The Cleveland Browns are not a good football team. That’s the only way you can put it when you have breakdowns in every phase of the game in a 27-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, dropping them to 2-7 on the season.
The optimism following last week’s win over Baltimore was short lived after another error filled contest heading into the bye week and the trading deadline. We would expect at least one move by GM Andrew Berry before 4 PM on Tuesday.
The special teams had two major gaffes, both of which set up Chargers’ touchdowns. They allowed a 53-yard punt return to provide good field position for Los Angeles’ first TD, and they allowed a blocked field goal to put the Bolts’ in position for their last score.
The defense allowed three big plays, all on third down when they could have forced either a punt or a field goal. Josh Palmer caught a 28-yard TD pass from Justin Herbert and later in the first half, Quentin Johnston got behind the defense for a 66-yard scoring play, both on what appeared to be blown coverages.
They allowed a 16-yard run by J.K. Dobbins who pretty much went into the end zone untouched. The Chargers ran 50 offensive plays, and the defense was very good for about 95% of them. That ain’t good enough.
The communication errors in the secondary overshadowed a three sack performance by Myles Garrett. And Dalvin Tomlinson had 1.5 sacks, as the Browns sacked the LA quarterback six times in the first half.
And they still allowed 20 points in that half.
Offensively? Well, let’s just say getting sacked six times and throwing three interceptions lead to putting a lot of points on the board. The only bright spot was Cedric Tillman, who hauled in six passes for 75 yards and scored the Browns’ only touchdown.
However, perhaps the biggest problem for the offense is the total lack of a running game. Cleveland ran for just 79 yards on 24 attempts, and five those were runs by Jameis Winston after being flushed out of the pocket.
That means the Browns’ running backs gained just 52 yards on 19 carries, which is under three yards a pop.
This means that a huge staple of the offense over the last five years, the play action pass is rendered useless. Defenses don’t have to bite on the fake if you can’t run the ball effectively.
This, of course, is another negative brought about by changing an offensive scheme that has worked in the recent past.
The latest defeat, Browns’ fans being Browns’ fans, have brought the people who want to blow up the roster and accumulate draft picks.
Should the team move some veterans on one-year deals for draft picks? Yes, of course. That makes sense.
Should they move players like Myles Garrett and David Njoku? No.
We understand the Browns will be severely handicapped in terms of the salary cap because of the commitment to Deshaun Watson. But we also understand that a good draft class, adding some good young players, can turn a franchise around quickly.
Look at Atlanta, Washington, and even Arizona. Building around guys like Garrett, Njoku, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Grant Delpit, etc., and Cleveland could be right back in the playoff hunt a year from now.
Besides, the results of the 1-31 two-year stretch were one playoff win in four seasons. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 