Written by Thomas Moore

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It was a day of big plays and big mistakes as the Cleveland Browns took on the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium.

In the end, however, the Browns made a few too many mistakes to overcome and lost to the Bengals, 34-27, to fall to 0-2 on the season. It was the Browns fourth consecutive loss to the Bengals and the 13th time in the last 16 meetings they have dropped the game to Cincinnati.

“The Browns played extremely hard,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “I’m proud of my guys for playing hard. There were some things that were good but you have to temper you comments when you’ve lost the game.

For the second week in a row the Browns opened the game with a solid offensive play, this time an end around by Travis Benjamin for 13 yards. Things quickly went down hill from there, culminating in two consecutive plays that epitomize Browns football.

First, on third down quarterback Brandon Weeded was “sacked” when he was tripped by Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson. That led to a Browns punt which was returned 81 yards by Adam Jones for a touchdown (the TV announcers said Jones is no longer Pacman, but Adam; no word, though, on if he is no longer beating strippers).

The Browns had more missed tackles on the return than can be counted and some will point to that play as the one that lost the game for Cleveland. It was certainly tough to be down just two minutes into the game, but the punt return was not why the Browns lost. What it did do, though, was give the Bengals a lead that they never relinquished no matter how hard the Browns tried to get back into the game.

The Browns cut the lead to four twice in the first half and got within a touchdown twice in the second half (while the game was still competitive), but just could not get over the hump.

Cleveland beat on Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton all day, sacking him six times, but the Roadhouse burned the Browns secondary for three touchdown passes – a 10-yarder to A.J. Green in the second quarter that put the Bengals up 14-3; a 44-yarder to Brandon Tate in third quarter to push the lead to 24-10; and a 50-yarder to Andrew Hawkins in the fourth quarter on third-and-10; once again the Browns had numerous missed tackles on Hawkins trip to the end zone.

It was clear that the Browns could have used the suspended Joe Haden and the injured Sheldon Brown, but Haden’s not coming back for three more games so Buster Skrine, Eric Hagg, Trevin Wade and Dimitri Patterson need to step up their game.

Trent Richardson and Weeden did their best to keep the Browns in the game as both bounced back in a big way from disappointing opening games.

Richardson showed why he was the consensus top back in the NFL Draft (and why Jim Brown should leave player evaluation to the experts) by rushing 19 times for 109 yards and catching four passes for 36 yards.

Most importantly, Richardson found the end zone twice, once on a 32-yard run where he went up the middle and broke to the right side; and then on a 23-yard touchdown reception where he ran through or over at least four Cincinnati tacklers.

“I had a big stat day and it was a much better game for me,” Richardson told The Associated Press. “I wouldn’t call it a complete game. It’s coming along. We did a good job, but I think we can be even better.”

For anyone who didn’t already know it, Richardson is the real deal, people.

On the day the Browns rushed for 5.7 yards a carry, the second week in a row the Bengals have given up more than 5.5 yards a rush. If the Browns run defense is bad (although they held the Bengals to just 80 yards and 3.2 yards per carry), then what does that make Cincinnati’s rush defense?

Weeden was 26-of-37 for 322 yards, two touchdowns and a passer rating of 114.9, which was almost 100 points higher than his rating against the Eagles. The 322 yards is a record for a Browns rookie quarterback*, but more importantly Weeden did not turn the ball over. His first touchdown pass was 99 percent Richardson, but the second one was a beautiful throw to Greg Little for 24 yards where the Bengals were as clueless on defense as any team we’ve ever seen.

The touchdown pass to Little but the Browns deficit to just seven (31-24) with a little more than seven minutes remaining. But the defense was not able to keep the Bengals from scoring – the big play coming on a 22-yard completion to Jermaine Gresham on third-and-seven. The moved the Bengals to the Browns’ 24-yard line; three rushes by BenJarvus Green-Ellis moved the ball to Cleveland’s 20. Mike Nugent then kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the Bengals a 10-point lead and effectively end the Browns’ comeback hopes.

“We’re getting there,” Weeden said. “The running game definitely takes a lot of pressure off of me. It helps when you run the ball.”

On the day, the Browns had 439 yards of offense and 17 plays of more than 10 yards. The two second-half touchdowns were also the first the Browns have scored against Cincinnati since Dec. 29, 2010, when Colt McCoy hit Brian Robiskie for a touchdown pass. (Speaking of McCoy, the hoople heads who have been calling for him to start over Weeden need to, in the words of Ben Stern, sit down and shut up).

Some will also harp on the fact that the Browns were called for 10 penalties in the game, but several of them fall into the category of “highly suspect” so we’re not going to get too worked up about that. The penalties would not have mattered if the Browns could have just made a few tackles when they needed them.

“The offense stepped up this week. The defense, we didn’t do what we needed to do to win the game,” middle linebacker D’Qwell Jackson told The Beacon Journal. “They killed us on our side of the ball defensively. We’ve got to clean some things up, so we can play a complete game.”

So the Browns fall to 0-2 for the fourth time in the past five seasons and return home to face the Bills next Sunday. Buffalo will come into the game at 1-1 after rolling over the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Look at the difference between the offense this week and last week,” defensive end Frostee Rucker said. “There are huge improvements. Now we’ve just got to play all on the same page all at the same time.”

That’s been the Browns biggest challenge for as long as we can remember.

*Weeden broke the previous mark of 310 that was set by Eric Zeier, of all people, against the Bengals on Oct. 29, 1995. The ‘90s were truly a strange time.

(Photo by The Associated Press)