CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Thrown together in two weeks and still missing some parts, the new Browns' offense made an impressive preseason debut Saturday night.
Colt McCoy engineered two touchdowns in three possessions and the backups made them hold up in a 27-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers, making a winner of Pat Shurmur in his first exhibition game as an NFL head coach.
The Browns also scored on a 43-yard fumble return by linebacker Titus Brown after a strip-sack of Green Bay quarterback Graham Harrell by undrafted rookie linebacker Brian Smith. Camp kicker Jeff Wolfert added field goals of 46 and 44 yards. 
Shurmur even scored his first victory on a coaches challenge, overturning a Green Bay reception.
"It was fun. It was very exciting," Shurmur said. "I learned from Andy Reid a long time ago it's hard to win in this league. So even though this game didn't count, that feeling you get for winning a game is something we all long for."
The Packers, fresh off a White House visit to celebrate their Super Bowl championship, left their first teams in for only two series. So it's dangerous to read too much into what you see in August, particularly in the first practice game. But considering their non-existent off-season caused by the NFL lockout, the Browns were surprisingly sharp and in sync in their passing game.
They looked, in a word, coordinated. There was a sense of purpose in what they tried to do and a tempo that was faster than we've seen here for a while. The trigger man, Colt McCoy, was on target.
McCoy was almost perfect on his two scoring drives. He was 9-of-10 for 135 yards, tossing a 27-yard touchdown pass to Josh Cribbs and setting up a Peyton Hillis TD on a 37-yard seam pass to tight end Benjamin Watson.
Six players caught passes from McCoy, including four by wideouts Cribbs, Brian Robiskie and rookie Greg Little. It wasn't dink and dunk.
"For the first time out, I thought we did pretty well," said running back Peyton Hillis, who had a 3-yard scoring run and 16 yards overall on five carries.
McCoy's only incompletion was a pass batted at the line of scrimmage by Green Bay second-team nose tackle Howard Green.
There were some hiccups -- a defensive timeout on the first play because of 12 men on the field and a brain cramp by rookie fullback Owen Marecic on the first offensive play. Marecic let an incomplete backwards pass -- technically a lateral -- lay on the ground when coaches were hollering to him to pick up the live ball. Watson had a false start.
"(McCoy) came right back and said, 'Coach, I should have just run with it,'" Shurmur said. "As he gets more comfortable with his players and this system, I think he'll progress."
McCoy overcame those miscues on the first series and marched the offense 71 yards in eight plays against the No. 1 Green Bay defense. Packers coordinator Dom Capers didn't throw many of his exotic zone blitz schemes at McCoy, but so what? The timing and rhythm that McCoy worked on all week seemed to come together.
Once McCoy crossed the 50 on a blitz-beating pass to Peyton Hillis, he thirsted for the end zone. He connected in the middle of the field on a 15-yard pass to Robiskie and then tossed a perfect ball to Cribbs' outside shoulder over cornerback Pat Lee near the right pylon at the goal line.
"That's the mark of a quarterback, getting you in the end zone," Shurmur said.
After a three-and-out sequence in his second possession, McCoy was allowed to stay in as his final series stretched into the second quarter. He teamed with Watson for successive gains of 19 and 37 yards -- firing over linebacker Erik Walden on the latter -- to set up Hillis, who rammed it in behind right tackle Tony Pashos from three yards out.
"I thought he was pretty sharp," Shurmur said of McCoy. "He executed well. He was pretty efficient with his throws. He worked us down the field twice."
McCoy called the night "pretty good."
"I thought the operation went well. We wanted to create a tempo and I think we did that early on," he said. "We're nowhere where we need to be. It was fun just to see where we are as an offense."
Defensively, the Browns forced a punt after three plays to lead off the game, then fell victim to Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers' no-huddle attack. Rodgers completed all six of his passes on a 73-yard scoring drive. He connected with Greg Jennings for a 21-yard touchdown on a laser throw that beat cornerback Sheldon Brown at the left pylon.
After Rodgers was pulled, the Browns got a sacks of backup Matt Flynn by Jayme Mitchell and Marcus Benard. Brian Sanford and Austin English also notched sacks of Grahame Harrell.
Flynn put together an 89-yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half against the Browns' second team. The TD was scored on a pass deflected jointly off the hands of intended receiver Tori Gurley and Browns defensive back Ramzee Robinson and caught by tight end Spencer Havner.
In the third quarter, a blindside hit by Smith of Harrell popped the ball free and Brown rumbled 43 yards for the winning points.
Two Browns players were seeing their first action in a competitive game in over a year. Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, who last played 22 months ago because of two torn pectoral muscles, made a hit and wrapped up Green Bay running back Ryan Grant after a short gain. Also, rookie Little, who last played a college game 19 months ago, had two catches for 20 yards.
In relief of McCoy, Seneca Wallace was 11 of 17 for 99 yards. He was intercepted once when he threw high for Jordan Norwood. Wallace accounted for three points. No. 3 quarterback Jarrett Brown also suffered an interception in the fourth quarter, and put three points on the board.
Ex-Packer running back Brandon Jackson carried eight times for 28 yards in relief of Hillis.
The Browns' backups also had a defensive stand at their 2-yard line when Harrell fumbled a snap. He recovered to complete a pass but the Browns mobbed the receiver for a 3-yard loss.
Shurmur also scored his first victory on a coaches challenge, which nullified a Green Bay reception at the Browns' 3.
Original story:
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2011/08/cleveland_browns_look_sharp_in.html
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