Brian Hoyer Good Enough in Browns Win

The Cleveland Browns defeated the winless Oakland Raiders yesterday 23 – 13. The Raiders got their lone touchdown with under a minute left in the game. A dominating performance by the Browns defense was paired with Brian Hoyer‘s “Good Enough” performance, or so says Head Coach Mike Pettine:

The NFL, like all sports leagues, is a results oriented business and the results from yesterday was a win by the Browns and Hoyer. Yet when watching the process of the game yesterday it was obvious that Hoyer’s struggles from last week carried over to this week.

His deep ball made the hunters in the crowd want to grab their shotguns and shoot the duck down. His passes over 20 yards had little velocity and were given tons of air underneath them. The throws caused his receivers to have to slow down and gave defenders time to catch up and make a play. Even Hoyer’s deep pass to Andrew Hawkins was thrown with so much air that the defense was able to catch up the Hawkins. In the first quarter the Browns went with a double play action with Travis Benjamin running deep. The ball was under thrown but Benjamin was able to break up the interception.

At least twice Hoyer threw passes directly to Raider defenders dropping into coverage. Once the linebacker tipped the ball and tight end Jim Dray caught the pass for an 11 yard gain. On that play two defenders were in front of Dray but Hoyer still threw the ball and got lucky that the linebacker was shocked the ball was thrown to him, this happened in the 4th quarter to Buster Skrine. Defenders don’t expect to be the intended targets.

Finally Hoyer may have helped give star tight end another concussion. As Cameron broke inside on his route Hoyer led him too far causing Cameron to have to lay out for the ball. While in the air Cameron was hit hard in the back of the head and neck area. Somehow he kept possession of the ball but immediately knew something was wrong. He would not allow his teammates to help him off the ground. Replays showed a errant throw leading to the huge hit. Hoyer’s accuracy has been lauded but has slipped significantly over the past two weeks.

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Hoyer, unless there is an injury or quite a few losses in a row, is likely the quarterback for the rest of the season. Johnny Manziel hasn’t even gotten off the bench in a few weeks. The Browns have been, and will continue, to try to game plan around Hoyer.

Unfortunately his issues with the deep ball have created some of the issues with the Browns running game. Defenses can cheat up on receivers and come down hill from the linebacker spot knowing that Hoyer likely won’t beat them deep. This has led to 8 men in the box and limited success for the offense as a whole. Early in the game Kyle Shanahan tried to loosen up the coverage with a few spread formations but Hoyer’s struggles create very little concerns for the defenses lately.

Brian Hoyer’s performance was “good enough to win. He made the plays when we needed to make them.”

Brian Hoyer’s numbers yesterday were solid: 19/28 for 275 yards, 1 TD and 0 INTs. His QB Rating was 111.5 while his QBR (ESPN’s creation) was 60.1. Solid numbers, solid results. Unfortunately the process getting there looked Dawg ugly. Thankfully the Browns have a solid defense, a running game that could get going and a creative play caller in Shanahan. All of those things could help keep the Browns competitive, even when Hoyer struggles like he has the last few weeks. “Good Enough!”

What do you think of Hoyer’s performance the last few weeks?