Week 3: Positives and Negatives
Positives: Remember when fans said they would be happy with a 1-2 start? Well how do you feel?
Andrew Hawkins: With Josh Gordon currently serving a 10-game suspension, Hawkins has stepped in to the #1 receiver spot very nicely. Against the Ravens in week 3, he recorded 7 receptions for 87 yards. On the season he has 21 catches for 244 yards, over a 16 game season that projects to 112 catches and 1301 yards, pretty good for a 5’7″ receiver. In fact the receiving core as a whole has played much better than expected and will only improve each week, then in week 12 Flash returns.
Johnny Manziel: Just watch the video.
Brian Hoyer: On the day Hoyer was 19-for-25 passing the ball for 290 yards and a touchdown. He also continued his streak of passes without an interception, the streak is currently up to 131 passes. Hoyer may not stuff the stat sheets, but he always finds a way to keep his team in games. Hoyer had a QBR of 89.5 and a QB rating of 127.1. Once again, if Hoyer continues to play like this all season, Johnny Football might have to wait awhile to be the starting QB.
Schedule: The Browns were able to maneuver the early season gauntlet and come out of it with a 1-2 record. The Browns now have a bye week to prepare for the Tennessee Titans. The Browns schedule eases up for the rest of the year, and I don’t see why they can’t win at least 7 more games this year.
Negatives: For the third time in three games, the Browns game has ended with a game-winning field goal, unfortunately the Browns only kicked the game winner once in three games.
Field Goal Unit: The Browns (actually Billy Cundiff) attempted two field goals and missed both of them. Had they made both, the Browns would have been up 27-20 late in the 4th quarter. Instead, Cundiff banged one off the goal post and had another one blocked.
Late Game Offense: The Browns last two drives in the game resulted in 6 yards and took a total of 1 minute and 20 seconds off the clock. On their last drive, had the Browns gotten one first down, we would be celebrating a 21-20 Browns victory. However, Kyle Shannan’s late game management was awful and was a big reason the Browns lost. At least they have 2 weeks to work out the kinks.
The Secondary: Sure they only held Joe Flacco to 217 yards, but couldn’t get the big stop when they needed to the most. Joe Haden allowed Steve Smith (Sr.) to get the Ravens in field goal range in their final drive, and rookie corner Justin Gilbert continued to struggle, committing a bad pass interference penalty that led to a Ravens field goal. The secondary was supposed to be the strength of the team, then again they did just go against a Super Bowl winning quarterback in three straight games, they will get better over the season.
Run Defense: Any time you let Justin Forsett and Lorenzo Taliaferro run for 154 yards on 29 carries, you know your run defense has a problem. The Browns have given up 461 rush yards on the season, that’s an average of 154 yards a game. If the defense (the supposed strength of the team) can step up their game, the Browns could be serious playoff contenders. Here’s hoping the bye week does the Browns some good.
— Chris Sladoje (@CST_Doje)
— Photo via clevelandbrowns.com
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