Ugly, but pretty

To say it was a strange evening down by the lakefront Saturday night would be a gross understatement. The Browns and Baltimore Ravens attempted to play an entertaining National Football League game. And failed.

The Browns prevailed, 13-3, and, yes, the score clearly reflects how boring this one was. Two teams with struggling offenses missing opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. It made the two defenses look better than they actually were.

The game featured numerous long, time-consuming drives, all but one failing to put six points on the board. Plenty of football was played between the 20-yard lines. The Ravens’ best chance to get into the end zone arrived on their initial possession of the game. 

And that’s when the Cleveland defense set the tone of the game by putting up a staunch goal-line stand as 6.-1, 205-pound free safety John Johnson III of the Browns prevented 6-3, 305-pound Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard from gaining 36 inches on a fourth and one at the Cleveland seven.

From that point on, it was game on with the defenses zealously guarding their end zones. Both teams managed to gain ground between the 20-yard lines, but then the door would slam shut. Six red-zone visits yielded just the one touchdown.

The Browns finally broke through in the third quarter with a 12-play, 91-yard drive that took more than six minutes off the clock after Denzel Ward stepped in front of DeSean Jackson for the pick on the first possession of the second half at the Cleveland nine.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson, making his Cleveland debut, looked sharper and more confident by the game, capping the drive with a pretty three-yard slant to Donovan Peoples-Jones after the wide receiver reversed his original route and cut back over the middle for the easy catch.

Surely, that would unlock the scoring drought. Uh, no. Not even the kickers would help in this one. The veteran and the rookie put on a show of how not to help your team.

Justin Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, had his worst game in four years with one miss and one block (by Cleveland’s Jordan Elliot) in three attempts. Right there, it should have become apparent this one was going to be only the sixth loss against the Browns for Ravens head coach John Harbaugh in 15 seasons.

Cade York, the Browns’ puzzlingly inconsistent rookie kicker, had four opportunities to put this one out of reach in the fourth quarter after hitting on 47- and 23-yard field goals to give the Browns a 6-3 halftime lead.

But he failed badly in the fourth quarter from 38 and 46 to put the game away, adding to the strangeness of the snowy evening.

The victory was Kevin Stefanski’s second over Harbaugh in six attempts, making him the winningest Cleveland coach against his rival. One of the reasons was the Browns’ ability to play a majority of the game in Ravens territory.

The snaps on 45 of the Browns’ 64 plays on offense were made on the Baltimore side of midfield. If nothing else, it prevented the Ravens from mounting sustained drives that threatened the Cleveland end zone. Other than the opening drive of the game, the Ravens’ deepest penetration was the Browns’ 15, the one aborted by Ward’s pick.

As good as the defense was as the Ravens approached the 20, the offense failed to take full advantage. They wasted drives of 14-plays and 64 yards and 11 plays gaining 71 yards. It was just one of those nights  where they got lucky in winning just their sixth game of the season.

They did so even the run defense was battered again, this time by J. K.Dobbins and Gus Edwards, who battered them for 180 of the Ravens’ 198 yards. 

This was truly one ugly game that, for a change, turned out kinda pretty at the end.