The Browns Lost, But I'm OK With It

When your team is in a re-building mode and the roster has turned over by at least 50-60% from the previous season, and then when you hang with a Superbowl contender for 4 quarters, it is strangely rewarding. I would have preferred that the Browns won the game yesterday, obviously, but when they are 13.5 point dogs going into it, you can't really jump up and down screaming when they lose 13-6.

The offense, despite the lack of scoring, showed an ability to move the ball against a pretty highly touted defense. Droughns had 76 yards rushing on 22 carries, which translates into a better than average day. Trent Dilfer was 22-29 for 208 yards and showed the ability to put together a ball-control drive that eats up some clock and saves the defense.

The defense also did a decent job, despite allowing Manning to take 7:30 off the third quarter clock with their first drive after halftime. That drive resulted in a Mike Vanderjagt field goal, which you can't complain too much about. The one big complaint that I have on defense is that the Browns didn't get to Manning once. No sacks. Maybe that was part of the plan in keeping plenty of people in the secondary, but it would have been nice to see the lineman get in there a couple of times.

Finally, and this is where I am really frustrated, the Browns had another huge difference-making play called back because of penalty. Dennis Northcutt had a 70-something yard return that was called back for a block in the back call on Frisman Jackson. While I think the call was really unwarranted, you can't give the officials that much leeway to smash you with penalties on big plays. Jackson came in mostly from the side and then pulled short of hitting the guy, but he fell down anyway and out came the flags erasing a serious momentum-shifter.

These are the mistakes that this team can't yet overcome. In order to overcome that mistake, you need to drive 80 yards and score a touchdown, and against an Indy defense that is improved over last year, that wasn't going to happen.

So, the Browns go into their bye week at 1-2 which is better than the 0-3 that I said was possible after the Cincy loss in week 1. The Browns come back with two pretty winnable games with the Bears coming to Cleveland Browns Stadium and then traveling to Baltimore to take on the sputtering Ravens.

I am not usually ever going to be satisfied with mediocre results, but in the case of the Browns and where they were after the Butch Davis debacle, I am quite pleased to see some progress. They still don't have all the talent that they need, but with some effective game planning and defensive scheming by this coaching staff, they can take medium levels of talent and do more with it. I am still thinking that 6 wins would be a huge victory for this team, so we will see what happens in weeks 5 and 6 coming out of their bye week with two of the more winnable games on the schedule.