Browns Flounder Through “Easy” Part Of The Schedule

When the NFL schedule was released, it appeared the first four games of the slate were the soft part of the season for the Cleveland Browns. Well, they now sit at 1-3 on the year after a 20-16 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, and it is getting late pretty quickly.

Now you never know for sure what is going to happen. We doubt many thought that out of the balance of the games before the bye week (Washington, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore, LA Chargers), that the Commanders would have the best record (3-1) at this point.

The Browns look like a team that hasn’t had a first-round pick for the last three years. They lack depth, particularly on the offensive line and at running back. As for the latter, don’t you think after Nick Chubb went down last season, the organization would have searched for a similar type of back?

We say that knowing Chubb is incredible, but we are talking about someone who can run effectively inside the tackles.

We continue to repeat the old football adage that remains true even though today’s NFL is a passing league: If you can’t run the ball and can’t stop the run, you are a bad football team.

Cleveland has run for 100 yards in a game this season just once, and true to form, it was the game they won, running for 125 against the Jaguars. Defensively, they have allowed 100 yards in every game, and it has deteriorated week by week, allowing a season low 102 in week one, and 152 last Sunday.

The pass rush still seems to be based solely on Myles Garrett, who is battling multiple injuries and still was the Browns’ best defender. He had the team’s only two sacks and half of the tackles for loss against the Raiders.

All that being said, the defense hasn’t allowed a lot of points after the season opener, and ranks 11th in yards allowed, a respectable ranking.

Which leads us back to the offense, which hasn’t scored 20 points in a game through four weeks, scoring a high of a paltry 17 points against the Jags. They have yet to gain 300 yards in a game, something they did 13 times last year, including five times with Watson at the helm before his shoulder injury.

Yes, the offensive line is banged up, but that doesn’t explain the total lack of production on this side of the ball. They still have Joel Bitonio and Ethan Pocic (although he was injured on Sunday) and Nick Harris has played before without issues.

And besides, they play well on the first drive of the game, so what happens after that?

The problem still comes back to the Deshaun Watson trade. The Browns could have drafted an offensive lineman, another pass rusher, and perhaps another running back with the pick moved to Houston to get Watson.

And it would have been worth it if they were getting a top five quarterback, but Watson has yet to show that, and at this point, he probably never will.

But how many other moves were made to protect the investment in that deal? They replaced a viable offensive coordinator. They let go a solid veteran backup quarterback.

The front office also keeps chasing stars in terms of playmaking hoping the coaching staff can keep producing quality offensive linemen.

Is the season over and should fans start looking to the 2025 NFL Draft? Not yet, but there has to be serious soul searching in Berea this week. And that should reach all the way to the top of the organization.

A Lot Of Success, But Guardians Have To Cash In (Sometime)

The Cleveland Guardians start their quest for their first World Championship since 1948 next Saturday, likely hosting the winner of the Wild Card Series matchup between the Astros and Tigers.

The first two games are at Progressive Field.

If you grew up in the sixties and seventies, when Cleveland baseball was largely a losing proposition, it might surprise you that the Indians/Guardians (and Blues, Naps, etc.) have the 7th highest winning percentage among the current Major League teams.

And if you limit this to current American League franchises, Cleveland is third, behind only the behemoths of the East, New York and Boston.

Among those top ten records, one thing sticks out, the number of world titles. Cleveland has the least with just two, ironically the only other team in this group with less than four titles is the club the Indians lost to in 2016, the Cubs have just three.

The franchise has won only six pennants, half of them coming in the last 30 years. Again, the regular season record is very good, but the A’s (15), Tigers (11) and the Orioles (7) have both won more American League championships, and remember, the Orioles were the lowly St. Louis Browns until 1955, and they only won once in 1944.

The White Sox and Twins have equaled the six pennants won by Cleveland, so they are actually tied for the least success achieved by the original members of the Junior Circuit.

This will be the 17th post-season appearance for the franchise, ranking behind New York (58), Oakland (29), Boston (25), Houston and Minnesota (each with 18, although it must be noted the Astros made the NL playoffs before coming over to the AL in 2013).

They have made the playoffs eight times in the AL, winning two World Series.

What is the point of rehashing a somewhat sad story?

It’s that it is time for the Guardians to cash in one.

We have heard about all the success in the wild card era, the Jacobs/Progressive Field era if you will. Fourteen post-season appearances in that span, 12 AL Central Division titles.

In that span, only the Yankees and Red Sox have made the playoffs more often, but they have each won multiple World Series.

Cleveland has dominated the division. Minnesota has won the second most division titles with nine, while the Tigers and White Sox have each won four and the Royals taking the crown just once.

But the White Sox and Royals each won the Series, Chicago winning in 2005 and Kansas City ten years later.

Minnesota has had trouble winning in the post-season recently, but most of their fans remember and celebrate their two World Series victories in 1987 and 1991.

It hasn’t been 76 years like it has for Cleveland baseball fans, but it has now been 40 years since the Tigers won their last Series in 1984.

The point is for all the success Cleveland has had since 1995; they need to cash in with a title. There was a discussion on social media about what franchise you would like to have as a fan over the last 50 years and Kansas City was an option.

Most fans selected the Royals because even though they have had some valleys, 17 seasons of 90 or more losses since 1992, they have the 1985 and 2015 World Series winners.

Yes, baseball is a sport that has a potentially volatile post-season, meaning any team that gets in the playoffs has a chance to win the world title. We’ve seen a few teams with less than 90 wins win it.

Heck, the 1997 Indians only won 86 games, and made it to game 7 of the Fall Classic.

So, we get the argument (and we’ve made it) to just get in and you have a shot. But what is missing from perhaps the best 30 year stretch of baseball in Cleveland?

1948 still rings in our ears.

A Browns’ Functional Offense Can Win Games

When the Cleveland Browns were in negotiations to trade for Deshaun Watson, it was reported that the quarterback’s interactions with head coach Kevin Stefanski went amazingly well.

The two talked football, x’s and o’s, and Stefanski showed him ideas and the concepts of what he would like to do, and Watson appeared to be in agreement that it would be a beneficial relationship for both of them.

There is no doubt in our mind that Stefanski was excited. That’s how coaches are. Without any negative baggage people are aware of, coaches think they can get the best out of any player, that’s how they are wired.

Stefanski has had success running offenses as a coach in Minnesota and Cleveland, and we are sure he felt what he liked to do would mesh well with a passer who had several big seasons and a couple of playoff appearances in Houston.

And we are sure Watson was equally excited to have a coach whose offenses have had plenty of success in the NFL.

But offenses have changed in the NFL since 2018-2020, Watson’s heyday in Houston. The Kansas City Chiefs, who have won three Super Bowls since that period, do not run the same attack as they did in Patrick Mahomes’ first year as a starter.

So, hoping the Watson who played for the Texans is magically going to return wearing a Browns’ uniform is probably a wish that isn’t going to come true.

Meanwhile, while Watson was out due to suspension and injury over the last two years, the Browns’ offense has performed pretty well, ranking in the middle of the pack in ’22 (18th) and landing in the top ten (10th) last season.

Stefanski likes to run the football and throw off of play action. That usually means the QB has to play under center. Watson prefers to be in the shotgun. Stefanski likes to be ahead of the chains, usually going with a short pass on first down to gain five yards or so, and then be able to run the ball on 2nd and possible 3rd down.

Watson likes to take shots down the field, usually after he buys time in the backfield by using his legs. He also takes a lot of sacks, leading the league in 2018 and was sacked over 40 times in both ’19 and ’20.

That puts his team in obvious pass situations. Stefanski doesn’t like those situations.

The point is in spite of both people’s intentions, what they both like to do is in direct contrast with each other.

After last season, the organization decided to bring in a new offensive coordinator, Ken Dorsey, who has experience with mobile QBs, but physically, Cam Newton and Josh Allen, the players Dorsey worked with, are much bigger and would seem to be able to take more hits because of that size.

With the injuries on the offensive line, it would seem the best offense for the Browns to win with would be to run the Stefanski attack, keep the QB out of bad down and distance situations and running the football and take downfield shots with play action.

Can Watson run that offense effectively and better yet, can he be fulfilled running the attack in that fashion?

We think the Browns can have success if the offense plays at a league average level. The defense is that strong. Winning is the object of the sport, no one should forget that.

Bad Loss For Browns, Who Need To Get Back To Basics

There are bad losses in the NFL, and there are really bad losses, and the latter is what happened to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, losing to the New York Giants 21-15.

The Giants came into the games having allowed 215 yards on the ground to Washington the previous week, and 111 in their opener. But the Browns decided to run the ball just 18 times, and four of those were by Deshaun Watson, so let’s say Cleveland ran about 16 running plays.

Why? It’s a mystery.

The game started well enough. New York fumbled the opening kickoff, the Browns recovered and scored on the next play, a 24-yard pass to Amari Cooper, and it looked like it was supposed to be, an easy Browns’ win at home.

On New York’s second drive, Ronnie Hickman picked off a Daniel Jones throw, but Greg Newsome was called for roughing the passer (Jones wasn’t even knocked down), and the Giants boat raced Cleveland the rest of the first half.

They put together two long drives and then with the first half running down, Watson fumbled with 27 seconds left, New York recovered on the Cleveland 30 and scored again to make it 21-3 at the half.

The decision to eschew the running game after a solid effort against Jacksonville was curious. In the first half, Cleveland ran the ball on their second first down (a 4-yard run by Jerome Ford), and on the next first down (3-yard run by D’Onta Foreman). They ran it just two other plays, not counting a QB sneak by Jameis Winston.

With the Giants’ blitzing on pretty much every play, not doing anything to slow down the rush is the fault of the game plan.

The defense hasn’t played great, although again, in the second half they shutout the Giants, but the offense seems broken, as the Browns haven’t scored more than 18 points in any of their three games this season.

Compare that to the end of last season when the Browns averaged 23.3 points a game to rank 10th in the NFL. And in the last five game, they scored 27.6 points per contest.

And that was without Nick Chubb.

And it was also after Jedrick Wills Jr. was injured and Geron Christian was played left tackle.

We have said this before, but the Browns’ offense wasn’t a problem, but they changed coordinators and some other coaches to put together an offense more suited to Watson, who played maybe two good games in the dozen he started?

What can they do going forward? Simply, they need to run the football and stick with the ground game. They have only run the ball for over 100 yards once this year, and not surprisingly, it was the game they won, rushing for 125.

Running the ball slows down the pass rush, and allows you to run play action, a staple of Stefanski’s offense. It may not be the high-flying attack they thought they could have with Watson, but it helps you win football games.

And that’s the name of the game. Everyone has to put their egos aside and do what is best for this football team. You have a two-time coach of the year on the sideline, whether people in Cleveland agree with that or not.

Maybe it’s time to do what he wants to do with the offense?

Guardians And Their Incredible Bullpen Head To October

As the Beatles once said, it was a “Long and Winding Road” for the Cleveland Guardians in 2024. They rolled to a 38-19 start through the end of May, and looked to be on a path to 100+ victories.

But starting in June, the offense sputtered and over the next three months, Steven Vogt’s squad went 39-40 in the three summer months, through August. And then when the Kansas City Royals were breathing down their backs, they turned it on going 13-7 to date in September.

In the past few years, the American League Central Division was baseball’s poor stepchild, the weakest division in the sport. However, this season, it looks like three teams will make the post-season party, and in the next few days, the Guards will clinch a bye right to the best-of-five Division Series, where they will have home field advantage.

The offense is too dependent on Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and prior to the All-Star break, Steven Kwan, although if Kyle Manzardo can maintain what he is doing through the playoffs, it would go a long way.

But the Guardians have depended on their bullpen all year long, led by the sports’ best closer in Emmanuel Clase, a Cy Young Award candidate. He likely will not win, but he probably will finish second.

When Cleveland won the division title in 2022, Clase was incredible, going 3-4 with 42 saves and a 1.36 ERA, allowing just 43 hits in 72.2 innings.

He’s been better this year, saving 46 games with a 0.63 ERA, allowing just 37 hits in 71.1 innings.

And he’s backed by a pair of relievers having equally dominant years in rookie Cade Smith (1.96 ERA, 100 strikeouts in 73.1 IP) and Hunter Gaddis (1.53 ERA, 39 hits allowed in 70.2 IP).

Fox analyst John Smoltz said a few months ago that when you play the Guardians, you are essentially playing a five inning game. That’s how good those relievers have been.

What’s even more incredible is that in the past few weeks, we’ve seen even more dominance, as Tim Herrin (1.90 ERA, 63 Ks in 61.1 IP) and now recently called up Andrew Walters, drafted just last year, who has provided five appearances and has yet to allow a hit.

Just this week, the Guardians have also had great outings from Eli Morgan in the extra inning win over Minnesota, and Erik Sabrowski, called up at the end of August and saved Friday’s win over St. Louis with 2.1 scoreless innings.

Could Vogt need just four innings from a starting pitcher in the playoffs? That will be interesting to watch. Remember, Joe Torre and Terry Francona revolutionized relief pitching usage in the post-season by asking their primary relievers to get one more out, go 1.1 IP instead of just three outs.

The emergence of Herrin and Walters could really shorten the game for Cleveland.

We feared all season the lack of innings provided by the starting rotation this season would take a toll on the relief corps by August and September. So far, the bullpen might be even better down the stretch because of Herrin, the additions of Walters and Sabrowski, and the way Morgan has pitched.

He had problems with the gopher ball before this season, allowing 19 dingers over the past two season, but this year, he’s taken care of that issue to date, giving up just two long balls.

This is a contrast from Nick Sandlin, who has allowed 12 homers this year and 24 over the past two campaigns. Could he lose his spot on the playoff roster because of it?

Congratulations to the Central Division champs! Since the wild card era started in 1995, they’ve won 12 division titles, an incredible run.

One of these years, they are going to cash in with a World Series win. Could the bullpen make that year this year?

Regarding The Browns’ Offense…

In the off-season, the Cleveland Browns replaced offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt with Ken Dorsey, and the reason given for the move was Dorsey was more familiar working with dual threat quarterback, having worked with Josh Allen in Buffalo and Cam Newton in Carolina.

It was part of the Browns’ quest to “unlock” Deshaun Watson and have him return to the guy who had passer ratings over 100 in Houston from 2017 to 2020.

Since he joined the Browns, Watson’s highest rating was the 84.3 he achieved last season, in which he played just six games. This year, after two contests, his rating is just 63.0.

Kevin Stefanski and Van Pelt ran a good offense as well. In terms of yardage, the Vikings’ offense in Stefanski’s year as offensive coordinator ranked 16th in yards gained, and with the Browns, the attack was solid, with ranks ranging from 14th to 16th.

Dorsey’s offenses in Buffalo were 2nd and 4th in his two years as OC, but remember, he was let go last season during the year.

Both like to run the football. Stefanski had Dalvin Cook in Minnesota and then Nick Chubb in Cleveland, and until 2023, those teams were in the top ten in the league in running the ball.

So were Dorsey’s attacks in his two years in Buffalo.

The biggest difference we think is who does the running in each offense. Dorsey had quarterbacks who ran for over 700 yards three times in the ten seasons he has been quarterback coach or offensive coordinator. The QBs ran for more than 500 yards in two more years.

Watson ran for more than 400 yards in three of his four seasons in Houston. But he is really the first dual threat passer that Stefanski has handled.

The quarterbacks Stefanski had in Minnesota and Cleveland have all done well. Here are their passer ratings (although that stat just measures passing efficiency):

2017 Minnesota QB coach: Case Keenum 98.3
2018 Minnesota QB coach: Kirk Cousins 99.7
2019 Minnesota offensive coordinator: Cousins 107.4
2020 Browns Head Coach: Baker Mayfield 95.9
2021 Browns Head Coach: Mayfield (83.1), Keenum (91.3)
2022 Browns Head Coach: Jacoby Brissett (88.9), Watson (79.1)
2023 Browns Head Coach: Joe Flacco (90.2), Watson (84.3)

For Cousins, the ’19 season was his best as a pro, as was the case for Mayfield’s 2020 campaign, Brissett’s ’22 year, and for Keenum as well in ’17. For Flacco, it was his best season since 2014 with the Ravens.

Only Watson hasn’t thrived under Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski likes to work in a lot of play action, and Watson’s best (and longest) completion on Sunday was off a fake and resulted in a 30-yard pass to Jerry Jeudy.

Perhaps that’s what the basis of the offense should be right now. By all measures, the vertical passing game is disappearing in the NFL as defenses have adjusted.

We also think the coaching staff and front office would like Watson to cut down on running the ball himself unless absolutely necessary. Heck, in QB sneak situations, Cleveland put Jameis Winston in to take the snaps.

The point is this–Charles Barkley once said, “if it’s not broke, don’t break it”. Maybe that’s what the Cleveland Browns did with their offense. It’s something to keep an eye on week to week.

Browns Use Old Offense To Beat Jags.

Last week, we said it was just one game in referring to the Cleveland Browns’ loss to Dallas in the season opener.

This week, we will reach into the cliche bag and tell everyone a win is a win. The Browns played a very good first half of football and held on to beat Jacksonville 18-13 to raise their record to 1-1.

After hiring a new offensive coordinator in Ken Dorsey, who was bringing in an attack more friendly to a dual threat quarterback, the Cleveland offense looked much like the same as it had the previous years under Alex Van Pelt.

The brown and orange came out trying to work the running game. After having just 19 running plays vs. Dallas, and some of those were Deshaun Watson scrambles after escaping the pass rush, they ran the ball 29 times for 125 yards.

D’Onta Foreman started and had the most carries, toting the ball 14 times for 42 yards, and had a huge run in the fourth quarter that unfortunately was called back when he grabbed a defender’s face mask. Jerome Ford looked much better than he did in week one to us and seemed to run harder hitting the holes.

He had 64 yards on seven carries, including a big 36-yard on a fourth down play.

The offense looked a lot like the same kind of system used when Jacoby Brissett was behind center. It appeared the coaching staff told Watson to take care of the football, and indeed Cleveland did not turn it over all day.

There weren’t a lot of high-risk throws. Perhaps the one play that stands out was Watson at the end of a scramble throwing the football into a crowd and somehow Jerry Jeudy came down with it on the sidelines.

Watson would up 22 of 34 for 186 yards and ran the ball five times for 20 yards. It was interesting to see Stefanski use Jameis Winston, a bigger QB, in some short yardage situations for quarterback sneaks.

The defense allowed two big plays, the 66-yard pass from Trevor Lawrence to Brian Thomas and Lawrence’s 33-yard run, otherwise, the Jaguars were bottled up all game. The Browns sacked Lawrence four times, including a safety on Alex Wright’s sack, which should have salted away the game.

Ultimately, that sack followed the play of the game, the punt by Corey Bojorquez which went out of bounds on the one-yard line late in the fourth quarter. Stefanski decided to punt rather than have Dustin Hopkins try a 58-yard field goal, and that was the correct decision.

Speaking of Stefanski’s decisions, we also believe the last offensive play was not supposed to end in a pass, he wanted Watson to roll out, gain as many yards as he could, and then go down and keep the clock running.

We are sure some will focus on the penalties, which Cleveland accumulated 13 flags during the game. It needs to be cleaned up, but there seems to be another “point of emphasis” with officials to call motion penalties. And according to people who know football better than us, a few flags against the Browns were not merited.

But again, a win is a win, and the Browns should be expected to win next Sunday at home against the 0-2 Giants. It will be interesting to see what the offense looks like. Will it be run oriented at the start or throwing a lot.

Either way, Cleveland got a win they needed after a terrible first game showing. And that’s a good thing.

Guardians’ Struggling Due To Struggling Offense

The old adage in baseball is “you win with pitching”, and certainly that is true. The less runs you allow your opponent to score the better. It’s particularly true in the post-season, where every run scored should be precious.

However, in the regular season, you have to score to be successful. A look at the six highest scoring teams in the American League shows five teams which should make the post-season: New York, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, Minnesota, and Houston.

The Guardians are just outside that group, averaging 4.47 runs per game whereas the Astros are at 4.62.

And just when the Guards need to string some wins and hopefully clinch a division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs, their hitting is taking another ill-timed snooze.

Yes, they did come home after a sweep over the Chicago White Sox, but the Pale Hose will likely have the worst record in the history of modern baseball, on track to lose more than 120 games in 2024, and frankly, it is not as though the offense was clicking in the Windy City, scoring just 16 runs in the three games.

In the six contests prior to last night not played against a terrible team, the Guardians have scored 1, 3, 2, 0, 2, and 1 runs, a total of 9 runs for an average of 1.5 runs per game.

And as with the “slump” that occurred in August, the Guardians’ best three hitters aren’t producing. This isn’t to put blame on Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and Steven Kwan, but it shows how much Steven Vogt’s roster depends on them for offense. Here are the numbers over the last 28 days:

Ramirez: .228 BA, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 683 OPS.
J. Naylor: .232, 2 HR, 14 RBI, 663 OPS
Kwan: .165, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 496 OPS and 309 on base percentage.

And it’s not as though their teammates are picking them up. Yes, Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio have done better the past couple of weeks, but make no mistake, this is still a team with major offensive issues.

The league average on base percentage is .309. The Guardians have four players over that threshold on the team, the three players mentioned previously plus David Fry (.357).

As a team, Cleveland is tenth in the AL in drawing walks and ninth in batting average. They have hit a lot more home runs this season, ranking 7th, up from last in 2023. Since the All-Star break, their on base percentage is .295.

Last night’s three-run rally? It started with a walk to Angel Martinez, who demonstrated some patience at the plate in his first tenure with the big club.

No one is asking this group to be the 1999 Cleveland Indians which scored over 1000 runs, the last MLB team to do so. But they can’t have periods like Thursday night, when they scored two runs on four hits in the first two innings, and then get one hit the rest of the way.

In short, good hitters draw walks. Take a look at the AL leaders in drawing bases on balls. You see names like Judge, Soto, Henderson, Guerrero, and Devers. What you won’t see is the name of anyone on the Guardians.

That’s something to take a look at this off-season for sure.

Counting Down The Magic Numbers And What About Cobb?

September baseball is so cool when the team you follow is a contender. Scoreboard watching. Counting down the magic number. It’s all part of following baseball at a time when football is starting to consume the public.

Especially here in northeast Ohio.

With the new playoff set up in baseball, there are several magic numbers to watch. First and foremost, most people look at winning the division, because that’s what fans have been trained to do.

Currently that number is 12. When the two teams behind you play each other, one wants one team to win two out of three, the worst-case scenario is for one team to sweep. But last weekend the Royals swept the Twins, meaning Kansas City picked up ground when the Guardians lost to two of three to the Dodgers.

With Cleveland now holding a share of the best record in the American League, we are sure the Guardians would like to finish with one of the two best records in the league, thus being able to advance right to the Division Series, which is best-of-five, with the Guards have the home field advantage.

Right now, Houston is in first place in the West, and Cleveland is 5.5 games ahead of them. This means the magic number to bypass the Wild Card Series, best-of-three, is 13, with the Astros finishing the regular season with three games at Progressive Field.

And of course, there is another magic number associated with just getting into the post-season “tournament”, meaning the Guardians would be no worse than the sixth seed in the AL, currently held by the Twins, who hold a three-game lead over Detroit and four over Seattle and Boston.

That number would be 8, since Cleveland took the season series from Detroit, 7-6.

The penultimate trip of the regular season was a success if only because the Guardians went into KC, their closest rivals, and took two of three. They salvaged one game in Los Angeles, and then did what had to be done in Chicago against the team that seems in line to shatter the record for losing, which was symbolic for the expansion New York Mets, who famously went 40-120.

Now, there is only one trip left, a three-game trek to St. Louis next weekend. Otherwise, Steven Vogt’s squad spends the rest of their slate at home, but they don’t get any days off until they return from the trip.

That means the pitching staff gets no rest for another week and a half. Because Gavin Williams couldn’t get out of the first last Saturday and Ben Lively took a line drive off the thigh and pitched just two innings Tuesday, and yesterday, Matthew Boyd couldn’t get through the 5th, so the bullpen has been taxed. Again.

And add to that, Alex Cobb’s problems. Yes, he’s pitched well in his last two starts, but he’s also been out with a cracked fingernail and a blister. Can he make some starts on turn in the last two and a half weeks?

We are sure the management would feel better about him in the post-season if he could do just that.

We didn’t anticipate conversations about the playoffs before this season started, but it is certainly fun to have them. Time to enjoy the games AND the scoreboard watching.

A Week One Stinker For Watson And The Browns

It’s just one game.

That’s the best thing we can say about the Browns’ 33-17 loss to Dallas in their season opener on Sunday. There are 16 more games and hopefully, Kevin Stefanski’s squad played their worst one in week one.

Under Stefanski’s tenure, the Browns have always had a strong running game, led by Nick Chubb. Last season, when Chubb missed most of the season, Cleveland ranked 12th in the league in rushing.

Early in Sunday’s contest, the Browns couldn’t run the ball, and that led to Dallas being able to ignore the possibility of a ground game and they put all kinds of pressure on Deshaun Watson, who didn’t handle it well.

Yes, we know the Browns were missing both of their starting tackles. But Dallas was starting two rookies on their offensive line, and Dak Prescott was sacked three times (Watson was sacked six) and gained four yards per carry when running the football.

Cleveland had one first down in the first half. One! Watson seemed confused and hesitant at most times during the game. As we said earlier, he was sacked six times, but a few of those times he sacked himself because he didn’t get rid of the football.

The Browns didn’t get the ball to their primary playmakers either. Amari Cooper caught two passes for 16 yards. David Njoku did catch four passes and was involved in the longest offensive play for Cleveland, 29 yards, but he left with an ankle injury.

Heralded off-season acquisition Jerry Jeudy caught three passes for 25 yards and did score the Browns’ first touchdown.

The Cleveland offense gained just 230 yards, most of that in the second half when the game was already decided.

Let’s not forget the special teams, which gave up a 60-yard punt return to KaVontae Turpin which pretty much iced the game for Dallas, making the score 27-3 early in the second half.

The defense wasn’t dominant, but actually played the best of any of the units. They held Dallas to just 265 yards of total offense, but gave up two long scoring drives, both in the first half, allowing a TD drive of 70 yards and a second one of 74.

Otherwise, as we said before, the Cowboys scored on a punt return, and field goal drives of 17, 1, 19, and 20 yards. Cleveland wound up winning the time of possession, but again, stats were misleading. When your offense gets one first down in a half, your defense is on the field a lot.

They weren’t great, but they were far from being awful.

However, fair or not, it still comes down to quarterback play for the Browns. Remember, it’s been four years since Watson has been one of the better passers in the NFL, and he didn’t look any different than the way he’s played normally since coming the Cleveland.

He was 0 for 10 in throws of more than 15 yards on Sunday, making him essentially a dink and dunk passer. Those guys are a dime a dozen in the NFL. Watson is paid to make big plays.

There has to be improvement on offense, and it needs to begin next week in Jacksonville. And not just Watson, the running game has to be better, and the offensive line needs to be do the same. Perhaps either Jack Conklin or Jedrick Wills will be back.

We would also like to see D’Onta Foreman and Pierre Strong get some more carries from scrimmage.

It’s just one game. Hopefully, we will have the same thought about Sunday after next week’s game.