The ugly season authored by the Cleveland Browns continued on Sunday with another abysmal offensive performance in a 24-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Queen City dropping their record to 3-12.
It was the 10th time this season the Browns failed to gain 300 yards of total offense. Of the five games they exceeded that total, Jameis Winston was at the controls in four of them.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson was the starting quarterback and frankly, the offense looked a lot like it did in the first seven games with Deshaun Watson at the helm. He was skittish in the pocket, looked to escape very early, not giving receivers a chance, and of course, running himself into sacks.
The game started promising for the Browns as Jerome Ford ripped off a 66-yard run on the game’s very first play. But true to the Ken Dorsey offense, Ford carried just nine more times on the day, gaining 92 yards on the ground as Cleveland felt the need to have a very inexperienced QB throw 34 passes.
The Browns rank 28th in rushing attempts and 27th in yardage this season, which is by far the worst ranking for any offense coordinated or guided as a head coach by Kevin Stefanski.
Until last year, his teams were always in the top ten in rushing, and last season finished 12th and that was with Nick Chubb being injured in the second game of the year.
And when you think about it, the identity of the Cleveland Browns is the running game, tough, physical football. The greatest running back in the history of the game, Jim Brown, played here.
So did Marion Motley, Leroy Kelly, Greg Pruitt, Mike Pruitt, Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner both gained 1000 yards in the same season, and of course, Chubb has been one of the best runners of the last 10-15 years of NFL football.
It’s in the DNA to run the ball in Cleveland, and currently the Browns have an offensive coordinator who doesn’t like to run the ball.
Apparently, Stefanski’s success of running the football and using the play action pass didn’t figure into the decision in choosing the offensive coordinator because their ideas on offense seem to be at odds with each other.
To us, the first step to making this football team respectable when it has the football is to go back to the identity of the franchise and what the head coach clearly likes to do, and that is establish a solid running attack.
Back to Sunday’s loss. After that opening run by Ford, the Browns got no points because D’Onta Foreman fumbled on the one-yard line, presumably his last carry as a member of the brown and orange.
Cleveland’s biggest weapon of late, WR Jerry Jeudy was made useless by the switch in quarterbacks from Winston to Thompson-Robinson, who mostly dinked and dunked with short passes to Ford and David Njoku.
The turnover issues didn’t end with Winston’s benching as DTR threw two, and his career ratio now stands at one touchdown and nine picks in 180 attempts. We think we can all see he is not a legitimate starter in the NFL.
Congratulations to Myles Garrett on getting his 100th sack of his illustrious career. The front office has work to do in rebuilding this roster quick so Garrett will want to remain a Brown.
And of course, Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point, his only kick of the day. His confidence is clearly shaken, and he should not be kicking any more this year.
Not that these last two games really matter. It will be interesting to see at what point Stefanski pulls the plug on the DTR experience and goes to Bailey Zappe.
Merry Christmas! The Browns don’t play until Sunday!
Cleveland Sports Perspective 