Manziel finished the day completing 8 of 15 passes for 172 yards, with Benjamin grabbing 115 of those.
The 1-1 Browns will host 1-1 Oakland next week before the schedule begins to significantly stiffen...
Brownie Bits
1) Getting some work done on the home office, so didn't do a podcast on the win.
Just a little too much surrounding noise.
I have a tentative plan that may see blog posts on the Buckeyes and Browns that will be supplemented by a weekly podcast entitled "Football Weekend in Ohio".
If you watch both games and want to appear on the show, drop me a line.
2) Johnny Manziel avoided the big mistake and that's as much as you can ask for.
Manziel is going to be what he was at Texas A&M at his best-Let him improvise and try to supplement with a strong running game.
Reigning him in and trying to fit a round peg into a square hole is a waste of time.
Manziel may not turn out to be a successful player in the league, but turning him into a mold that is against his skill set will almost certainly fail.
3) The kill shot to Travis Benjamin showed what Manziel could do at his best, scramble out of the pocket, get into open space and make things happen.
Now those things will be harder to make happen against teams better than the Titans, but allowing Manziel the freedom to roam (and the mistakes that will come) is the best decision.
4) Travis Benjamin certainly has been the breakout star through the first two weeks.
Benjamin has shown the possibility of being a playmaker in the past and I still question Benjamin being more than an occasional big-play guy on offense/kick returner, but you do have to account for him when he hits the game and it also seems that Johnny Manziel has gotten comfortable with him as well.
If that continues, Benjamin's value to the Browns and fantasy owners will continue to climb.
5) The running game improved with Isaiah Crowell grinding out 72 yards with a score and Duke Johnson ripped off a 20-yard run to go with it.
Again, consider the opponent, but the ground game was more effective-especially in the first half.
6) The offensive line still wasn't as good as I expected and Alex Mack in particular was bullied around by Al Woods, who had a tremendous day spent most lined up versus Mack.
7) Lots of credit to the Browns pass rush as Cleveland racked up seven sacks of Marcus Mariota.
Two and a half from Armonty Bryant, who was very impressive in 2013 before losing much of 2014 due to injury,
Bryant might wind up being the only thing memorable from the only Mike Lombardi draft of 2013.
8) The interior defense was pretty tight, but the Browns had trouble around the end as Dexter McCluster ran for 98 yards on 10 carries that were all basically the play to the same area.
That to me is on the outside backers and corners and will need to be fixed..
9) Special teams look to be a real strength after the off-season.
Travis Coons drilled all four extra points and kicked the ball out of the end zone every time.
Andy Lee punted two inside the twenty and averaged over fifty yds.
Take that with the dynamic play of Travis Benjamin and special teams was a dominant part of this win...
10) Dwayne Bowe played.
Amid rumors that the coaching staff wants the reported malcontent gone, Bowe has done little to change minds in order to stick around.
Other than Ray Farmer's dubious decision to make nine million dollars of his contract guaranteed that is.
11) Uniforms.
White looked crisper than the brown of last week, but I'm still not a fan of the white with white look and I felt that way with the preferred previous uniforms for the record...
12) Finally,I thought this was a must-win.
I've said all along that the first three games were the most winnable and there should have been no excuses for a loss at home to Tennessee.
I watched Oakland's win over Baltimore yesterday, the Raiders have improved and I think the Browns should be favored in a pickem-level game only because of the home field.
Buckle up,Browns fans after next week, Cleveland will not be favored in a game for a long time...
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