way too aggressive after the 1st pick.  They had a chance to go into 2nd half 14-14.  Instead two more turnovers gave the Jags a 20-14 lead at the break.  There are still TOs due to confusion on both O and D.  The team was slow to get players in and out of the game.

The team continues to make the same mistakes over and over.  The D cannot figure out how to contain the run wide.  The O line continues to fail to block the ET game.  I am not sure if the problem is the lack of teaching or the players inability to learn and implement the adjustments on the field.

Front office:                                                                          

The last 3 losses lay directly at the feet of Lombardi and Banner.   Even after two QBs were injured, they refused to bring in a 4th player to backup and learn the system.  Since then we have seen two QBs go down with injuries.  Now they may be forced to start a QB who has never thrown an NFL pass and has been with the team for a week.  I can only assume that       they WANTED to lose to get a better draft choice.

 

IF they cared a wit about the fans they would have brought in a decent QB months ago.    The running game is a joke and the O line is a disaster.  The big dollar defensive FAs have not produced much and there have been very few contributions from the 2013 draft picks.  Just 3 weeks ago the team was in a position to challenge for a playoff spot.  But with 3 straight losses, they are now in a position to challenge for a top 3 draft pick.

The Weeden plague is spreading to the D and even Mack.  The Browns are in serious danger of losing their better free agent players because the front office has been unable or unwilling to make the moves necessary to win.  Why should we trust them with the 14 Draft?           If I was the owner I would fire them both for dereliction of duty.

Where do the Browns go from here?

A month ago I was somewhat optimistic about the front office and the draft.  That no longer is the case.  Maybe they should use all their picks on QBs then pass out the ones they don’t like candy on Holloween.  What I am most afraid of is that the Browns trade both 1’s to trade up to draft Texas QB Case McCoy.

 

That’s what I think.  Tell me what you think.

 

You can listen to the podcasts at https://fryingpansports.com/radio-show/ and hear NNR Live Mondays and Fridays at 6PM Eastern time on .  The Monday show is a review of the previous week and the Browns game.  The Friday show previews the upcoming games.

 

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He edits https://fryingpansports.com.  He has also published several novels on and a non-fiction work at http://www.merriam-press.com/.  Follow him on twitter @NNRonDSN to get the schedule of Special News, Notes and Rumors broadcasts.  You can hear the previous shows on https://fryingpansports.com/radio-show/ and the live show Mondays at 6 PM Eastern time on The Bill Smith Radio Show.  

He also edits .  

To keep up with the News, Notes & Rumors podcasts, follow me on twitter @NNRonDSN.

 

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