Written by Chris Hutchison

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Cold rain coming down sideways.  Wind.  Sloppy field.  Little to no pass attack.  Little to no offense.  Final score in the single digits.

If you don't love games like that, you don't love football.

At least not the kind of football that I grew up with.

Maybe you just prefer Arena/Big 12/Video Game football, where the Defense is just a formality and the game is played in neutral conditions that are as sterile as a mule.  That's fine.  That's your prerogative, and you're probably part of a growing majority of football fans.

But I personally consider that a bastardization of football; a putt-putt course compared to Augusta.  Likely just further evidence of my increasing stodginess and out-of-touchness, but there you have it.

To me, if you go outside and the sky is caked with black clouds of impending doom and the wind is blowing leaves sideways and raindrop daggers are smacking you in the face and occasionally a cow flies by above the trees... that's a great day to play/watch some football.

Not that the game wasn't frustrating.  After the initial Touchdown, the combination of errors and conservatism joined forces to stymie the Offense, and solely relying on the Defense to win the game generally leads to losses like they had in Week 1.

Trent Richardson was greatly improved from last week and ran with authority, pounding out 122 yards on 24 carries including a 26 yard TD run.  Brandon Weeden only amassed 129 yards passing - a low amount helped greatly by yet another slew of "The Drops" - but then again Phillip Rivers only had 154 yards in conditions best suited for the Wishbone.  All in all, I thought Weeds played a decent game.

Up 7-0 after their first drive culminated in Richardson's TD, the Browns basically traded punts with San Diego in a tug-of-war for field position.  The Chargers managed a FG just before Half and another midway through the 3rd Quarter, one possession after Robert Meachum dropped what would've been a sure 51 yard TD pass from Rivers.

That was the only time San Diego even remotely threatened to score.

Cleveland got more and more conservative as the game went on and the value of existing points rose.  And despite the paltry Offensive numbers, they did just enough to keep the Time of Possession in balance and move the Charger field position back.  Their penultimate drive was a perfect example - they started at their own 3 with 7:37 left and only a 1 point lead, and then managed a 10 play drive that moved the ball about 50 yards and ate up about 5 minutes.  Huge under those circumstances.

The Defense, which played aggressively and well all day, took over from there, digging in their heels when Rivers drove his team to the CLE 44 and forcing 4 straight incompletions, the last of which was a ball batted away harmlessly by Buster Skrine on 4th and 10.

Which led to the Browns final drive being a kneeldown - the only drive since the first one that didn't end in a Punt.

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Stats

Time of Possession:  SD - 30:52, CLE - 29:08

Total Yards:  SD - 265, CLE - 250

Net Yards Passing:  SD - 148, CLE - 117

Net Yards Rushing:  CLE - 133, SD - 117

First Downs:  SD - 17, CLE - 15

Turnovers Forced:  CLE – 1, SD - 0

Sacks:  SD - 2, CLE - 1

Final Score:  Cleveland 7, San Diego 6

The only surprise here is laying 133 rushing yards (5.08 yards/carry for Richardson) on San Diego's 2nd ranked Run D.

The rest is about what you expect in a monsoon.

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Game Balls

Robert Meachum – Thanks for the drop.  'Bout time someone returned the favor.

Trent Richardson – Can't wait until this guy is playing at 100%, but, unfortunately, I don't think we'll see it this year.

The Defense – Any time you hold a team without a TD, that's a damn fine effort, no matter what the conditions.

James-Michael Johnson – 5 tackles, 5 assists, 1 forced fumble, 1 really solid game.

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Honorable Mention

Shawn Lauvao – His assistance on the Richardson TD run (as if I needed to specify who had the TD run on a day with one total TD) did not go unnoticed.

John Hughes – Solid again, blew up a screen play very nicely in the 1st Half.

TJ Ward – Started with a great tackle on 4th Down (1st SD drive) and went through the whole game for his part in shutting down Antonio Gates.  Only missed a Game Ball because he DID let Meachum behind him on the Immaculate Drop.

Buster Skrine – Has been playing much better since returning to his more natural nickel/slot role.  Did a fine job helping to limit Gates.

Billy Winn – A sack and a fumble recovery.  Looking like Heckert's best late round pick.

Juqua Parker – 2nd and 4 with 9 minutes left and the ball at midfield and only down 1, SD ran the ball and Parker blew it up for a 5 yard loss - killed the drive and was one of the key plays of the game.

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Hall of Shame

D'Qwell Jackson – Seemed to be running after people all day, mainly because he didn't cover them very well.

Alex Smith – I was excited to see Smith replacing Owned Marecic, since he can certainly do everything Owned can do PLUS catch the ball... but he wasn't very good either.  Missed a key block on one of the 3rd and 1's that resulted in Richardson getting nailed for a loss.  Missed another block that resulted in a Weeden pass getting batted down.

Chris Ogbannaya & Greg Little & Josh Cooper – The Dropsie Triplets all let easy catches and sure 1st Downs slip through their greasy fingers. 

Montario Hardesty – I know the Chargers didn't recover your fumble, but that could've been a killer.

Usama Young – Dropped 2 INT's.

Josh Cribbs – Not a huge fan of some of his decisions not to field punts, left the Browns in some bad field position.

 

Craig Robertson – I only noticed him one play, but it was him taking a terrible angle on a screen pass to Ronnie Brown on the final drive that could've been very costly.

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Just Shoot Yourself

Kick Return Unit  – You don't HAVE to get a penalty on every play, you know.

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Regarding Wishy-Washiness

All year long the unwashed masses cry "Down with Shurmur!  String the bum up!"

Then they beat the Bengals 3 weeks ago and a rash of "Give him a chance!  The team is developing!" explodes.

But when they lose the next game in Indy, we're back to "Kill the Shurmur!"

And now, somehow, yesterday's epic 7-6 win inspired another wave of Shurmur support.

Stop it, people.

Figure out your stance.  Maintain said stance.

Personally, my stance is that Pat Shurmur is too limited an Offensive mind to stay.  Yes, I realize that the team plays hard for him.  Yes, I realize the team is young.  Yes, I realize that they're improving.  Yes, I realize that regime change sucks.

But I don't how a guy that has like 6 plays in his playbook, a guy that whose play calling is as imaginative as berber carpet, a guy whose decisions are more predictable and conservative than Michele Bachmann, a guy who steals his trick plays directly from 1988, is good enough to get it done.

So while I agree that it is encouraging that this young and improving team plays hard for Paddy and that he deserves some credit for that, I still feel that they would be better off with a better Head Coach.

And that's for now AND the future, almost no matter what the Shurminator does for the rest of the season.

The Head Coach on the opposite sidelines on Sunday is a perfect example of With The Right Personnel A Limited Coach Can Win But Will Never Win It All.  Shurmur is the Mark Sanchez of Head Coaches.  Fire excuses at me left or right if you want (but of course, only after the rare wins), but there's little chance that you can convince me that there aren't several levels of upgrade that can be had over Pat Shurmur.

And if losses are what's required to get people (ESPECIALLY Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner) to come back to their senses on this matter, then I guess it's losses I should hope for.

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Regarding IR

This last week, both Jason Pinkston and Scott Fujita were placed on IR.

Pinkston was hospitalized before the Colts game with a blood clot in his lung, which just sounds unpleasant.  It was apparently life threatening, and I wish him a speedy recovery.

Fujita has shut down for a neck injury which is likely career-threatening, seeing as he's 33 and has noticeably lost a step.  Really, his ability to act as an on-field coach was the only reason they still trotted him out there.

As far as on-field play is concerned... Johnson is more than capable of replacing Fujita physically.  If anything, he's a big upgrade and this injury not only doesn't hurt the team, it might inadvertently help.

Pinkston on the other hand, well, I like John Greco and think that he's not a huge step down, but this thins out the line's depth to a dangerous degree.  Pinkston not only was the starting Left Guard, but he was also the backup Right Tackle.  Now the backup Left Guard is the starting Left Guard and the backup Right Tackle is...?

Many will debate how well Pinkston may or may not have played over the last year and a half, but I think it would be silly to totally disregard his absence.

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Regarding Whatever

***2-6 in the first half of the season, but that includes 2 of the last 3.  If they win 2 of 3 the rest of the way out, they'll be about 7-9, which would be a stupendous feat and would likely make me rethink my coaching change position.  But we'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it.

***With the disgusting rash of Roughing the Passer penalties in the NFL these days, I'm not sure how a hit that actually deserved it got skipped, such as when Weeden got speared by Shaun Phillips after he slid down near the end of the game.

***During the 4th Quarter, the radio in Weeden's helmet took a dump and he was forced to spontaneously call a play himself - a handoff to Chris Ogbannaya which gained 4 yards (probably because the Defense was so shocked they actually handed the ball to Og since the Shurmur play card states "If Og is in the game, it will be a screen pass.")

Said Weeden about the radio ill-communication after the game:

"Yeah, I couldn't hear anything.  I called one play on my own in the huddle... It worked. I should call plays all the time."

Indeed.

***Watching the Tampa-Minnesota game, the Vikings must've thrown 5 bubble screens to Percy Harvin just to get the ball in the hands of their speedy playmaker.  The Browns run this play sometimes too, but never to Travis Benjamin - the exact guy they should be throwing it to.

***In fact, Shurmur seems to have absolutely no idea how to use Benjamin (underlining his offensive limitations that I mentioned earlier).  The first couple games, Pat deemed that the best thing to do with Benji was to run him on go routes up the sidelines.  When those were unsuccessful, he decided that he should be used solely on end arounds.  Now, the only time that Benji touches the ball is on double-reverses (an atrocious play that should be stricken from the playbook immediately).

And that play - on 2nd and 4 in SD territory - might be the reason that it could be dangerous to beg Shurmur to get more creative.

***Speaking of underutilizing/not knowing how to use weapons... Jordan Cameron.

***It IS impressive that Shurmur wanted to give the team Monday off, and they refused.  Methinks a couple of the guys that were shouting "Yeah!" were secretly thinking "Shhhhhhh!"

***This game reminded me how much I dislike Phillip Rivers.  The guy puts the "douche" in "douche".

***Man, that Brady Quinn sure is lighting it up in KC.  Can't believe Holmgren gave up on that.

***Man, that Peyton Hillis sure is lighting it up in KC.  Can't believe Heckert gave up on that.

***Ryan Tannehill has certainly been better than I thought so far, but when he goes out (as he did Sunday), Miami doesn't lose a lot when they go to Matt Moore.  They actually might be better.

***Happy Halloween, the #1 holiday of the year.  People dress up, over-imbibe, throw eggs at cars... it's beautiful.

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Next Up

Baltimore Ravens  (5-2). 

The Ravens lost a lot Defensive firepower recently (Webb and Lewis), and it showed in their last game, a beatdown at the hands of the Texans.  Their Offense started out fast this season, but has fizzled of late.  They can be had.

But they're coming off a Bye, and with the Steelers charging hard, Baltimore will not overlook Cleveland.

I'd only be mildly surprised by a Browns win, but I won't predict it.

Ravens 27, Browns 20.