A Bad Day in Buffalo
Oh boy.
The Browns lost their last chance to finish the season with a winning record in an ugly loss on Sunday to the Bills. And along the way they showed that, while they have come a long way this season, they still have a long way to go to be a consistent winner in the NFL.
We subscribe to the theory of win as a team, lose as a team, so we hate to point fingers at one particular unit, but this loss hangs squarely on the offense.
The Browns took the opening kick off and moved smartly down the field with the running game, reaching the Buffalo six-yard line in just five plays, all rushes. But once they hit first and goal the drive stalled, as Peyton Hillis ran three straight times for five yards, leaving the Browns facing a fourth-and-goal at the 1.
Perhaps a play-action call would have been beneficial on first down in that situation, but the Browns were moving the ball and Buffalo does have the worst rushing defense in the league.
The Browns chose a Phil Dawson field goal rather than go for the score on fourth down. We would have been OK with the Browns going for the touchdown, what with the Bills weak run defense and all, but it was the first drive of the day and you want to get points early.
“I did think about [going for it], but I felt like the game was going to be close, like a one-score game,” coach Eric Mangini told The Plain Dealer. “I figured we would have more drives later on.”
We did too, coach. Unfortunately that first drive was the highlight of the day for the Browns offense.
After gaining 49 yards on the opening drive, Hillis would only gain another 59 yards the rest of the day. And once again he had no support in the running game, as Mike Bell ran three times for eight yards and Josh Cribbs added minus 11 yards on a botched end around.
This is a problem we’ve all seen coming for weeks now: Hillis is the Browns only running option so teams can key on him; there is simply no one else they need to worry about at all. Unfortunately there is nothing the team can do about it until the off season.
Same with the passing game as tight end Ben Watson had only one catch on the day. The Bills knew that Watson was the only person in the passing game they needed to worry about and it showed.
The Browns put up 54 yards on that opening drive, they would only gain another 133 yards the rest of the game.
Which brings us to Jake Delhomme.
Delhomme just wasn’t very good, going 12-for-20 for 86 yards. He had two fourth-quarter turnovers – a fumble and an interception where he was hit on the throw – that killed the Browns last chances to tie the game. He couldn’t move the Browns past midfield at all on their five second-half possessions.
Look, Delhomme was supposed to be a stop gap this year at the quarterback position. From all reports he’s been great mentoring Colt McCoy and that’s wonderful. But he is clearly past his expiration date as a starting quarterback in this league.
Since returning to the starter’s role three weeks ago, the Browns have gone 8-for-35 on third downs under Delhomme. He’s just not moving the team and there really is no good reason to keep him in the starting role now that Seneca Wallace is healthy. The Browns have options, they need to use them.
Speaking of things we don’t need to see anymore, it’s time the coaches sat down with Hillis and put the kibosh on his hurdling obsession. It’s unnecessary and it led directly to a fumble on Sunday when the Browns had a chance to take control of the game.
After the defense forced a turnover and gave the offense the ball on the Buffalo 25-yard-line, Hillis ran the ball on first down and tried to hurdle Bills safety Jairus Byrd, who knocked the ball loose and the Bills recovered.
“You knew from watching film that he has been [hurdling] for a while,” Byrd told The Plain Dealer. “If you get him in the open field, he’s going to try to stiff-arm you or jump you. It was something I knew was coming. I prepared for it.”
That was one of three fumbles by Hillis, to go with the one by Delhomme and one by Cribbs. In one absurd sequence in the third quarter the Browns fumbled three times on one drive and were lucky to recover all of them.
Bottom line it was a frustrating loss. But it doesn’t undo the good the Browns have done this year with moving the team forward. The loss does highlight the holes the team has and all the work still left to do. The front office and coaching staff don’t appear blind to that, so we can stay confident that things are turning around, despite how we feel after today’s game.
The Browns now need to refocus and get ready to travel to Cincinnati next week. Because if they lose to the 2-11 Bengals and come home at 5-9 to face the Ravens and Steelers, it may not be a pretty sight.
Red Right 88 
“I felt like the game was going to be close, like a one-score game.”
really? after averaging 9 yds/run on the first drive you thought it would be a close game?
no. the FG decision was actually coaching arrogance. this is borne out by the more telling quote, “I figured we would have more drives later on.” this arrogance was picked up by the players resulting in the sloppy play in subsequent drives. it was also apparent in the play-calling with the inexplicable decision to start passing on the next drive. the run was abandoned after a drive that had consecutive runs of 7, 4, 19, 11, 8, 6 yards. i was watching the game next to a bills fan… he could not believe we stopped running.
the bills box was stacked in the first drive and we owned them. i simply do not understand why we were afraid to impose our strength on them. what do what care if that put 8 in the box? why are we taking vickers out to try to change their defense? shouldnt we challenge them to stop us before we alter our strategy?
and then… if we want to go with passes… why signal 'pass play coming to them?' why go shotgun? why take vickers out? did we do one play-action? holy god… they HAD to respect our run. we did nothing to capitalize on it.
as for delhomme, obviously the game plan was for no picks. well if you're not going to let jake make plays downfield… if we're just going to dink and dunk… why not use the multi-dimensional short pass throwing qb?
the game plans always seem on target. it blows my mind that our in-game adjustments…. actually move away from what works! this was the story with the TB and KC games too.
i dont want the disruption of coaching change and i like a lot of what mangini has done. but this loss is on the coaching staff. sorry to say that this is not an anomaly.. it's looking like a pattern from here.
So Hillis lost the ball while in the air. That's a total of one for the year and you want to coach him not to hurdle. He lost all the other fighting for more yardage. You gonna tell him to lay down when hit?
Couldn't agree with Jimkanicki more. This loss is on the coaching staff. I'm not saying they should can Mangini, but they cost us the game yesterday, which is simply unacceptable. I understand where are all trying to be intelligent and rational as opposed to some media outlets, but sometimes I wonder if some members of the new media are being to close minded the other way.
jimkanicki: I get what you're saying, I'm just not sure it is that extreme. I would have liked the Browns to go for the touchdown on the opening drive, but I don't think the game was lost there when they didn't. If the Browns don't give the ball up on Hillis' fumble they probably go up 10-0 and it's a different story.
paulbip: Yes, I'm over the hurdling. Especially now that the defense is expecting it. It adds nothing; just put your shoulder into the guy.
malcolm: I'm trying to keep the focus on the big picture of rebuilding the team this year and working to not let a loss (bad) overshadow the progress the team has made (good). Next year should be a different story. Hopefully we're not close minded here; we'll have to keep an eye on that.
Good job guys.