Yeah, he’s actually doing pretty well. I honestly expected him to have 3 or 4 turnovers in the first half alone. He’s made some decent decisions for a rookie starting against the best defense in the league.
Nailed it as always.
So, does anybody want to do a recap? Here, I’ll hit the highlights:
Pittsburgh:
121 yards rushing
Ben: 3 touchdowns, 1 interception
0 sacks surrendered
Cleveland:
McCoy: Sacked 5 times, 2 picks
70 yards rushing
To be fair, McCoy did everything he could, but he was thrown to the wolves today and admittedly still looked pretty good. Too bad he didn’t have a line that could protect him, unlike Ben.
Well the first half had me a little nervous, but the second half was the game I went to see!
Looks like the Ravens may pull it out in overtime though. I was rooting for a loss for them.
Sole possession of 1st place, baby! I have never said this before and likely never will again, but thank you, Patriots.
Ha! Once again I was wrong. But this time I’m pleased to be so!
Are you… serious? Did you watch the game? Do you look at the box score, see sacks, and assume that the O-line played badly?
The protection was excellent all game. None of those sacks were due to bad O-line play. They probably all happened 4.5+ seconds after the snap. McCoy was slow and confused all game, he often had a great pocket but chose to run around confused anyway. He looked like Charlie Frye out there.
I watched McCoy look like he had a pulse, which is a nice change of pace. The Steelers were all over him like white on rice in a snowstorm, but hey, the Browns’ offensive line did a heck of a job, Brownie.
I don’t know what game you were watching. Possibly the single most important thing a quarterback can do is get rid of the ball in a timely fashion, but I think McCoy’s average time after the snap before he threw the ball probably had to be greater than 4 seconds. He also ran a lot without looking downfield, and he’s not the type of QB who can get away with that much. He didn’t look horrid, but I think it’s absolutely a different game with Seneca Wallace in there.
Not to mention Massaquoi, and particularly Cribbs. Wallace wouldn’t have left them to hang to dry like that Good job going for the head on those guys though. Cribbs being there at the very least would’ve negated that muffed punt that turned into an easy TD.
What a great weekend. The Steelers won, Ben is back, the Ravens lost, the Cowboys are essentially out of it barring a miracle…the icing on the cake would be the Quitters losing, though I’m not too optimistic about that. You never can tell. So far so good, though.
You MUST be joking. My God, even the Steelers announcers were high on McCoy’s performance. I thought he played great given what he had to work with (yes, it’s damning with faint praise).
Do you really think that as a Browns fan you have the right to be that demanding? Really? If he can keep that kind of performance up he’ll be the best Raven…err, Browns quarterback since Kosar. And don’t tell me that I don’t know anything, you know as well as I do that I’ve been watching the Browns since…well, forever, or at least the last quarter century. He’s your future, SenorBeef. You might as well get on board, because what he did today against an absolutely monstrous defense cannot be overlooked.
Are you doing some sort of parody or something?
I wasn’t being demanding. You said he looked good, I disagree, he single handedly got himself into 5 sacks, killed many drives, and got two receivers knocked out. Although to be fair your guys were headhunting and if there are no fines after TJ Ward got fined a few weeks ago for a much cleaner hit we can chalk one more up to NFL favoritism.
I’m not trying to sound like sour grapes - you beat us, and I never said we were gonna win, just saying we would’ve been competitive with Seneca Wallace, and I think it’s pretty clear that we would’ve. It was a 4 point game until late in the 4th quarter, McCoy couldn’t get anything done until garbage time and killed drives like crazy, and the injuries to receivers lead to at least 7 of your points.
I was surprised at the variety of the play calls today. Loved seeing Redman run through the middle from the fullback spot. They ran a trap with Mendenhall that looked pretty good too.
McCoy didn’t fall apart or anything but I didn’t see that much from him. I think we knew he wasn’t going to curl into the fetal position and cry or anything. He was slow making reads (and who could blame him) but he didn’t panic at least.
Still though, other than Roethlisberger’s return there wasn’t much that we’re going to remember a few weeks from now.
Wow. If that’s how you really feel, and if you are representative of Browns fans as a whole, it’s no wonder they have never gone anywhere since they came back into the league. It must be tough to win with everybody booing an effort like the one McCoy put up today. Too bad it was wasted on you.
Where are you getting that? I didn’t boo him. Am I supposed to be wildly enthusiastic because he didn’t shit himself today? He’s a project - everyone knows he’s clearly not NFL ready, so his first showing really isn’t bad relatively speaking. But he didn’t do anything to impress either. Obviously this was a worst case scenario for starting him and he came out unscathed, so that’s good. But he’s nowhere near as good as the underrated Seneca Wallace is right now, so obviously that affected the outcome of the game.
I mean - I find it weird that you’re fighting me on this. What did you see out of McCoy that really impressed you? Are you now fearful of him as a potential QB you have to face in the future?
I didn’t get to see it. I was traveling back from Montreal, and my goddamn DVR didn’t record it like I thought it would. That really sucks.
I got to see the highlights, though. I love seeing all of the long passes to Mike Wallace. What happened to the vaunted Browns’ cornerbacks?
Nice tune up game for Roethlisberger’s first game back. Sort of like scheduling St. Mary’s School for the Blind before getting into your Big Ten opponents.
Salient point. Steelers fans will disagree, but Harrison got away with one there. What a fucking cheap shot. Its like the NFL (and lets not forget Goodell, the Steelers fan and apologist) doles out fines and penalties for hits like that to everyone else…but dear lord, not to Hines Ward or Jerome Harrison! That’s called playing “Steeler Football”!!
I could puke.
I’m sure it was only with utmost reluctance that he even suspended Rothlisberger because he was backed into a corner on that one.
Based upon today, as a matter of fact I am fearful. He went up against the best defense in the league, bar none, in his first game, and stood his ground to the point that barring injury he’ll be one hell of a pro quarterback. He could have folded, and yet he fought to the very end, even scoring a touchdown.
How’s that for honesty? If the Browns give him something to work with he’ll be something else in a few years. It’s hardly his fault that his team is shady, but if the Lerners give him a running back and a marquee receiver he’ll do some good things. I believe that in my bones.
And that, sir, is as close to a compliment the Browns will ever get from me. Take it for what it’s worth to you.
When were the Browns vaunted at any position other than returner? Like it or not, they’ve been very competitive in every single game they’ve played this season and would have been moreso in this game against the Steelers if Seneca Wallace had played.
I don’t really pay as much attention to the corners as I probably should but one thing I noticed was the Browns D-line didn’t do much up front. I think their secondary was behind the eight-ball. Some of them bit on Ben’s pump fakes too.