The Browns have looked a little inconsistent so far today. They've made some plays on offense as evidenced by that last drive before the half, but they've also turned the ball over three times, pretty atypical of them. That's clearly not helping out the defense, and the Browns go into the half down 13-10.
I think this is one of the only games where Colt McCoy has looked like a rookie for at least a little bit. I think he sort of shed that on the last drive, but when he threw the second interception to Ed Reed, he clearly read the coverage incorrectly. It's been nice to see the Browns use some trickery with the Wildcat, especially with the touchdown pass from Mohammed Massaquoi to Brian Robiskie. I was pleasantly surprised to see Josh Cribbs being more effective today, I guess his toes must be healing.
If you look at the numbers, the running game is clearly in peril. I guess Peyton Hillis is hurting a little bit as we've seen a lot of Mike Bell. The two have combined for 28 yards on 11 rushes, a 2.5 average. Cribbs has two rushes for 8 yards, and Colt McCoy had a 7 yard scramble towards the end of the half. Passing, McCoy is 8/12 for 70 yards and 2 interceptions, not great numbers. It's worth mentioning again that Robiskie had a fantastic catch in the endzone, and he's seems to be coming on strong in these last couple of weeks.
Defensively, I don't think the Browns have done too bad of a job - it's just been that the offensive turnovers have killed them. The Ravens have scored 10 points off of turnovers, which means to me that the defense is only truly liable for 3 points. That being said, the Ravens running game has done much too well against the Browns today, as Ray Rice has 38 yards on 9 carries, LeRon McClain has 19 yards on 2 carries, and Willis McGahee has 17 yards on 3 carries. Flacco is 8/14 for 56 yards and a TD, pretty good numbers if you're the Browns defense. Also, Anquan Bolden has not dominated the Browns like he did earlier this season as he's been held to 1 catch for 9 yards.
If the Browns don't turn the football over in the second half, they have a real chance to win this game. But I think it's going to take a lot for the Browns to pull this one out as the Ravens do have a lot riding on this game. We'll see what happens.
See you after,
~MAS
No comments:
Post a Comment