#Browns Game 1, Manziel can play, Haden bad, offense offensive.

The Cleveland Browns faced off in New Jersey to face the New York Jets on Sunday September 13^th for the opening game of the 2015 season. Hopes were running high for both defenses as each team had major additions to their units in the offseason. The Jets added Leanord Williams, Darelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie and our own Buster Skrine, while the Browns added Danny Shelton, Randy Starks and Tramon Williams.

The Browns started quickly, forcing a punt after deferring the coin toss. Josh McCown drove the team all the way down the field from the 10 yard line, only to fumble, and leave the game with a concussion after attempting a John Elway, super bowl style dive into the end zone.  The jets took over and Johnny Manziel started warming up.

I will get the bad and obvious out of the way first. Being extremely visible in the secondary, Joe Haden and Tashaun Gipson had really, really bad games. The Brandon Marshall strip after the Gipson interception really set the tone for the entire afternoon.  Joe Haden was continually abused by Brandon Marshall and honestly, anyone who lines up against him. Ryan Fitzpatrick consistently got the ball out quickly while Hadens back was still to the ball. If I am an opposing offense, I would take note.

The good and not as obvious was  that Johnny Manziel had a really bad game as far as ball security goes but he was good everywhere else. Manziel has 25 yard run erased by Crowell chop block in the Second quarter (11:10)Manziel had a very good throw on 3^rd down, brought back by a holding call on Joel Bitonio. Manziel had a 20 yard run erased by a Mack holding penalty, made it 3^rd and 18 instead of 1^st and 10 on the other side of the 50 (pictured below).

The very next play Mack runs into Manziel and Manzeil fumbles. The game was over right then and there.

Manziel made good progressions, he got the ball out quickly, he made anticipation throws, he extended plays and had huge runs. There were a few lapses in field vision and sometimes was looking to make the big play and missing a check down, but Johnny Manziel looked really good. Fumbles aside, Manziel looked like an NFL QB, no question about it. I am not sure how the Browns will handle this situation after seeing the film.

There are so many problems on offense I am not even sure where to begin, but I will start where it all starts, with the offensive line. Mitchel Swartz and John Grecco were about as terrible as you could possibly imagine.

On this play, the line start blocking down, I guess Schwartz just assumed Wilkerson would push his way down the line. He did not, he stopped and Schwartz fell down.

Again, Schwartz getting abused by Wilkerson. I don’t think he even got a hand on him on this play.

That is not to say the running backs were good either. Red line is where he went, Yellow line is where he should go. Isah Crowell channeling his inner Trent Richardson.

However, the right side of the line was so, so bad. Here you have John Grecco on the ground, his assignment making the stop in the backfield.

Here you have John Grecco, getting pushed 4 yards into the backfield.

Last but certainly not least. While I believe the game as a whole was called well byt offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, does anyone really beleive that Jim Dray is capable of blocking Quinton Coples one on one?He is not and it was proven on the field.

When it comes to the skill positions. The Cleveland Browns are probably the worst in the entire league. Dwayne Bowe was paid $9 million dollars to come in and help a unit that was downright terrible to begin with. Bowe was a non injury inactive on Sunday. The rest of the squad could not get separation from the Jets secondary and when they did I counted at minimum 4 drops.

On this play it is hard to imagine that even an average height WR would pull this pass in for a touchdown. Andrew Hawkins is simply too short, has to jump to get it and can’t get his feet down. Time and time again the height of these WR’s shows up as a problem. Limited catch radius consistently shows up on the film.

There were very few bright spots on this day, but I am of the opinion that Johnny Manziel with no running game and absolutely terrible receivers was one of them. I believe that he proved that he can play in this league and I see absolutely no reason to go back to Josh McCown. Unfortunately I don’t think Pettine would agree with that. The other lone bright spot was the play of Danny Shelton. I was a big critic of Sheltons, but he proved that he can split and shed double team blocks. He has a lot to learn but he appears to be physically capable of handling NFL blockers.

The defense looked off, the players, especially the veterans on defense looked like they had too much rest and not enough reps. The offense was abysmal, between the poor line play and the best wide out on the field being Brian Hartline. Think about that, Brian Hartline is our best receiver. It was a really poor showing for the Browns who are now coming home to play the QB they always wanted, rookie Phenom Marcus Mariotta. The Browns need to make some serious adjustments if they want to win that game.

B