Complementary football, coaches talk about it all the time and what they mean is they want all of the units, offense, defense, and special teams to support each other. The Cleveland Browns were failing in this regard in the second half on Sunday.
Leading 10-3 at halftime against the Carolina Panthers, the special teams failed when Malachi Corley fumbled the second half kickoff, leading to a Panthers’ field goal to cut the lead to 10-6.
From there, the offense had three consecutive three and outs which had the defense on the field for all but four minutes in the third quarter. The defense was growing wearier, allowing two more field goals to give Carolina a 12-10, before the Browns finally put a drive together for an Andre Szmyt 46-yard field goal.
That was followed by the Panthers going through the tired defense like a hot knife through butter, 72 yards in six plays resulted in an 18-13 deficit for the home team.
And then, the offense woke up. Heading into the fourth quarter, Deshaun Watson had frankly been terrible. He was fortunate to not throw a pick six in the first half. Missed an open KC Concepcion in the third quarter with a throw behind him.
He had completed just 8 of 19 throws for 67 yards to that point. But in the fourth quarter, Watson started making plays. He completed three of four throws for 43 yards on the drive to take back the lead at 13-12 and also ran for 11 yards on two carries.
Then, coming back into the game trailing 18-13, he moved the team hitting five of nine throws with a key scramble of 21 yards. He did throw an interception which was nullified by a roughing the passer call, but completed a TD pass to Harold Fannin to give the Browns a lead they would not relinquish.
The running game was much more effective, as Cleveland gained 132 yards on the ground, with Quinshon Judkins getting 70 on 18 carries and Watson getting 45 more. Todd Monken and offensive coordinator Travis Switzer have to get the ball to Denzel Boston more. He was targeted just four times on Sunday compared to nine each for Concepcion and Fannin.
We like both of those latter names, but Boston should be getting about 10 targets per game in our eyes. He’s the best wide receiver on the team.
Monken gave the game ball to defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg and deservedly so. We complained about playing zone so often in the first game, but Sunday, he put Denzel Ward on Tet McMillan, and he caught two passes for 17 yards.
As we said before, because the unit was on the field much of the third quarter, the overall numbers are skewed, but Quincy Williams was all over the field and Mason Graham was disruptive as well, getting two more sacks to give him four on the young season.
Mike Hall and Jared Verse also were impressive and remember, Cleveland was without starting cornerback Tyson Campbell, who is very good in man-to-man coverage.
It was tough to watch this game at times because the officiating crew seemed to want to make the game about them, as there were 19 accepted penalties. No one wants to watch a flagfest.
A short week for the Browns, who are tied for first in the AFC North with everyone else and take on the Steelers Thursday night. We imagine winning these last two games are difficult for the tank for a QB crowd, but we hate that kind of thinking, so we love it.
