Written by Brian McPeek

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Tell me y’all saw that one coming. 

Tell me y’all saw your 1-5 Cleveland Browns, they of little talent and a brand-spanking-new baby of a rookie quarterback, going down to New Orleans against Drew Brees and the point-a-minute, Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints and winning a laugher of an NFL football game 30-17. 

So what’s the recipe for going down to the Big Easy with a novice under center and less talent on the entire roster than the opponent has on offense? Simple: pull out all the stops and be creative on offense, defense and special teams. 

There was no single ‘fluke play’ like a Couch to KJ Hail Mary as time expired in 1999 in this big Browns win on Sunday. 

 

Rather, startlingly enough, it was near flawless execution offensively, defensively and on special teams (and with some wrinkles in each of those facets as well) that provided a margin of victory that, despite being 13 points, doesn’t begin to speak of the easy nature of the win. 

Yeah, that’s right. Rob Ryan, Brian Daboll and special teams coach Brad Seely out-schemed the New Orleans Saints coaching staff on the road to the tune of a runaway win on Sunday. 

The Browns, knowing that the Saints and everyone else in the NFL look to limit Josh Cribbs in the return game, employed a lateral on a punt return from Cribbs to Eric Wright that was good for about 60 yards and set up their first points of the day. 

If you look closely at the box score you’ll also notice that Peyton Hillis led the Browns in rushing with 69 yards (and his 6^th TD of the season) on 16 carries. No big deal there except that Hillis needed about 40 yards on the final drive alone to surpass the 68 yards rushing from punter Reggie Hodges who took off on a flawlessly executed middle fake for 68 yards and a near TD late in the 2^nd quarter that led to another Phil Dawson field goal.  

You might also note that Hillis wasn’t too far behind Colt McCoy throwing the ball Sunday. Hillis actually hit McCoy with a 13-yard pass on HUGE 3^rd and 6 in the fourth quarter to extend a drive. That also moved McCoy ahead of Cribbs in receiving yards on the day given that Cribbs lateral to Wright wasn’t credited as a forward pass.  

So, umm…, yeah. That brings us full circle on an afternoon where Hodges and Hillis were the leading rushers, where Hillis was the second leading passer and where the rookie QB gained more yards receiving than the wide receiver/punt returner who lateraled a ball to a cornerback for 60+ yards. 

Imagine how confused the Saints were while living it and will be again when watching the tape of it. 

Anyway, the Hillis TD and three Dawson FGs would have been nearly enough to win the game itself but the Browns David Bowens would have none of it. Bowens took two of Brees’s four interceptions to the house for the Browns other two score Sunday, one of which was a 64-yarder that put the game away late in the fourth quarter. 

It was simply a shockingly good day for a Browns employee or Browns fan. Brees was harassed and irritated all day long and the Browns defense earned all four of the balls he had intercepted. Actually, and conservatively, I counted at least three others that could have been picked including one by TJ Ward that would have gone the distance as well. 

And before we get off the actual game itself, huge ups to Browns LB Scott Fujita for not only what had to be his assistance in game planning for the defense, but also for the ball game he played on the filed. 

Fujita, going up against his ex-teammates, was everywhere Sunday with a sack, an interception and ten tackles.  

Browns Etcetera 

I’m not going to rip a guy week after week and then let a decent effort slip by without comment. I thought Eric Wright played his finest game of the season Sunday. You’re not going to face NFL receivers and not lose on a route or two each week, but for the most part Wright was solid against the Saints and his return off the Cribbs lateral was a huge play in setting the tone for the afternoon.

Okay, 'solid' is a stretch. But he didn't blow play after play.  

So kudos to EZ-E on the day. That doesn’t mean your ass needs to be squawking on Twitter or anywhere else for the next two weeks though. Get your ass instead to the film room and the weight room and get better. 

Now What? 

So who wants to watch this team after seven games now and tell me its coach doesn’t have them busting their asses and willing to run through walls? Who wants to talk about the Jon Gruden rumors now? 

If you’ve watched a lick of professional football and if you’ve watched the seven Browns games thus far there’s no way you can, in good faith and conscience, tell me that Eric Mangini is not doing a tremendous job of coaching this football team. 

Blame him all day long for the Abe Elam’s and the David Veikune’s that he had a hand in bringing to Cleveland, but give credit where it’s due: the man can coach. 

And that’s all he has to do anymore. No more pseudo-GM role to distract him and keep him away from preparing this football team for Sunday afternoon.  I’m telling you, if you make a move and start over with Gruden or anyone else whose name is mentioned in conjunction with the Browns job you’re setting this team back three more years. 

Leave the head coach alone. Improve what he has to work with.  

Things will be just fine. 

You’re a Week Late Boys 

I’m not going to complain about a 49-0 win over a Big10 opponent like we saw from Ohio State on Saturday. I just wonder where the intensity and bad intentions were a week ago when Wisconsin took your lunch money and your girl. 

Speak as loudly as you like about revenging a bad loss to Purdue from last season. And next year maybe you can speak as loudly as you like about avenging a rotten effort against the Badgers when they come to the ‘Shoe. 

It was all there for the taking in a year where no one looks ready to reach out and grab the national championship. But you squandered the opportunity. 

Again. 

It’s just getting old. It’d be nice to see Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeyes play like bad-asses in a game against a quality opponent. I guess until that happens we’ll always have enough teams like Purdue and Indiana to help us make believe the Buckeyes are something they’re not. 

It Will Never Be the Same Again 

Here’s wishing Cleveland Cavaliers radio play-by-play man Joe Tait the very best as he faces heart surgery and the recovery afterward. 

Joe Tait is clearly the voice of my sports history here in Cleveland. Whether it was listening to The Miracle of Richfield album until it was worn out or listening to Tait do baseball earlier in his career the man will also go down as the very best this city has ever heard on the radio. 

The heart issue will cost Tait what was planned to be the final year of his career as he had said this Cavs season, with or without LeBron, would be his last. It’s a shame that it ends this way for a legend and a Hall of Fame broadcaster but Tait would want no sympathy, pity or tears. He’s never been about it being about him but rather about giving all of us who couldn’t be court-side or at the game the most vivid description of the action we could imagine. 

God Bless Joe Tait. And here’s hoping he has 25 more years of enjoying a well-deserved retirement. 

Suck it Yankee Fan 

How’d that taste New York? 

Completely out-pitched, out-played and out-hustled by a Texas Ranger team that’s now headed to their very first World Series against the San Francisco Giants starting Wednesday night. 

There are very few things better that watching your team win a game or playoff series. But if that’s not possible then watching the Yankees and their bandwagon fans slink off into an offseason of accusations and upheaval might just be better. 

Go ahead fellas, if you can’t beat Cliff Lee just try and buy him. My money is on red-ass Cliff staying with his red-ass team president Nolan Ryan in Texas. But you might want to also address that fact that your fat left handed ace isn’t much of a playoff performer and that your corner infielders are under achieving basket cases whenever the playoff intensity gets ratcheted up.  

While you’re considering those things you might want to give Joe Girardi some type of concussion test because he’s either taken a few blows to the head recently or his inadequacies were simply covered up by his talent of a year ago. 

And oh yes, your iconic shortstop is on vapors and wants to be paid for being a legend and your closer is closer to 50years old than 30. 

Happy holidays and go screw yourselves.

 

Follow Brian McPeek on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/peeker643