Hardesty learns from mistakes

By Mary Kay Cabot

Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

Montario Hardesty came into Sunday’s game against Seattle determined to put a poor outing against the Raiders behind him. He did that and more.

Starting in place of the injured Peyton Hillis, inactive with a pulled hamstring, Hardesty set career highs with 33 attempts and 95 yards, and caught both passes thrown his way for 27 yards. Granted, his 2.9-yard average doesn’t seem like much, but they came against the league’s top defense in yards per attempt.

“I was hard on myself last week,” said Hardesty. “I felt there were some mistakes I made [last week], some big mistakes that stopped us from keeping the ball for longer possessions at the end of the second quarter, and not picking up some blitz protections.

“I want to play a perfect game so I ... wanted to go out and do everything well today. I wanted to catch the ball and pick up my protections and when it came down to it, I caught a couple of balls.”

Did the performance earn Hardesty more carries when Hillis returns? Hillis stood on the sidelines in street clothes.

“Well, he has no choice right now,” said coach Pat Shurmur. “He played like a starting running back and he battled. He wasn’t perfect … but yes, I think for the time being he’s earned the right to carry the football and we’re going to welcome Peyton back when he’s healthy and hopefully we can keep building on that.”

Hardesty’s 33 attempts were the most by a Browns player since Jerome Harrison had 33 in the season finale of the 2009 season against Jacksonville.

“As the game went on, I got more of a feel for the game,” Hardesty said. “There’s a lot of running backs that want to keep getting the ball so they can get in the groove. I had 40 carries coming in, and I almost matched that this game.

“I’m still getting used to running here, but the O-line was playing hard so I just wanted to maximize every chance I had running behind those guys.”

Shurmur, who came down hard on Hardesty in practice Friday after he dropped a pass — which followed six drops in his previous two games — was proud of his young back.

“Montario battled,” said Shurmur. “He caught the ball well. I made a decision that we’re going to call [pass] plays if Montario’s in there. They were hitting us with a bunch of man coverage so we hit them on those two screens. We made the decision that whoever was in the game that we were going to throw it to them and you know what? You’ve got to catch it and gosh darn it, good job. That’s something he should build on and be confident about.”

Hardesty, who sat out last season with a torn ACL, grew stronger as the game wore on, rushing for 52 of his 95 yards in the second half.

“I think this game showed that I’m a guy that wants to win,” he said, “that I’d like the ball in my hands and that I’ll do whatever it takes to help this team win.”