The wind wasn't as bad as the previous two home games, but the game was yet another less than exciting tilt that didn't pick up until late in the game and wasn't safely in the bag until the recovery of an onside kick with seconds remaining in a 22-17 Cleveland win.
Nick Chubb rushed for 114 yards to lead the Browns and despite only gaining eleven yards on thirteen carries, it was Kareem Hunt that scored the only offensive touchdown of the game by the Browns with a extra effort hurdle over Philadelphia defenders in the fourth quarter.
Olivier Vernon sacked Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz three times and Sione Takitaki grabbed a wobbly Carson Wentz heave and ran fifty yards for the only touchdown in the first half from either team to lead the Browns defense.
The now 7-3 Browns will go on the road for the first time in a month with a visit to Jacksonville against the one win Jaguars next Sunday.
Brownie Bits
1) Third game of a three game homestand with all three having various types and degrees of foul weather.
Rain, Wind, and Wintry Mix involved in all three games and I wonder just how much effect on the outcome that the weather had.
2) That's because a defense that looked like they would struggle stopping teams in the Sun Belt conference earlier in the season has suddenly looked like a quality unit.
The Browns allowed 48 points in the three home games, which is certainly solid enough, but I wonder how much was the conditions slowing down the visitors and how much was an improved defense?
3) The Eagles offensive line is terrible.
How else can you explain Carson Wentz being sacked five times against a Browns pass rush that was without Myles Garrett?
With a few breaks, the Browns could have perhaps doubled the amount of sacks on the constantly harassed Wentz.
4) Olivier Vernon has been a player that has heard his share of criticism since coming to Cleveland, but his three sacks with one of those sacks giving the Browns two points for a safety dampened that fire for a while.
Vernon has disappointed in his two seasons as a Brown, but while you cannot deny the lack of production by Vernon, I've thought that he could be one of those players that doesn't play well through pain.
Some players are able to play through pain and others aren't able to produce at their usual level when dealing with injuries, Olivier Vernon might be one of those players that struggle.
5) Baker Mayfield didn't throw an interception, but that didn't mean he played well.
Mayfield's fumble to led to the only Philadelphia touchdown other than in garbage time and his continued struggles with accuracy cost the Browns early when wide open tight ends Harrison Bryan and Austin Hooper were underthrown and overthrown on back to back plays that could have produced touchdowns.
6) Mayfield's misfires cost the Browns a touchdown as when Kevin Stefanski decided to go for iton fourth and goal with Kareem Hunt being stopped inches from the line.
Hunt was so close that he was initially declared as having scored before an Eagles challenge allowed a replay to overrule the officials original call.
That play doesn't happen with Mayfield hitting either of two open recievers.
7) Kareem Hunt struggled in averaging less than a yard a carry, but the sheer desire shown by Hunt in scoring a touchdown is one of the more encouraging pieces of the Browns season.
Coaching changes always brings rumblings of "culture changes" and this team is showing signs of doing just that.
Hunt broke a tackle, leaped over another Eagles and tumbled into the end zone for the score when he could have easily been taken to the ground.
Small things that you see are the building blocks of future success.
8) Nick Chubb was bottled up for much of the day, but once again in the fourth quarter it was Chubb breaking a big run against a worndown defense complete with the "Heisman" stiff-arm on Philadelphia's Joe Ostman.
The drumbeat has begun on talk of a Nick Chubb extension and with it the discussion of giving long-term contracts to running backs.
Between a Chubb extension and picking up the option on Baker Mayfield, Andrew Berry has difficult decisions to make.
9) Sione Takitaki hasn't been great as a starting linebacker or even good this season, but you had to feel good for him when he scored a touchdown after intercepting Carson Wentz.
I wouldn't be even mildly surprised to see Takitaki gone from the team next season or at minimum moved to special teams where he is best suited, but he did have one day in the sun.
Hope he kept the football.
10) Give Cody Parkey credit as well for his third quarter 46 yard field goal into the Dawg Pound end of the field, which has proven through the years to be the more difficult end of the stadium to kick toward.
Parkey's previous Browns experience has proven to be handy in a difficult stadium to kick in.
Stadiums in cold weather cities are always a bit tricky and teams that use rookie/young kickers do so at their peril.
11) Much of the chatter before the game was focused on Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz, who could have been a Brown but was passed over when the Browns traded the second overall pick to the Eagles in a 2016 trade that netted the Browns lots of draft picks that they naturally botched with busts and failures with the exception of the now-departed Joe Schobert.
Wentz holds onto the ball way too long and takes too many hits, but he's not protected well at all by an offensive line that is bad to be generous.
While Wentz doesn't appear to be anything near a franchise quarterback and the Eagles paid way too much for him, the Browns look arguably (past front offices anyway) worse for blowing the picks.
12) Carson Wentz does remind me of one of the more important things to remember when you are rebuilding a franchise.
If you cannot protect a young quarterback, he better be a special talent as even top of the draft passers can beaten into submission as the Browns failed to do for Tim Couch and the Texans were unable to protect David Carr.
Both of those players had disappointing careers filled with beatings, lost confidence, and ruined mechanics and from what I saw yesterday Carson Wentz may be the next quarterback to join that club.
13) Finally, I may be open to a domed stadium in Cleveland.
I may write about this in the off-season, but I'm suddenly Ok with this after never supporting it before.
14) 7-3.
I'm still not completely convinced this is a good team and they still have only one good win.
However, you play the teams they tell you to and you cannot blame the Browns for that.
Cleveland should be favored in all three of their four road games (Jacksonville, NY Giants and Jets) and underdogs in their visit to Tennessee and home games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
Three wins and 10-6 puts them in the playoff hunt, but tiebreakers could come into play.
Four wins should do the trick, let's see if they can get them.
