Brandon Weeden earns first NFL win on 29th birthday
By Marc Sessler
Around the League Writer
Brandon Weeden isn't getting any younger, and he hasn't stopped growing.
The Cleveland Browns' rookie quarterback turned 29 on Sunday, an afternoon when he won his first NFL game, 34-24 over the AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals.
The Browns are the youngest team in football, and they started seven rookies Sunday. Against the Bengals, most of these newbies contributed.
Weeden was 17-of-29 passing for 231 yards and two touchdowns. One of those scoring strikes was a beauty -- a rope to 21-year-old Josh Gordon, who burned Cincinnati's secondary for a 71-yard score that marked the second-longest touchdown by a rookie receiver in Cleveland franchise history.
Some of Weeden's well-advertised on-field issues bubbled up in the win. He had another momentum-killing interception -- his NFL-worst 10 picks are dubious -- but he recovered to produce a solid game. The Browns are averaging 22 points per game after putting up 13.6 last season.
Weeden impressed me on a third-quarter quarterback sneak on which he had his helmet ripped off below a pile of defenders. Weeden calmly rose to his feet, plopped his helmet back on and guided the Browns on a 10-play, 66-yard scoring drive. He's not intimidated by NFL defenses.
Weeden hasn't made much noise in our weekly rookie quarterback ratings, and that has to do with his epic turnover count. However, we saw signs of growth on his 29th birthday.
The INT was a batted ball that miraculously bounded directly to another Bengal 8 yards away. The implication that he through an ill-advised pass into coverage is just bad journalism.
I'd say at least 2 other INTs this season were due to similar situations of batted balls getting picked. Weeden has been more impressive than his numbers would indicate.
Not only that but for the people who based their opinion of Weeden off of his first game, 0 TDs with 4 INTs, that was obviously the abbertation. His first NFL game, the offensive line was working in a rookie at right tackle, it was Trent Richardson's first game after coming off of surgery and he struggled in that game as well. The team had lost starting OLB Chris Gocong to a season ending injury and had suspensions for OLB Scott Fujita AND their top defender, CB Joe Haden, hanging over their heads. In addition the club was counting on, 'sic' WR Greg Little, to be the #1 WR on the club as they worked in two rookie WRs, Travis Benjamin and supplemental draft pick WR Josh Gordon.Nothing was settled in that first game. This is the YOUNGEST NFL team in the league.
The fact that Weeden bounced back in a big way the following week against Cincinatti was huge from my perspective. Also in the second game the offensive line didn't struggle nearly enough and RB Trent Richardson stepped up. The Browns continued to struggle at the WR position and would until injuries forced the coaches to push WR Josh Gordon into the lineup against the Giants in New York. Gordon is far from a polished reciever, he can't run every route in the route tree but he certainly can stretch the field vertically AND, most importantly, SCORE.
Take out that first game and his TD/INT ratio is 7 TDs/7 INTs and quite frankly I would start the tape from this game forward since WR Josh Gordon has obviously taken over the #1 WR stop from Greg Little and the offensive line has settled down and now CB Joe Haden is back so the pressure to constantly score just to keep pace is reduced somewhat but their are still tons of issues on defense so Weeden should still be dropping back to pass a ton going forward but things are begining to settle and stabalize on offense.
1. PHI - TD/INT ratio 0-4, passing yards 118,
QB passer rating 5.1
2. CIN - TD/INT 2-0, 322,
114.9 (broke two all-time rookie club records for a QB with yaardage and QB rating)
3. BUF - TD/INT 1-2, 237,
65.7
4. BAL - TD/INT 0-1, 320,
59.8
5. NYG - TD/INT 2-2, 291,
84.2
6. CIN - TD/INT 2-2, 231,
92.7
Look at the QB passer ratings over the last two weeks once WR Josh Gordon was plugged into the starting lineup. Gordon also has three of the four TDs that Weeden has thrown over that two-game span.
As long as that rib injury to RB Trent Richardson isn't serious and Josh Gordon continues to improve then Weeden should continue his improvement but he isn't the same guy who began the season with 0 TDs and 4 INTs and a QB Passer rating of 5.1. Anyone foolish enough to think that obviously hadn't noticed that Trent Richardson only caught one pass in that game for 5 yards and only managed 39 rushing yards on 19 carries in his very first NFL game AFTER coming off surgery where he missed training camp and the entire preseason.
Richardson and Ogbanyana have been a big part of the recieving corps coming out of the backfield and that has helped cut down on the pressure that Weeden faced in that first game against Philly when he looked awful but he was under continuous durress.
The team still had to count on WR Greg Little as the #1 WR but he kept dropping balls and killing drives and lost the confidence of Weeden. Now with Gordon and Richardson and yes even Ogbanaya playing big roles, the recieving corps has settled down but it still can improve since both TE Ben Watson and TE Jordan Cameron had been silent until yesterday and I think they both can make big contributions if they get the chance.
Bottom line? Look at the last two games when WR Josh Gordon was forced into the starting lineup and how much of an impact it has made on Weeden's QB passer rating. Weeden would have much better stats if Greg Little had caught just half of those balls that he dropped or if he could make the sort of impact that Josh Gordon has made.
