Monday Night Football: 2nd Quarter Takeaways

The Cleveland Browns are facing the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. The Browns have a lot of questions they are looking to have answered. Who will start at QB? Can the offense get going? How will the league’s emphasis on defensive pass interference and grabbing impact the physical Mike Pettine defense? We hope to see these answered as much as possible.

Here are some takeaways from the 2nd Quarter:

• Strong goal line defense to stuff the Redskins on 4 straight runs.
• Johnny Manziel keeps feet alive to hit check down fullback Marqueis Gray.
• Ben Tate running strong, looks comfortable making decisions in ZBS.
• After 2 penalties bail the Browns out, Manziel hits a perfect bootleg on a rope to Andrew Hawkins.
• Manziel looks bad when pressured. Can’t adjust/audible to better play.
• No continuity on offense, drops, nothing down the field for 2nd game in row basically.
• Brian Hoyer looks like he is back in now after being out for about a quarter.
• First team defense against Kirk Cousins, in for RG3.
• Good play on ball that sails from Cousins, Tashaun Gipson with INT and big return.
• Josh Gordon with another drop… Hasn’t given a ton of effort tonight.
• Hoyer misses another open receiver, behind Hawkins. Catchable but not a good throw.
• Field goal, and 3-0 lead, all due to defense. Very little offense.
• Hoyer seems to be trying to hard, tight grip on the ball.
• Might be the worst game I have ever watched including Browns-Bills 9-6 games etc.
• Nice naked boot and quick decision by Hoyer to Gray but fumble gives the ball back to Washington.
• Armonty Bryant looking good again tonight. Gets hand up to tip pass on first down then on second down gets a sack.
• Aggressive defense taken advantage of on a big Santana Moss wide receiver screen.
• Cousins marches team down the field, ending with 2 yard run for a touchdown.
• 4 completions total for both Browns QBs. Combined. Yep that is bad.

Second Quarter Thoughts:

The defense has some high quality players that need to come together much more but have the makings of a big play team. The offense has a big mountain to climb. Nothing about this game, especially the amount of flags, was encouraging for almost anyone to watch.