Somehow, The Browns Pull Out A Win

The Cleveland Browns pulled a rabbit out of a hat Sunday and upset the Green Bay Packers 13-10 when Andre Szmyt made a 55-yard field goal as time expired.

The 0-6 start that many people predicted for the Browns won’t happen. But we think we speak for everyone in saying that halfway through the fourth quarter, we figured Kevin Stefanski’s crew was not only going to lose, but they were going to be shutout.

The offense took advantage of some penalties and got the ball to the Green Bay one with five minutes to go but got pushed back and had to settle for Szmyt’s first field goal. We imagine fans all over northeast Ohio were shaking their collective heads when the first down play was a rollout pass to reverse offensive lineman Luke Wypler.

Another instance of Stefanski trying to get too cute.

But an ill-advised pass by Jordan Love resulted in the Browns’ first turnover of the year, an interception by Grant Delpit and this time Cleveland punched it in to tie the game.

Then, a contribution by the special teams. Shelby Harris blocked a field goal with :21 left on the clock and gave the Browns one last chance.

There was great execution on a short pass to David Njoku, not in the play design, but in getting the offensive line back to the line of scrimmage so Joe Flacco could kill the clock and leave time for Szmyt’s heroics.

Unbelieveable

The reality about this football team is as long as they stay relatively healthy, the defense is going keep this team in games. It’s that good. Green Bay put up 266 and 404 yards in their first two games, both wins, but picked up 230 yards against Cleveland.

Cleveland’s defense had five sacks, as the Packers went into the game refusing to let Myles Garrett ruin their offense, and that created opportunities for everyone else.

Maliek Collins had a sack and a half, Alex Wright had one, Garrett and rookie Adin Huntington shared one, and the rookies also shined.

Carson Schwesinger continues to impress. He got his first sack and was in on 10 tackles. Mason Graham teamed up with Collins on a sack. And the defense allowed just 81 yards on the ground.

Right now, you can make the case they are the best defense in the league. And they haven’t faced any opponents that didn’t have solid, if not, high powered attacks.

Another rookie, RB Quinshon Judkins was a key in the fourth quarter, ripping off a 38-yard run in route to gaining 94 yards on the day.

The offensive line still appears to be a concern. Dawand Jones left the game in the first quarter and Jack Conklin missed the game again, so most of the way, the Browns were playing with Cornelius Lucas and KT Leveston were playing outside.

Flacco heard boos during the game as the Browns couldn’t muster much of an offense, maybe due to the offensive line play, and maybe because Stefanski has preached not putting the ball in harms’ way.

Right now, he is checking down virtually every pass play. The longest pass plays were a 17-yard toss to Jerry Jeudy and another to Isaiah Bond. There was a 13-yard play to Harold Fannin Jr., where he basically carried defenders to get that much yardage.

If we were defending the Browns, we would put nine in the box to stop Judkins and dare Flacco to air it out. And if defenses do that, it makes it difficult for Stefanski to establish the ground game.

However, a win is a win. The gauntlet doesn’t get any easier with a visit to Detroit, another high-powered offense next week.

Did You Really Expect A Win In Baltimore?

We know a lot of Browns’ fans are upset with Sunday’s 41-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, which dropped Cleveland to 0-2 on the season. Our question is why? We thought everyone figured Kevin Stefanski’s squad would struggle against a tough schedule early in the year.

Did you really think they were going to win?

Let’s start with some positives. The Browns are not the worst team in the NFL, and it’s not close. They very well could have won the opener against the Bengals, and we know this sound silly, but the loss to the Ravens was not a lopsided as the score indicates.

Also, Cleveland’s defense is very good. They lead the NFL in defense through two games and frankly, they have played two offenses who are led by two of the best quarterbacks in the league.

Oh, and by the way, Myles Garrett has 3.5 sacks after two games.

The rookie class continues to impress. Mason Graham and Carson Schwesinger are starters and contributors on that impressive defense. Harold Fannin Jr. and Dylan Sampson look good, and Quinshon Judkins made his debut and carried 10 times for 61 yards and caught three passes too.

But the Browns continue to shoot themselves in the foot. They were tied for the NFL lead in turning the ball over last season and have done so five times (we are including the blocked punt as one) in the first two games.

They need to be able to win games on the margins, and if you keep giving the ball to the other team, that’s something they simply cannot overcome.

We kept hearing about Stefanski’s ground based offense, yet Joe Flacco has put the ball in the air a league high 90 times in the first two games. Hopefully that changes now that Judkins is integrated into the offense, but the coach’s offense also likes to run play action, and you can’t do that unless you can run it.

It appears the team may have overestimated their offensive line. Run blocking is an issue and without that ability, opponents are pressuring Flacco.

They seemed to be fine with Jack Conklin at RT, but over the past few years, he’s missed more time than he’s played. Why not look for a replacement in the off-season? Dewand Jones has been penalized five times in the two games.

Cleveland signed Teven Jenkins as a free agent in the off-season, and he can play tackle, why isn’t he getting some time? Why not take a look at second year player Luke Wypler, who supposedly the brass likes?

And special teams continue to be an issue. In the opener, it was Andre Smyzt missing an extra point and a very makable (by NFL standards) field goal. Sunday, it was having a punt blocked. The Browns can’t afford for the kicking game to be a negative. Just being a “zero” would be an improvement.

As for a change at QB? Let’s hope the Browns avoid making the same mistake they’ve made in the past, that is playing a rookie quarterback before he’s ready. Dillon Gabriel looked good in garbage time, but that’s exactly what it was.

He will start sometime this season, and perhaps Shedeur Sanders will too, but now is not the time. Stefanski needs to fix the other issues the offense has before inserting one of this year’s draft picks.

Browns Did A Lot Of Things Right, But Still Lose

We all know how frustrating it can be to be a fan of the Cleveland Browns. Sunday’s game was just another example.

On a day when you much went right for the team, the Browns still lost to Cincinnati 17-16 and are now 0-1 to start the season with a date in Baltimore against the Ravens next weekend.

This game was lost because rookie Andre Szmyt, in his first NFL game, missed an extra point and a 36-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter. Most of the time in the NFL, kicks of 40 yards or less are automatic, they have to be converted.

We would bet the Browns will be looking for a new kicker this week.

They lost because they lost the turnover battle again, giving up the ball twice and not getting any of their own. Joe Flacco threw two interceptions, the first wasn’t a great throw and was batted up in the air by Jerry Jeudy. The second was right in the hands of Cedric Tillman and came with the Browns having a chance to have a go ahead drive in the last two minutes.

Otherwise, a lot went right for Kevin Stefanski’s team and GM Andrew Berry’s draft class. His first two selections, Mason Graham and Carson Schwesinger both started on a defense that looked a lot like the ’23 edition which led the NFL in total defense.

Graham had three assists playing in 81% of the snaps, while Schwesinger played on every defensive snap and was in on a team high eight tackles.

TE Harold Fannin Jr. was a big factor, lining up at many spots and catching seven passes for 63 yards, with a long of 22. You can tell Stefanski and Flacco have a lot of confidence in the young receiver.

RB Dylan Sampson had a dozen carries for 29 yards and also caught 8 passes for 64 yards. And for all the talk about Jerome Ford starting the year as the featured back, it was Sampson who got the bulk of the action. The latter had just six carries for eight yards.

Frankly, the Browns did everything they needed to do to win that football game. They controlled the ball, as time of possession favored Cleveland, 35:49 to 24:11 and consider the Bengals had a seven-minute drive to start the game. The Browns had 71 offensive plays to just 49 for Cincy.

It was a blueprint on how the Browns will need to play in 2025 if they want to win, except for the two turnovers.

Myles Garrett had two sacks and Isaiah McGuire had one. And we were also impressed with KR DeAndre Carter who also showed what a veteran returner does. He didn’t run backwards; he didn’t fair catch anything inside the ten.

That’s how it is supposed to be done.

We are concerned about LT Dawand Jones, who had four penalties in the game, although one was a holding call for something that seems to happen to Garrett on most plays. He needs to play a cleaner game.

The lack of a running game is a big concern too. Second round pick Quinshon Judkins signed over the weekend and could be ready to go next Sunday. He was drafted to be the primary workhorse running the ball, and Stefanski is going to need more than 49 yards on the ground for his offense to work.

The Cleveland Browns don’t have a lot of margin for error this season. That’s why the loss on Sunday stung. They could and should have won that game.

Now we see if this style of play is sustainable. Can they do it on the weekly basis? Guess we will find out in Baltimore.

It Was Always Going To Be Flacco, And Other Stuff…

The least shocking news of the week came on Monday when Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski named Joe Flacco the starting quarterback for the season opener against Cincinnati. This was inevitable since the team signed the 40-year-old veteran in the spring.

And again, for all of those you want to see Kenny Pickett as the starter, or for the Browns to repeat their awful recent history by starting a third round or fifth round rookie behind center, remember the Browns have a lot of accomplished veterans on the roster.

Make no mistake, not starting Flacco, who we would bet has the confidence of most of the team, would erode the trust players like Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, and David Njoku among others, had in the head coach and for that matter the entire coaching staff.

Dillon Gabriel got his chance last weekend against the Eagles and did okay, completing 13 of 18 passes for 143 yards, really a similar type of performance to what Shedeur Sanders did in week one. The big difference was the two turnovers, whether or not whose fault it was, the Browns turned the ball over way too much last season, and they can’t have it this year.

The bottom line is Gabriel was out there for two series where the offense turned it over. Fair or not, that has to be taken into consideration.

While everyone wants to talk QB, if this team is going to exceed the not-so-great expectations the experts have put on them, it’s going to be because of the defense. It was encouraging to hear about the pass rush in the organized practices against a pretty solid Eagles’ offensive line.

Remember, they will start two rookies in DT Mason Graham and LB Carson Schwesinger. If the secondary can hold up their part of the bargain, the defense will keep the Browns in most games.

One guy we continue to watch is running back Ahmani Marshall, who gained 25 yards in six carries against Philadelphia. If you want to have a power running game, which Stefanski likes, we would rather have bigger backs, and Marshall, an undrafted free agent out of Appalachian State, is 6’1″ and 225 pounds.

The unsigned second round draft pick, Quinshon Judkins, weighs 221 lbs. The other rookie runner Cleveland drafted, Dylan Sampson is a smaller, “change of pace” back, listed at 5’8″, 200 pounds.

The incumbent, Jerome Ford, is kind of in between Judkins, Marshall, and Sampson at 5’10” and 210 pounds. Remember, Nick Chubb was listed at 227.

We get the whole pre-season thing, and we’ve never been a fan of Ford because although he’s a home run threat, he does get the four or five runs in between the tackles, but maybe you can get a draft pick for Ford, who is on the last year of his contract anyway.

Only one more of these games left, although this week we will likely see all four quarterbacks get some playing time because Flacco wants to play a series or two. After that, fans will likely see a lot of players fighting to make an NFL team.

Then the Bengals come in to start the season.

A Week Later, Taking Two QBs Is Still Puzzling

We still are puzzled by the Cleveland Browns’ draft and it is now over a week old.

We have been critical of the “collaborative process” that GM Andrew Berry always talks about because to us, there has to be a single person that sets the vision and philosophy of what Cleveland Browns football looks like.

And once again, the weirdness did not begin until late in day two.

Trading down to get Mason Graham? No problem there. We watched, like most people in Ohio, as Graham was a dominant figure in Michigan’s shocking win over the eventual National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Putting him next to Myles Garrett on the defensive line should pose a very strong front four for defensive coordinator Jim Schwarz.

UCLA LB Carson Schwesinger received some first round grades and could be a sign that Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will not be ready to play this year.

We do not think Jerome Ford is an every down running back and actually have no problem drafting two. The running game is a staple of Kevin Stefanski’s offense, so taking Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson remakes the running back room.

FYI, we would still bring back Nick Chubb. The worst-case scenario (besides another 3-14 record) for the Browns is Chubb going elsewhere and still have something left in the tank. It may not be the best football move, but it would be great for the fan base, which has seen its share of mediocre football recently.

Also, TE Harold Fannin Jr. is another solid choice, another staple of the Stefanski offense is having two quality tight ends.

Of course, we are really getting at taking two quarterbacks. And we bet if there was a singular person in charge when whoever came up with the idea to take Shadeur Sanders just 50 selections after taking Dylan Gabriel, the football czar would have said no.

We envision those Progressive Insurance commercials with “Dr. Rick” with the doctor sighing and shaking his head when the idea is brought to him.

First off, the Browns need a quarterback, but they also could use offensive line help, another wide receiver, another edge pass rusher, and in today’s NFL, you can always use a cornerback.

But how is the team going to keep four quarterbacks on the roster? If winning games is the goal, and it should be, despite many media members in town wanting to write off the 2025 season, then Joe Flacco should be the starter for Game 1.

They traded for Kenny Pickett prior to the draft, and he is a former starter in the NFL. And we said coming into the draft, even if the Browns took a passer with the second overall pick, we wouldn’t let him touch the field until late in the ’25 campaign. At the earliest.

The point is the Browns had a solid draft until they decided to take two QBs, one of whom might be the most famous player in the draft. And that’s not a rap on Sanders, who we would have taken earlier.

It’s having two rookies on the roster at a position where only one can play.

And worse, the Browns have created this circus themselves. Perhaps that what they want, just like the Dallas Cowboys always want to seem to be in the news. But does that help you win?

More than likely, Browns’ fans will find out it doesn’t. But at least, it will be a collaborative process from the front office.