That Cleveland ultimately didn't end up really competing with the Redskins on Sunday was a bit surprising: the Browns led at halftime, and Washington was running out Kirk Cousins, a backup rookie quarterback.
But maybe it shouldn't have been that surprising; Pat Shurmur's team used a run-first attack to take a 14-10 lead at halftime. They didn't in the second half, and Trent Richardson believes that was a mistake, calling out Shurmur's game plan to reporters.
"We [were] ready for the game," Richardson said via Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "I think we've just got a game plan, and the game plan we had at the beginning of the game, I think we should've stuck with it. But we didn't stick with the game plan, and we tried to go do some other stuff, and the outcome came in a different way."
Richardson had two touchdowns in the first half -- and two carries in the second. And the rookie running back called the disparity in carries "shocking."
"It's shocking," he said. "But, like I said, the game's much bigger than me. I've got to let coach do what he does."
Richardson didn't really run the ball well when he did have the rock; he ended up producing just 28 yards on 11 carries (2.5 yards per carry) even though he found the end zone twice, breaking Jim Brown's Browns record for rushing touchdowns by a rookie.
The bigger issue, though, is that the Browns were leading in this game and decided to put everything on quarterback Brandon Weeden's shoulders. He threw a nice 69-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin but ultimately didn't get the win.
It resulted in a rookie calling Shurmur out, and that should be a serious indication that there could be change coming down the pipe for the Browns this offseason.
By Will Brinson
But maybe it shouldn't have been that surprising; Pat Shurmur's team used a run-first attack to take a 14-10 lead at halftime. They didn't in the second half, and Trent Richardson believes that was a mistake, calling out Shurmur's game plan to reporters.
"We [were] ready for the game," Richardson said via Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "I think we've just got a game plan, and the game plan we had at the beginning of the game, I think we should've stuck with it. But we didn't stick with the game plan, and we tried to go do some other stuff, and the outcome came in a different way."
Richardson had two touchdowns in the first half -- and two carries in the second. And the rookie running back called the disparity in carries "shocking."
"It's shocking," he said. "But, like I said, the game's much bigger than me. I've got to let coach do what he does."
Richardson didn't really run the ball well when he did have the rock; he ended up producing just 28 yards on 11 carries (2.5 yards per carry) even though he found the end zone twice, breaking Jim Brown's Browns record for rushing touchdowns by a rookie.
The bigger issue, though, is that the Browns were leading in this game and decided to put everything on quarterback Brandon Weeden's shoulders. He threw a nice 69-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin but ultimately didn't get the win.
It resulted in a rookie calling Shurmur out, and that should be a serious indication that there could be change coming down the pipe for the Browns this offseason.
By Will Brinson
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