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| Brandon Weeden threw for a career-high 364 yards and a TD in the Browns 20-17 road win vs. the Raiders. |
Look what's happening up in "Believeland". Since starting out the season 0-5, the Cleveland Browns have went 4-3, while snapping a number of ugly losing skids in the process. Don't really have much of a reference point for this one, due to it not being televised over here in the Capital City of the great State of Ohio. However, if not being able to watch them, results in a win, I might not watch another game again (ok, thats not true). I'll try my best with what I have to work with to provide you all with a nice recap.
With the win, the Browns have won back-to-back games for the first time since, September of 2011, and matches their season total of W's from a season ago (4) with four remaining games still left on the schedule.
The Offense:
Well from the looks of it, another scoreless 1st quarter for the Brownies, but thats not uncommon, as the Browns are notorious for starting out games slow. Bright side, the Raiders were just as slow starting, and that gave the Browns a chance to jump out to a 10-0 lead in the 2nd quarter on a Philly D 41-yard FG & a 44-yard touchdown pass from QB Brandon Weeden to WR Josh Gordon, who have been a nice 1-2 punch at times this season. A 3rd quarter FG (35 yards) from Dawson, gave the Browns another ten-point lead at 13-3. In the end, the Browns came up with a few "winning plays" in a 14 play, 94 yard drive, eclipsing 6:04 off the clock in the final quarter, to take a 20-10 lead on a Trent Richardson 3-yard touchdown run capping the winning drive. On the day, the Browns had three 10-point leads (10-0, 13-3, 20-10). Weeden on the day, 25/36 threw for a career-high 364 yards with a TD, yet threw two INT's. Richardson, with a touchdown ran for 72 yards on 20 carries, including 23 yards receiving. Richardson has scored a touchdown in 7 of the teams 12 games to this point of the season, while battling injuries all season. In years past, you would have never seen the drive that the Browns put together at the end of this one, and it was nice to see the offense finally put a game away.
The Defense:
For the third-straight game, this unit has held their opponent to 20 points or less in regulation (Cowboys had to use overtime to score 23 points). When you have a youthful offense that can be inconsistent at times, like the Browns, the defense needs to do their job keeping the opponent off the scoreboard. The Raiders only had 10 points, scoring a late touchdown with 0:01 left in the game. This unit collected one sack and forced one interception on Raiders QB Carson Palmer, who is an old nemesis of the Browns from his days with the Cincinnati Bengals. Following a blocked FG, the Raiders offense shock quickly, scoring on a long passing play, that pulled the Raiders within 3-points (13-10) of the Browns. Yet the Browns defense (assisted by that long drive from the offense in the 4th quarter), managed to hang on to the lead, snapping a franchise record 12-game road losing streak.
Next Week:
The Browns (4-8) travel back to Cleveland from the west coast next week to host the Kansas City Chiefs (2-10), looking to make it three wins-in-a-row. HERE WE GO BROWNS, HERE WE GO!
