{"id":654093,"date":"2026-01-04T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/654093\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T20:30:11","slug":"browns-defense-terrific-shedeur-sanders-struggles-terry-plutos-halftime-scribbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/654093\/","title":{"rendered":"Browns defense terrific, Shedeur Sanders struggles \u2013 Terry Pluto\u2019s Halftime Scribbles"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 Scribbles in my notebook as the Browns<\/a> lead the Bengals 14-12 at the half.<\/p>\n

1. The Browns defense has been turning turnovers into points. In the first quarter, the Bengals<\/a> were driving for a score. Joe Burrow dropped back to pass, and his throw was tipped by Cleveland\u2019s Shelby Harris. Linebacker Devin Bush grabbed the deflection and ran it back 97 yards for a TD. Myles Garrett threw a key block.<\/p>\n

2. Harris is a tremendous example of how a defensive lineman can impact a game by keeping his arms up when rushing the passer. Harris has done that several times over the years. The Bengals then missed another extra point, just a bad kick.<\/p>\n

3. As for keeping your hands up while rushing, give Alex Wright credit. He did just that as he blocked a Cincinnati extra point. <\/p>\n

4. The Browns\u2019 second TD came when Cincinnati\u2019s Noah Fant caught a pass. It was knocked free by Cleveland\u2019s Jerome Baker. Sam Webb picked up the loose ball and ran it back 47 yards for a TD.<\/p>\n

5. Dumb is dumb: The Browns defense was flagged TWICE for excessive celebrations after scoring those two TDs. Once is bad enough, but TWICE?<\/p>\n

6. Those penalties are a big deal. They added 15 yards to the extra point attempts. That forced Andre Szmyt to kick what amounted to 47 yards for each extra point. The rookie drilled both.<\/p>\n

7. After the opening day 16-14 loss to the Bengals when Szmyt missed a 36-yard field goal and an extra point, his job was on the line. The Browns gave him another chance and he\u2019s become one of the better kickers in the NFL.<\/p>\n

8. When Bush picked off that Joe Burrow pass, it ended a streak of Cincinnati\u2019s 12 consecutive trips into the red zone scoring a TD. The Bengals came into the game with a 5-2 record with Burrow starting and 1-8 when he was hurt.<\/p>\n

9. Shedeur Sanders had a miserable first half. He dropped back, tried to run and then fumbled. That set up a Bengals TD. Sanders was sacked three times. Twice, he held the ball too long and set up the sacks. He also threw two passes that were nearly intercepted. He was 5 for 10 passing for 48 yards.<\/p>\n

10. The Bengals scored a TD on a pass from Burrow to Tee Higgins late in the first half.<\/p>\n

11. Myles Garrett was not able to get a sack in the first half. He needs one more to set the NFL single-season record. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2013 Scribbles in my notebook as the Browns lead the Bengals 14-12 at the half. 1.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[94863,94864,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-654093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-2025-2026","9":"tag-cleveland-browns-2025-2026","10":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115838728969351554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}