Blue Bolt
11-05-2006, 10:50 PM
The Bitter End: So Close...Yet Sooo Far
Added: 11/5/2006 6:38:20 PM
Contributed By Chris W.
http://bitterfans.com/ShowArticle.asp?CategoryID=3&ArticleID=244
The wins have not come easy in 2006. Neither have the points. That didn't change much out in San Diego this past Sunday. The Browns struggled to find the End Zone, and squandered some great opportunities en-route to their sixth loss of the season. The loss nearly drove me into a deep depression...and if that wasn't enough, I'm about to shatter my TV into 1000 pieces if I hear another commercial with John Cougar Mellencamp singing "This is my country". Congratulations John...thanks to that Chevy commercial you sold out for, your new 'hit' song has broken the record for most overplayed song of all time and has shattered the record for becoming the quickest song to become outrageously annoying.
Welcome back to the Bitter End.
Recap
It all started so inauspiciously on the first drive of the game. The Chargers marched the ball down the field just like the New York Jets did on the previous week. Unfortunately for the Chargers, they got the same result as the Jets: a Field Goal. Not long after that, Philip Rivers and the Chargers Offense started scuffling against a stout Browns' Defense and things started looking up for Cleveland.
For nearly three quarters, the Chargers played sloppy and committed penalty after penalty to help the Browns move into position for some of kicker Phil Dawson's 6 Field Goals (a team record). When it was all said and done, the Chargers committed 12 penalties for 113 yards, and the Browns could not capitalize enough on Offense to put the ball in the End Zone until it was way too late.
Offensive Coordinator Jeff Davidson's second game in the booth calling plays for the Browns ended much like it did for Maurice Carthon: The Browns couldn't run the ball, and QB Charlie Frye ended up on his ass more often than not. This came against a Chargers' Defensive unit that had two of its best players out (Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips), and more players banged up (Donnie Edwards).
Reuben Droughns followed up on his 125 yard performance last week by running for 36 yards on 19 carries. That's a 1.9 yard average...a season low. Droughns didn't even see much of the end of the game as rookie Jerome Harrison finally saw the field again.
Frye struggled all game long making crucial mistakes while not running for his life thanks to a blitz package that had Chargers' defenders coming in clean off the edges to chase Frye around the field. Without much of a chance to check down, Frye found himself running in circles and getting caught. Frye also helped swing momentum in the Chargers' favor as the Browns were nursing a 6-3 lead. Frye fumbled the ball while scrambling allowing Marques Harris to scoop it up, and run it in for a touchdown.
To make matters worse for Frye, he met his quota for throwing at least 1 interception, and got destroyed on a cheap play by Chargers' dumbass D-Lineman Derreck Robinson, who couldn't hear all 800 whistle noises blowing the play dead. It was at that point when I declared Charlie dead after he was blindsided. Overall, it was another tough day for Charlie.
Meanwhile, on Defense, the Browns held their own during all this mess on Offense. As mentioned, the Browns' Defense had LaDanian Tomlinson locked up for most of the day, and they were giving fits to Philip Rivers. The Browns managed to sack Rivers 3 times and had the Chargers going 3 and out more often than not.
Then Tomlinson woke up.
As the 4th Quarter drew close and the game was tight, LaDanian decided he was going to kick some ass. Tomlinson ran for a good chunk of his 172 yard in the last 20 minutes of the game, and he scored all three of his TDs to single-handedly ruin the scoring challenged Browns' chance of pulling off an upset. While the Browns had Tomlinson under wraps, it was 12-10 Cleveland. After that, you could book a victory for San Diego.
Good News:
-Kellen Winslow backs up his big mouth and gave a gutsy performance hauling in 11 catches for 78 yards. All this came with a nice pounding as Winslow limped off the field late in the game and had blood pouring out of his helmet at another point in the game.
-As bad as we think Dennis Northcutt is as a WR, he is most valuable at returning punts. We were reminded of that when Josh Cribbs was trying to fill in. Northcutt made his return felt by returning a punt 81 yards to set up another FG and Corey McIntyre wasn't there to nullify the return.
-Dave Zastudil continued to help us forget the days of Kyle Richardson and Derrick Frost.
-Josh Cribbs celebrated his new 6 year contract by returning more kicks for nice yardage (his best equaling 47 yards).
-Phil Dawson owned. What can we say? He fell one FG short of tying an NFL record for most FGs in a game.
-Joe Jurevicious gets props for making some big catches and coaxing Chargers' DB Drayton Florence into making penalties.
Bad News:
-The whole Offense. We covered this already. They all stunk. Everyone played a part in this. That includes Charlie Frye, the new Offensive Coordinator, the embattled OL, and the receivers who dropped balls.
-Jerome Harrison didn't help his cause for more playing time by fumbling not long after seeing the field again.
-MORE injuries in the secondary plagued this team. Apparently it isn't a Browns' game unless someone in the secondary is coming out of the game hurt. Leigh Bodden came up lame on the first drive of the game after getting his leg involved in a tackle.
-The 4th Quarter is like a bad nightmare for the Browns. Bad stuff always happens during this quarter. The Browns' Defense apparently only had 3 quarters in them yesterday before they hit the wall.
Overall:
Even though the Browns fought valiantly to get their first TD of the game with little time left to pull within 7, the Browns have suffered another loss and fall to 2-6 for the season. The Browns' Offense fell back into a funk after running into another physical Defense and their own Defense ran out of gas in the end when they needed to bail their weak Offense out. It's depressing to see the Browns squander so many opportunities by continuing to make mistakes, and get shut down on Offense. It doesn't get any easier now as the Browns have another road trip scheduled to Atlanta next weekend. Michael Vick and the rest of the Falcons are licking their chops right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go change the station during the Colts-Pats game during commercial so I can avoid hearing John Cougar. Go Cavs...
Added: 11/5/2006 6:38:20 PM
Contributed By Chris W.
http://bitterfans.com/ShowArticle.asp?CategoryID=3&ArticleID=244
The wins have not come easy in 2006. Neither have the points. That didn't change much out in San Diego this past Sunday. The Browns struggled to find the End Zone, and squandered some great opportunities en-route to their sixth loss of the season. The loss nearly drove me into a deep depression...and if that wasn't enough, I'm about to shatter my TV into 1000 pieces if I hear another commercial with John Cougar Mellencamp singing "This is my country". Congratulations John...thanks to that Chevy commercial you sold out for, your new 'hit' song has broken the record for most overplayed song of all time and has shattered the record for becoming the quickest song to become outrageously annoying.
Welcome back to the Bitter End.
Recap
It all started so inauspiciously on the first drive of the game. The Chargers marched the ball down the field just like the New York Jets did on the previous week. Unfortunately for the Chargers, they got the same result as the Jets: a Field Goal. Not long after that, Philip Rivers and the Chargers Offense started scuffling against a stout Browns' Defense and things started looking up for Cleveland.
For nearly three quarters, the Chargers played sloppy and committed penalty after penalty to help the Browns move into position for some of kicker Phil Dawson's 6 Field Goals (a team record). When it was all said and done, the Chargers committed 12 penalties for 113 yards, and the Browns could not capitalize enough on Offense to put the ball in the End Zone until it was way too late.
Offensive Coordinator Jeff Davidson's second game in the booth calling plays for the Browns ended much like it did for Maurice Carthon: The Browns couldn't run the ball, and QB Charlie Frye ended up on his ass more often than not. This came against a Chargers' Defensive unit that had two of its best players out (Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips), and more players banged up (Donnie Edwards).
Reuben Droughns followed up on his 125 yard performance last week by running for 36 yards on 19 carries. That's a 1.9 yard average...a season low. Droughns didn't even see much of the end of the game as rookie Jerome Harrison finally saw the field again.
Frye struggled all game long making crucial mistakes while not running for his life thanks to a blitz package that had Chargers' defenders coming in clean off the edges to chase Frye around the field. Without much of a chance to check down, Frye found himself running in circles and getting caught. Frye also helped swing momentum in the Chargers' favor as the Browns were nursing a 6-3 lead. Frye fumbled the ball while scrambling allowing Marques Harris to scoop it up, and run it in for a touchdown.
To make matters worse for Frye, he met his quota for throwing at least 1 interception, and got destroyed on a cheap play by Chargers' dumbass D-Lineman Derreck Robinson, who couldn't hear all 800 whistle noises blowing the play dead. It was at that point when I declared Charlie dead after he was blindsided. Overall, it was another tough day for Charlie.
Meanwhile, on Defense, the Browns held their own during all this mess on Offense. As mentioned, the Browns' Defense had LaDanian Tomlinson locked up for most of the day, and they were giving fits to Philip Rivers. The Browns managed to sack Rivers 3 times and had the Chargers going 3 and out more often than not.
Then Tomlinson woke up.
As the 4th Quarter drew close and the game was tight, LaDanian decided he was going to kick some ass. Tomlinson ran for a good chunk of his 172 yard in the last 20 minutes of the game, and he scored all three of his TDs to single-handedly ruin the scoring challenged Browns' chance of pulling off an upset. While the Browns had Tomlinson under wraps, it was 12-10 Cleveland. After that, you could book a victory for San Diego.
Good News:
-Kellen Winslow backs up his big mouth and gave a gutsy performance hauling in 11 catches for 78 yards. All this came with a nice pounding as Winslow limped off the field late in the game and had blood pouring out of his helmet at another point in the game.
-As bad as we think Dennis Northcutt is as a WR, he is most valuable at returning punts. We were reminded of that when Josh Cribbs was trying to fill in. Northcutt made his return felt by returning a punt 81 yards to set up another FG and Corey McIntyre wasn't there to nullify the return.
-Dave Zastudil continued to help us forget the days of Kyle Richardson and Derrick Frost.
-Josh Cribbs celebrated his new 6 year contract by returning more kicks for nice yardage (his best equaling 47 yards).
-Phil Dawson owned. What can we say? He fell one FG short of tying an NFL record for most FGs in a game.
-Joe Jurevicious gets props for making some big catches and coaxing Chargers' DB Drayton Florence into making penalties.
Bad News:
-The whole Offense. We covered this already. They all stunk. Everyone played a part in this. That includes Charlie Frye, the new Offensive Coordinator, the embattled OL, and the receivers who dropped balls.
-Jerome Harrison didn't help his cause for more playing time by fumbling not long after seeing the field again.
-MORE injuries in the secondary plagued this team. Apparently it isn't a Browns' game unless someone in the secondary is coming out of the game hurt. Leigh Bodden came up lame on the first drive of the game after getting his leg involved in a tackle.
-The 4th Quarter is like a bad nightmare for the Browns. Bad stuff always happens during this quarter. The Browns' Defense apparently only had 3 quarters in them yesterday before they hit the wall.
Overall:
Even though the Browns fought valiantly to get their first TD of the game with little time left to pull within 7, the Browns have suffered another loss and fall to 2-6 for the season. The Browns' Offense fell back into a funk after running into another physical Defense and their own Defense ran out of gas in the end when they needed to bail their weak Offense out. It's depressing to see the Browns squander so many opportunities by continuing to make mistakes, and get shut down on Offense. It doesn't get any easier now as the Browns have another road trip scheduled to Atlanta next weekend. Michael Vick and the rest of the Falcons are licking their chops right now. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go change the station during the Colts-Pats game during commercial so I can avoid hearing John Cougar. Go Cavs...