Winners and Losers for NFL Week 15: Patriots, Colts, Browns, Dolphins and more
By Andrew Garda
LOSER: Cleveland Browns
It’s not so much because Johnny Manziel was bad in his debut, though that doesn’t help. However, the way the offensive line played, it would have been hard for a clone made up of spliced DNA from Joe Montana, Brett Favre, Sammy Baugh and Johnny Unitas to stay upright.
The Browns aren’t losers because they lost yesterday—they’re losers because this season has left so much potential on the table.
They waited far too long to put Manziel in, allowing Brian Hoyer to play them out of the playoffs long before the hammer fell yesterday. Hoyer was awful for weeks, but they stuck with him anyway. So instead of getting Manziel some seasoning when they could have gone back to Hoyer, they let Hoyer get them to the point to where the team needed a miracle to get into the playoffs.
That seems like a bad time to put in the rookie, especially against a pretty decent defense.
One hopes that this offseason sees the team address some issues like receiver, because this team has a lot of talent. They need to get the offensive line healthy and add a few more defensive pieces but they are there.
They could have been in the playoffs this season but in the end they left too much potential on the table.
Oh what could have been.
Next: WINNER: Indianapolis Colts