Allowing The Big Play Kills Browns Today

It is very difficult to maintain optimism regarding an 0-6 NFL team.

Going into the season, we preached that the Cleveland Browns were not going to be good this season, in fact, we figured a 2-14 or 3-13 record would be about what the final record would be.

That doesn’t mean it’s fun to watch the games and see the young players make mistakes that cost the Browns every week. Hue Jackson will tell us that it is his job to coach them up, but we all know he’s got to be shaking his head when watching the film.

Today, the final score wasn’t indicative of the closeness of the game. The defense allowed too many big play, including the very first one, a 41-yard run by Titans’ QB Marcus Mariota. But the young Browns kept fighting to the end, but still wound up on the short end of a 28-26 score.

Here are the positives, negatives, and officiating comments from today’s contest.

Positives. Much was made of Tennessee’s ground game coming into the week, but outside of that first run by Mariota, the Browns controlled DeMarco Murray, who averaged just over 3 yards a carry.

After the initial play, Cleveland allowed just 96 rushing yards on 30 attempts.

Cody Kessler played well too, completing 26 of 41 passes for his first NFL 300 yard passing day (336 yards) and two touchdown throws, both to Terrelle Pryor.

Pryor was productive too, grabbing nine receptions for 75 yards. Kessler has yet to hit him on a deep throw though.

And after being belittled on a pre-game show earlier in the day for no reason, Danny Shelton had his first NFL sack and five tackles. The nose tackle’s play is a big reason for the success against the run for the Browns for most of this season.

Negatives. If we were Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta, we would be scouring the waiver wire for cornerbacks.

Without Joe Haden today, Titans’ WR Kendall Wright blistered the secondary for eight catches and 133 yards. All in all, Tennessee had three plays of over 40 yards.

The offensive line continues to struggle. The Browns couldn’t run the ball (15 attempts, 40 yards) and Kessler was sacked six times.

Austin Pasztor is not a tackle, and should be playing guard, and Alvin Bailey shouldn’t be playing at all. Perhaps Jackson should try newcomer Jonathan Cooper and rookie Shon Coleman starting next week, because the Browns need to run the football much better than they have the last two weeks.

Ricardo Louis had five grabs for 65 yards, but dropped at least two passes that we could count. The rookie’s hands were questionable on draft day, and he needed to help out his QB by making some plays today.

Cleveland was just 3 for 14 on third down conversions and seemed to be equally bad on first down, shooting themselves in the foot with negative plays and/or penalties on first down, putting Kessler in a lot of bad positions.

That’s not helping the kid’s progress.

Officiating. Nothing stands out here. The worst call might have gone the Browns’ way as they flagged the Titans for pass interference on a long pass to Duke Johnson, where we though the contact was minimal.

Now the road show for the Browns take them to Cincinnati to play the struggling Bengals, the team Jackson was offensive coordinator for a year ago.

The points of emphasis this week should be the offensive line/running back and the secondary. Those positions were the biggest disappointments we can take away from this week six loss.

Not Much Good To Take Away From Browns’ Beating Today.

What were you expecting?

The New England Patriots are one of the NFL’s best teams and their quarterback, future Hall of Famer Tom Brady was just returning from a four game suspension that at best was questionable, and in reality was probably unjust.

As plucky as the young Browns have been this season, this didn’t appear to be a game they would be able to stay in throughout the contest.

They didn’t disappoint, as Hue Jackson’s squad was rolled by the Patriots, 33-13 at First Energy Stadium.

On the injury front, the news wasn’t much better as QB Cody Kessler suffered a rib/chest injury in the second quarter and his backup, Charlie Whitehurst, left with a knee problem in the fourth quarter.

So the question is, who will be behind center next Sunday against Tennessee?

Here are the positives, negatives, and officiating notes from this game.

Positives. The only good thing that came from this game was the continuing good job the Cleveland defense did against the run. New England gained just 98 yards on 35 carries, an average of 2.8 per attempt.

After last week’s game vs. Washington where the opponent had great success on the ground, it was good to see the Browns’ revert back to the way they’ve played the rest of the year.

Also, before he left the game, Kessler did hit 5 of 8 throws (one drop, one throw away) for 62 yards, and did get the offense in the end zone with an 11 yard TD toss to Andrew Hawkins.

Hopefully, he can go again next week.

Rookie TE Connor Hamlett caught his first NFL TD pass in the fourth quarter.

Negatives. For all the success Ray Horton’s defense has had against the running game, they are getting killed through the air, particularly covering tight ends.

Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett combined for 11 receptions and 176 yards, and the latter caught three TD passes.

Jordan Reed had similar success against Cleveland a week ago.

Without any pressure being put on opposing quarterbacks, the secondary is going to have issues, and the Browns had just one sack again today.

After dominating the league during the first four weeks of the season running the ball, Isaiah Crowell couldn’t get anything going today. He gained just 22 yards on 13 carries.

In total, the Browns had just 27 yards rushing on 22 attempts.

Whitehurst struggled until the fourth quarter, and if you thought Kessler never threw downfield, he looked like Daryle Lamonica (look it up) compared to Whitehurst’s dinking and dunking.

If he is going to play that way, is there any downside to playing Kevin Hogan if Kessler is unable to play next week?

The offensive line had a dreadful day. The Browns couldn’t run and the passers ran for their lives all day.

Officiating. Again, not much to complain about when you lose by 20 points, but the officials called forward progress on a play involving Julian Edelman in the first half when Joe Haden’s hit caused a fumble.

And there was a suspicious pass interference call on Christian Kirksey in the third quarter when he batted away a pass. By the way, Kirksey had 16 tackles on the day.

So, it’s back on the road next Sunday, this time against Tennessee.

Who will play quarterback for the Browns? Hopefully, Kessler is able to go, but if not, we are sure it will be debated ad nauseum this week on talk radio.

Late Mistakes Cost Young Browns

Young football teams tend to make mistakes. This was never more evident than the Cleveland Browns’ 31-20 loss to Washington this afternoon.

Hue Jackson’s crew got off to a poor start, trailing 14-0 early, before rallying and actually carried a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter.

However, the young Browns turned the ball over three times at the end of the game, two on fumbles and an interception by Cody Kessler, and Cleveland fell to 0-4 on the season.

One reminder. They’ve played three of those four games on the road.

One of the dangers of having so many young players is there are no veterans to teach the younger guys how to close out games. The Browns have had a chance to win the last three contests, but are still winless.

It will be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to eliminate the errors costing them in the win column.

Here are this week’s positives and negatives, with a new category–bad officiating.

Positives. The Browns came into the game in the top five in rushing and showed why today. They had 163 yards on the ground, with another 100 yard game by Isaiah Crowell (15 rushes, 112 yards). They probably should have had more than 28 attempts.

Cody Parkey rebounded from his debut and made two field goals including a 51-yarder.

Another Cody, Kessler, played well too. He completed 28 of 40 throws for 223 yards, and helped the offense convert 8 of 12 third downs. As long as he plays like this, there is no reason to play either Josh McCown or even Robert Griffin III for that matter.

And the offensive line did a good job with John Greco going back to guard and using Austin Reiter at center.

Defensively, Jamar Taylor continued to show well, getting an interception for the second straight week. And the newest Brown, Cam Johnson had two sacks.

Negatives. For the first time this season, the defense couldn’t stop the run, allowing 145 yards, at an average of 5.6 per rush.

The defensive line had a poor game and Danny Shelton took a step back with just three assists.

And even though Cleveland had three sacks, for most of the game they couldn’t put pressure on Washington QB Kirk Cousins. Of course, they didn’t have a lot of good pass rushing situations.

Ray Horton’s unit also had no answer for TE Jordan Reed, which isn’t good news considering New England’s Rob Gronkowski is up next week.

Today’s horrible officiating. The NFL needs to change the pass interference call.

First, they should be no call on any under thrown ball, because the bad throw is causing the contact. That was the case on the 50 YARD PENALTY against Jordan Poyer in the first quarter.

Another bad PI call came against Joe Haden in the fourth quarter. Both Haden and the receiver were bumping each other, but Haden drew the flag. A no call would have been correct there.

And lastly, Duke Johnson’s fumble in the fourth quarter appeared to be recovered by…Duke Johnson. The official ruled Washington football.

Of course, Jeff Triplette’s crew is one of the leagues worst, so what can you expect.

Our point is the Browns are inexperienced as it is, and can’t afford to have bad calls go against them as well.

So, the Browns come home next week to take on the mighty New England Patriots. It should be another good measuring stick for the young Browns.

Yes, they are 0-4. However, many teams at 1-3 and stagnant would love to trade places with Hue Jackson’s group.

Browns Lose Again, But Continue to Show Improvement.

Most Browns’ fans probably resigned themselves to a blowout today, having to watch Cody Kessler in his first start as an NFL quarterback.

The news didn’t get any better later in the week with injuries to CB Joe Haden and K Patrick Murray, more on the latter later.

Instead, the Browns took the Miami Dolphins to overtime, losing 30-24 to drop to 0-3, but also showing the improvement we wanted to see week to week.

We haven’t changed our tune about judging Hue Jackson’s team based on the improvement of the team week to week, so we can’t be too upset about the defeat.

Also, two more weaknesses have shown themselves that must be addressed, so we will see if Jackson and his staff take care of them before next Sunday’s game at Washington.

Positives. What more can you say about Terrelle Pryor? He is showing he can be a force on offense. He caught eight passes for 144 yards, ran for 21 more, and completed 3 of 5 passes for 35 yards.

And he wasn’t happy with the outcome of the game. You have to wonder what was stopping the previous coaching staff was looking at with this guy.

You would have to assume the Dolphins came into the game hoping Kessler would have to beat them, but the Browns ran the ball very well again, getting 169 yards on the ground, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. Isaiah Crowell had 79 yards and Duke Johnson pitched in with 69 more.

One of the rookie wide receivers emerged, but it was not Rashard Higgins, rather it was Ricardo Louis, who caught three throws for 40 yards.

And Kessler acquitted himself well too. He completed 21 of 33 for 244 yards, and appeared more comfortable as the game went on. He earned another start in our opinion.

Defensively, did anyone think Briean Boddy-Calhoun would contribute this season? The rookie out of Minnesota had a pick six to give Cleveland a 10-7 lead in the first half.

Jamar Taylor, a former Dolphin, also picked off Ryan Tannehill.

And Corey Lemonier, picked up on waivers from San Francisco after the last preseason game, almost won the contest for the Browns with a strip sack/fumble recovery with under a minute to go.

Christian Kirksey had nine tackles and Danny Shelton played well again too.

Miami had only 115 rushing yards on the day, a major improvement from what teams did to the Browns in 2016.

Negatives. The special teams continue not to be special, and eventually, doesn’t Chris Tabor have to answer for that. Corey Parkey missed three field goals, including a 46 yarder that could have won the game.

You miss three in one game? You will find your name on the waiver wire. Expect a new kicker next week.

And Britton Colquitt’s punt in overtime was right down the middle allowing a decent return. The ball had to be kicked away from Jarvis Landry.

Austin Pasztor should have shown the coaching staff that he is not a tackle. If he wasn’t being flagged for a false start, he was getting caught holding. Hard to think Spencer Drango or Shon Coleman can’t do a better job.

Kessler still needs to work on getting rid of the football. He turned it over in on the first possession because he held on to the pigskin too long, and did it a few more times as the game went on.

The last problem was choosing to kick off at the start of overtime. The defense did hold, but it resulted in poor field position after Miami punted.

Taking the ball would have given Cleveland the ball probably at their own 25.

Next time, take the ball coach.

Hopefully, Haden and Carl Nassib will be back in action next week against Washington. That would help the defense.

And the Browns need to keep running the football, that will help Kessler feel more comfortable.

Again, we saw this team getting better, and that’s what Jackson should be proud of. This team has some football players who may be able to contribute weekly. That’s also something positive.

Hue’s Decision At QB Was A Logical, Simple One

Imagine you are an NFL head coach and you are taking over a team that went 3-13 a year ago, and hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.

Your bosses have tried several way to build a successful franchise, and in the off-season, they traded away or cut several veterans, and let a few more leave via free agency.

So, there isn’t a lot of pressure on you to win immediately, but the owner, the front office, and the fan base would like to see some progress as the season goes on.

You have several candidates for the starting quarterback position–

One is the former second overall pick in the draft after winning the Heisman Trophy, and in his rookie year took his team to the NFL playoffs. He blew out his knee in that game, and hasn’t been the same since.

The second candidate is a 37-year-old journeyman with a career record as a starter of 18-39, and over the last two years, seasons in which he started 19 of 32 games, his record is 2-17.

He has started just 57 games in a 13 year career.

You also have on the roster a third year QB who started five games in his second year in the league and was pressed into service to start two more games with your team a season ago, both of which were losses.

And you have a rookie third round draft pick from one of the elite college programs in the country. He’s a guy you really like and you went out on a limb to take him where you did. Still, he’s a rookie and you don’t want to expose him to the NFL before he’s ready to play.

The team in question of course are the Cleveland Browns and the quarterbacks at Hue Jackson’s disposal are Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, and Cody Kessler.

Jackson picked Griffin, and really, didn’t have much of a decision. That’s the logical move.

The Browns’ players and coaching staff will no doubt try to win every game, but there is little expectation going into the regular season of the playoffs.

Let’s face it, the only QBs currently on the roster who have a chance to be a quality NFL signal caller are Griffin and Kessler, and once again, the latter is a rookie.

The organization knows what McCown is. He’s a terrific teammate, a hard worker, and a guy you can put into a game without your franchise being embarrassed.

They also know what he isn’t, and that’s a quality NFL starter, and a guy with a history of winning football games. McCown is good enough to give you a decent performance and he will keep you in a game, but likely you won’t win.

Heck, the guy who started two of the three victories by the Browns a year ago, isn’t even in the NFL right now.

We have no idea if Griffin can become a successful passer from the pocket, because his success in Washington was with a hybrid offense. But in a rebuilding season? Why not find out.

If Griffin can make the transformation, the Browns have caught lightning in a bottle. If he doesn’t, you still have Kessler and a likely a high draft pick in next year’s draft.

But this is a year to experiment. That’s why Jackson’s decision was just the logical move.

Grading Browns Draft? Stupid To Do Now

No one can evaluate how the Cleveland Browns did in the NFL draft for several years. Anyone who wants to tell you differently is insane.

All of the analysts who rank the drafts for each team are doing so based on how they ranked each player prior to the selection process.

For example, if the writer/analyst liked Corey Coleman and let’s say, Carl Nassib, then they would probably say the Browns had a very good draft.

If they didn’t like those guys, then they are panning Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta for not taking Laquon Treadwell with the 15th overall pick.

It really is that simple.

That’s why you see a large disparity of grade on the Browns’ draft. Pro Football Focus gave them an “A”. Mel Kiper gave them a “C”. Pete Prisco gave them a “C-“.

Lord knows what famous Browns critic Jason LaCanfora gave them. Is there a grade lower than F?

One thing we can say is Brown and company are trying to make this team younger, and with 14 picks and the acquisition of CB Jamar Taylor from Miami, the roster will have a drastic turnover from a year ago.

We have written several times about the players over 30 years of age on this roster. The choices Cleveland made indicate more of this group will be gone by the time training camp starts in July.

Paul Kruger said a lot of good things at OTA’s a few weeks ago, but with the drafting of Emmanuel Ogbah, Nassib, and Joe Schobert, there doesn’t seem to be room for him to play.

Grabbing Taylor in the deal with the Dolphins likely will mean that Tramon Williams will not be with the Browns for long.

And with four wide receivers being picked, one of them the first rounder, will Andrew Hawkins be in Berea by the end of summer?

If those players aren’t here, that will leave punter Andy Lee, Joe Thomas, John Greco, and Gary Barnidge as the only players on the wrong side of 30.

The lightning rod pick was taking QB Cody Kessler from USC on the third round. That’s what a lot of people want to talk about, with most of the objections being that he was a third round pick.

While that is true, he was picked 93rd, and Cleveland had (at the time) the 99th and 100th overall picks.

If Kessler were chosen with one of those selections, would that appease the critics? In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t mean much difference.

And for the people who wanted the Browns to take local boy Connor Cook? A bunch of teams passed on him multiple times. And to reiterate what we used to say about Brian Hoyer, just because a player is from here, doesn’t need they will be good quarterbacks.

Not everyone from northeast Ohio is Bernie Kosar.

Also, Kessler’s presence may mean another member of the over 30 set could be gone soon. It wouldn’t be a shock if Josh McCown is dealt before the beginning of the regular season.

We knew going into this off-season that the Browns were going to overhaul their roster, and by getting 15 new players last weekend, the process has started.

But judging the draft now, and putting a grade on it is based on bias and is out and out stupid. You also can’t pin the sins of past administrations on Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta.

The Browns are sticking to a plan right now. Whether they can stick to the plan will probably determine how successful they will be.