Browns lose late in Seattle 24-20

    The Cleveland Browns needed just one play with two minutes to play, to earn another surprising win under reserve quarterback P.J. Walker.

And then the Great Pumpkin woke up and once again for the Cleveland Browns, the sky darkened on that third down pass as Walker's pass bounced off the helmet of blitzing safety Jamal Adams, bounced high into the air before wobbling into the waiting Julian Love.

Instead of a first down that would put the Seahawks in the position of using timeouts or an incompletion that would have pinned Seattle deep in their territory to start their final drive, Seattle started on their own forty-three-yard line and six plays later won the game on a Geno Smith pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to give Seattle a 24-20 win.

P.J. Walker threw a touchdown to David Njoku but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, Kareem Hunt rushed for a touchdown and fifty-five yards, and Amari Cooper caught six passes for eighty-nine yards to lead Cleveland.

Cleveland drops to 4-3 and will host Arizona next Sunday.

Brownie Bits

1) Seattle scored the first fourteen points and led seventeen to seven at the end of the first quarter.

The defense looked to be on its heels and it was fair to wonder if this was another chance to believe the defense was overrated.

2) Instead the defense dominated the remainder of the game until the final game-winning drive.

They may not be the "best in the world" but they are still pretty damn good.

3) This one may not be completely on P.J. Walker or Kevin Stefanski but both have a part of an avoidable loss.

The play call on third and three at the end of the game to throw rather than above with Walker is very questionable to me.

You have a quarterback with accuracy issues that didn't go through training camp and yet you decide to throw?

Literally, if you made a list of all the bad things that you could imagine, only a fumble was possible from any other call while throwing had the highest likelihood of something going wrong with the player most likely to make a mistake.

4) It's my biggest knock on Kevin Stefanski, the constant need to be the smartest man in the room.

In the clutch over the Stefanski era, this has happened far too often with play calls that leave Stefanski after the game talking about "plays that you want back".

5) The running game did work in this game with Kareem Hunt, Pierre Strong, and the unexpectedly available Jerome Ford combining to rush for one hundred thirty-three yards.

All three backs did well and I did like how the Browns rotated the three to have a fresh runner in the lineup for most of the game.

6) I did wonder why Kareem Hunt didn't play in the fourth quarter despite Hunt's ability as the strongest of the backs and the best at running between the tackles.

The Browns didn't have to run Hunt but it made sense at least late in the game to have their most physical back to play at least a little.

7) Amari Cooper had an excellent game and had P.J. Walker not overthrown him on one wide-open pass, Cooper's numbers would have been even better as the throw would have been a touchdown if it was on the numbers.

8) Turnovers make the difference and while that's not groundbreaking information, P.J. Walker didn't play poorly, he still turned the ball over three times and there's your difference.

Competent quarterback play and the Browns win this.

I know the issues and circumstances with the quarterback position but it doesn't change the loss and the reasons behind the loss.

9) I always love defensive lineman interceptions and Maurice Hurst grabbed the first of his career and it led to the Browns taking the lead at 20-17.

Defensive linemen are always celebrating like children on those rare occasions and you have to feel good when those times occur.

10) The draft hasn't been extremely helpful but we did see an appearance from fifth-round cornerback Cameron Mitchell, who just missed a pick-six interception in the second half.

The draft has given the Browns next to nothing this season except for Dawand Jones and getting anything from anyone else has been rare.

11) Cleveland pays a lot of money to Wyatt Teller and Joel Bitonio to be able to run between the tackles and win short-yardage situations.

Yet again, the Browns didn't do that with the game at stake.

It's fair to consider just how much confidence Kevin Stefanski has in a unit with so many resources invested.

12) Seattle used their classic uniforms and they (especially the jersey) are so much better than the various bags of yuck that they usually wear..

I'm not saying Seattle should wear the full uniforms all the time but the jerseys should be a part of the regular togs.

13)  This was a missed opportunity to win a game that no one expected the Browns to win on the road against a good team.

4-3 is far from a disaster but Cleveland was so close to stealing a third game in a row with P.J. Walker and then the clock struck midnight.

5-2 would have been tremendous but this isn't a game that crushes the season.

A loss against the Cardinals may.

It takes a village-Browns lose to Seattle 32-28

As much as fans like to blame one play, player, or call for losing a game, the truth is that it takes many things or as Hillary Clinton once wrote- It takes a village.

And that village took several awful factors, tossed them into a bowl, stirred strongly, and the result was a 32-28 loss for the Cleveland Browns against the visiting Seattle Seahawks in Cleveland.

Nick Chubb rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns while Baker Mayfield threw for 249 yards and a touchdown along with a rushing touchdown, but threw three interceptions on the afternoon.
The Browns will take a 2-4 record into the off week before traveling to Foxboro and the New England Patriots.

Brownie Bits

1) Let us start with the obvious- the officiating was awful.
Missing several calls that could have made a huge difference in the game, they were milk that had been left out in the sun for a week bad.
Jarvis Landry's touchdown run that was called a fumble was bad.
Yes, Landry fumbled forward, but watch the replay- the football is in Landry's hand against a Seattle defenders hip and where is that hip?
Standing on the goal line!
The Browns would not score on that drive, so you take six points away in a game lost by four.

2) An even worse call was Jarvis Landry being called for a blindside block on a play that
A) he never hit the player from the blindside and
B) Landry was bracing himself for the hit from the Seattle player.
That call didn't impact the game, but a brutally terrible call.

3) The final call was borderline, but still inept.
Morgan Burnett charged into the backfield against a scrambling Russell Wilson, who threw the ball away, but Burnett's reach and takedown were ruled to be a horsecollar tackle.
The standard for a horsecollar tackle had been extended in the offseason from the neck roll to the nameplate and even though I didn't think that Burnett actually grasped and ripped Wilson down by the nameplate, I could see the call, it was close.
What I take issue with is the time taken to decide the call as the teams were in their huddle when the flag was thrown- if you aren't sure for that amount of time, then the flag shouldn't have been thrown.

4) All of that said, there were plenty of reasons for the Browns can blame no one but themselves for the loss and let's start with Freddie Kitchens himself.
The glaring mistake- with the clock running down and the ball ready to be snapped, an instant before the play ran (at full speed), Kitchens threw the challenge flag on the above Landry play.
As noted above the mistake by the officials in not ruling that Landry broke the plane aside, Nick Chubb cruised through the Seattle defense into the end zone, only to see the play invalidated.
The referees botched the call and Kitchens decided to go for the seven points again.
I didn't have a problem with that and had the Browns kicked a field goal instead, it would not have impacted the final result.
Now, I know the Chubb play worked well, but the Seahawks saw it and was waiting for it to be run again.
Kitchens obliged and the Seahawks stopped Chubb short of the goal line (They grabbed his facemask without a call as well) and took possession of the ball, leaving the Browns with nothing.

5) Another Freddie Kitchens mistake came at the end of the half when the Browns could have taken their time, scored a touchdown,  drained time from the clock so Seattle had little time left and led either 28-12 or at least 23-12.
Instead, Kitchens pushed the offense (later Kitchens was quoted as saying he wanted to score quickly, so they could stop Seattle and score again ) to score quickly and Baker Mayfield was then intercepted.
The interception allowed the Seahawks to march down the field and score (the Browns stopped the two-point conversion) to cut the lead to 20-18 at the half.

6) And let's chat about one Baker Mayfield, who threw three interceptions and is now the league's 34th ranked passer in a league that employs 32 starting quarterbacks.
Mayfield's eleven interceptions in six games are the most for a Browns quarterback since the immortal Paul McDonald in 1983 and despite the occasional reasons for those interceptions, the numbers do not lie.

7) Mayfield does deserve some credit though for gritting the game out through an injured hip that sent him briefly to the locker room without missing a play and you could see that the hip was hindering him to the point that I'm not sure he could make a 25-yard throw.
I can criticize his play, but not his toughness.

8) Having given those points, Mayfield defenders will say that those interceptions should have been caught and maybe in one case that's correct in the final interception off the hands of Dontrell Hilliard, but the other two?
All on Mayfield as the first one was a pass that was closer to the defender than Odell Beckham, the second in the end zone to Jarvis Landry was way too high, Landry did a great job with two players also leaping for the ball to even get a finger on it and the third did bounce off the hands of Dontrell Hilliard, but was behind the running back and even though it should have been caught, the pass wasn't a good one.
Jason Lloyd in the Athletic put it best- "Baker Mayfield can still have a wonderful NFL career and still be lousy right now" and lousy he has been except in the win over Baltimore.

9) Special teams hadn't hurt the Browns this season for the most part, but Austin Seibert missed an extra point and Jamie Gillen had a punt blocked.
Siebert had an excuse with the windy conditions, and punts being blocked usually are on the men blocking more than on the punter, but still, issues are issues.

10) Nick Chubb finished with over 100 yards and two touchdowns on twenty rushes against Seattle, but it wasn't all good news as Chubb fumbled after catching a swing pass and there was the fourth-down stop at the goal , but still it's pretty plain to see right now that the Browns are a much better teams with the offense running through Nick Chubb right now rather than through Baker Mayfield's passing woes.

11) Odell Beckham finished with six catches for over 100 yards and the Browns made getting the football to Beckham a major part of the game plan.
While it was nice to see Beckham play well, there still seems to be some hitches in the Mayfield to Beckman connection as those six catches were made of eleven targets.
I'd like to see the percentage of completions be much higher.

12) The offensive line has gotten plenty of criticism, for the most part, this season, but they played pretty well in this game.
Baker Mayfield wasn't sacked and the game by Nick Chubb speaks for itself, but they didn't get much of a push when Nick Chubb was stopped and that play meant the game.

13) 2-4 at the off week isn't great and going to New England makes 2-5 likely.
The season isn't over and I think the best is yet to come, but even against weaker competition, a nine-game winning streak isn't something that you can bank on.

I didn't even write much about the defense, but time is short.
Back later with the Devils afternoon matinee' against the Florida Panthers/

Defenseless in Seattle-Browns lose 30-13

The Cleveland Browns played respectable for a while,but as expected,were worn down by the physical pounding given by the Seattle Seahawks and left Seattle with a 30-13 defeat.
Johnny Manziel hit Gary Barnidge in the first quarter for the only Cleveland touchdown.
The now 3-11 Browns travel to Kansas City next Sunday for their final road game against the Chiefs,who have won eight games in a row.
Good luck.....

Brownie Bits

1) Good news-San Diego defeated Miami,so if the Browns lose their final games as I expect them to do-they can pick no worse than second.
The team they are now battling-Tennessee plays Houston at home and then the Colts in Indianapolis.
Keep an eye on that scoreboard...

2) Most of the fans are likely talking about Johnny Manziel,but I didn't think he played badly with a score and an interception.
The Cleveland Browns have many issues-Johnny Manziel is far from the top of that list...

3) That said-I'm not convinced that he is the answer either.
His elusiveness allows things to happen that a more conventional quarterback could not do,but the lack of size makes that almost a must.
Watching Manziel makes me wish Mike Pettine had just given him the ball to start the season and really have a lot of data to a make a decision with...

4) The lack of discipline and smart play showed when Tramon Williams grabbed a facemask on the final play of the half and allowed Seattle;s Steven Hauschka to drill a field goal on an untimed play.
You expect that from the younger defensive backs-Williams was brought here to treach them how to-not how NOT to...

5) Take away a 39 yard run by Duke Johnson (longest of the year by him) and the Browns rushed for just 55 yards.
So much for the revitalized running game.

6) Maybe it was the return home to Washington,but Danny Shelton looked the best he has all season with two tackles for loss.
I thought Shelton and Desmond Bryant were each effective in play and effort.

7) But the Browns still couldn't stop the run as Christine Michael,who was brought back off waivers from Dallas ripped the Browns for 84 yards on 16 carries as Seattle rushed for 182 yards on today....

8) John Greco left the game at guard early with injury which meant the return of Cameron Erving,who was called for one holding penalty and didn't get thrown across the field any,so for Erving,that was a good day...

9) Dwayne Bowe played and caught two passes.
Terrelle Pryor dropped the only pass thrown to him and other than that,his only time touching the ball was another of those ridiculous wildcat plays for a one yard loss.
The wildcat is worthless without the threat of a pass and it stuns me to think of how many people that get PAID to work in the game cannot figure this out.

10) I didn't expect a winning performance and for a half,the Browns hung in there against a far superior team on the road.
I expect the same result next week in Kansas City.
The only way that a Browns win either of the last two games would truly make me happy would be over Pittsburgh-if it would cost them a playoff spot.
Otherwise-Bring on the draft.
And have someone other than Ray Farmer doing the picking...

Browns dip into the free agency pool

The Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks chose two different ways to get into the water that is the free agency pool.

The Browns slowly tested the waters and made some lower name signings, while the Seahawks leaped in with a splash.
We will look at the early moves by the Seahawks either today or tomorrow.

Cleveland signed just two players early and re-signed another that should be a starter.
The Browns traded for Minnesota defensive end Jayme Mitchell last season and never dressed him for a game. Mitchell was a bad fit for the 3-4 defense preferred by Eric Mangini but was a solid 4-3 end for the Vikings.
Mitchell must have liked something after getting paid last season to practice as the Browns re-signed Mitchell to a two-year contract.
Mitchell becomes an immediate starter for the Browns at the left defensive end.

The Browns added a new starter at safety in former Saints Usama Young. Young played his college ball at Kent State and spent the last four seasons as a reserve and special teams player for New Orleans.
Young will step into the spot vacated by free agent Abram Elam, who was not going to be re-signed.

Cleveland also added a needed player in Green Bay running back Brandon Jackson.
Jackson is not a full time back, but he is a reasonably decent blocker and excellent pass catcher from the backfield and fits the third-down pass-catching back role perfectly.
Jackson had been a disappointment in his attempts to become the full time back in Green Bay and had been unable to hold off various backs throughout his Packer tenure, but used in the proper positions could be a nice addition.

The Browns lost corner, Eric Wright, to the Lions and the unexpected loss puts the Browns into a position of needing to add a cornerback over the next few days.
Wright had an awful 2010, but still has plenty of talent and I wish the Browns would have found a way to keep him.
However, the Browns are now down to two corners with experience in Joe Haden and Sheldon Brown and a veteran is a must.
One player that is surprisingly on the market is former Ohio State star Nate Clements, who was dropped by the 49ers. Clements was released for contract reasons more than performance issues, so signing Clements to go with Haden and transitioning Brown to the third corner would be an upgrade even over the expected trio of Haden, Brown, and Wright...

As of this writing, the Browns have signed all of their draft picks except first-rounder Phil Taylor, which is expected to be sometime tonight or tomorrow.

The Browns do have some money to spend as they are under the salary "floor" and will have to spend some although the team has said they will not be a huge player in the market.
The Browns should have a few positions targeted besides the gaping need at the corner.
Despite re-signing Jayme Mitchell, another defensive end is needed, a right tackle to ensure against another injury to Tony Pashos might be a nice thought as would be a linebacker against D'Qwell Jackson's latest return from injury and I still would like to see another wide receiver brought into the fold.
I'll be here with more when players are added and I'll try to do a Seattle version of this soon...

Seattle Seahawks Draft Review

Going into the draft, I figured that I had a pretty strong beat on what the Seattle Seahawks were going to do under Pete Carroll's guidance-Lots of Pac ten and USC guys and little else.
Instead, the Seahawks did a solid job and added two veteran backs through dealing with draft choices.
Surprised?
Yes and pleasantly so.
One could make an argument that the Seahawks might have had the best draft in the league when you consider the additions of Leon Washington and Lendale White as part of the draft.

Seattle's first-rounders were certainly hard to argue with when you see the top offensive tackle and the second-best safety soon to be wearing Seahawk blue.
Oklahoma State's Russell Okung was the best tackle in the draft, despite being the second one off the board as Washington did what they always do and take projection over proven talent in Trent Williams.
Okung will slide right into the huge shoes of Walter Jones and hopefully entrench himself at left tackle for the next ten years or so.
Texas safety Earl Thomas arrived with the first-round pick obtained last season from Denver and even though I like Joe Haden as the Browns top pick, I think Thomas would have been an even better pick.
Between a possible future Pro Bowl tackle and an impact safety, Seattle used their first two picks to attack their top two needs for the team.

Seattle moved down in round two and out of round three in the Charlie Whitehurst trade with the Chargers, so they had to make their pick count and they took Golden Tate, the wideout from Notre Dame.
Tate is more of a playmaker than a true wideout and should be effective in such a role as well as being active in the return game.
I do have concerns about Tate though as he has been a player totally involved with the offense and now needs to adjust to a supporting role.

Seattle made some trades on day three and added Leon Washington from the Jets and Lendale White from the Titans.
Washington should bring some help for the short passing game and White steps into the short-yardage role.
I would be surprised if this doesn't mean the end of Julius Jones in Seattle.

Cornerback Walter Townsend of Oregon and defensive end E.J.Wilson of North Carolina was selected as the Seattle fourth rounders.
Townsend is a solid cover corner type that fell in the draft after a severe knee injury in his senior season, while Wilson is more of a power rusher type off the end that plays the run better than most.
Virginia Tech safety Kam Chancellor was the fifth-round pick.
Chancellor was a productive college player and is a hard-hitting type that could be a tweener as not big enough to play linebacker and not fast enough to stay at safety full time.

Pete Carroll took just one of his USC players and it was the talented, but underachieving tight end, Anthony McCoy.
McCoy has all the physical tools to be a standout but never seemed to stay healthy and wasn't exactly Kellen Winslow when he was in the lineup.
Undersized hybrid DE/LB Dexter Davis of Arizona State was the seventh-round pick.
Davis was a college end that must move to linebacker in the NFL.

The final pick was the draftnik's sleeper in Jameson Konz of Kent State.
Konz wowed scouts with his workouts before the draft and could be a developmental type as a smaller pass-catching tight end and should at least help on special teams as he started his college career as a linebacker.

All and all-I like this draft and it has huge potential, especially if one of the tight ends develops from the late rounds.
Consider me both surprised and pleased for the Seahawks...

Photo Credit-Ted Warren-USA Today

Seattle Seahawks Draft Preview

Seattle Fans are not very accustomed to picking this high in the draft and when you look at their roster, it should be just a one-year aberration.
However, this puts the Seahawks into a perfect situation in being able to add a top-five caliber player to a team that should be in contention for a playoff spot.
The question for Seattle GM Tim Ruskell is this-Do you take the best player on the board, take the best player at a position of need, or is this the time that you begin to groom your franchise QB?
For a 4-12 team, there are not many glaring holes although there are spots that could some upgrading.
Seattle owns all of their own picks except for their 5th rounder and in the 5th they have Detroit's which leads off the round.
Seattle has four picks in Round 7, so Seattle can either take a high upside project and/or a specialist and have some room to maneuver.
Here are our opinions of the Seahawks positions that could be addressed.

1) Tackle
Walter Jones is a perennial Pro Bowler, but he is 35 years old, has been somewhat injury-plagued, and was not up to his usual standards last season.
One does not have chances to sign top left tackles in free agency, as Jones has been Seattle's franchise player many times through the years, you have to draft them and develop them yourself.
With three top tackles in this draft, Seattle will have the chance to pick the successor to Jones and hope the pick plays anywhere near the caliber of Jones and his Hall of Fame level career,

2) Safety
The 4th overall pick is way too early to address the need at safety, but I have watched Brian Russell botch his way through both of my teams starting lineup at free safety and I am tired of it.
Deon Grant was decent enough last season, but he is entering the 10th year of his career and the backups of C.J.Wallace and Jamar Adams seem more like special teamers to me.
Jordan Babineaux makes big plays in the nickel and dime defenses but would be very vulnerable as a starter.
I am hopeful that the Hawks will address this no later than Round 3.

3) Guard
The Seahawks look solid enough with Rob Sims and Ray Willis, but the depth is very suspect and neither starter is Pro Bowl-bound anytime soon.
Look for Seattle to do what they did last year, take some offensive linemen in bulk later in the draft, and see if they can strike silver...

4)Quarterback
Matt Hasselbeck is 34 years old and has back issues.
Seneca Wallace has proven himself to be incapable of playing full-time and Charlie Frye was let go.
Seattle needs to address this in the middle rounds at least or if the Mark Sanchez rumors are true, they could begin to groom the eventual replacement.

5) Linebacker
Lofa Tatupu is still as good as they come on in the middle and Leroy Hill is solid on the one side, but the replacement for Julian Peterson is needed.
D.D Lewis and Will Herring aren't the answer and Seattle will need someone for at least some depth help, if not start outright.

Bonus Rounds

Wide Reciever
Seattle spent a ton of money of T.J. Houshmanzdeh and still have Deion Branch and Nate Burleson, but late-round fliers on Jordan Kent and Courtney Taylor haven't worked out and I am not as high on Ben Obomanu as others.
A talented receiver could allow Burleson to do what he does best, return kicks, and run fly patterns.

Cornerback
Marcus Trufant is one of the games best and Josh Wilson is really coming along at the other corner, but there is next to nothing behind them.

Shawn's top wish list for Seattle in Round one, if the Seahawks stay at 4

1) Wake Forest LB Aaron Curry-best player available.
2) Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree-best offensive player available
3) Virginia T Eugene Monroe-Safest tackle among the top three tackles and least likely to be a bust.
4)Ohio State CB Malcolm Jenkins-Combine dropped his stock, but I have seen every game he played in college and he is a player.

The Pirates dropped a 4-3 verdict in 11 innings in San Diego to the Padres as former Pirate Brian Giles singled off closer Matt Capps (0-1) for the win.
The series continues tonight at 10:05 in San Diego

Pirate Hooks

1) Ian Snell singled in the Pirates' first run but had control problems all night with five walks over five innings.
Could it be that Snell is destined to be a Kris Benson type that occasionally shows you just how much potential he has, but more often than not frustrates the hell out of you?

2) Nate McLouth missed the game with a strained oblique muscle.
Nyjer Morgan moved to center, Brandon Moss to left and Eric Hinske played right.
No word on McLouth's status for this evening's game.

3) It would have been interesting to see the game move further in extra innings, just to see the results from Craig Hansen and Donald Veal.
Both have had trouble throwing strikes and Pirate fans remember the early season issues that Evan Meek had in similar situations last season.

4) I don't expect Jack Wilson to be a high average hitter, but I do expect things like being able to lay down a sac bunt, which Wilson failed at last night with a chance to move Nyjer Morgan to second with no one out...

5) Nice outing for Jesse Chavez from the bullpen.
The Padre announcers derided Chavez at first for his delivery but were admitting their mistakes by the time his night was finished.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh: Zach Duke (2-1 2.95 ERA) at San Diego: Shawn Hill (1-0 3.60 ERA) 10:05

Back later with a few words on the newest members of the Browns and Seahawks.

Photo Credit
Seahawks: Chris Creamer's sports logos
Monroe: Unknown
Wilson:Lenny Ignelzi-AP Photo