Browns can’t take advantage of Jaguars turnovers, lose at the end
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Cleveland vs. Carolina
Nov. 28 at 1 p.m.
By Tony Grossi
Cleveland Plain Dealer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
“They could have buried us.”
Those were the gleeful words of a coach whose team survived six offensive turnovers and won the game.
Thank you, Jack Del Rio, for reminding everyone what coulda, shoulda happened in EverBank Field on Sunday — but didn’t.
It didn’t happen because the Browns’ offense scored 10 points off those six turnovers. They stubbornly stuck with a running game that wasn’t working and then once again gave up a huge play at the end on defense.
Maurice Jones-Drew’s 75-yard run with a screen pass set up his 1-yard touchdown run that gave the Jacksonville Jaguars an improbable 24-20 win. It was the fifth loss by the Browns in six games decided by seven points or less and dropped them to 3-7.
For the second game in a row, the Browns had over a minute left to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but they were out of timeouts after burning two on defense earlier in the fourth quarter. Colt McCoy completed three passes and had the Browns at the Jaguars’ 29 with 13 seconds left. But his last pass bounced off Benjamin Watson’s chest at the 3 after being deflected by a defender and was intercepted.
By the time McCoy spoke to reporters long after the outcome, he had undergone X-rays on an ankle injury and his left foot was encased in a walking boot. It’s not inconceivable that McCoy, too, has been infected by the dreaded high ankle sprain that previously afflicted Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace.
McCoy injured the ankle on a sack by Jeremy Mincey on his second play of the second half. He came up limping and played through the injury. Later in the fourth quarter, McCoy ran 18 yards on a scramble and then pulled up as he crossed the sidelines.
Had he not been hurt, McCoy might have slid and stayed in bounds to keep the clock running. The Browns were moving for a go-ahead field goal, which they got from 41 yards by Phil Dawson with 2:51 left. As it happened, McCoy’s slowness in getting back to the huddle actually forced the Browns to use their third timeout.
They didn’t think it would cost them, especially after pulling ahead, 20-17, but it did.
Mangini said he considered pulling McCoy throughout the second half and actually had Seneca Wallace warming up at one point. But McCoy didn’t want to come out and Mangini and the coaches concluded that the injury was not hindering McCoy’s play.
Those blown opportunities rendered a magnificent McCoy touchdown drive in the second quarter a foggy memory. The Browns moved 92 yards on 16 plays, burning 9:57 off the clock. McCoy pulled a Houdini act at the end, flipping to Hillis just before a sure sack, and Hillis ran it in 11 yards for the score and a 7-3 lead.
But through most of the game, the Browns’ offense was stymied when the Jaguars committed to stop Hillis. He rushed for only 48 yards on 21 carries with a long run of six yards. Those stops created unworkable third-and-longs for McCoy. He was sacked six times.