Tag: mike hall

No Excuses. Browns Drop One They Should Have Won

We aren’t going to blame the weather, and we aren’t going to make excuses for the Cleveland Browns in losing Sunday to the New York Jets 17-12 in the Meadowlands.

The Jets are not a good football team. They came into the contest at 1-3 and were 3-14 last season, a worse regular season team than the Browns. So, after they won on Sunday, they are 5-17 since the beginning of last season and two of those wins are against Cleveland.

We don’t care about the conditions; this was a contest where the Browns were the better team and they lost. Good teams don’t allow that to happen, with the insinuation being Todd Monken’s squad isn’t a good football team.

Going into the season, we wrote about being concerned about the depth of the Browns and the lack of it showed up against the Jets. RT Tytus Howard was injured during the game which put Daward Jones out there.

That contributed to Deshaun Watson being sacked eight times, although to be fair, that number would be less if Watson would throw the ball away at times instead of trying to make something happen. That would seem to be a good trait, but he runs himself into a boatload of sacks.

And not having Mason Graham and Mike Hall at defensive tackle certainly didn’t help the defense, who outside of the first drive of the game, played pretty well, allowing less than 300 yards of total offense and forcing two turnovers.

Quincy Williams was all over the field and his fellow linebacker, Carson Schwesinger was excellent as usual. Both forced fumbles, the latter on a huge sack in the fourth quarter. And DT Maliek Collins had 1.5 sacks during the game.

The winning touchdown for the Jets was set up by a botched snap on a punt, giving New York a short field of 28 yards.

We know the Browns scored 20 or more points in their three wins, which means we have to address scoring just 10 and 12 points in the two losses. The biggest issue is the lack of a consistent running game. As a team, Cleveland averages just 3.7 yards per carry and if you take out Watson’s numbers (37 attempts for 167 yards), the average dips to just 3.4 per attempt.

That’s simply not good enough. Quinshon Judkins is getting just three yards per carry, yet the other running backs on the roster (Rocket Sanders and Jaleel McLaughlin) have just nine attempts.

Perhaps it’s the ineffective run blocking by the line, or a combination of that and just poor vision by the runners, but it’s not a good thing to have the QB be your best running threat.

On the other hand, when will the offensive coaches make getting the ball to Denzel Boston a priority? Through five games, the rookie has 16 receptions for a 20.6 average yards per catch. He had seven targets, the same number as Isaiah Bond (who dropped two passes) and Jerry Jeudy. That’s a head scratcher for sure.

By the way, TE Harold Fannin had just four targets. We aren’t geniuses but maybe try to get the ball to your best receivers more often and make that a priority.

Also, let’s not pin any flowers on Watson either. He had just 155 yards passing, the second time in three weeks that happened and although he had 205 in the season opener, a good bulk of that was in garbage time.

He’s been under the 200-yard threshold in 10 of his last 12 starts. Just sayin’

The Browns come home for a date with the first place Ravens (4-1) next Sunday with a chance to get back on top in the AFC North.

Again, it’s back on the coaches to clean up the mistakes and fix the problems, particularly on offense.

A Good Night On The Lakefront For The Browns

We figured a successful season for the Cleveland Browns this year would be around five or six victories. However, despite a brutal opening game blowout loss to Jacksonville, the Browns amazingly sit at 3-1 after a 27-24 win over Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

Many experts said Todd Monken’s squad could compete with competent play from the quarterback, and that was on display in this one as Deshaun Watson was excellent in the first half and finished with 24 completions in 33 throws for 268 yards and a TD toss to TE Harold Fannin.

The yardage was Watson’s third highest in his Browns’ career, and the most since 2023 when he threw for 289 in a 27-3 win over Tennessee. It is also the most points Cleveland has scored in a game he played since the 33-31 victory over Baltimore in ’23, the game he injured his shoulder.

The first half was a dominant display of football. After a long scoring drive by the Steelers on their first possession, the defense clamped down had held Pittsburgh to a mere field goal at the end of the half, while the offense scored three touchdowns and the Browns led 21-10 at the intermission.

Quinshon Judkins ran harder, and accounted for 96 yards from scrimmage, but 43 of them came catching 6 passes. However, in the third quarter, the running game started to get it going and gained 34 yards on a drive, but Watson fumbled on a read option to give the Steelers the ball and killed a chance to put the game away.

Early in the 4th quarter Watson threw an interception on a tipped ball, and Pittsburgh turned in a seven play, 65-yard drive to get back in the game.

We don’t want to give the impression the defense let them back in the game because overall they performed very well despite the loss of Mason Graham in the first half.

In last season’s penultimate game, Carson Schwesinger was injured against the Steelers, but stayed in the game and finished it, the result being a Browns’ win. Some thought Schwesinger should have come out since it was a meaningless game for Cleveland, but we loved it. He was showing leadership and toughness. If he could go, he was going to stay out there for his teammates.

We thought about that with Mike Hall Thursday night. Hall left the game in the first half with an apparent ankle injury. He left on a cart. But he came back in the second half and recorded a sack.

Did what Schwesinger did last December play a part here? Maybe not, but it shows the attitude of this defense and perhaps this team. Character and leadership mean something.

We also have to talk about the kicking game. Of course, Andre Szmyt made the game winning 56-yard field goal that likely would have been good from 70 yards, but Corey Bojorquez averaged 62.8 yards per punt, including an 81 yarder in the 4th quarter.

Szmyt is the most reliable field goal kicker the Browns have had since Phil Dawson, really should be considered as a solid bet to make anything from 60 yards and in.

We thought the Browns needed an experienced coach to replace Kevin Stefanski and Monken looks like we might be correct. The players seem to respect and like him (both are important) and he has restored Watson’s confidence in himself.

The 3-1 start is shocking to say the least. The tanking talk around town can cease.