6 Things We Learned in Cleveland's Win Over Indy

Entering the 2011 season, the Browns appeared to have gotten lucky in the scheduling department in the first two weeks of the season. They drew the pitifully bad Bengals and the Peyton Manning-less Colts. The first one didn't go their way, but the second one did, and the Browns moved to 1-1 on the season as the hapless Colts fell to 0-2. 

In Believeland, we tend to see chances for victory when we shouldn't, but this week, the Cleveland faithful was on the mark when the Browns went into Indy looking for redemption for basically beating themselves in Week 1. 

When the team plane got stuck in the mud on its way out of Cleveland on Saturday, it looked as though the Cleveland curse might be threatening to strike again. But the Browns pulled it off, playing a game that wasn't perfect, but demonstrative of the fact that the Browns are a far better squad (or at least on their way to becoming one) than most of the national media seems to think. 

In pregame coverage, analyst Warren Sapp called the Browns the "worst team in the NFL." Today, Indianapolis showed that they were the better candidate for that designation. It's never as fun to kick a team when it's down, as Indy is, than it is to trounce a team that deserves a good beating (ahem, Ravens), but the Browns needed a win badly this week, and it was a win that they got. 

Following are six things we learned in the Browns' triumph over the Colts in Week 2. 

1. Colt >Colts

The Colt McCoy bashing we hear all too often in Cleveland gets older and older by the week. This week, McCoy gave his detractors little (if any) ammunition for their smear campaign, going 22-of-32 for 211 yards, a TD and no interceptions. 

He spread the ball around to eight different receivers, playing the West Coast offense as it is best played, and wisely leaned on the Browns' solid ground game when necessary. 

We saw no panicked throws, no poor mid-pay decisions and we certainly saw a young kid who looked a heckuva lot more like an NFL QB than opposing QB Kerry Collins, who looked about 38 going on 83 in his efforts. He also showed he could successfully put the ball up for a big pass when necessary rather than just conservatively sticking to safe but not always productive enough short gain throws. 

Perhaps most importantly, though, McCoy showed he could command an offense in the style of a budding field general, decisively leading his team down the field in smoothly executed, well-thought out drives while still seemingly to play with a sense of controlled urgency when necessary.

2. The Browns Receivers Made Tremendous Progress from Week 1 to Week 2

No, the Browns have not unearthed the next Jerry Rice. They haven't even unearthed the next Brian Brennan. 

But what they do appear to have finally done is to put together a solid corps of receivers who, while they'll never be stars, may just wind up being a reliable, productive set of pass catchers after all. 

Perhaps credit goes more to McCoy and to the playcalling for this, but the offense did an excellent job of keeping the Colts D on its toes by mixing up their pass targeting among WRs, TEs, and RBs. Spreading the ball around are what good West Coast Offenses do well, and the Browns looked like they're headed toward possibly becoming one before too terribly long. 

Mohamed Massaquoi looked like his old, scary self early on, blindly reaching for a McCoy pass that was right to him and allowing it go through his arms like a "nothing-but-net" basketball shot. But he redeemed himself later, pulling in a 28-yard reception in a critical situation that would ultimately lead to a rushing TD for Peyton Hillis. To be fair, MoMass was targeted six times and made just three catches, but he looked better than I've seen him look in years. 

Josh Cribbs and rookie Greg Little both looked solid, Peyton Hillis continued his duel threat as both a rusher and a receiver and the perpetually underused and underrated Evan Moore, while he was targeted just once, made it count when he hauled in a 16-yard TD reception.

It wasn't exactly a dominating performance by this group, but it was a very, very encouraging one. 

3. Improvement on Game-Destroying Penalties

When CB Joe Haden was called for a comically horrifying two penalties on one play on the Colts' first drive of the game, it appeared that the Browns were once again going to beat themselves with stupid mistakes, just as they did in Cincinnati in Week 1. 

But Pat Shurmur, who looked fairly inept in terms of getting his team to behave in this manner in their first game, appears to have made them run enough laps or thrown his clipboard at enough players during practice this week to nearly eliminate the issue that was largely responsible for sinking the Browns in week one entirely. 

After Haden's double whammy near the start of the game, the Browns drew just one more penalty throughout the entire rest of the contest. The three penalties they incurred, despite costing them 49 yards, showed infinite improvement in this area over being flagged an embarrassingly awful 11 times against the Bengals. 

Mostly, this speaks to a team that played much smarter football this week and refrained from making stupid mistakes out of naiveness or desperation this time around. What looked concerningly like a disorganized, sloppy team last week looked like a a more thoughtful, professionally-minded group this time around. 

4. Unglamorous but Punishing Defensive Play

The Browns' new 4-3 defense appeared to have finally started clicking this week, playing with little flash but notably good effectiveness. 

The defense still made its share of mistakes, but bonehead moves like The Great Timeout Fiasco of Week 1 were notably absent from this one. The Browns allowed just one touchdown, a desperation score at the end of the fourth quarter six-yard TD pass by Kerry Collins to TE Dallas Clark. 

Aside from that, the Colts were forced to attempt to field goal the Browns to death. Obviously, the four Indy field goals were an indication that the Browns D wasn't exactly in total shutdown mode, but the fact that the Colts were forced to attempt to nickel and dime the Browns to death speaks well of the Browns D in the red zone and their ability to shut down their opponent on third down (the Colts converted just four of 14 times). 

The standouts on D were once again D'Qwell Jackson and Joe Haden, but it's very important to note the solid and impressive play of rookie D-line guys Jabaal Sheard and Phil Taylor. Both Sheard and Taylor played acceptably last week (especially for two rookies thrown directly into the fire all too early), but this week, each already showed marked improvement over their first game and proved that their early round draft status in 2011 was well deserved. 

Sheard had a sack this week, as did the oft-undercredited Ahtyba Rubin. Usama Young had a nice interception in his first game for the Browns, and T.J. Ward finally looked more like he was focused on playing effective defense than planning his next post-routine tackle celebration dance.

There were a few hiccups, but overall, I was very impressed by the Browns defense this week. It's early yet, but the switch to the 4-3 is already proving to be the right call. 

5. Pat Shurmur Wakes Up...at Least in the Second Half

I was absolutely furious with Coach Pat Shurmur after last week's disastrous opening loss to Cincinnati for his sloppy playcalling, inability to make adjustments, foolish mistakes and worst of all, childish excuse-making immediately after the game. 

This week, it seems Shurmur got the message, even if it didn't exactly happen right off the bat. In the first half of this game, it looked like we were in for another experience like the one we suffered through last week. One of our regular commenters observed "Shurmur couldn't call a game of bingo."

Luckily, things improved dramatically in the second half, or at least Shurmur's team bailed him out enough to make it appear as such. While Shurmur hardly appears, at least at this point, to be a playcalling mastermind, he looked remarkably better in this area this week, and if nothing else, there were no substitution/forgetting to call a timeout goofs, and hey, at least he didn't run into an official this time around!

If it seems like I'm being a little hard on Shurmur, it's because while I saw no major coaching errors this week, I didn't exacltly feel that Browns fans were treated to a dominant example of genius strategizing either. 

Shurmur and his staff haven't sold me on their abilities just yet, but they did an excellent job of easily getting themselves granted a stay of execution from scathing criticism by playing a smart game punctuated by good adjustments and no major errors.

6. Browns Appear to Have Finally Kicked That Nasty Case of 4th Quarter-Itis

As has been lamented by Browns fans over and over dating easily back to the beginning of last season, the Browns have been endlessly suffering from a seemingly incurable case of fourth quarter-itis. 

In too many games to count in 2010 and in the first game of 2011, the Browns held their own through the end of the third quarter, only to implode in the waning minutes of the game to a team they had been beating up until then. 

The Browns have given away game after game in the fourth, whether due to fatigue, inexperience or just some weird inexplicable tendency to choke at the last second. 

While the Browns did cede that one last-minute touchdown to the Colts, they were largely dominant in the quarter, scoring 13 points and holding the opponent to seven. 

Whatever else has been wrong with the Browns in recent years, probably the most infinitely frustrating has been the number of times they've had a comfortable lead going into the final quarter of the game, only to completely lay down and die and allow themselves to be bulldozed late in the game by a team that was far enough behind to where it should never have been able to make a comeback. 

I'm not yet convinced that we'll never see such an implosion in the fourth quarter from the Browns again, but this game was an excellent sign that the Browns may just finally be on the right track for correcting this problem.