16 Play Drive - Heck Yeah!

Browns piecing it together.

Loads of car commercials lately. Let's all hope the Auto Industry is on the rebound.

Just got a penalty for grabbing the inside of a guys helmet? Um, what??

First down for the Jags.

Mangini upset, good to see him showing some fire. He isn't invited to fish with us, however.

Josh Cribbs didn't make the trip with the Browns.

Maurice Jones Drew is small.

Rob Ryan's beer gut isn't. Haha! Nothing but love for the guy.

Garrard almost throws a pick! Pass broken up, looks like they'll have to punt.

Steelers up 7-3 on Oakland now.

Browns ball at the 19.

2nd Quarter featuring Ritz Crackers and Cheese

McCoy with ALL DAY to throw, yet nobody is open. He runs for a few.

McCoy throws a duck "QUACK" and it's tipped....weirdly...right into the hands of Massaquoi.

McCoy throws again to Evan Moore. Snags about 9.

McCoy is a magician! He eludes a sack, then dumps it off to Peyton Hillis who TAKES IT TO THE HOUSE! BOOMSHACKALACKA!

Dawson's kick is good.

Browns 7 - Jacksonville 3

Peyton Hillis vs Jacksoville Jaguars

Hillis with another carry to the right side. Big stiff arm!

3rd and 6...

McCoy in shotgun.

Throw to Stuckey for no gain.

Flag down. Fingers are crossed.

Fouls by both teams. SWEET. Geez.

Replay of the down I guess? We'll take it.

Cheapshot by the Jags on McCoy. Thugs.

Great throw to a slanting Stuckey!

FIRST DOWN BROWNS!

Haven't typed HILLIS in a while, I was having withdrawl.

I benched Ocho Cinco at the LAST SECOND in Fantasy Football today. He just scored. Sweet.

McCoy sacked.

False start by the Browns. Looking like the Browns of old right now.

Oakland beating the Steelers 3-0.

End of the 1st Quarter.

Browns 0 - Jacksonville 3

Believeland Blogging is Back!

Nasty Nate Thompson texted me asking if I was blogging today. I figured: why not?

Karissa just made us a cheese tray with crackers, so I'd say the game is off to a good start.

McCoy almost picked off early, and once again, the Browns offense is all Peyton Hillis. Either he runs the ball, or it's a screen to him. Obviously I'm a huge Hillis fan, but our offense is becoming VERY predictable.

Josh Scobee just kicked a short field goal to give Jacksonville a 3-0 lead. Now you're caught up.

I see tons of Geico commercials, but I honestly don't know ONE person who uses Geico for their insurance.

Temps are 80 degrees in Florida. It's a brisk 55 here in Mentor.

Browns with a return. Looked like we clipped a Jaguars player. Yep, flag came in late. Blake Costanzo with the block in the back.

I'm going to post smaller bits and pieces as the game goes on, just just full quarters. Hillis up the gut, gains a few.

I'd like to hang out with Joe Thomas. I wonder if he'd take me fishing? Yeah, probably not.

Hillis up the gut again, just shy of the 1st down.

If Joe Thomas did take me fishing, I'd want Hillis to come too. I'll provide the worms and beer.

Hillis has a Road Warrior looking facemask. Seriously, that thing looks like the front of a Dodge Ram truck!

McCoy with a quick pass to Massequoi. I probably butchered his name, but if he caught more balls, I'd try to learn how to spell his name. His drop last week hurt us just as much as Stuckey's fumble.

Ben Watson down hurt and is limping. Not good.

Browns get the first on the ground.

Run again to Hillis. Shocker.

Haven't heard Jerome Harrison's name since we traded him. I do think he'd be a nice change of pace back from Hillis.

Screen pass to Hillis.

Run by Hillis.

Seeing a trend?

Which Ryan is it?

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2010/11/10/rex-ryan-dresses-as-brother-rob-ryan-for-press-conference

Funny!

Browns, Hillis capitalize on terrible Broncos trade

Maybe the hooded sweatshirt was hanging over Josh McDaniels’ eyes the entire 2009 season. Or maybe he never took the time to watch all of the Denver Broncos’ game film from 2008. Or maybe Mike Holmgren and the Cleveland Browns’ new front office is a whole lot smarter than we realized.

Or maybe there’s no reasonable explanation for how Peyton Hillis(notes) ended up where he is – sparking the suddenly feisty Browns, and leaving Broncos fans writhing in agony over the worst trade of last offseason.

Where is Brady Quinn(notes) these days? You’ll find him scraping barnacles off the bottom of the depth chart, languishing behind Tim Tebow(notes). Yes, that’s the guy whom McDaniels traded Hillis for – he of the career 66.8 quarterback rating and 52 percent completion rate. And it wasn’t even a straight up player-for-player deal. Denver kicked in a sixth-round pick in 2011 and a conditional pick in 2012 to sweeten the pot. Nothing like a couple of bamboo shoots under the fingernails on draft day to remind fans of a team’s brain-searing roster machinations.

The Browns’ Peyton Hillis rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns vs. the Patriots.
(Tony Dejak/AP Photo)

Of course, you could give Hoodie Jr. a pass and say that there was no way McDaniels could have known Hillis would be a player who almost singlehandedly destroyed Hoodie Sr. (Bill Belichick) and the Patriots, en route to 220 yards from scrimmage (including 184 yards rushing) and two touchdowns – a guy who through eight games is on pace to rush for 1,288 yards and score 16 total touchdowns.

You could say McDaniels couldn’t have known, and you’d be right. He couldn’t, because McDaniels never took the time to try and know what Hillis was capable of accomplishing. Despite Hillis’ five yards per carry average and five TDs in a meager 68 rushing attempts in 2008, he didn’t get a sniff when McDaniels took over. Instead, the new regime, in its infinite wisdom, went out of its way to try almost anyone at running back other than Hillis. They drafted Knowshon Moreno(notes), signed J.J. Arrington(notes) (then cut him and signed him again), and scooped up injury-addled veterans Correll Buckhalter(notes) and LaMont Jordan(notes). And into the abyss Hillis went, never to be heard from again in 2009, save for 13 meaningless carries in 14 games.

The truth is, McDaniels never believed in Hillis, and the running back said as much when he joined Cleveland this offseason. Maybe only Hillis believed in himself, since nobody in the media (including me) was shooting a thumbs-up in Cleveland’s direction at the time of the deal. Just like nobody talked about Hillis when they lauded the sick talent in the University of Arkansas’ backfield in 2007, yammering non-stop about Darren McFadden(notes) and Felix Jones(notes), and almost never saying a word about Hillis.

Hindsight is cruel in the NFL, and Hillis’ success is downright merciless for a Broncos team that can’t run the football (last in the NFL heading into this weekend) and has watched Moreno struggle to stay on the field.

So Hillis delivers the two-pronged entry this week, making Denver’s shortsightedness a loser, and Cleveland’s sheer luck a winner. I have a feeling both cities will be talking about this trade for years to come.

Have the Browns found their identity?

The Cleveland Browns seem to be back to what they were once known for: smash-mouth football!

We remember what worked so well from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s, establishing the ground game with Byner, Mack, Metcalf, etc., and setting up the big play passing game with Kosar to Slaughter, Langhorne, Newsome, Brennan and Weathers. The offense's success translated into success for the defense and the Cleveland defense was one of the most feared in the league.

Maybe this Browns team has begun to copy that blueprint?

On Sept. 27, after the Browns had started the season 0-3, I wrote "State of Browns? Ehhh, iffy" - and for good reason.

At that point the season didn't look promising. But then again, they'd only lost those first three games by a combined 12 points and could have just as easily been 3-0 at that point. At any rate, the Browns were finding ways to lose football games.

They were just about to enter a brutal stretch of their schedule with upcoming games against CIN, ATL, PIT, NO, NE and NYJ. Those six games looked like six more losses. But something happened and the Browns - now having just completed five of those six games - are 3-2 during the rough stretch.

Overall they are sitting at 3-5, yet could easily be 6-2 right now.

The Browns are actually playing good football. In their last 12 games dating back to last season, they are 7-5.

They closed out 2009 with 4-straight wins:

- 13-6 over Pittsburgh,

- 41-34 over Kansas City,

- 23-9 over Oakland,

- 23-17 over Jacksonville

Their three 2010 wins:

- 23-20 over Cincinnati,

- 30-17 over New Orleans,

- 34-14 over New England

Dating back to last season's bye week, the Browns have lost nine games by a combined 73 points. That's an average loss of just 8.1. They're in just about every game.

The one common trend with the Browns' winning ways this season has been the success of running back Peyton Hillis. In the Browns' five losses, he's averaging 12 carries for 58 yards. In their three wins, he's averaging 24 carries for 118 yards.

See the trend? Establish the ground game with Hillis and the Browns have been unstoppable. What Hillis did to the Patriots' run defense in Week 9 needs to be looked at further. For starters, he carried the ball 29 times for 184 yards and two scores.

He victimized several Patriots defenders and the Browns offensive line was easily winning the battle in the trenches. In the first quarter, Hillis had 9 carries for 63 yards. Second quarter he had 2 for 10 yards. Third quarter he had 9 for 41. Fourth quarter he had 9 for 70.

Hillis' 184 yards on the ground against the Patriots were the most rushing yards gained by a player against the Patriots since Ricky Williams rushed for 185 yards on Dec. 29, 2002. That's almost eight years people!

According to ESPN, of his 29 carries, Hillis ran the ball 21 times for 133 yards and a touchdown on attempts between the tackles (72.4 percent of his carries). Entering Week 9, only 49ers RB Frank Gore (69.5) had a higher percentage of his carries go up the middle than Hillis (65.4).

Hillis carried the ball six times for 59 yards (9.8 avg) and a touchdown when the Patriots had eight or more defenders in the box. Entering Week 9, the Patriots had allowed only 1.3 yards per carry with eight in the box, fourth-best in the NFL. Hillis also rushed for three first downs in those situations, half the total the Patriots had allowed in their first seven games this season (6).

On the season, Hillis has 133 carries for 644 yards (4.8 avg), 5 TDs rushing; and 30 receptions for 229 yards (7.6 avg), 1 TD receiving. Of the Top 10 running backs in the AFC, he ranks 7th in yards, but also 7th in total carries out of those 10 backs.

The Hillis surge has given the Browns' offense a jolt like no other. They've jumped up a bit to 25th in total offense (25th in passing, 13th in rushing). This has translated to having a better overall defense, because with the offense clicking they are starting to eat-up some time of possession battles. Coming into this season the Browns' defense was considered middle of the road at best. They started out slow because the team was getting killed in time of possession. Currently, the total team defense ranks 21st (24th in passing D, 15th in rushing D). They are 11th in points against and are now actually +2 in the turnover margin.

Through Week 6, the Browns were being outscored 125-81 (48-14 in the fourth quarter). The team record was 1-5. In the last two games (Saints-Patriots), the Browns are winning 64-31 (with a slight 21-20 fourth quarter scoring deficit). The team record: 2-0. In the Saints-Patriots games the Browns outscored both teams by a combined 44-10 in quarters 1 through 3.

What the Browns are doing is involving Hillis more, and playing games to win by coming out fast, putting points on the board, and limiting 4th quarter damage by killing the clock with the ground game. And they aren't making stupid mistakes.

The team is showing more discipline and looks like it has finally bought into Mangini's system (by the way, Mangini is now 4-1 coming off bye weeks).

Now, even if the Browns lose to the Jets next week and slip to 3-6, that four-game span against JAC, CAR, MIA and BUF looks quite promising. The Browns could easily take 3 of those 4 and be sitting at 6-7 with CIN, BAL and PIT to round out the season. And by that time, with the final two games in cold-weather Cleveland, anything can happen.