Pre-Season Game 1: Browns vs. Jets
Aug 12, 2008
Author: DawgBones.com

Now that the dust has settled from the Cleveland Browns pre-season opener last Thursday night we thought we would take a closer look and see what we may have learned.

The very first thing and most obvious is the Browns lost the game. Ho, hum it's only the pre-season. When we look around the league we see that teams like the Patriots, Giants, Colts, Packers and Cowboys all lost this past weekend. Good teams don't worry about winning pre-season games, bad ones do.

The second thing you realize is that the Browns offense, 1st team, is in mid-season form. While they only saw the field for one series before a thunderstorm shut them down, the 1st team offense ran and threw the ball at will. The Browns started the game running the ball with Jamal Lewis, his 1st run was for 11 yards and set the tone. The Browns took the early lead when their opening drive ended with a beautiful 2-yard touchdown from QB Derek Anderson to WR Braylon Edwards. It was the end of their night so we are still left wondering what more they have, our guess is they have plenty.

Anderson and Edwards look to have picked up right where they left off in 2007.

The depth at WR and TE is definitely a team strength. Both rookie TE Martin Rucker and 3rd year pro WR Travis Wilson were impressive. Rucker led all Browns receivers in receptions, 5, and yards, 70, in the game. Wilson looked very good adding 3 catches for 58 yards as he continues to lock down the 3rd WR position.

The 1st team defense had a nice stop on their only series of the night. The Jets took the opening kickoff and marched to the Browns 37 yard line. On 4th and 1 the Jets opted to go for it and the Browns brilliant short yardage defense stopped them for no gain. The play was blown up by DE Corey Williams and cleaned up by LB Willie McGinest and S Sean Jones. The Browns short yardage defense was stellar in 2007 and looks to be as good this year. Of course we are taking this on just the brief sampling we got a chance to see on Thursday night.

2nd year CB Brandon McDonald made a great play on the 3rd down play just before that. The Jets tried a little outlet pass to their RB Leon Washington on 3rd and 3. McDonald came up and held the play to just a 2 yard gain, giving the defense a chance to stuff the 4th down play and get their offense possession of the football. McDonald is one of those guys that may not have had all the fan-fare of other players, but he is an excellent football player.

The Browns return units on special team looked sharp. 2nd year WR/KR Syndric Steptoe had a very nice night returning kicks as he averaged 36.5 yards on 2 kick returns and 12.5 yards on 2 punt returns.

The Browns were not without their issues though in all 3 phases of the game.

The Browns offense was able to move the ball throughout the game amassing 382 total yards, but inside the red-zone they were far from good. In fact the Browns ran 12 plays inside the red-zone in the 4th quarter with QB Ken Dorsey at the helm, they failed to score a single point. At one point Dorsey threw 12 consecutive incompletion's in the 4th quarter finishing the game 8-26 with 2 interceptions and a QB rating of 17.9. Why is he on the team again?

The Browns also struggled on defense, namely the 2nd and 3rd string secondary. They were not beaten once, but twice for 70+ yard TD's, but the same guy! On one occasion the CB appeared to be playing combination coverage, releasing the WR to the safety. The only problem is the safety never got deep enough and the WR ran right by. The other play was a play action that saw S Nick Sorenson buy the fake and the WR simply out ran CB A.J. Davis for the TD. Just 2 plays, but 2 huge plays that accounted for 14 Jets points.

The Browns were also unable to muster a pass rush at any point during the night. Of course there is no game planning in the pre-season, but a sack would still be nice.

The Browns punt return unit was also abused late in the game when it allowed a 62-yard return for a TD. Another big play of over 60 yards that led to points on the scoreboard.

As a team the Browns turned the ball over 3 times and forced no turnovers of their own. They controlled the clock for nearly 15 minutes more than the Jets, but still lost. Turnovers and allowing big plays will do that to you.

We understand that it is hard to judge anything that comes from a teams 1st pre-season game. That's why we will be back next week after the Giants game to see what we learned there as well.

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