The Browns again are creative with their play-calling on both offense and defense.
View full sizeBrowns running back Peyton Hillis fumbles during a 16-yard run in the first quarter. The Patriots recovered.Halftime observations on the Browns-Patriots game:
• With two weeks to prepare, Eric Mangini can cook up some kind of nasty stuff. The Browns' opening field goal was cobbled together by special teams (Josh Cribbs' 35-yard kickoff return), power ball (Peyton Hillis' Renaldo Nehemiah routine -- he was a famous hurdler, for the non-track fans -- as he leaped a tackler for an 18-yard gain) and, as a statement of future intent, Colt McCoy's 21-yard strike over the middle on the first snap from scrimmage to Mohamed Massaquoi.
• Then the special teams bit again -- Phil Dawson's pooched kickoff landed amid a cluster of uncertain Patriots and the Browns recovered at the Pats' 19. You have to cash that chip, and McCoy did, smartly lofting a pass to 6-6 tight end Evan Moore, who outstretched 5-10 defender Devin McCourty at the 2-yard line. Then Hillis smashed into the end zone.
• But the real deep-cleansing facial came when the Browns went for it on fourth-and-inches at their own 36 while leading, 10-0. At first, it appeared the Browns would try to draw New England offsides as McCoy barked signals. Then they shifted from a power formation with one tight end to a five-receiver empty set with Hillis in the slot. McCoy sneaked up the middle for 3 yards against the dispersed defense.
• Momentum City crumbled when Hillis was stripped of the ball at the Pats' 36 after a 16-yard gain and the Browns driving for a third unanswered score. There is a price to be paid for such second effort, and it is turnovers at the end of battering-ram rushes into clusters of tacklers.
• Two nice shoetop catches by Massaquoi. In the second quarter on third-and-5 from the Browns' 45, the ball was thrown before the receiver came out of his break at the sideline. I'm counting up how many times Tim Couch made that throw, and I'm stuck at 0.
• Another Noxema face cream moment came on Chansi Stuckey's 11-yard TD run late in the second quarter. Cribbs lined up in the wildcat, took the snap, and executed a handoff to Stuckey, who was offset just behind the line to Cribbs' right. Cribbs went right after the handoff, Stuckey went left, and the crowd went over the cuckoo's nest on the score.