Nov
23
Written by:
LarryMac
11/23/2009 10:57 AM
The much-maligned Cleveland Browns offense showed rare life against the lowly Detroit Lions, as Brady Quinn surpassed his career total of three touchdowns with four TD passes in the first quarter, leading the Browns to a franchise record 24first quarter points - more than the team had scored in any game this season and more than they had scored in the previous five games combined. Quinn aired it out and was able to exploit the Lions poor passing defense with big plays, hitting Mohamed Massaquoi for a 59 yard score and Chansi Stuckey for a 40 yard strike.
The Lions then had their way with the Browns defense, scoring three straight touchdowns to tie the game before Cleveland put together a field goal scoring drive before the half to retake the lead, 27-24.
Both offenses cooled in the second half but the Browns defense continued to sputter as the Lions took their first lead of the game, 31-27. Good punting by the Browns kept a long field behind their defense and led to a safety late in the third quarter, pulling the Browns back to within 2. Quinn was able to engineer another long drive and find Michael Gaines for a 2 yard strike to give the Browns the lead with less than 6 minutes left in the game. When Brodney Poole handed Matt Stafford his second interception of the game in the end zone it looked like the game was over but questionable playcalling by the Browns and a final errant pass from Quinn left the ball in Detroit's hands in the final minutes.
Stafford and the Lions forged their way down the field to set up one final heave into the end zone which appeared to be intercepted after Stafford was driven to the turf as time expired. Safety Hank Poteat, though, received a questionable interference call in the end zone giving the Lions one last play without their QB - who was taken off the field when the Lions were left without any timeouts. The Browns, though, were forced to use a timeout of their own to get their defense set for the Lions' backup quarterback, Daunte Culpepper, and that timeout gave the Lions time to get Stafford back on the field for his fifth and final touchdown of the game.
The Good: The Browns stretched the field for over 300 passing yards and struck deep unlike we've seen them do all year. That opened up the field for the Browns rushers, who went over 130 yards.
The Bad: Defensively, the Browns played worse than we've seen all year, allowing Stafford to pass for over 400 yards and five touchdowns - helping the offset their two interceptions.
The Ugly: Both final drives, offensively and defensively, were disasters. The Browns needed to kill the clock after Stafford's second interception, but chose to pass on the final third down. Defensively, the team that had shut out the Raven for 50+ minutes the previous Monday night needed one stop against the lowly Lions in the final moments and couldn't get it. The Browns were completely screwed on the final pass interference call which was away from the ball and while the QB was scrambling, but it should never have come to that anyhow.
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