browns turn to hogan

After a sloppy first half showing against the Jets in Week 5, Hue Jackson decided to yank his rookie QB DeShone Kizer in favor of Kevin Hogan for the second half on Sunday. At the time, my assumption was that this was a purely temporary move motivated by an understandable desire to ensure a win at home against a bad team. So it was stunning when Hue Jackson went on to name Hogan his Week 6 starter. This makes no sense. But before I get into that, here is why he got pulled in the first place:

After a very promising drive, Cleveland turned to this strange option play call on 3rd and goal on the 3 yard line. Needless to say, the Jets weren't fooled. Darron Lee blew up the play in the backfield, Kizer panicked and tossed a slightly wild and premature pitch to Isaiah Crowell. Crowell couldn't haul it in and the Browns lost possession. An unacceptable turnover for sure but also a play with plenty of blame to go around. 

Then there was this disaster near the end of the half. After another promising drive (the third should-have-been scoring drive of the half), Kizer was picked off after Jets rookie Marcus Maye pulled off an incredibly early break. This was another baffling play from an X's & O's standpoint, as Cleveland only had two receiving options available for Kizer and one of them, #11 Bryce Treggs, ran himself out of the action with a perplexing route. This left only the tight end, who ran a very obvious and sloppy out (you didn't need to gain the end zone!) that was jumped by the Jets rookie safety. What allowed Maye to make this play? Simple football math. There were no wideouts to his right, a covered receiver on the far outside and plenty of zone support behind him in the middle of the field. The tight end route was Kizer's only option, and jumping the route was a no-risk, INT-reward non-gamble. Kudos to Maye for the quick read, and no doubt Kizer needs to eat the ball here and either make a play with his feet or throw it away. But once again, this was a total schematic failure on the part of the Browns.

So to recap, Cleveland moved the ball up and down the field all half but botched two red zone plays and missed a field goal. Kizer was not on his game, but he was not the only one. Still, I understand the impulse to try to actually win a game, which is, after all, the goal and the good instinct to throw in Hogan, who did play well.

However moving on completely from Kizer makes no sense and is blatantly the wrong move. The rookie was really the only hope for the Cleveland this season, and the entire point of allowing him to play right away was developing his comfort level in the offense and as the team's leader. Replacing him here negatively impacts both of those objectives. He also did nothing egregiously wrong in performance or demeanor to deserve a benching and he has demonstrated high-end potential in every start this season, including this Sunday:

Despite this, Kizer has somehow been made a scapegoat for the fact that the Browns are a terrible football team and Hue Jackson is struggling mightily as the head coach. The only reasonable explanation for the change is to protect the long term health of the rookie QB, but this is not what we've heard out of Berea. The entire situation is just another reminder of why so many quarterbacks fail in Cleveland.

taylor stumbles again

This little piece of film is so telling you have to watch it from a couple of different perspectives. First, to set the scene, this was the initial play of the Bills' final drive in Cincinnati on Sunday. Buffalo was down 4 and had 3:33 left on the clock with no timeouts. Plenty of time for a potentially massive drive for Tyrod Taylor with a golden opportunity to shockingly move the Bills to 4-1 and the top of the AFC East. 

Basically the only thing Taylor couldn't do on this play was take a sack. I think you can guess what happens next. But check out the protection on the play and the clearly ample time he had to make a decision with the football:

But wait, it gets worse. Watch the play again but following the presumably primary targets, the two split receivers. THEY. ARE. BOTH. WIDE. OPEN. This is the kind of film that makes a coach's head explode. Taylor has no excuse for taking a sack here in any case, but add two open receivers to the situation and you have to wonder what on earth is going through Tyrod's head on this play. 

Two plays later, Taylor was intercepted on a horribly errant long third down throw and Buffalo's day was over. It was a major disappointment for an upstart team looking for their leader to come through in exactly this type of scenario as the season grinds forward.

flacco flashes

After an absolutely abysmal start to the season for Joe Flacco (he is throw_ology's lowest-rated passer in the entire league so far), the Baltimore quarterback flashed some signs of life in an easy win in Oakland. Interestingly enough, the most important play of the game was the very first one. Flacco, who had only completed one pass of more than 25 yards on the season, tossed up this perfect dime to Mike Wallace down the sideline for a 52-yard pickup. It truly was a 10/10 throw: 

The Ravens proceeded to find the end zone four runs later and then scored on a fumble return for a touchdown on Oakland's third offensive play. In just 3:50 of game time and one pass attempt, Flacco and the Ravens had built a 14-0 lead on the overmatched EJ Manuel-led Raiders.

This throw is precisely the kind of play Flacco has struggled to complete this season as his accuracy, particularly on downfield throws, has dipped. But the team somehow finds itself 3-2 despite his slow start and if the veteran quarterback can continue to make plays like this, the AFC North crown is still very much in play for the Ravens.