Rodney Hoyerfield

For most of his game vs. the New Orleans Saints, Brian Hoyer was just killing me.  You can't blame the recievers this time, and for the most part the offensive line protected him from Rob Ryan's passrush well.

The game plan was perfect against this defense (and for that matter for the Browns' personnel).  The short passes allowed him to get rid of it quickly, and (given the Browns' very strong running game), play-action can't help but work often.

Hoyer once again gave his permabashers ammo as he missed easy throws.  The most annoying thing about him is that when he leaves the pocket, but still has time to re-plant his feet, he's just as inaccurate as if he's running.

HOWEVER, for the third time in his four full games as a Browns' starter, he delivered at crunch time.  He magically transformed from Brady Quinn into Tom Brady.

Sure, against the Steelers he did come up short on the last possession.  You can say "close but no cigars", but you can't take away the fact that he staged a historic comeback on the road to tie a game that everyone except him regarded as a lost cause.  The score was tied.

You can't coach this.  It's innate, and it's rare.  It's really THE most important element for a quarterback, and what separates the franchise guys from the others.  This time, like against Minnesota last season, it was again on him.  Rob Ryan knew it, and was salivating.  On that last 28-yard completion to Microbe 1, Ryan sent the house.

Unfortunately, so far it looks like Hoyer NEEDS that urgent kind of pressure to play up to his potential, and it's driving us nuts.

But this IS a small sample size.  Last season vs. Cincinnati, he played well for the whole game.  He CAN do it, and once he's more settled in, I think he will.

By the way, Johnny Selfie has this trait as well.  He's at his best in the worst situations.  It's probably the biggest single reason why the Browns couldn't pass him up after he'd dropped as low as he did in the first round.

New Orleans pundits are bashing the Saints wide reciever corps, but this had more to do with coverage than with their flaws.  It seemed like the Browns were determined NOT to commit too heavily to stopping Graham, and sought to deprive Brees of literally everybody else.

Haden on Graham?  Well, the big guy never did get any separation, and the passes had to be on the money.   He was pretty much stopped where he caught it.  I had expected a taller guy on Graham, but it would only reduce the mismatch a little, and he might have got separation and kept running against the other guys.

They bashed Payton for not running the ball more.  They might be right, but pundits do have this tendancy to assume that a defense can't adapt and stop a given play.  They tend to ignore fronts and deployments which quarterbacks can't.  It might well have been Drew Brees who made those decisions.

The defense tackled well, and covered better against a really good WR corps.  Even Joe Haden--well, you simply can't cover Jimmy Graham any better than he did.  

But here is what I will hear on NFL Radio: 

The Saints took the Browns too lightly.  The crowd noise messed up the offense.  They should have run more.  Ryan was too aggressive.

The Ravens now have more film on the Browns, therefore they are doomed.

They'll even say stuff like the Ravens need to score early, because the Browns can't come back!  No I'm serious--they'll say that!

The Browns should beat the Ravens.  They are more talented than the Ravens.  Do you know that Hawkins did much of what he did playing outside against press coverage?  Austin caught three first downs on the comeback drive?  

They did this without Jordan Cameron (did you notice Barnidge making key catches?)

The Browns much-maligned wide recievers are proving not to suck.  They're not great, but they can do the job.  And they're not DROPPING balls anymore!!!

Gilbert is suddenly pretty good!  Browns 77, Ravens minus 3.