Before Colt McCoy could throw his first pass of the game, the Cleveland Browns were down by a score of 14-0. As much blame as you can place on McCoy for this team's struggles on offense, it wasn't his fault for the team's dismal performance against the Houston Texans.
The Texans received the opening kickoff and easily marched down the field during their first drive, ending with a 27-yard touchdown run by backup running back Ben Tate. On the Browns' first offensive play, fourth-string running back Chris Ogbonnaya (getting the start due to injuries) fumbled. Several plays later, Matt Schaub ran in for a touchdown on a quarterback draw.
The Browns followed that up with a nice kick return by Joshua Cribbs. Head coach Pat Shurmur decided against being aggressive on 4th-and-1 and opted to try a 50-yard field goal by Phil Dawson. Dawson connected, and the Browns were only down 14-3. Cleveland's defense finally forced a a punt by the Texans, and Cleveland's offense started putting a few good plays together. Shurmur decided to punt when a 4th-and-1 situation came up though, and that pretty much sealed the Browns' fate. It didn't take long for the Texans to march down the field again, with starting running back Arian Foster running for a 19-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The Texans added a field goal after a McCoy interception just before the half to give Houston a 24-3 lead.
The Texans controlled the third quarter. Cleveland started things off by going three-and-out, and then Houston had a 13-play drive that lasted over seven minutes of game clock. They tacked on a field goal, as well as another one later, to match a 52-yard field goal by Dawson, to take a 30-6 lead. Just like they have done in previous weeks, the Browns managed to get a touchdown pass to Joshua Cribbs past the mid-way point of the fourth quarter for a good-looking but garbage-time touchdown. The Browns did not get the two-point conversion attempt, leading to the final score being 30-12.
In terms of injuries, T.J. Ward suffered a hand injury early but returned. Mohamed Massaquoi left the game with a reported head injury, and Usama Young also left at some point with an injury. Cleveland takes on Shurmur's former team, the St. Louis Rams, next Sunday.