$.05--Cleveland finally broke into the win column with an impressive performance against the rival Bengals. They did so with a complete team effort.
Brandon Weeden started slowly before lighting up Cincinnati behind excellent pass protection. Weeden often had enough time to eat a slice of birthday cake before throwing, and when he has a clean pocket his accuracy is as good as anyone in the league. Trent Richardson ran the ball well early before leaving with an injury, and his backup Montario Hardesty filled in capably. The decision to use a Supplemental Draft pick on Josh Gordon looks better every week. In six weeks he has emerged from complete project to viable deep threat with a strong work ethic. He caught another touchdown but was more impressive on his sideline 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] down catch, a perfect route and hand catch that have to encourage the Dawg Pound faithful. Josh Cribbs kick-started the second half surge with a 60-yard punt return, while the coverage units were fantastic. Sheldon Brown baited Andy Dalton into a bad INT and TD return, while Joe Haden made several impact plays in his return from suspension.
This is how things were supposed to go for Cleveland all year. The strong core of young talent, and there absolutely is strong young talent on the Browns' roster, would play solidly and spiritedly. They would force more mistakes than they make and ride strong special teams to wins in close games against non-elite teams. Sadly this is the first time that plan came together for Coach Shurmur, but don’t bet on it being the last. Cleveland looked like the better team than Cincinnati, which had very little outside of Dalton-to-Green and strong Keith Huber punting.
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