Nobody with any common sense figured the Cleveland Browns would be a playoff team, but they did expect some kind of improvement.
We would feel satisfied with four or five wins this year.
However, after a promising beginning at home against the Steelers, confidence for that improvement is beginning to wane for even the staunchest supporters of the organization.
The Browns fell behind one of the teams they should be able to compete with, the Indianapolis Colts without Andrew Luck, 28-7 before rallying but falling short 31-28, and dropping their record to 0-3 on the season.
Offensively, Hue Jackson seems to have a couple of problems.
First, he seems to have a hard time committing to the run. Isaiah Crowell ran the ball four times for 16 yards in the first five offense plays for Cleveland.
That was followed up by seven consecutive passing plays, of which one was completed.
On the Browns’ first touchdown drive, in which they tied the game at seven, Cleveland ran the ball four times for 37 yards, the other 38 came on a pass completion to Kenny Britt
At that point in the game, Crowell had seven carries for 34 yards. He carried the ball just five times the rest of the game, which still had 43 minutes to go.
When the Browns got the ball back down by a touchdown on their next possession, they ran six plays, four of them passes.
Enough of that train of thought, the other problem the offense has right now is they don’t get the ball to the guys who can make plays.
Crowell ran 12 times and caught two passes. Duke Johnson ran the ball twice, yes twice, and caught six passes, accounting for 104 yards, many of them coming in the fourth quarter, although he did score the first TD on a 19 yard run.
We may be in the minority, but Seth DeValve can make big plays. Yet, he caught only two balls for 29 yards. For the season, he has 8 catches, averaging over 16 yards per catch.
Rookie David Njoku, who will frustrate you with drops, has found the end zone twice in three games.
Instead the Browns targeted these three players 22 times in the passing game: Britt, Rashard Higgins, and Ricardo Louis. The trio caught six passes.
Our criticism is that instead of forcing the ball to a mediocre wide receiver group, Jackson needs to get his playmakers involved.
Defensively, the inability to stop WR T.Y. Hilton plagued the Browns. Hilton caught seven passes for 153 yards and a 61 yard touchdown hookup.
Gregg Williams crew held the Colts under 100 yards rushing and a 2.6 average per rush.
But Indianapolis converted 8 of 17 third downs and that allowed them to win the time of possession statistic.
To be fair, the failure to use the running game doesn’t help keep the defense off the field.
Neither does losing the turnover battle, 3 to 1, although one of DeShone Kizer’s interceptions came on the last play of the game.
Joe Schobert continues to impress with eight tackles and a half a sack, and Nate Orchard had a sack as did Emmanuel Ogbah.
There were adjustments made at halftime, and the Colts got just a field goal in the second half, and that score was the result of an offside penalty on 4th and 2 from the Browns’ 40.
That’s something we would like to see from the offense. Adjustments. Use the players who can make plays, and stop getting away from the ground game so early.
Take some pressure off of your 21-year-old rookie quarterback. We thought that was the plan when Kizer was given the job. Unfortunately, as of right now, that’s not the case.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 