Dec
28
Written by:
LarryMac
12/28/2009 12:14 PM
It was 2007 all over again for the Cleveland Browns as they faced the Oakland Raiders. Following the news that Brady Quinn would be heading to the IR with a foot injury, Derek Anderson was once again the starting QB for the resurgent Browns and Charlie Frye, whose 2007 trade to the Seahawks opened the door for Anderson in Cleveland would he at the helm of the Raiders' offense.
Frye's first pass of the game was intercepted, setting up a 17 yard touchdown run by Jerome Harrison - coming off of last week's historic performance and the Browns never looked back. Phil Dawson connected on a 42 yard field goal and Sebastian Janikowski answered with field goals of 44 and 34 yards, as neither offense lit up the scoreboard, playing a game of field position and special teams back and forth until a late meltdown by the Raiders in the second quarter saw them draw three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and an ejection to help move the Browns down the field to set up a 19 yard Derek Anderson touchdown pass to Mohammed Massaquoi. With time running out, Janikowski hit from 61 yards out to make it a 17-9 game at halftime.
Both offenses continued to scuffle in the second half but two more Phil Dawson field goals - from 34 and 33 yards out - gave the Browns more than enough cushion, as they rode their defense and three Charlie Frye interceptions to a third straight win for the first time since October of the 2007 season.
The Good: Jerome Harrison set another franchise mark, with 39 rushing attempts and, with 148 yards, became the first Browns running back to record back-to-back 100+ yard games since Jamaal Lewis did it in 2007.
The Bad: The offense seemed stagnant with Anderson at the helm, although some of that can certainly be attributed to the fact that he hasn't been taking the reps in practice for the past few weeks. Ultimately, he finished 8 of 17 for 121 yards and didn't turn the ball over.
The Ugly: The Browns secondary, despite their three interceptions, allowed Charlie Frye (essentially the 3rd string QB on a now 5-10 team) to pass for a career-high 333 yards.
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