Bay boys soccer headed to state finals

Cleveland, Cincinnati battle for first in AFC North

A picture of Brian Hoyer with his wife and children is taped to a side of Hoyer’s locker, which is pretty much the norm for a pro athlete with a family.

What isn’t so typical is what is buried under some clothing and other debris in the back of Hoyer’s stall in the Browns’ locker room in Berea. It is the pair of cleats he was wearing on Oct. 3, 2013, when a scramble in a Thursday night game against the Buffalo Bills resulted in a season-ending knee injury. He has not worn them since that night.

“Maybe I’ll wear them this Thursday,” Hoyer said with a quiet laugh on Nov. 4. “No, I think it’s just a significant moment in my career. Everything that led up to that moment — really I blame the cleats because my cleat got stuck in the ground. Maybe it was the grass, I don’t know. But I think to keep that and realize that getting to that point in my career, it took everything to get to that point, and then to keep those because that’s kind of the second part of my career. That’s kind of the way I look at it.”

The game against the Bengals on Nov. 6 at Paul Brown Stadium will be the first prime-time appearance for the Browns since that fateful night 13 months ago.

The Browns went on to beat the Bills after Hoyer went down in the first quarter to increase their record to 3-2, but after that, with Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell at quarterback, the Browns won one of their final 11 games.

The Browns (5-3) have already won more games in 2014 than in 2013 when they staggered to a 4-12 record. They are battling the Bengals (5-2-1) for first place in the AFC North.

According to STATS, this is the first time since 1986 the Browns and Bengals met this late in the season for the division lead.

“You want to have games all the time that are like this,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said on a conference call on Nov. 4. “It’s a big ballgame for both teams.”

The Browns have not beaten the Bengals in Cincinnati since 2008. They did beat the Bengals in Cleveland last year when Hoyer threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Cameron and a 1-yard touchdown pass to Chris Ogbonnaya.

Ogbonnaya was cut in training camp and Cameron was ruled out as he recovers from a concussion suffered Oct. 26 vs. Oakland. He did not practice on Nov. 4. It doesn’t look good for leading receiver Andrew Hawkins, either. Hawkins missed practice Nov. 4 with a thigh/knee injury. He was limited in practice on Nov. 5.

The Browns have averaged less than 2 yards a carry in each of the last three games.

“This is now the third week with the same offensive line unit in there,” said Hoyer, referring to center Nick McDonald taking over for injured (broken leg) Alex Mack. “As I’ve said before, it’s cohesion. There are five guys working together, plus the running backs going off their blocks and things like that. I think we’re making improvements, and we’ve got to go out there and execute.”

No running game, no Cameron and possibly no Hawkins could make for a long night for Hoyer. On top of that, the Bengals haven’t been beaten in Paul Brown Stadium since a 20-19 loss to the Cowboys on Dec. 9, 2012. The home unbeaten streak is at 14 games, a streak that includes a 37-37 tie with the Carolina Panthers last month.

Hoyer