Browns notebook: Maligned receivers come through in final drive
CLEVELAND -- There have been a lot of adjectives thrown out in describing the Browns receiving corps in the early part of the season.
And very few have been compliments.
However, with Josh Gordon serving a suspension, starting tight end Jordan Cameron out with a shoulder injury and starting running back Ben Tate out with a knee injury, the Browns needed some other players to step up on offense.
With the game on the line, the Browns receivers made the plays that were needed, especially on the game-winning drive that allowed Billy Cundiff to kick the field goal that gave the Browns the 26-24 victory over the Saints.
"Like I said, it was a total team effort," Brian Hoyer said. "I'm not sure how many different guys I hit. I know (Austin) Miles had a few crucial plays. Gary Barnidge stepping up on fourth down and obviously, Hawk (Andrew Hawkins) catching the one at the end. You have just got to play until the end and see what happens. Good things tend to happened when you do that."
Austin caught three passes for 27 yards on the drive, followed by Taylor Gabriel, who had three receptions for 13 yards--all on the final drive. Hawkins caught just one pass, but it was for 28 yards that set up the game-winning field goal.
Austin finished with six receptions for 44 yards, including a three-yard touchdown. Hawkins had six receptions for 70 yards.
Barnidge, filling in for Cameron caught one pass on the final drive for 10 yards, but it was on fourth-and-six from the Browns' 38.
The Browns started on their own four-yard line with 2:46 to play trailing 24-23. On third-and-one from the 13, Hoyer threw to Austin for four yards and a first down. Barnidge finished with four receptions for 41 yards.
After the two-minute warning, Hoyer threw to Gabriel for seven yards and then to Austin for 10 yards on third-and-3.
After a completion for no gain and a sack, Hoyer hit Gabriel for six yards to set up a fourth-and-6 from the Browns 38 with just 38 seconds to play. Hoyer threw to Barnidge, who was able to bring the pass in and get the first down to the Browns' 48.
If not, the game was over.
"There's more pressure on everybody else," Barnidge said. "If you let the pressure get to you, you might not play the best you can. We've proven that we're never out of a game and you can never count us out, no matter what."
With 19 seconds left, Hoyer threw to Austin near the sideline for 13 yards. The play was reviewed and the call was upheld with the Browns having the ball at the Saints' 39 with eight seconds left. However, the review determined that not only did Austin make the catch, but that he got out of bounds to stop the clock with 15 seconds left.
"I thought I caught it," Austin said. "I was going to go vertical. He shook me off vertical. I didn't know if anyone was out there anyway. I came downhill and he threw a great ball down the sideline.
"I knew I caught it, but I wasn't sure if my shoulder had hit out of bounds," he said. "I was glad they reviewed it and we got a little extra time on the clock. I was so happy when the field goal went through."
After an incomplete pass, Hoyer found a wide-open Hawkins for 28 yards to the Saints' 11 to set up Cundiff's game-winning field goal. Hawkins had broken away from Keenan Lewis.
"Honestly, I think it was a dropped coverage by New Orleans and Brian did a great job of reading it," Hawkins said. "I felt like it hung up there forever. I was trying to secure the catch so we could get the field goal and the victory.
Hoyer said he was surprised the Saints sent an all-out blitz on the play.
"That play, we were surprised they all-out blitzed us two plays in a row," Hoyer said. "(Offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) had a great call and when I saw the guy run over with, I think Miles, I'm reading him first, then you just see everyone fly down, it's almost like you throw a punt and just let him catch it. I got hit and I didn't get to see him catch it. All I saw was just him under the ball and then I heard the crowd and I knew we were set up to kick the field goal."
EXTRA POINTS
Pettine's First: Mike Pettine won his first game as an NFL head coach and was excited after the game.
"I can't lie," he said. "If feels great. I have a big old cigar with my name on it waiting for me. Don't ask unnecessary questions please (laughing). It feels great, but to me it's more...I know I represent this group, but this was a Cleveland Browns win. We wanted it for us. We wanted it for the city. These fans came out, and you could just feel the energy in the stadium today. It was awesome."
Hoyer Comes Through: QB Brian Hoyer led a successful 14 play, 85 yard drive to set up the Browns game-winning 29-yard field goal by K Billy Cundiff. On the drive, Hoyer was 8-of-11 for 78 yards on the drive and finished the game24-of-40 for 204 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. He was sacked once.
In the first half, Hoyer was 9-of-19 for 67 yards with one touchdown and a 73.8 rating.
Hoyer has not thrown an interception since he was intercepted by the Vikings in the third quarter in his first start for the Browns in the third game of the 2013 season. He has thrown 139 passes without an interception. The streak is the fifth longest in Browns history. Bernie Kosar has the record with 308 consecutive passes without an interception.
Hoyer is 43-of-71 for 434 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and a rating of 87.4 through the first two games. He has been sacked four times.
Hoyer is now 4-1 in starts for the Browns and has two two-minute game winning drives.
Johnny Manziel makes his NFL debut
Johnny's Debut: QB Johnny Manziel made his NFL debut and played a total of three plays. He came in on 4th play of the second half with 14:07 to play in the third quarter and handed off to RB Isaiah Crowell for a three-yard gain. Hoyer came back in after one play.
Manziel then came back in the following series and handed off to Crowell again for a three-yard loss. He then rolled out and threw a pass that was dropped by FB Ray Agnew. He didn't play any more.
Officially, Manziel's stat line was 0-of-1 for 0 yards with a 39.6 rating.
"Just a change-up, we had that package ready to go," Pettine said about using Manziel. "It's something we'd worked on. We worked on it for Pittsburgh and just wanted to get it out there. I thought we had stalled a little bit on offense and just wanted to see if we could catch them off guard a little bit and get a spark. To their credit, they defended it well."
Byrant Back: DL Desmond Bryant played his first game of the season after missing the opener with a wrist injury. Bryant missed the final four games of the 2013 season with an irregular heartbeat. He had two tackles.
Cundiff Comes Through: K Billy Cundiff kicked the game-winning field goal from 29 yards with just three seconds left in the game. Cundiff made a 32-yard field goal earlier just moments after hitting the right upright on a 44-yard attempt. The Saints jumped offside and the Browns received a first down, but then ended up kicking a field goal anyway.
"There's no such thing as a routine kick, right?" Cundiff said. "There are some things that can go wrong and some things happen. I'll tell you, a 29-yarder is a lot easier than a 57-yard, so that's just a testament to the offense. When they got rolling, they made my life a lost easier. I have to make sure that I come through with my end of the bargain if they're going to make it easier for me."
Gipson Pick: DB Tashaun Gipson intercepted QB Drew Brees and returned it 62 yards for a touchdown to give the Browns a 16-3 lead with left in the first half. It was the longest interception return for a touchdown since David Bowens had a 64-yard touchdown against the Saints Oct. 24, 2010.
"Everything happened so fast and I saw a big amount of green grass," Gipson said. "Then I saw (Donte) Whitner chauffeuring me to the end zone and that's what teamwork is all about. I couldn't have done it without the front seven getting pressure to the quarterback."
Gipson has seven career interceptions.
Kruger Attack The Browns sacked QB Drew Brees twice. LB Paul Kruger sacked Brees near the end zone early in the game and also pressured Brees on the interception that was returned for a touchdown by DB Tashaun Gipson.
"Kruger's awesome," Karlos Dansby said. "He was getting after it."
The sack was Kruger's second of the season. Originally, he was credited with two sacks against the Steelers, but a stat correction took one away.
LB Karlos Dansby had the other sack, which was one of the biggest plays of the game to allow the Browns to get the ball back.
"I knew we had a chance (if I could get to him)," Dansby said.
Dansby led the Browns with 12 tackles, including the sack. He also had two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. Kruger had three tackles, including the sack a tackle for loss and three hurries of the quarterback. He also batted down a pass.
Go West Young Man: Rookie RB Terrance West made his first NFL start in place of RB Ben Tate. He rushed for 68 yards on 19 carries (3.6 avg.) with a long of 15 yards. He also scored his first NFL touchdown with 3:19 to play in the third quarter, which gave the Browns a 23-17 lead on a nine-yard run. West had 12 carries for 38 yards in the first half.
In addition to rushing the ball, West caught two passes for 22 yards in the first half.
Fellow rookie RB Isaiah Crowell had 11 carries for 54 yards (4.9 avg.) and caught one pass for three yards. Crowell has 86 yards on 16 carries (5.4 avg.).
The Browns rushed for 122 yards on 30 carries (4.1 avg.). For the second-straight game the Browns went over 100 yards on the ground. In 2013, the Browns averaged just 86 yards a game on the ground.
Through two games,West has 168 yards on 35 carries (4.8 avg.) with a touchdown.
Coming Through: The Browns were 7-of-16 on third down (44 percent) and 2-of-2 on fourth down.
Gilbert Down: Browns first round draft pick CB Justin Gilbert was down for several minutes after colliding with TE Jimmy Graham with 12:02 left in the third quarter. He was taken to the locker room with a head injury. However, Gilbert did return a few minutes later after passing the concussion protocol.
Gilbert finished with seven tackles and a pass broken up.
Lanning Banged: After getting kicked in the facemask last week, P Spencer Lanning got hit again Sunday.
Typically, punters don't get banged around so much but after DB Tashaun Gipson's interception for a touchdown, a bad snap forced Lanning to try and run for the extra point and he was hit by several Saint defenders before he could get into the end zone.
"I yelled 'Fire' and saw an opening and took off, but it quickly closed," he said. "There was no one to throw it to."
Lanning punted five times for an average of 41.6.
No Turnovers: The Browns did not turn the ball over against the Saints, while the Saints had two turnovers, one resulted in a touchdown.
Bad Omen for Saints: The Browns avoided starting 0-2, which according to ESPN, teams that start the season 0-2 only make the playoffs 12 percent of the time. The Browns evened their record at 1-1.
Captains: Honorary captains were former Browns DB's Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield. OL John Greco, DB Buster Skrine, DL Armonty Bryant and WR Andrew Hawkins and were the game captains. Browns won toss and deferred to Saints.
Brees, Graham Comes On: After a slow start, Brees caught fire and finished 27-of-40 for 237 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Brees started the game just 4-of-8 for nine yards after the first quarter. Brees led the Saints to three-straight touchdowns on possessions to end the first half and in the second half.
Graham had no catches in the first quarter but then caught 10 passes overall for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
Graham scored his first touchdown on a 9-yard pass with 3 seconds to play in first half with DB Joe Haden in single coverage.
For Openers: The Browns had lost 10 in a row in season openers and were 1-14 since 1999 in opening games at FirstEnergy Stadium (formerly Cleveland Browns Stadium). The last time they won was the opener was against the Ravens on Sept. 12, 2004, 20-3.
Inactives: WR LaRon Byrd, CB Pierre Desir, RB Ben Tate, LB Barkevious Mingo, DL Ishmaa'ily Kitchen, TE Jordan Cameron and DL John Hughes.
RB Terrance West started for Tate, while TE Jim Dray started for Cameron and LB Jabaal Sheard started in place of Mingo.
For the Saints: WR Joseph Morgan, CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste, S Marcus Ball, FB Erik Lorig, G Senio Kelemete, WR Nick Toon and DE Glenn Foster.
