Browns Drop Heartbreaker to Eagles

A new season and renewed hope...well at least until the end of the fourth quarter of game one on the sesaon we had hope...

The Browns struck first thanks to a field goal off the foot of good ole faithful Phil Dawson.  There wasn't much other action in the first quarter outside of two Eagles turnovers.  The Browns led 3-0 after the first period.

The second quarter was a bit of a different story.  Weeden, who made poor decisions the entire game, threw the first two of his four picks on the day.  These turnovers led to 10 points for the bad guys, coming off a field goal and an 18 yard TD pass for Michael Vick to Jeremy Maclin.  Eagles led 10-3 at the half.

The third quarter began a string of terrible coaching decisions made by Pat Shurmur.  If Shurmur keeps up at this rate, he be out of work by week four.  If you didn't watch the game all you need to know is that Shurmur is stupid.  

3rd Quarter Summary:

Weeden Pick

Vick Pick

Browns FG

Shurmur lost challenge...DUMB

Haden INT

And by the way...Pat Shurmur is dumb.

The Browns inched closer on another field goal by Dawson, closing the gap to 10-6 at the end of the third quarter. 

It was evident at the start of the fourth quarter that the Browns would not score an offensive touchdown and if the team was going to win the game, the defense would have to come through.  They did exactly that.  D'Qwell Jackson intercepted Vick (his 4th INT) and took it back 9 yards to the house for a Browns touchdown.  After the PAT, the Brownies led 16-10.  But...it's the Browns...

Vick led the Eagles on a drive the resulted in a touchdown pass to Clay Harbor giving the Eagles a 17-16 lead with just over a minute remaining in the contest.  

Take a look at the picture below and you can probably guess what happened next...read from the bottom up.

Weeden threw his fourth interception of the game and that's all folks.

If there is one positive that we can take away from this game however, it has to be the Browns' defensive.  With the exception of allowing a TD late in the 4th quarter the defense played stellar all game long.  The Browns forced five turnovers and converted one of them into a touchdown, while only allowing 17 points.  If the team can get things figured out on the offensive side of the ball, they'll have a decent squad and could surprise a few people. 

Notes:  The Browns rookie #3 overall pick Trent Richardson carried the ball 19 times for 39 yards. 

The Browns take to the road next week and head to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals (0-0).  Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm and the game will be broadcast on CBS.