New Orleans Saints, Happy Halloween: Browns Use Bag of Tricks To Defeat Saints

Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve as it is also known, is not for another week.  Somebody forgot to tell the Cleveland Browns play the New Orleans Saints today.

The Browns went deep into their playbook to pull out several trick plays executed to almost near perfection in routing the home team Saints 30-17. 

After the Saints were forced to punt on the first possession of the game, Joshua Cribbs would catch the ball, but instead of returning it, he lateraled it to cornerback Eric Wright. Wright dashed down the sideline more than 60 yards—a shoelace tackle away from a touchdown. 

Later in the first half, the Browns faced a 4th-and-2 inside their own territory.  Instead of punting the ball away, Reggie Hodges would sprint down the field 68 yards for the longest run of from scrimmage that day.  The Browns would only come up with a field goal on that possession as well. 

Finally, in the fourth quarter, as the Browns were trying to milk a 20-10 lead, 3rd-and-7 in their own territory, Peyton Hillis took the handoff only to pass the ball to a wide open QB Colt McCoy for a first down.  The drive would continue and lead to another field goal.

The weird thing about these three plays...none of them would lead to touchdowns. 

The Saints must have then felt like lady luck was on their side.  But, the ghosts of Halloween must have been smiling on the Browns today, nonetheless, because they would score three touchdowns anyway. 

An in a twist befitting an Alfred Hitchcock horror flick, Saints quarterback Drew Brees would throw four interceptions, including two to Cleveland linebacker David Bowens that would be run back for touchdowns.  Indeed, in the postgame press conference Drew Brees looked like he had seen several ghosts, and maybe he had.  However, instead of wearing white, these ghosts were wearing orange and brown.

The Cleveland Browns went into today's contest vs. the New Orleans Saints as a 13 point road underdog.   At the end of the day, however, giving a nod to the fact that they are idle on Halloween next Sunday, the Browns would go deep into their bag of tricks to deliver an early treat to their fans by beating the New Orleans Saints by the exact same 13 point margin.