Browns Beat Up Lions, 24-6, But Get Beaten Up Too

  Yeah, I'm an old guy, but I love it when the Browns and Lions play even if it is an exhibition game.  In the 1950s and 1960s the Browns and Lions were great rivals, so it was good to play some old friends.

   The good news is that the Browns completely dominated the Lions when the first strings were both there.   Much criticism has been thrown at Browns qb Brandon Weeden, but the fact of the matter is that he played well last year and looks a little better this year.  His receivers are significantly better.   I think they are going to get some yards through the air this year. On this day, he had an unbelievable throw to Josh Gordon, and was on the money to tight end Jordan Cameron twice for touchdowns.   Frankly the Browns looked great through the air and although they don't have All-Pros in the passing game, they don't have a real weakness there either.  For that matter, backup Jason Campbell has done nothing wrong this year either.

    On the ground, Trent Richardson was just fine, but the Browns looked a little lost in short yardage.  They got one decent block from Chris Ogbonnaya at fullback, but otherwise fullback was silent today (one thing I hate about tv coverage of football is they don't give you the opportunity to see what formation the offense is in.  I don't know how many plays used a fullback.  But I do know they didn't do well in short yardage.

Trent Richardson looked unstoppable, but Coach Chud wisely took him out early.  

Halfback Dion Lewis did well catching balls out of the backfield, and made a few yards on the ground, but was injured in the second half, breaking his leg.  He'll be out indefinitely, which is too bad because it looked like he was headed to number two on the depth chart behind Richardson.

Dion Lewis was also explosive, but injured his ankle.  

On defense, the front seven generally bullied the Lions.  Matthew Stafford & Co. were under pressure and had balls batted down and a few were nearly intercepted by the Browns big line and linebackers. The secondary was good but great, and note that the Lions were not playing their big threat in Calvin Johnson.    

The Browns gang tackled and dominated the line of scrimmage.  

The main issue is that a lot of guys got banged up today.  In addition to Lewis' injury, they had injuries to TE Gary Barnidge, LB Barkevious Mingo (bruised lung), and G Shawn Lauvao.  Hopefully they will be back soon as all of these player were doing well.  

Browns Win First Preseason Game vs Rams, 27-19

Cleveland played better than the Rams overall, with Brandon Weeden leading a diversified passing attack.  Photo: www.Clevelandbrowns.com .  

Well, let's not go crazy over an exhibition game, in which the Browns beat an inconsistent Saint Louis Rams team, 27-19.  But a win is better than a loss! And the Browns regulars outplayed the Rams regulars overall, which is also a good sign.

Here are a few takeaways from the game.

1.  The Browns quarterback situation is very solid if not spectacular.  Brandon Weeden played well on a bad team last year, and he will probably play better for a better team this year.  All three Browns qbs played well, and I think both Jason Campbell and Brian Hoyer can win games as an NFL starter if Weeden should go down.

Jason Campbell was 6 for 7, with one dropped ball by Chris Ogbonnaya.  Not too shabby.  Photo: www.Clevelandbrowns.com .

2.  The Browns receiving corps is much deeper than last year.  Travis Benjamin, Greg Little and Jordan Norwood made some good plays, and they got some good mileage from tight ends Jordan Cameron and Gary Barnidge as well.  Benjamin also took a punt return to the house, blowing away the Rams coverage team.  

3.  The Browns have some depth at running back, which is a good thing since Trent Richardson and Montario Hardesty were both banged up.  Brandon Jackson and Dion Lewis were both great catching passes out of the backfield, and ran hard against a good Rams defense.  It makes me wonder why former Coach Shurmur would never play Jackson, who gained 700 yards for the Packers in 2010.  I'll bet Coach Chud and Norv Turner figure out ways to get him in the lineup. However, the Browns did not play a fullback much.  Chris Ogbonnaya lined up there sometimes, while incumbent Owen Marecic did not see much action and might be on his way out.  But without a big fullback, the Browns are not going to run the ball all that well.  Shurmur and former GM Tom Heckert thought Trent Richardson would be the next Adrian Peterson, but not without a blocking fullback, dudes.  I think the Browns are going to pass a lot more than they run in 2013, with Richardson, Jackson and Lewis catching a lot of passes out of the backfield.  Montario Hardesty, another back much loved by Heckert, ran well at times the past two years but struggled with blocking and pass catching.  With multiple knee surgeries, he may not even make the team, and it would not shock me if the Browns come up with a free agent fullback by the end of training camp.  



Dion Lewis ran well and caught the ball out of the backfield.  Photo:   www.ClevelandBrowns.com

4.  Barkevious Mingo and Billy Winn stood out among defensive linemen, though in general the Browns had trouble putting consistent pressure on Rams quarterback Sam Bradford, who had time to unload some major bombs against the Browns.  As Browns announcer Bernie Kosar noted, the Rams receivers had trouble catching the ball, otherwise they could have really shredded the Browns weak secondary.  Let's see, in order to have all of these fancy blitzes and stuff, don't you need some defensive backs who are good enough to play man-to-man with NFL receivers?  As it was, in his brief time in the game, Bradford completed 5 of 8 passes for 102 yards and a TD for a passer rating of 145.8 (are you kidding me?) and it could have been much worse.    

Barkevious Mingo was outstanding in his first pre-season game.   Photo:   www.ClevelandBrowns.com

Conventional thinking is that the Browns are going to play great defense, and will run the ball a lot with a struggling passing game.  However, the Village Elliot  is not so sure.   Based on early returns, the Browns defense is very thin, and they are going to get burned if they rush five and six guys a lot.  On offense, they may find it easier to pass the ball a lot while the running game may struggle without a quality fullback.   

Cleveland Browns Running Backs

   Last year, the Cleveland Browns running attack was very simple:  "All Trent, all the time!"  Despite playing with injured ribs, Trent Richardson was not only the feature back, but he was also the best third down back and the best short yardage back.



Trent Richardson will bend over backwards to find the end zone. 

Thus, the rushing burden fell on Trent Richardson, who despite playing with broken ribs was able to rush 267 times for 950 yards (3.6 yards per carry) and also made 51 catches for 367 yards and for the most part blocked very well.  

    Behind Richardson, last year Coach Pat Shurmur and his assistant Brad Childress made some very weird moves. 

    First of all, Brandon Jackson, who in 2010 rushed for over 700 yards for the Packers, has been the Forgotten Man.  Injured in 2011, he was benched in 2012 despite a good preseason.  Finally in the last game against the Steelers, he rushed 8 times for 54 yards, or 6.8 yards per carry, making the rest of us wonder where he had been the entire year. To my knowledge there was never an explanation for why Jackson wasn't being used, he just sat on the bench.  

 
I don't know what Brandon Jackson did to get in Shurmur's doghouse, but that's where he stayed till the last game of 2012.  

    Similary, Chris Ogbonnaya stepped in for Peyton Hillis in 2011 and performed well, getting 4.6 yards per carry,  blocking well and also catching the ball well (23 catches).  In 2012, Ogbonnaya continued to catch the ball out of the backfield but was not allowed to run the ball, getting only 8 rushing attempts for the entire YEAR.

So what's wrong with Chris Ogbonnaya that the Browns don't want to play him?


    The main backup in 2012 was Montario Hardesty, with a mediocre 3.5 yards per carry for his career.  Montario dropped an incredible number of passes in 2011, so much so that they quit throwing to him altogether in 2012.  He is also not known for his blocking ability.  What he did reasonably well was to run the ball between the tackles, but he did not help the team blocking or catching passes.  He also seems to be a hard worker, and perhaps he can correct those problems and become a good backup for Richardson.  But if he does not improve, my opinion is that Ogbonnaya and Jackson are both better overall players.  I think the Browns coaching staff may have felt the need to play Hardesty in order to placate former GM Tom Heckert who foolishly gave up three draft picks to get Hardesty.    If you give up three draft picks, the guy should be a starter, but in reality the Browns are hoping he can develop into a decent backup.  

Montario Hardesty ran well at times last year, but didn't catch the ball and didn't block well.  He has the speed size and works hard, so maybe he'll improve.

Dion Lewis is a speed back, picked up from Philadelphia in the off-season.  The Browns may try him in third down situations.  

    It also bears mention that between Richardson and Hardesty, the Browns under the direction of Tom Heckert gave up seven draft choices to get the two backs (1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 7, 7).  This is simply an unbelievable outlay to get one good regular (third best rookie running back of 2012) and a marginal backup.  
  
   At fullback, Owen Marecic is still number one on the depth chart.  He struggled running the ball, catching it and in blocking, and many fans wonder why the Browns cut Lawrence Vickers, a stud blocker.  I think the Browns may try to play a tight end at fullback or perhaps use a tight end at the h-back position.  Or perhaps Marecic will improve enough to re-establish himself as a starter.  

Owen Marecic is the incumbent starting fullback for the Browns.  The Browns did not draft a challenger for Owen, but did pick up a few extra tight ends, some of whom are good blockers.