Browns Need To Play Two Halves.

Someday, perhaps even this year, the Cleveland Browns will play a total game and then, and only then, will they start to win football games.

Of course, this season Browns’ games have lasted five quarters more often than not, as Cleveland lost another overtime game, this one 26-23 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Hue Jackson’s squad has no dropped to 2-4-1 on the season, and 3-35-1 since Jackson took the helm before the 2016 season.

In the first half, the offense was non-existent and the defense was porous, and the Browns went to the locker room trailing 16-2.

We thought if major adjustments weren’t made by the coaching staff, it would be a clear sign that changes on the staff needed to be made.

But after halftime, the defense played much better, holding the Bucs to just a single score, and the offense played with much more zest, and Cleveland rallied twice from 14 point deficits to force overtime.

That said, the offense made key mistakes late, errors which could be attributed to a young football team.

In overtime, Jameis Winston was picked off by Jamie Collins on the Tampa Bay 45 yard line. Getting one first down, would have given Greg Joseph an opportunity for a game winning field goal.

On 3rd and 3 at the 38, Baker Mayfield took a sack, so the Browns had to punt. That cannot happen.

Then, after forcing a punt, Jabril Peppers, who had a great 32 yard return to set up the game tying scored pass to Jarvis Landry, fumbled after a 14 yard return, giving the Bucs the ball at the Cleveland 48, setting up Tampa for the game winning 59 yard field goal.

Other observations from this game–

The Browns’ offensive line needs to improve quickly. In our opinion, tackles Desmond Harrison and Chris Hubbard had big problems. Remember, Tampa was missing Pro Bowl DT Gerald McCoy in this game. Mayfield was sacked five more times today, although some appeared to have been caused by receivers not being able to get open.

Which brings us to the wide receiver position. Landry caught 10 passes for 97 yards, but the other wide outs struggled to get open, catching just five passes. We have asked this before, but why not use more two tight end sets with David Njoku and Seth DeValve, both of whom are solid receivers.

The defense gives up yards, but continues to force turnovers and sacks. Four turnovers and five sacks today. Myles Garrett had two sacks, and Emmanuel Ogbah was a force too.

We don’t like when regimes seem to move on from players because they didn’t draft them, which appears to be the case with Carl Nassib, who had two sacks today. He couldn’t help more than Anthony Zettel?

Denzel Ward is pretty good, eh?

Nick Chubb did a good job in his starting debut, with 80 yards on 18 carries, but we are worried Duke Johnson is nothing more than a change of pace back. Wouldn’t the Browns be better off just switching the Chubb and Hyde roles?

Another week, another overly officiated game. Twenty two penalties were called, which disrupts the flow of the game.

Among this week’s bad calls were picking up a flag after a Mayfield run because he hadn’t started his slide (he did), a roughing the passer after Emmanuel Ogbah tried to block a pass because his hand hit Winston in the helmet (weak), and another missed false start, which Winston thankfully took a 12 yard sack.

The league continues to put its head in the sands on this problem.

Next week, it’s on to Pittsburgh. Let’s hope the Browns come ready to play four quarters in this one.

Browns Tough One Out To Get Back to .500.

It wasn’t artistic, but when you’ve won two games since the beginning of the 2016 season, beggars can’t be choosers.

When Greg Joseph’s line drive kick went through the uprights with under ten seconds remaining in overtime, it elevated the Cleveland Browns to a .500 record after five weeks of the NFL season, with a 12-9 win over Baltimore in overtime.

It was the third game (out of five) for the Browns that four quarters wasn’t enough to decide the game.

The Browns scored the game’s only touchdown in this defensive battle, a 19 yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Rashard Higgins late in the second quarter, which gave Cleveland a 6-3 lead after Joseph missed the extra point.

Baltimore took the lead after intercepting a Mayfield throw in Browns’ territory, besides that the Browns’ defense, rapidly becoming the strength of this team, allowed just two other field goals, and forced two more turnovers, to give them 15 on the season, topping last year’s squad’s total for the entire season of 13.

Denzel Ward’s interception at the goal line stopped a certain Baltimore score, and is there anyone out there who still thinks GM John Dorsey made a mistake by taking the former Buckeye standout at that spot?

Ward is quickly becoming a player that other quarterbacks avoid.

The other first round pick, the first overall pick, is also acquitting himself nicely too.

Baker Mayfield completed 25 of 43 passes for 342 yards, and directed the game winning drive that began with a reverse to WR Rod Streater, which lost 11 yards and put the team at 2nd and 21 from their own five.

From there, the rookie scrambled for 13 yards to get out of the shadow of their own goal line, and then on 3rd and 8, avoided a sack, and hit rookie Derrick Willies for 43 yards to move into Baltimore territory.

Then, a player who seems to get lost in the shuffle, Duke Johnson, took over, carrying three times for 24 yards to put the ball in position for Joseph.

Joe Flacco threw for 298 yards, but it took him 56 attempts to accumulate those yards, and he was also sacked twice, once by Jamie Collins, and the other on a combination of Myles Garrett and Trevon Coley.

But they didn’t allow the Ravens any big plays, keeping WR John Brown in control, with only 4 catches for 58 yards.

It seems last week’s secondary issues may have been due to Terrance Mitchell leaving the game with an injury, because today, with E.J. Gaines starting, the defensive backfield provided the same type of play as they have all year, save for the Oakland game.

The linebackers all had big days, with Collins getting 12 tackles, Christian Kirksey also had 12, and Joe Schobert forced a fumble.

The officiating was a factor again, as Baltimore didn’t pick up their first penalty until late in the fourth quarter. In a sport where many of the penalties can be considered arbitrary, for one team to have 10 penalties (the Browns) and the other to have none is very, very strange.

It appears the zebra missed a pass interference call against Jarvis Landry by ruling the pass uncatchable (of course it is, Landry was tackled) and they should have call intentional grounding later in OT on Flacco.

To be fair, the roughing the passer call against Mayfield in the extra session, shouldn’t have been called either.

With the Chargers coming in next week, the Browns have survived a tough early schedule (Steelers, Saints, Ravens) with a 2-2-1 record.

And they seem to keep getting better each and every week.