If you are a fan of the Cleveland Browns, it is hard to be patient. One playoff berth since 1999 isn’t anything to brag about, but patience is exactly what is needed with the new coaching staff.
The NFL schedule makers didn’t do new coach Kevin Stefanski any favors pitting the Browns against the Baltimore Ravens in the lidlifter for both teams. Yes, the Kansas City Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champs, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say the Ravens are the next best team in the league.
So, the first argument for patience is the first week opponent. This goes for any team because we don’t know how good the other team is. For example, the Steelers looked good on Monday night, but maybe, the Giants are the worst team in the NFL.
To put it simply, no one knows yet who is good and who is terrible, although based on last year’s 14-2 record, we assume Baltimore is pretty good.
Now, for other things that were obvious to us in watch the blowout loss to the Ravens.
Odell Beckham Jr. continues to be a polarizing figure in Cleveland. His dropped pass late in the second quarter was glaring because not only cost the Browns’ offense a touchdown (the now departed Austin Siebert missed a field goal), it allowed the Ravens to tack on another TD before the end of the half.
We hear the national media telling us what an athletic freak Beckham is, but is he still that? We’ve really seen no evidence since he arrived in town a year and a half ago.
And we have written this before, we don’t think the former Giant is a bad teammate and he isn’t causing problems in the locker room, but for whatever reason, he doesn’t fit here. When he is on the field, both head coaches (to date) and the quarterback seem to make a conscious effort to get him the ball, at the expense of the game plan.
If everyone can’t come to a happy medium, Andrew Berry may have to say this is a situation of addition by subtraction, and get what he can for the wide receiver. And it won’t be anything close to what his predecessor paid to get him.
The other thing that stood out was the defense. Again, Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson was the league MVP in 2019, but the Cleveland defense was disappointing. Yes, we know there are a lot of injuries on that side of the ball, but you can’t let a team go 99 yards on one drive, and then convert a touchdown after getting the ball past midfield with less than a minute to go before the half.
Cleveland was 20th in takeaways a year ago, and had just one last Sunday, which occurred in the red zone, otherwise they would have given up 45 points.
The good news is the run defense improved, but again, bringing up the fallacy of the one game sample, it could be because the Ravens found it so easy to pass the ball, they really didn’t spend a lot of time trying the ground game.
We would anticipate seeing plenty of improvement tonight, but part of that could be feeling it couldn’t be any worse. Anyhow, the Cincinnati Bengals also lost their opener, and the odds are they aren’t as good as Baltimore.
However, an 0-2 start and more than a week to talk about doesn’t bode well for the Cleveland Browns. The angry mob could start forming earlier than anyone thought.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 