Football Angst Starts This Week For Browns’ Fans

The calendar turned to September on Sunday and despite the post-season race going on at Progressive Field downtown, football is in the air and a week from now, folks in the office or at home will be talking about what happened Sunday afternoon on the lakefront as the Browns take on the Dallas Cowboys.

Cleveland won plenty last season. They won 11 games. Myles Garrett was voted the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year. Kevin Stefanski won the NFL’s Coach of the Year for a second time. Jim Schwartz was awarded the Assistant Coach of the Year, and heck, Joe Flacco took home Comeback Player of the Year honors.

Here’s what they didn’t win: A playoff game.

It was remarkable that Stefanski guided the Browns to an 11-6 mark despite having to start four different quarterbacks, actually five if you count going with Jeff Driskel in the season finale, which meant nothing in the standings.

Heck, the coach won games starting P.J. Walker, who beat the NFC Champion 49ers, and rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who defeated Pittsburgh.

The expectations for this year though, if everyone can stay relatively healthy, is to advance deep into the playoffs. GM Andrew Berry has certainly built a roster to do just that.

Cleveland is oozing with talent. Defensively besides Garrett, they have a tremendous secondary led by cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Martin Emerson Jr., and safeties Grant Delpit and Juan Thornhill, as well as Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who was excellent in the second half of last season.

They have weapons on offense, headed by WR Amari Cooper and TE David Njoku, who came into his own down the stretch last year, and the interior of the offensive line is very good, with perhaps the best set of guards in the league in Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller and center Ethan Pocic.

However, there are questions. The defense was dominant at home last season, but on the road gave up 29 points or more five times and the least points given up away from the lakefront was 22. They also gave up 45 points (really 31, there were two interceptions returned for TDs) in a road playoff game at Houston.

This has to improve, and no doubt Schwartz has been pounding this into the players’ heads during training camp.

Offensively, there is a new system with new coordinator Ken Dorsey, supposedly suited to dual threat quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson. So, if Watson doesn’t flourish this season, or misses time with an injury, we don’t know what Berry and Stefanski will do.

Under Stefanski, the Browns have always ran the ball, but of course, up until his knee injury last year, Stefanski always had Nick Chubb, the second best running back in the history of the franchise.

Chubb will miss at least the first four games of the season, and can Jerome Ford provide enough of a threat in the ground game.

Even in today’s NFL, we still believe you have to run the ball and stop the run to be a successful team.

Frankly, because we didn’t see Watson in exhibition play and because of the injuries at tackle during camp, we have no idea what the offense will look like come Sunday.

This much we know, it is time for Watson to show why the Browns paid him a lot of money and traded three first round picks to get him. For the Browns to get where they need to go, as we said, that’s a deep playoff run, Watson needs to get close to the player he was with Houston earlier in his career.

The opener is probably the toughest game for Cleveland in the first five weeks, so a fast start should be expected.

The Cleveland roster has a lot of guys over 30 years old and more approaching that milestone. No doubt the time to win is this season.

Browns Need To Get Pay Off On Investment On Watson

When the Cleveland Browns traded a boatload of draft picks and spent a ton of money on QB Deshaun Watson prior to the 2022 season, we are sure they felt their quarterback issues were taken care of for several years.

However, Watson has not been under center since the move was made more often than he has played due to league suspension and injury. And really, when Watson has played, he has not resembled the player who put up 4823 yards through the air in 2020 with the Texans.

Of the five highest yardage games for the Browns in the 2023 season, Watson was at the helm for one of them, the 26-22 loss to Pittsburgh in week two. The Browns moved well that day, and Watson completed 22 of 40 throws for 235 yards, but had an interception on the game’s first play and two fumbles, one of which resulted in another Pittsburgh touchdown.

The other four games which resulted in the most yardage gained with the quarterback who played:

428 yards vs. the Jets (Joe Flacco)
418 yards vs. the Texans (Flacco)
389 yards vs. the Jaguars (Flacco)
385 yards vs. the Seahawks (P.J. Walker)

To be fair, if we extend this to the top ten games, Watson played in three of those–Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Tennessee.

In Watson’s first year, in which he was suspended for the Browns’ first 12 games, the game he moved the ball in the best was a 23-10 loss to the Bengals in week 14, which ranked 9th for the Browns that year.

Watson was 26 of 42 in that one for 276 yards with a TD throw and an interception.

Of the five lowest yardage games for Cleveland, Watson was at the helm for four of them.

That has to be concerning for the organization.

The Browns changes offensive coordinators this season, bringing in Ken Dorsey, who had success working with Cam Newton in Carolina. This was done to “unlock” Watson, to get him back to the player he was in Houston.

They talk about adding more weapons to the offensive, giving Watson more to work with. However, we keep coming back to these facts: Cleveland scored 30 or more points five times last season. Three of those games came with Flacco behind center, one came with Watson, and the other with Walker.

We think there should be a meeting in the middle with the QB. There is no question so far the offense runs better with other quarterbacks than the one the Browns have made a substantial investment in.

So, bringing in a coach more in tune with Watson’s style of play is fine, anything to make him more comfortable is a good thing. However, Watson should also be making an effort to fit with what worked at the end of 2023.

There is no question the Browns moved the football better and scored more points with Joe Flacco at the position. It’s probably the reason the changes were made to the coaching staff, the front office is concerned about the huge investment that was made.

For the Browns to succeed in 2024, they need more consistent play from Deshaun Watson. They’ve invested a lot of draft capital and money in the former Texan, and so far, it hasn’t paid off.

Hopefully, the new coordinator can help Watson, and he can put his ego aside and go ahead and run the offense like it was in the second half of last season.

Meaningless Game Done, Meaningful Ones Start Again This Weekend For Browns

The Cleveland Browns concluded the exhibition portion of their schedule Sunday with a 31-14 defeat at the hands of Cincinnati. Technically, the game counted in the standings and the Browns end the 2023 season with an 11-6 mark, but the contest meant nothing to Kevin Stefanski’s crew and it was handled accordingly.

Heck, the Browns started a quarterback who wasn’t even on the roster for the previous game, signing Jeff Driskel from Arizona’s practice squad and putting him under center.

And yes, that should tell you how much Stefanski wants to see P.J. Walker play for the team.

The game itself was pretty much over by halftime as the Bengals led 24-0, but it seemed defensive coordinator lit into his unit during the break and that side of the ball performed much better in the second half, holding Cincy to seven points.

Alex Wright continued his fine play with another sack, and rookie Isaiah McGuire flashed as well with a sack. D’Anthony Bell had an interception on the Bengals’ first drive, continuing his fine play.

The offense sputtered much of the day until Driskel connected with David Bell for a pair of touchdown throws in the fourth quarter. Ironically, the last time the Browns were shutout was by the Bengals in 2014, which was Johnny Manziel’s first career start.

So, Driskel fared better than that.

Keep in mind, the Browns’ bye week was following the fourth game of the season, so they have had a long stretch without time off, and with all of the injuries the squad has suffered this season, there is no question in our mind that resting the veterans who are banged up was the correct call.

As for a loss of “momentum”, we aren’t worried about that. Stefanski’s mantra has been going 1-0 every week, and that won’t change now that the playoffs are starting.

Saturday, the Browns will travel to Houston to take on a team they defeated on Christmas Eve, 36-22, in a game that wasn’t that close. Cleveland had a 36-7 margin in the fourth quarter.

Of course, the Texans didn’t have the likely rookie of the year in QB C.J. Stroud. We did hear a former player turned analyst say over the weekend that the key term in discussing Stroud is “rookie”. He said the playoffs are a different game and it will be difficult for a quarterback, especially a first year one, in his first playoff game.

Stroud was impressive Saturday night in the win that clinched a playoff spot for Houston, but then again, the Colts’ defense is not the Browns’ defense.

The Browns were the stingiest unit in the league in allowing teams to move the football and allowed 44 less first downs than any other team in the NFL. And after a slow start in gaining turnovers, they finished tied for fifth in the league in that stat.

Yes, Stroud is good, and the Texans are a solid football team. The games where the Browns play the Jets or the Cardinals (sorry, Jonathan Gannon) are done. This is the playoffs, only the best teams are remaining.

The Browns are one of those teams. And Saturday, everyone will play. It should be exciting.

Just A Bad Day In Denver For Browns

Even though the NFL has become a passing league over the last 20 years, one thing remains constant, it is still difficult to win when you can’t run the ball and you can’t stop the run.

Last Sunday, the Browns couldn’t stop the run, allowing 169 yards on the ground, and they decided not to run that much, gaining just 107 on only 24 tries. The result was a 29-12 loss to Denver, dropping Cleveland’s record to 7-4.

It wasn’t coach Kevin Stefanski’s best play calling performance, as Denver came into the game with the league’s worst defense against the run, but Cleveland threw the football 42 times, although to be fair, after P.J. Walker replaced an injured Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the third quarter, he threw 13 times as the Browns were behind.

To be fair, at the time DTR left the game, the Browns were very much in it, trailing 17-12 late in the third quarter, and coming off a 13 play, 79 yard drive that ate up 6:24 off the clock. Right after he left came the play everyone is talking about.

Cleveland tried a reverse with the ball handed to Elijah Moore who was to pitch it to Pierre Strong running around the right side. It looked like Strong had a lot of room, but the pitch was mishandled, and Denver recovered on the Browns’ 20-yard line.

We point this out because fans love trick plays, except when they don’t work. How many times have you heard a team’s offense is vanilla, with no imagination. Our point is it looked like a good play call; the execution was just terrible.

As we said previously, it was not a banner day for the Cleveland defense. Denver gashed the run defense, as the Browns allowed the second most yards rushing in a game this season. It was the second straight week they allowed around 170 yards on the ground, and this time, there was no 74-yard run to skew the stats.

There were numerous runs of 10 yards or more, something for defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to fix this week.

They did hold the Broncos to just 134 yards in the air, but mostly because they didn’t force Denver into many obvious passing situations. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah recorded the only sack on the day.

Let’s go back to the quarterback spot though. If Thompson-Robinson can’t go against the Rams this week, it very much looks like Joe Flacco will get the start. We would also go a step further and say Andrew Berry should be on the lookout for another QB to replace Walker, who is unplayable.

He fumbled twice in limited time against Denver, raising his total to four on the season. He simply isn’t consistent enough. He did make a beautiful throw to Moore for 28 yards but plays like that are few and far between.

The way Cleveland has gone through quarterbacks this year, we think you have to find someone else. Walker can’t play another down for a playoff contending team.

Besides the QB situation, the Myles Garrett medical report is key. If Garrett has to miss some time, it will force Schwartz to make some adjustments. We have full confidence he can, but missing a player like Garrett is never a good thing.

No Watson, But Browns Will Need To Find A Way

Well. it didn’t take long for the euphoria of a road win over Baltimore to be drowned out. Yesterday, the Browns announced that Deshaun Watson has a fracture in his shoulder and will miss the rest of the regular season.

Suddenly the Browns, sitting with the third best record in the AFC at 6-3 are unstable at the most important position on the field. Watson was coming off an excellent second half against the Ravens, completing all 14 of his passes and leading the team back from a 31-17 deficit in the fourth quarter.

It’s a tough blow for the Browns, but it will be interesting to see how the organization will go from here.

We understand that fans will be downhearted and thinking “woe is us”, but GM Andrew Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski will not be doing that. They will be figuring out how to win without their starting quarterback going forward.

We didn’t think Stefanski was thrilled with P.J. Walker’s play after the Seattle game because of all the turnovers, so apparently rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson will get the nod vs. Pittsburgh.

We are sure the offense will also play it close to the vest in an effort to limit turnover opportunities and that’s fine. We saw in exhibition games that the rookie’s legs can be a weapon.

However, you would think Berry will be looking over what QBs are available now that the trading deadline has passed. The best candidates seem to be Joe Flacco, Colt McCoy or Nick Foles.

If you sign a veteran, it will take him some time to ramp up and learn the offense, so it would seem it’s DTR for the next few games, unless he plays good enough to win games.

Among the veteran free agents, Flacco is 38-years-old and played in five games with the Jets last season, famously guiding New York to a comeback win over Cleveland. He completed 57.6% of his passes with five touchdowns and three interceptions. He also brings the mobility of a flagpole.

McCoy is 37 and played in four games with Arizona last year, completing 68.2% of his throws with a TD and three picks. It would seem he could handle a short passing offense right now.

Foles is the youngest at 34, and he played in just three games with the Colts last season, completing 59.5% of his throws with no touchdowns and four throws to the opposition. Since leaving Philadelphia after the 2018 season, he’s been pretty mediocre.

Before the season started, we had the opinion the success of the Browns hinged on the play of Watson. If he was back to his Houston form, the Browns would be a very good football team in 2023. And if not, Cleveland made a big mistake.

Because the defense has played this well in ’23, we have changed our opinion. This team can still get to the playoffs without Watson this season. If Stefanski can coax decent quarterback play out of whoever starts, we still believe the post-season is in play.

The players and coaching staff are not going to give up on the season. Both groups understand how talented this football team is. We said earlier in the week that the Browns were a power running team and that hasn’t changed with Watson’s injury.

The timing of this, coming off a big win, does suck though. No disputing that.

Key Turnovers Cost Browns (Again!)

We agree with the premise that play calling is overrated in the NFL. What this means is the execution is more important than the play call.

We are in the minority on this though, and that’s why we are sure that Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski will be hammered throughout the week about the third down play with two minutes to go and the Browns holding a 20-17 lead in Seattle.

We know no one will want to do this, but why doesn’t the coach get credit for an offense that gained 385 yards, the second highest total all year (week 2 vs. Pittsburgh) without their starting QB and without Nick Chubb.

The Browns also controlled the clock, chewing up almost 37 minutes in time of possession.

The pass that would up being intercepted (off the helmet of a Seattle player) was a safe throw, but not executed properly. We asked someone who played QB in college and NFL Europe if it was a bad play call and was told no, the passer has to know where pressure is coming from and go somewhere else with the ball.

And there were two other receivers open.

The people saying the Browns should have run the ball in that situation are using the same logic the head coach used. Stefanski called a safe play and if Walker completes it, the Browns run out the clock and win the game.

The “should’ve called a run play” folks are assuming if the Browns do, they make the first down. There is no guarantee of that either.

And we are sure Seattle was playing run first.

While that pass was kind of flukey, having it deflect off a helmet, having P.J. Walker playing quarterback continues to be a problem because of turnovers. He was responsible for three more yesterday, giving him seven in the three games he’s appeared in this season.

FYI, that’s way too many.

Really, it’s amazing Cleveland is 4-3 on the season considering they have lost the turnover battles in six games in 2023! They are -9 on the season, and that simply isn’t a recipe for winning games in the NFL.

If Andrew Berry doesn’t trade for a veteran QB by today’s deadline, why not take another look at rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson against Arizona this Sunday? We know the rook struggled in his first start vs. Baltimore, but he didn’t get all the practice reps that week because the organization thought Deshaun Watson was going to be able to go.

Maybe, DTR can hold on to the ball better, and yes we know what he did against the Ravens.

And if you want to second guess Stefanski for something in Sunday’s game, we are curious as to why Kareem Hunt wasn’t in the game in the fourth quarter.

Hunt was Cleveland’s leading rusher on the day, and as usual, ran hard, getting 55 tough yards on 14 carries. This isn’t to denigrate Jerome Ford, who gained four yards per carry playing most of the final quarter, but Hunt is a dependable back for sure.

All in all, a victory next Sunday at home puts Cleveland at 5-3, and only the division leaders in the AFC have less losses and they all have two. Without Watson and Chubb, that’s not bad.

And we will say the same thing as we said after the week two loss to Pittsburgh. Eliminate the mistakes and things will be okay.