You know what? The Browns really showed me something on that last drive before the half. I know I wasn't particularly optimistic in the Start Me Up, but Colt McCoy's deep ball to Greg Little might've been the best pass of his young career. Still, that 15 yard facemask penalty on Evan Moore was no help, and the Browns are down 10-9.
As I thought, the Browns haven't been able to put the ball in the end zone so far, but they have at least gotten the ball deep into St. Louis territory—more than we could say about the team during the 49ers and Texans games. So far McCoy is 13/19 for 152 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. Greg Little has four catches for 67 yards, including that beautiful 51 yard reception at the end of the half.
My problem with the offense is the running backs and the offensive line—big surprise. Of course, part of the issue with the o-line comes from the RBs, but honestly, I didn't realize how bad Chris Ogbonnaya and Thomas Clayton are. I saw at least 2-3 plays where those guys didn't see the hole and were trounced for little to no gain. That's going to be a problem until we get Hillis or Hardesty back, unfortunately. The guard play has been a little bit better today, but Shawn Lauvao had a couple plays where he was just beat badly. That just can't happen.
I did love the creativity with Josh Cribbs in the wildcat, and also that sweet play where McCoy ended up passing to back up QB Seneca Wallace. It's about time we saw something at least a little different out there, even if it is only one play of trickeration. The fact is that with those running backs, it's going to be really hard for the offense to do anything of consequence when its not passing.
The defensive unit has allowed Steven Jackson to run for 71 yards on 13 carries—good for a 5.5 average. Booo! This run defense has to make some adjustments, because that's how they're going to lose. Seriously, if you can't stop the run in the 3rd and 4th quarters, just pack it in because the D is going to be too tired. They did, however, pick off Sam Bradford when the young QB didn't see Scott Fujita and the linebacker tipped the ball up volleyball style and ended up catching it himself. I'll take that, but with the field position we got there, the offense should've turned in a touchdown.
All in all, we're so lucky to have Phil Dawson because that's where those 9 points came from, and kicking field goals today is no easy task with the swirling wind. Dawson really deserves more credit than he gets because he's been on such bad teams.
So what's in store for the second half? Well, the Rams get the ball first, so we'll see if defensive coordinator Dick Jauron made the necessary halftime adjustments to stop Steven Jackson. We'll aslso need to see the Browns cure their third quarter woes on offense if they have any shot of actually winning this game. And by that I mean they need to come out and score a touchdown.
I'll see you after for the Final Word.
~MAS
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