1980 Cleveland Browns Week 1

Browns at Patriots

Heartbreak

Boy, this was a close game. I never thought that my head coaching debut would involve so much heartbreak.

The Browns came out ahead at several points in this game, but wound up being done in by a poor Brian Sipe pass that allowed the Patriots to squeak by. That 50 yard interception return by Rod Shoate really hurt. I’ll have nightmares about him streaking down the field like that.

This might remind you of a certain real-life incident involving these same Browns. I’m not sure if the fault was my aggressive play call given the situation, or if Sipe just made a bad pass. You be the judge!

I at least have the satisfaction of noting that we played much better than the real life 1980 Browns did in this game. They lost 34-14 in real life. If you like, you can watch the entire first game here for sake of comparison.

As you can see from the scoreline, this one was about as close as they come:

Game Stats

As you can see, we actually dominated the game offensively. 31 first downs to New England’s 14 is a significant difference. That third turnover was what really hurt us.

The Patriots seemed to get more of those explosive big yard plays. My feeling is that this dissipated as I started to run the cover 2 more often with man coverage. That defensive setup seems to work very well with the 3-4 that the Browns played in most of the time in real life. I’ll have to keep that in mind for future games.

386 yards of total offense on the first day of the season isn’t bad at all. We’ll gladly take that kind of performance in future games.

And, boy oh boy, we really dominated the possession. I feel like I really made a lot of good decisions, other than giving up those occasional big passes.

I might want to run the blitz a bit more often in the future.

We won’t fault Cockroft too much for not tying it at the end. That was a 49 yard field goal attempt that he really didn’t stand much of a chance of making. It’s my fault for not getting us closer.

Sipe didn’t have a great rating, which is probably a sign that I passed a little bit too often. Pruitt only ran for 72 yards; however, that’s more than the paltry 50 he gained on the ground during this game in real life.

Other Action

At Washington: Redskins 20, Cowboys 17

At Buffalo: Bills 16, Dolphins 7

At New York: Colts 35, Jets 24

At Kansas City: Chiefs 26, Raiders 21

At Philadelphia: Eagles 34, Broncos 13

At New Orleans: Saints 21, 49ers 20

At Pittsburgh: Steelers 12, Oilers 6

At Seattle: Chargers 31, Seahawks 14

At Los Angeles: Rams 24, Lions 23

At Minnesota: Vikings 33, Falcons 27

At Cincinnati: Bengals 26, Buccaneers 14

At St. Louis: Cardinals 31, Giants 14

At Green Bay: Packers 27, Bears 17

Standings

It’s far too early to think about the standings, but here you go.