Focus On Mayfield? He’s Not The Most Important Offensive Player

Whatever the Cleveland Browns do, the talk seems to come back to the quarterback. In the past two weeks, the Browns have played in brutal field possessions, and split the two games at First Energy Stadium, yet people just want to talk about Baker Mayfield.

Right now, Mayfield is doing what the coaching staff is asking him to do, which is take care of the football, and complete some passes here and there. We understand that the sexy thing is having the QB throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns every week, but that’s not the formula for winning in Cleveland.

At least, right now.

In the last two games, Mayfield has completed 24 of 45 passes for 254 yards, statistics that are for one game for most NFL quarterbacks. However, since the Pittsburgh game where the Browns were dominated, the former Heisman Trophy winner has thrown just one interception.

While fans are focused on the play of Mayfield, we believe there is a notable person who is not. And that is Kevin Stefanski.

It’s because as they stand right now, Mayfield may rank third, fourth or even lower in terms of most important offensive players on this Browns’ team.

Stefanski has the Browns being first and foremost a running football team. They rank 4th in the league in rushing yards, behind three teams that all have dual threat quarterbacks (Arizona, Baltimore, and New England).

Thus, you can make the argument that no team relies more on their running backs than the Browns, and with good reason.

Kareem Hunt is 6th in the NFL in rushing yards (633) and his teammate, Nick Chubb is 20th at 461. Chubb is third in rushing yards per game, while Hunt is 12th.

They are the only pair of running backs from the same team to rank in the top 20 in rushing yards.

The offensive line appeared to be strengthened with the drafting of Jedrick Wills and the signing of Jack Conklin at the tackles, but the guy who has emerged as the most important member of the group is Wyatt Teller, who right now may be the best lineman in the league.

When Teller plays, the Browns have run for almost 200 yards per contest (195.5). In the three games he missed? Try 86 yards on the ground.

To be fair, Chubb missed all three games that Teller didn’t play, but it was no coincidence that when both returned last Sunday, Cleveland ran for 231 yards.

We are sure there will be another game on the schedule this season where the Browns will need Mayfield to play at a very high level, much like he did in the Cincinnati game in week seven. But we are also sure, that won’t be the design of the game plan going in.

For right now, this season, the Browns are a ground and pound team. Eventually, the coaching staff should and we believe, will put more on the quarterback’s shoulders.

Even in last Sunday’s game, when Mayfield needed a big throw on a 3rd and 18 situation in the second half, he delivered a 22 yard pass to Rashard Higgins for a drive continuing first down. Cleveland scored its only touchdown on that drive.

Stefanski’s team sits at 6-3, and it’s not because of or in spite of their quarterback. Right now, Baker Mayfield is just one cog in the machine.

And that’s alright.

Who’d Think Solid Coaching And Talent Leads To Winning Football?

It has been so long since we’ve had a winning football team in northeast Ohio, perhaps fans don’t know how to act.

After averaging 200 yards per game on the ground in the first four weeks, including a whopping 307 against Dallas last week, we are sure Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski was preparing for the time when an opposing defense would decide they weren’t going to let Cleveland just dominate them with the run.

That happened Sunday when the Colts, who allowed the least yards per game in the NFL entering week five, said they weren’t having it.

However, unlike past seasons, this Browns’ team had an answer. Baker Mayfield threw for over 200 yards in the first half and the home team had a 20-10 lead going into the intermission, including TD passes to Kareem Hunt and Rashard Higgins.

Stefanski said after the game that he wanted to keep his team out of third down and long situations where the Indianapolis pass rush could pin their ears back and get after Mayfield. He controlled the game by having his passer throw some short, ball control passes to stay in favorable down and distance situations.

We understand that it’s been a long time since we seen this in our fair city, but this is good coaching, getting your team in good situations and keeping them out of bad ones.

In the second half, the Colts adjusted to this attack, and the Browns struggled a bit, with Mayfield throwing two interceptions, but he also could have sustained a couple of drives had the usually sure handed (if there was something better than that adjective, we would have used it) Jarvis Landry dropped a couple of balls.

One of those picks is on Mayfield as he threw high over the middle. The second was a result of him being crushed as he threw. We give Myles Garrett credit for forcing turnovers, so why isn’t the same true for the Cleveland quarterback?

Look, it was nice that Mayfield had two straight games without an interception, but they happen to even great passers. He has thrown as many as Tom Brady and Dak Prescott, and Deshaun Watson and Kyler Murray have thrown five each, one more than Mayfield. Russell Wilson, who might be the leader in the clubhouse for league MVP, has three.

If you want to pick on the Browns’ QB, point to his low completion percentage, which at 61.2% is 26th in the league, just ahead of Dwayne Haskins and Daniel Jones. Accuracy was the strong point of his game in college, and he needs to do better to be a top flight NFL quarterback.

Speaking of top flight players, Garrett continues to state his case for Defensive Player of the Year, with another sack on Sunday.

We have followed the Browns since 1965, and we will state the franchise has never had a player who can get to the quarterback like Garrett, who now is one sack shy of Carl Hairston’s (92 games) total of 37.5.

Garrett has played in 42 games.

With four more sacks, he will tie for third in Browns’ history with Rob Burnett (93 games), behind just Clay Matthews (232 games) and Michael Dean Perry (109 games). To be fair, the stat was not official in Matthews’ first four seasons.

He has become the player we expected when he was drafted first overall in 2017, and he’s a guy you know opposing offensive coaches are scheming for and accounting for on a weekly basis.

With players like Garrett, Nick Chubb, Denzel Ward, and the wide receiver duo of Landry and Odell Beckham Jr., the Browns have players who rank among the best at their position in the NFL. We didn’t even mention the offensive line until now.

And that’s how you win games.

Having Running Back Depth Is Huge For Browns

Many times, the thing that separates the good teams from the great ones in the NFL is depth. While bad teams have some good players, if those players go down, there isn’t anyone close to replace them, and the team can’t overcome the loss, and start losing.

We saw that to a degree last season with the Browns, when Myles Garrett was suspended, and the Cleveland defense couldn’t put any pressure on opposing passers. That was a major factor in a 2-4 record in those games, and the opponents scoring 30 points in half of those contests.

In Sunday’s 49-38 win over Dallas, the Browns lost perhaps their best player, running back Nick Chubb, to a knee injury, and it was announced yesterday, he would be put on injured reserve, with reports being he will be out about six weeks.

While it is a blow having Chubb on the sidelines, it is one area where Cleveland has some depth because of the presence of Kareem Hunt, who led the NFL in rushing in his rookie season (2017).

Hunt now figures to get the bulk of the carries, although after the Dallas game, they aren’t too far apart in attempts, as Chubb has carried the rock 57 times, Hunt has 50 carries.

While both Chubb and Hunt are elite backs, Sunday’s tremendous total of 307 rushing yards shows they are just a part of the machine that Kevin Stefanski, offensive line coach Bill Callahan, and running backs coach Stump Mitchell have put together.

We say machine because when Chubb left the game in Dallas, D’Ernest Johnson, who had 26 in five NFL carries prior, came in and ran for 95 yards in 13 carries, and Dontrell Hilliard, who was on the practice squad the previous week, picked up 19 more on five attempts.

The Browns lead the NFL with a whopping 5.9 yards per carry, and are averaging over 200 yards per game on the ground. The Baltimore Ravens did this a year ago, but no other team has done it for a full year in a 16 game season.

You have to go back to the 1970’s to find teams that averaged 200 yards per game on the ground outside of the Ravens. It was done six times in that decade before the league went to 16 games in 1978.

This shows the zone blocking scheme, popularized by the Shanahan family (Mike and Kyle), installed by Stefanski and Callahan is more than doing its job. It also shows the improvements made by the front office in the off-season, drafting Jedrick Wills, and signing Jack Conklin as a free agent has paid tremendous dividends.

However, it helps that with Chubb not being able to see the field for awhile, that Cleveland has a back the caliber of Hunt to pick up the slack. And you might see more end around runs for Odell Beckham Jr., who had 73 yards rushing on Sunday.

The offense will get a big test coming up this weekend when the Indianapolis Colts come to town. The Colts lead the NFL in total defense, and are allowing just 76 rushing yards per game, and since an opening week loss to Jacksonville, haven’t allowed more than 11 points in the last three weeks.

Here is the problem for other teams, though. If they crowd the line of scrimmage to stop the run, Baker Mayfield and his cadre of receivers, led by Beckham and Jarvis Landry can stretch the field and spread out the defense.

Through four weeks, there is a lot to feel good about in regards to the Cleveland Browns being able to put points on the scoreboard.

Running The Ball Well Is A Tradition For The Browns

There is a theory that everything comes back into style eventually, and the Cleveland Browns are putting that axiom to the test.

Throughout the late 1950’s through the early 1970’s, the Browns featured a crushing running game. Starting in 1957, when Jim Brown was drafted in the first round, the brown and orange finally shifted from a passing team with Otto Graham at the helm, to a team that dominated on the ground.

They finished second in the NFL in rushing that year (the Rams led the league) and went to the NFL Championship Game, losing to Detroit.

The following season, Cleveland drafted Bobby Mitchell in the 7th round, and the combination of Brown and Mitchell, both Hall of Famers, vaulted Paul Brown’s team to the top of the heap running the football.

Mitchell was traded to Washington prior to the 1962 season, for Heisman Trophy Ernie Davis, who never played for the Browns due to leukemia, and Cleveland dropped in the running game. But outside of the ’62 season, Cleveland was in the top three in running the ball every year Brown was on the roster, until he was forced into retirement (by Art Modell) after the ’65 season.

Their record in that span was never worse than the 7-6-1 mark in ’62. They were always above the .500 mark, and won nine or more games (in a 14 game slate) five times.

When Brown retired, Leroy Kelly picked up the slack, and Cleveland led the NFL in running the football in 1966 and 1967, and finished third in the league in ’68. They won nine, nine, and ten games in those seasons.

That’s a 12 year period where the Cleveland Browns had a devastating ground attack. And they were winners.

Now, let’s flash ahead to 2020. The Browns are currently third in the league again in running the football, behind just the Patriots (2-1) and Green Bay (3-0). Note the Packers are running the ball even though they have perhaps the game’s best passer, Aaron Rodgers behind center.

Cleveland features Nick Chubb, who finished second in the NFL in rushing yards a year ago, and Kareem Hunt, who led the league in the same category with Kansas City in 2017.

Chubb trails the current leader, Tennessee’s Derrick Henry by 27 yards this season, despite the latter having 31 more carries in the first three games of this season.

Hunt is 13th in the NFL and none of the players he trails have less carries than he does, as Hunt only averages 13 carries per contest.

So, Cleveland has two of the top 13 runners in terms of yardage after three games. The only other team with two players in the top 20 is the Arizona Cardinals, who have Kenyan Drake (9th) and their quarterback, Kyler Murray (18th).

We know that new coach Kevin Stefanski has always been a proponent of running the football during his time as an offensive assistant in Minnesota, but the franchise is also reaching into its past as to what was successful when the Browns were an NFL power. And this may come as a shock to those under 30 years old, but they really were on of the best teams in the NFL from 1950-1972.

And let’s not forget where the Browns play. When it gets cold and the weather is less than ideal in November and December, this offense should still be effective, and it also takes pressure off the defense, because they should be able to control the clock.

People say you should learn from history. Finally, someone in the Cleveland organization looked at the proud tradition of running the ball in northeast Ohio and has decided it’s a good idea.

It may lead to winning football again, and that would be a welcome sight.

Browns’ Front Office/Coaches Keeping It Low Key. That’s Good.

The Cleveland Browns are taking a different approach this off-season. They are flying under the radar.

No bold off-season moves, no bringing in big name players, no talk of post-season play.

Just very business like, and at the same time very logical.

It helps that the national media isn’t jumping on the bandwagon, like last year when the Browns traded for Odell Beckham Jr. and every talking head in the county was proclaiming a playoff appearance for Cleveland.

That’s not to say, the playoffs isn’t a goal for the 2020 Browns, we are sure that behind the scenes, GM Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski know that if things fall into place, they can win 10 or more games and get to the post-season. However, they aren’t putting that goal out there in public the way former GM John Dorsey did.

It happens every year in the NFL. The San Francisco 49ers were 4-12 in 2018, and last year went to the Super Bowl with a 13-3 record.

The previous year, it was the Chicago Bears making the leap from 5-11 to 12-4 and an NFC North championship.

And in 2017, Jacksonville went from 3-13 to 10-6 and a playoff spot as a result of winning the AFC South.

So, we know it can be done, but there’s no reason to proclaim it to everyone who will listen.

And we know the Browns’ players didn’t publicly talk about it, is was driven by the national talking heads because of the rookie play of Baker Mayfield and the acquisition of Beckham, but we still feel the talk got to the coaching staff and front office, and the Browns got away from doing the things that made them successful in the second half of 2018.

Look, the Browns have talent, especially on the offensive side of the football. You could make a claim they have the best set of skill position players in the NFL, not counting quarterback.

They have the man who finished second in the league in rushing a year ago in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, who led the NFL in rushing in 2017 and had 824 yards in 11 games the following year.

At wide receiver, they have Beckham Jr. of course, and Jarvis Landry, a five time Pro Bowler (in six seasons), coming off a career high 1174 receiving yards.

They signed Austin Hooper, a tight end who has made two Pro Bowls and is coming off a career high 75 receptions with Atlanta last season, and former first round pick David Njoku, who missed most of last year with injuries, but caught 56 passes in ’18.

So, offensive talent is there, assuming the offensive line gels.

The defensive side of the football is still where the questions are, but when you start with Myles Garrett at defensive end, that’s a good thing. And you have Denzel Ward at cornerback, who still had excellent grades from Pro Football Focus on his cover skills, although many people thought he had kind of a down year.

With this talent, why should the brass be conservative? Because this group of players doesn’t know how to win just yet. They haven’t done it, and without a doubt it’s a learned skill.

That’s the biggest challenge the coaching staff has this upcoming season, teaching the way to win. And the biggest thing that will help is getting some wins early in the season.

There is no doubt in our minds that had the Browns had an easier schedule early in the year, it would have made a difference. Look at Buffalo’s season in 2019–they opened with the Jets, Giants, and Bengals, going 3-0, before losing a close one to New England, 16-10.

They started to believe in themselves, went 10-6 and made the playoffs.

That’s why despite the talent, the front office and head coach aren’t making any bold proclamations about this season. Learning to win is the first lesson the Browns need to grasp.

Passing League? Browns Should Emphasize The Run.

It has been well documented over the past decade or so that the NFL is a passing league.

The game has been dominated by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and more recently Patrick Mahomes, and their expertise in finding open receivers down the gridiron.

However, is the pendulum starting to swing back to the running game? And if so, is that another reason the Browns made the correct hire in Kevin Stefanski, and will he be able to maximize the talents of Nick Chubb (second in the NFL in rushing last season) and Kareem Hunt (former NFL rushing champion)?

Let’s look at the best running teams in the league last year–

Baltimore (14-2)
San Francisco (13-3, and Super Bowl participant)
Tennessee (9-7, played in AFC Championship Game)
Seattle (11-5)
Dallas (8-8)
Minnesota (10-6)
Indianapolis (7-9)
Buffalo (10-6)
Houston (10-6)
Arizona (5-10-1)

That’s seven of the 12 teams that advanced to the playoffs a year ago, and eight of the top ten had non-losing records.

Now, let’s look at the five worst running teams in the NFL:

1. Miami (5-11)
2. New York Jets (7-9)
3. Atlanta (7-9)
4. Pittsburgh (8-8)
5. Los Angeles Chargers (5-11)

No winning teams. Now, we understand some people will say those teams were behind a lot and so they were forced to throw the football, and that is true to some extent.

However, so is a statement made many, many years ago–If you can’t run the ball, and you can’t stop the run, it is difficult to win in the National Football League.

One of the things that didn’t make sense with the Browns’ offense a year ago, is they ranked fifth in the league in yards per rushing attempt, which makes sense since Chubb is on their roster.

Unfortunately, Cleveland ranked 22nd in the league in trying to run the ball. Remember, Hunt was active for the second half of the year, meaning coach Freddie Kitchens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken had two elite runners at their disposal.

So, the many fans who railed week in and week out about the ignorance of the running game were smarter than the people who were actually making decisions on a weekly basis.

Enter Stefanski. Notice the team he was the offensive coordinator for in 2019, the Vikings, ranked 6th in the NFL in rushing yardage, and also ranked fourth in rushing attempts.

Any questions on what will be the focus of the Browns’ offense this upcoming season?

The Browns ranked 19th in passing attempts last season, despite their 29th ranking in passing efficiency. Minnesota had the 6th best efficiency rating, but only two teams, Tennessee and Baltimore, threw the ball less often.

The only possible problem is Stefanski’s inexperience as a head coach, so you have to question will he give in to the constant carping from his wide receivers and outside the building to air it out and get the ball in the hands of Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry.

Our guess is Stefanski is already selling his receivers on the additional big plays they can make after establishing a run game. Would they rather catch seven passes for 85 yards or catch five for 120 yards, or something to that effect?

Baker Mayfield looked very good in the play-action game in his rookie year, and we bet Stefanski will put that skill to good use this fall.

As for stopping the run? That’s something new defensive coordinator Joe Woods has to work on. The Browns were third worst in the NFL a year ago, and if you can’t put opponents in unfavorable down and distance situations, your best players (Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward) can’t do what they do best.

Is Patience Best Course Of Action For Browns?

The Cleveland Browns had great expectations coming into the 2019 NFL season, and instead they were a huge disappointment, likely finishing the year with a losing record.

Again.

Many folks around northeast Ohio place the blame solely on head coach Freddie Kitchens, demanding his head as soon as the 16th game of the campaign is completed in Cincinnati.

However, it’s not just Kitchens who should be blamed and that’s why we can’t get on board with firing him when the season ends.

This is not to say Kitchens is the next Bill Belichick or John Harbaugh, but rather he should get the opportunity to make changes based on his experience of 2019. Let’s see if he can grow in the position.

We understand everyone’s impatience, but is it worth the risk of starting over…again.

Besides, there are other things we would like to say answered or addressed by the Browns’ front office.

Can John Dorsey change his philosophy of team building? Right now, the Cleveland GM bases everything on talent, and talent alone. He doesn’t seem to worry about character or work ethic.

Sometimes (Kareem Hunt) it works. Other times (Antonio Callaway, Odell Beckham Jr.) it doesn’t.

You have to look beyond the talent. Does the player have a solid work ethic, do they work hard in the off-season, are they a good teammate? Do they want to be great?

Our thought is (and we wrote about this earlier in the season) the Browns need more guys like Nick Chubb and J.C. Tretter, guys who play hard, do their work, and value winning above everything else.

We would like to see two players in particular dedicate their off-season to working toward winning.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Baker Mayfield reached out to say, Drew Brees, a quarterback similar in game and stature, and pick his brain on how to prepare for a season, and how to dedicate yourself to having a successful NFL career.

And what if Beckham, instead of jet setting around the globe, got his body in top condition? After all, he’s battled injuries in each of his last three seasons. We would also like to see him in mini camps, so he can develop chemistry with his quarterback.

We are sure Mayfield and Beckham aren’t the only issues too.

The offensive and defensive coordinators should also be examined.

If Kitchens returns, does his philosophy match Todd Monken’s? We have had the nagging thought all season that the offense run late last season when the Browns were lighting up the scoreboard isn’t the one they ran this season.

Did the defenses adjust, or did the Browns adjust themselves out of success?

Defensively, stopping the running game has to be a priority. The Browns have consistently finished in the bottom half of the NFL in run defense over the past 10 years.

We understand today’s pro football is pass happy, but if you can’t stop the run, it makes it tougher to rush the passer and play press coverage.

Again, the organizations’ philosophy was to pressure the QB, and that’s a sound strategy, but you can’t ignore stopping the ground game either. For the most part, teams that don’t stop the run are bad football teams.

In our opinion, it would be best if everyone took a step back and fix the things that went wrong in 2019, rather than throw it all away and start over in 2020.

The Browns are no longer devoid of talent, but they now need to become a team.

Browns Don’t Have Enough Talent, Stop Saying They Do.

All year long, we have been reading about all the talent the Cleveland Browns have.

The Browns have so much talent, they will certainly make the playoffs in 2019. That was an opinion shared by a lot of experts, both nationally and locally.

The fact is although Cleveland has a lot of talent in some areas, they don’t have enough throughout the roster. And that’s a big reason why Freddie Kitchens’ team sits at 5-7 with four games remaining.

GM John Dorsey bears the blame for this. Dorsey put together a roster with a lot of style, but no substance.

Yes, the Browns have great skill players on offense with Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., and Jarvis Landry. However, their offensive line hasn’t allowed that talent to show through.

Sunday, the Steelers defensive line couldn’t be blocked well enough for Baker Mayfield to use those weapons, particularly his receivers. He simply didn’t have time enough for anything to develop.

Defensively, Dorsey emphasized the front four and the secondary, which is a good place to start in today’s NFL. Rush the passer and cover the wideouts. It’s sound strategy, and they spent a lot of money on it.

Unfortunately, the Browns, as has been the case for most of the last 20 years, can’t stop the run, ranking 7th from the bottom in the league this season. If you can run the ball effectively, it negates a pass rush and puts the entire defense back on their heels.

It’s funny that Dorsey, who seemed to be all over the television, radio and print media when the Browns were the talk to the town in the second half of last season, winning five of their last seven, has vanished this season.

When is the last time he’s been seen on camera?

Shouldn’t he be held accountable for the losing record to date, at least as much as the coach? After all, he’s the architect.

It’s a lot different to take over a team that has won one game over a two year period, and put them on the road to being an average NFL squad. There was nowhere to go but up.

Taking that same team from a 7-8-1 record to a playoff berth is a tougher job.

Dorsey added a lot of shiny trinkets, like Beckham, last spring and summer, but he forgot that football is still a game won in the trenches. We are confident he knows better, because we helped build the Chiefs current roster.

This isn’t to say Dorsey should be fired after the season. You can’t keep having knee-jerk reactions every time someone tries something and it doesn’t work out.

However, we are tired of hearing about all of the talent on the roster. There is in some areas, but in other areas (offensive line, safety) it is lacking, and it needs to be addressed.

Football is a sport that is very symbiotic. All areas have to work in concert with each other. You have Odell Beckham Jr. but he can’t stand out because you don’t have a QB with a strong arm (Eli Manning), or you don’t have good enough protection (Mayfield).

Either way, it’s a waste to have him on your roster because you cannot maximize his talents, unless you have an offensive coordinator who is open to try different things.

We aren’t sure the Browns have that either.

John Dorsey has to take care of these weaknesses before the 2020 season, or he and Kitchens will be on a very hot seat. The Browns ownership has never been known for their patience.

Can the Browns take a leap into contention next season? Absolutely. But you have to have talent spread out throughout the roster, not concentrated in a few areas.

What Browns Need To Do Tonight. Besides Win

Tonight is another big test for the Cleveland Browns, as they take on Pittsburgh in a nationally televised tilt.

When you start out 2-6, virtually every game is a big test, unless you want your flickering playoff hopes extinguished.

There is no question the Browns’ playoff hopes are slim, but in our opinion, the last team in the post-season in the AFC will likely have a 9-7 record, so if Freddie Kitchens’ squad can go 6-1 here on out, and the schedule is favorable, although it is minimal, Cleveland still has life.

How do they do it?

The simple answer is to continue to play turnover free football, and that depends a lot on Baker Mayfield, who over the past three games has hit on 73 of 111 passes (65.8%) with four TD throws and just one interception.

By the quarterback rating system, two of Mayfield’s three best games have come in the last two weeks. That’s why the growing criticism of the second year pro is puzzling to us.

The Steelers live on turnovers. They rank second in the NFL to New England is causing them, and if you remember when the Browns played the Patriots, the Cleveland turnovers early (three in the first quarter) dug a trench the brown and orange could not get out of.

Pittsburgh ranks 11th in total defense, 10th against the pass and 14th vs. the run. The Browns rank 15th in rushing offense, but second in average yards per attempt, so starting the game showing you can run the ball would be beneficial to Cleveland.

However, what that statistic means is Kitchens and offensive coordinator Todd Monken have been reticent to running the ball, which is another problem altogether, particularly now with both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt available.

Offensively, the Steelers are challenged without their two time Super Bowl winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. They are 6th from the bottom of the NFL in passing yards and 14th in running the ball.

They rank right around the middle in the league in turning the ball over, but the Browns have been woeful in that category ranking fifth worst in the NFL with just nine in the first nine games.

They intercepted just four passes for the season.

Pittsburgh is an opportunistic football team, so not to be redundant, the Browns must limit their opportunities, and that means being careful with the football, which could be difficult on a frigid night.

Unfortunately, these Browns haven’t been the most patient of teams in terms of taking what defenses give them, although they have improved over the past two games.

Mayfield is aggressive by nature, and Kitchens seems to like using exotic motions and plays at seemingly the wrong time. Both tendencies need to be stifled this week, as the conservative approach is needed.

The Steelers are 3rd in the NFL in sacking the QB, and we know the Browns offensive line isn’t the most solid unit on the team. So, a good strategy might be the throw on early downs and set up shorter yardage situations on second and third down.

The good news for the Browns is although the Steelmen have a very good defense, Cleveland has already faced five defense statistically better in New England (1st in total yardage), San Francisco (2nd), Buffalo (3rd), Denver (4th), and the Rams (10th).

That’s right. The Browns have faced the top four defenses in the NFL through the first nine games.

There can be no patting themselves on the back after last Sunday’s win over the Bills. This will be another tough affair for Freddie Kitchens and his football team.

Holding onto the ball and not allowing big plays could be the determining factor tonight.