Two boring football games

Both the Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks lost boring and hard to watch football games yesterday.
I will focus on the Browns loss today and work on the Seahawk loss tomorrow,as tomorrow is shaping up to be a slow day......

The Browns struggled to a loss in Washington as they lost an easily winnable game to the Redskins 14-11.
The only Cleveland touchdown came on a fourth quarter touchdown pass from the struggling Derek Anderson to Joshua Cribbs.
Anderson then hit Braylon Edwards for the two point conversion that cut the lead to three.
Phil Dawson missed wide right from 54 yards with a few seconds remaining with a kick that would tied the game....

Shawn's Thoughts

1) Much to complain to about in this loss,but one person that I will not be criticizing will be Phil Dawson.
It is tough to bash a player that missed a kick that is two yards longer than his career long.
That is called putting a player in a tough position.

2) On the other hand ,I will add some criticism to the Browns staff on the final drive.
On a second and one with 1:18 to go on the Washington 39,Derek Anderson snuck through for three yards and a first down.
As this play happened,I was not critical as I watched.
I have seen many times in these situations that the trailing team throws two incompletions and then needs to run a 4th and one play or a out id the kickers range field goal,so I thought this made sense.
What made no sense was the fact that the Browns took 32 seconds to run another play.
No urgency,no rush to the line,no spike-nothing.
The next play comes with 46 seconds to go.
Bad clock management (again).....

3) The final two plays of the last drive were Derek Anderson passes down the field to Braylon Edwards that fell incomplete.
When you are set for a field goal of 54 yards and your booters career long in 52,one would think of something that will pick up a small gain-something to give you a legitimate shot.
Five yards would have made a huge difference....

4) 5 drops for the Braylon.Enough said.

5) Derek Anderson was awful all game,but especially in the first half with under 15 yards passing.
Can you really get worse than that???

5) Jamal Lewis ran hard for his 80 yards.
I am not a fan of Lewis as a person,but one can never question his desire and effort......

6) Clinton Portis had a big game rushing,but the defense stood up when it counted to give Anderson one last chance and stopped him when they had to.
Who would have thought that the defense would turn out to be the strength of the team after six games?
Not me.....

7) Eric Wright's strip of Portis showed not only hustle,but maturity as well.
Wright continues to mature as a player and seems to be showing signs of being a top shutdown corner....

8) The Browns wasted field position twice in the first quarter on drives that started in the Washington end of the field.
Both times,Cleveland ran three plays and punted...

9) Cleveland used far too much time off the clock on the two drives inside the Washington five and that came back to haunt them.
Romeo Crennel might be the worst game manager that I have ever seen.
Never a bit of urgency or thinking ahead,just blase'.

10) Kellen Winslow announced that he was hospitalized for yet another staph infection.
Why does this team seem so plagued with this issue for players through the years?
With the money and finances that the Browns have,this should not be an issue.
Sooner or later,free agents will use this as a factor in not coming to Cleveland.

Bonus Rounds

On the drive that Washington stopped,color commentator Solomon Wilcots (Terrible BTW) said the Browns should have kicked a Field Goal to cut the lead to 14-6.
That looks good in hindsight,but I agree with going for it.
At that time,the Browns had shown no reason to believe that they could score another TD and two point conversion to tie.....

I did take issue with a play on that drive that saw a pass to Charles Ali completed,but for a loss of two yards.
That play usually is run for the tight end and the tape shows Steve Heiden standing in the end zone on a linebacker with the backer screened off.
Throw it to him-Touchdown.

Bullpen Note

Browns guard and NFL Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson passed away today at a Cleveland nursing home at the age of 73.
Hickerson was the pulling guard that opened all those holes for Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly and was elected to the Hall after waiting far too long in 2007.
Nice to see that they got it right before Hickerson's passing.

Until tomorrow when we whine and moan about more boring football from the Seahawks.

Photo Credits
Dawson:AP Photo
Hickerson:Cleveland Browns/AP Photo