This season I promised myself I would wait 48 hours after a Browns loss to write on my blog. Times up. Lets start with the bad. Freddie’s play calling on the last goal line series. I would of liked to see a run play on first of second down. Three time outs, less than a minute to play, run Nick Chubb once. Or how about the inside hand off to Jarvis Landry who’s in motion. It worked twice against the Panthers last year. The draw play on fourth and goal will go down in Browns history along with Metcalf up the middle, the fullback pass and the flea flicker pass from the end zone thrown into triple coverage. During the game, the mixture of questionable play calling and Mayfield’s holding too long on to the ball or not trusting his offensive line and feeling phantom pressure led to problems.
We all want the offense we ran last year late in the season, but there’s still a meshing of new coaches. Yes the offense shows, at times it can function at a dangerous level. There was a drive Monday night that was RPO and Chubb heavy and the Browns went right down the field and scored. It’s the lack of consistency from one drive to the next that’s maddening. Freddie keeps saying he needs to do a better job at calling plays. How about calling the plays that best suit the personal on the field. That’s all I ask.
Everyone wants to blame the offensive line for all the troubles. Not me. Sure Kush had trouble with Aaron Donald, but so did Bitonio and he’s the Browns best lineman. The tight end position is still underwhelming, but I did see signs of life. Seals-Jones looks like a very good target and Mitchell is doing well in his blocking and route running. Lastly, Mayfield is still leaving plays on the field. Everyone thinks Monkin has changed the passing game to more deep passes. I don’t agree, Freddie likes the deep ball as well. Mayfield is missing the underneath passing routes. I still think the offense is at 85% and with the next four games, it needs to be at 100% this week. There are still too many penalties, 35 in the first three weeks and that on the coaches.
The positives. Nick Chubb had 27 touches, 25 carries for 96 yards. My only problem, don’t run him to the right. He gets big chunks of yardage on the left side and small yardage on the right side. Mayfield might be missing some plays on the field, but when they’re there, man this kid is good. Remember, Sunday’s night game was his 16th start. LaCharles Bentley tweeted yesterday, “Baker Mayfield isn’t regressing, he’s still learning.” I’ll take whatever Bentley has to say, he knows more football than me.
The defense. Wow. First they held Gurley to 46 yards rushing. Larry Ogunjobi and Sheldon Richardson were beasts against the run. Myles Garrett was Myles Garrett again without the penalties. Goff doesn’t like to throw to his wide receivers along the sidelines and for most of the game, they forced him to do that. At linebacker, Kirksey may be the captain, but Schobert is the heart and soul of the defense. he was involved in another turnover, I just wished he could have scored. The defense had three turnovers, however they couldn’t do anything with them. You have to go for the throat after a turnover. Mack Wilson is a stud and will only get better. The secondary, or should I say the second team secondary, was outstanding. Justin Burris was re-signed late in the week and had to remember everything from training camp and still played well. The Rams may have the best three starting receivers in the league, until the Browns get Higgins back. The Browns led 6-3 at halftime and held the Rams to 20 points, not bad. As for special teams, the Scottish Hammer had a shanked punt, but still punted well. Seibert was great. His mechanics are so sound.
Now the Browns head to Baltimore with a share of first place in the AFC North on the line. The Ravens are a very physical and aggressive team. Kansas City took advantage of that in the first half of Sunday’s game and went into prevent because of their big lead which allowed the Ravens back in the game. Lamar Jackson is a good quarterback, but the Chiefs made him work. They took away most of his passes and he only played well because of his legs and some luck. I want to see a lot of motion on offense for the Browns and the defense to place a spy on Jackson and keep the pressure on him. The sky isn’t falling Browns fans, the season isn’t over and there’s no time for panic, yet. Everyone take a few deep breaths. On to Baltimore and Go Browns.