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.
How bad was the quarter for the Browns? Aside from the 23-7 deficit, they had accumulated six penalties for 98 yards and only 26 yards of offense on 16 plays. Wright was being burnt left and right by Manning, while Anderson showed signs of skittishness against the Giants’ pressure defense.
Syndric Steptoe returned the ensuing kickoff to the Giants’ nine, sparking some signs of life for the brown and orange, but Jamal Lewis fumbled on the two-yard line, Eric Butler returned the fumble for a touchdown, and before you could blink, it was 30-7 Giants with 14:05 left in the first half.
The Browns had allowed 30 points in less than 16 minutes of football.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the next time Derek Anderson dropped back to pass, Giants’ DE Osi Umenyiora pancaked him to the ground and knocked him out of the game with a concussion.
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