The New England Patriots completely stomped the Cleveland Browns in Tom Brady’s first game back 33-13
The Patriot faithful were strong in attendance at First Energy Stadium as almost half of the fans in the stadium were dressed in Patriot gear. The defense showed up as well as they held the Browns on their first drive to a three and out. On his first drive of the season, Patriots Tom Brady drove the team down to the 2-yard line with the help of TE Rob Gronkowski on a 34-yard catch and run play. RB LeGarrette Blount runs the ball in form the 1-yard line to go up 7-0 on the Browns. The Browns answered back with a nice drive of their own by getting down to the Patriots 11-yard line and QB Cody Kessler tosses the ball to a wide open Andrew Hawkins for the touchdown making the score 7-7.
At the tail end of the first quarter, Brady and the Patriots once again drive inside the Browns 10-yard line and found his other TE Martellus Bennett for another touchdown and go up 14-7. The Browns were pinned inside their own 5-yard line and while dropping back, Kessler was hit and drove into the ground on his shoulder while the ball was thrown behind the line of scrimmage and rolled out of the endzone for the safety. Kessler was taken back to the locker room for evaluation after the play. The Patriots scored again as Brady found Bennett for the second time to go up 23-7 and it looked like it was going to be a very long day for the Browns at this point.
Veteran QB Charlie Whitehurst came in to fill in for Kessler and his first pass was a completion for a first down. After that, they couldn’t convert and were forced to punt. Down at the Browns 1-yard line, the Patriots tried to run the ball in and couldn’t get over the stacked front four of the Browns defense and turned the ball over on downs. Not much happened for the rest of the first half and ended with a rare missed FG by Stephen Gostkowski which kept the score 23-7. The Browns defense started to build momentum after the goal line stand but the offense needs to come alive if the Browns were hoping for a second half comeback.
The Patriots weren’t done taking out their anger on the Browns quite yet. Brady hit Bennett for another touchdown early in the third for 37-yards to continue the onslaught of the Browns 30-7. After a nice looking drive put together by Whitehurst, and some helpful penalties against the Patriots, a throw to RB Duke Johnson Jr. slipped out of his hands right into Patrick Chung and New England took over and stopped a chance of the Browns getting any points. Whitehurst ended up getting his first touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter to make the score 30-13 and tried for a two point conversion but failed to convert.
The rest of the game was all Patriots at this point on. The Browns defense, although more impressive than people pictured them to be, couldn’t stop Brady for the first three quarters of the game. They started to pick up the pace at the end of the third but it was too late to rally this team for a miracle comeback. Tom Brady was on the warpath and wanted to show that he hasn’t missed a step in his four game suspension. Charlie Whitehurst showed that he can take over if called upon to start for this team. Although he didn’t score in the game and his interception went out of the hands of Duke Johnson Jr, he made decent throws and drove the team down the field the best he could.
Once again, the Browns come away from this game with more questions than answers. With Kessler looking like he was coming into his own every week he played, him going down with injury throws another wrench in the plan for head coach Hue Jackson. The Browns take on the Tennessee Titans still looking for their first win of the season.
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