Well, it’s been 48 hours, so here we go. Questionable play calling in the red zone at crucial times , turnovers, terrible officiating, dropped passes and penalties. Sounds like a broken record. The majority of the time the Browns moved up and down the field against a very good team. The first three drives ended in touchdowns. The no huddle offense had risen from the grave. However, prior to the half up 20-12, first and goal with about 1:40 on the clock and all three of your time outs, stop hurrying and burn some clock. Freddie said in his press conference yesterday, he wanted to be aggressive, score quickly, stop Seattle, and use his time outs and score again. What? Are you kidding me? How about take your time, make sure you score a touchdown, burn some clock, go up 27-12 and leave Seattle no time at the half. Instead the Browns are intercepted in the end zone and before you know it, it’s 20-18 at the half and Seattle now had the advantage.
Everyone is calling Mayfield a mistake as our quarterback. Not me. Yes, for some reason Mayfield is not seeing the entire field and is missing open receivers. But in the no huddle, he is the quarterback the Browns drafted number one. The interceptions are inexcusable, however 7 out of his 11 interceptions hit the receivers hands. Is he throwing the ball too hard or is he seeing a brief window to fit the ball into the receiver? A little of both. On the end zone interception, he really zipped the ball to Landry, but if the Browns weren’t in such a hurry, maybe run the ball on first and goal, things might of been different. The pass to Hilliard late in the game that bounced off his hands and was intercepted was a game killer. Here’s my question,why was Hilliard in the game to begin with? Chubb is the third best pass catching running back in the league with a 83% catch rate. So lets have him on the sidelines during a must score drive. That’s on the coaching staff.
Every NFL fan, except New England fans, can agree the officiating in this league stinks. Did it cost the Browns the game like last nights Lions game? No, but when was the last time a bad call helped the Browns? I can’t think of one game. Usually when the Browns play the officials are searching the glossary of the rule book to screw the Browns. From the touchdown/ non touchdown, the blindside block that killed a drive, the horse collar call and the non call on the face mask to Chubb, the officiating is just plain bad. The Browns aren’t completely innocent on penalties, they tried to keep up and succeeded to hurt themselves. Lane Adkins (TheRealLA_) of the Orange and Brown Report put it best, ” One issue with officiating of today, they anticipate a foul and throw the flag, rather than seeing one occur.”
It’s obvious this defense needs DL help and LB help. They just can’t stop the run and the poor tackling is maddening. All Browns fans thought the defense would be a strength of the team. Richardson and Ogunjobi are pedestrian at best. This team misses Christen Kirksey’s play and leadership. I know the defense is missing half their secondary, but that is not the problem. Myles Garrett did get two sacks and they did pressure Russell Wilson most of the day, but now you see why Wilson is the current front runner for MVP. Once Seattle got the mojo going, you could feel this game starting to slip away. Still after all the bad calls, the Browns had the lead late in the game.
The Browns did have over 400 yards of offense, but a little over 100 was in the second half. Chubb did get 20 rushes for about 120 yards and Hilliard did have two good returns, one great one to start the game. Beckham, despite two drops, played well, 6 catches for 101 yards. Some would say that even with all the problems they still almost beat the 7th best team in the NFL. Well whoopty hell, almost doesn’t count. This team blew chances to win 2 games and should be 4-2 at the bye. Freddie said yesterday, the Browns are a group not a team. I’m no expert, but I thought training camp is when you build a team. What were these guys doing in July and August? Also is preseason for the refs to work out all their problems, looks like they were just cashing checks.
Finally, The Rashard Higgins mystery can’t be explained. He comes off injury, listed as healthy and the Browns don’t want to play the guy who Mayfield has the best chemistry with is a healthy scratch. Yet, Callaway comes off injury and a four game suspension and plays right away at a position he practiced for the first time during the week. The 2019 Browns highlight video will be titled “2019 Browns, The Year They Shot Themselves In The Foot.”
The Browns go to the bye 2-4 with New England looming and a back half of the schedule with some pretty bad teams. Next week I’ll look at the remaining scheduling and see if the Browns can find finish 9-7 or 10-6. This may take awhile so wish me luck. Go Browns.
Late Breaking News. As I was finishing this, I heard Austin Corbett was traded to the Rams for a 2021 day three pick. Okay, I like a GM who can admit his mistakes. But then Steve Doerschuk (@sdoerschukREP) tweeted this, ” Trent Williams should be on Browns roster quite soon.” Wow. Remember Doerschuk was the first to report the OBJ Trade. And now Cleveland Channel 19 is also reporting. Don’t know if they are piggy backing off of Doerschuk, which wouldn’t surprise me, but if you’re a Browns fan despite Williams age, definitely an upgrade. Stay tuned.