The new brown pants were horrible, and unfortunately for the Cleveland Browns, their performance against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football was much worse.
The Browns' first teams on both sides of the ball were abused, beaten, and manhandled by the Giants' first teamers, eventually falling to Big Blue, 37-34. It was nowhere near as close as the score indicates.
The game started off looking good for Cleveland, as the Browns' defense forced a three-and-out on the opening series of the game. Derek Anderson guided the Browns offense on a prolonged drive that stalled on the Giants’ 39. Phil Dawson came on and nailed a wind-aided, 56-yard field goal to put the Browns up 3-0.
It was all downhill from there.
The Giants drove down the field effortlessly on the ensuing drive, aided by a 53-yard pass interference penalty on Browns’ defensive back Eric Wright. Wright was then burned for a touchdown in the back corner of the end zone by Domenik Hixon, putting the Giants up, 7-3.
The Browns were unable to mount anything on their next drive, and safety Mike Adams incurred a 15-yard kick interference penalty to give the Giants excellent field position at the Browns’ 49.
After a 15-yard personal foul by Andra Davis, Manning and Hixon hooked up again—and again at the expense of Wright—for another touchdown and a 14-3 Giants lead.
The Browns’ first team continued to look embarrassingly bad, as they failed to move the ball on their next two possessions. Backed up in their own end and forced to punt, they incurred a five-yard false-start penalty.
This resulted in punter Dave Zastudil not having a full 15 yards to punt, and former Brown Reuben Droughns pushed reserve, rookie running back Travis Thomas into Zastudil’s leg, blocking the punt out of the end zone for a safety and a 16-3 Giants advantage.
One might not have thought it could have gotten worse for the Browns’, but on the ensuing free kick, Hixon struck again for Big Blue, returning the kick to the house, his third touchdown of the first quarter, pushing the score to 23-7 at the end of the first quarter.
13 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Dustin Haley 10 months ago
Well... at least, with the exception of WR, the Giants don't have much depth!
Absolutely horrible game.The Browns being the Browns. Once again i seen Jones coming in making too many tackles in run support, corners expecting help that isn't there, dropped passes (to Winslows credit, one was thrown pretty low), fumbled hand offs, missed bocking assignments, and "stupid" penalties, for lack of a stronger term.
But it was just one game. Best to get these ridiculous mistakes out of the way in the preseason.
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David Wiley 10 months ago
Hey Steptoe looks great. I guess that is one thing to draw from the debacle. I'm sure the radio talk shows will be abuzz with quarterback controversy this morning.
Brown pants are horrible! They should have at least put the white and orange stripes up the side.
Good article. I'm giving it the pick of the day.
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Jerry Desaulniers 10 months ago
Yes the Browns sucked on moday night football! The main culprits. The O-line, the cornerbacks, the kicking team and (Boo Hoo)Anderson! Sorry fellow Browns fans it's going to be an ugly start to the season if the team doesn't wake up.
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Matt Coan 10 months ago
I am still not sure what the love affair has always been with Romeo Crennel and the Browns. You can't give him credit for anything that happened last year because last year was all offense. Romeo Crennel is a defensive genius remember?? Look how awesome the Browns defense has been since he installed his weirdo iteration of the 3-4 which doesn't seem to involve filling gaps. No matter how much I watch the Browns play defense I find myself asking the same question over and over again "How does that happen if we have 4 linebackers out there!!??". I think Romeo Crennel could be considered a McDonald's Dollar Menu Genius, maybe a Wendy's frosty Guru, but a "Defensive football Genius??" NO. In that case I am a "Special Teams Genius" if we are just going to be handing out accolades. And why do we need to have a defensive scheme that nobody else in the league knows? Every time we try to go out and get a player there is always like an 8 1/2 year learning curve before they understand how "The 3-4 defense really works". These men can barely dress themselves. Why do we need to be throwing these complex defenses out there. Maybe nobody else uses our particular 3-4 style because it sucks??
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G P 10 months ago
Browns Rule!
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Michael Taylor 10 months ago
I'm not reading much into this game, IT'S PRESEASON. The only thing that worries me a bit were the injuries, but these games are for learning to play with each other and giving the backups a chance to show their stuff. The NFL has so much turnover that besides a few teams, can one really predict who will be the six playoff teams in each conference? There are always disappointments, and surprises. And the success of pre-season really never seems to hinge much on that.
Being a Browns fan I am always hesitant to believe, maybe thats being a Cleveland fan in general, but this season's schedule on top of the expectations placed on this team may hold them back and present an opportunity for a big disappointment. The Browns had a very light schedule last season that led to a few extra victories, we'll have to wait until a few weeks of the season are over before really gauging this teams chances. Remember how down we fans were after week one last season? That didn't last long.
I'm hoping for another competitive season from the Browns, but I am holding back my expectations until I can see this team in non-practice games.
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Michael Schlossberg 10 months ago
Big blue looked GREAT last night... but its pre season we will see
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Jeff Smirnoff 10 months ago
I think that people are selling the G-Men short even after the SB win and they will continue to have a chip on their shoulder all year. Thanks for reading!
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Leon Horne 10 months ago
It's pre-season, I'm not reading much into this right now. The score was still close and NYG were 2008 Super Bowl champs. They won't be as good as Pittsburgh, but I would imagine the Browns will be better than the Ravens or the Bengals.
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Jeff Smirnoff 10 months ago
The score was only close because the G-Men called off the dogs. It was 30-3 NY when the first teams played. But I agree the Browns still should be better than the Bungals and Ratbirds.
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David-S Serdinak 10 months ago
Browns fans have to be realistic. Last year's wins came against bad teams and the losses to good ones. The secondary is less than mediocre. The Browns have to come up with some blitz schemes or teams will throw for miles against them. I think the coaching staff is doing everything they can to keep Quinn from playing with the first team offense. I think Quinn should have been allowed to compete for the job. The Browns did improve but nowhere near enough to compensate for the schedule they'll face. Their ONLY chance is to go 5-1 within the division.
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Jeff Smirnoff 10 months ago
They do have "the deck stacked against them", I agree. But you know what, let's see how they do against the best of the best. I say bring it on. Unfortunately, the first attempt was as bad as those brown pants!
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Osi Umenyiora 10 months ago
Just preseason. It was fun to watch but ultimately as we all know means nothing.
I couldn't care less about the Browns and have pretty much no feelings for them either way, but it should be noted that they went 10-6 last year against one of the easiest schedules in the league. If they think they're going to cruise through the season this year they're nuts.
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