Browns 1st and Goal Report: Cleveland needs to establish run game in Vegas

(Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

The Cleveland Browns play out at the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon where they look to get back in the win column. Cleveland stands at 1-2 on the early season. Both losses have been at home and now the team has three straight games on the road. Hopefully, the cooking on the road gives them a boost. They have played poorly overall, especially on the offensive side of the ball. That poor play starts with their quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is at the bottom of quarterback play rankings already compared to the rest of the league. He’s been sacked 16 times already. There have been other problems with the team too including the injury bug. Let’s take a look at some areas that need to be much better if the team wants to win the game on Sunday.

 

1st and Goal: Browns need to establish a run game

The Browns have been spoiled over the years having Nick Chubb as their primary back. Unfortunately, he was injured last season, and we are still waiting for his return. Since his departure, the team’s run game has been horrible.

There are a number of reasons for that, from poor execution, to just not utilizing the running backs more in general. Last week the Browns head coach, Kevin Stefanski, who is still calling plays, despite the “new” offense being put in by new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, ran the ball 12 times to his actual running backs Jerome Ford and D’onta Foreman.

Stefanski had Watson throwing the ball 37 times. The discrepancy between the run and the pass is just terrible and is a contributing factor to the team’s bad start.

Foreman carried the ball 14 times in the Week 2 win at Jacksonville but only got two carries last week. That in itself is just bad coaching by Stefanski. If he can’t see the value of the run game, especially in the abilities of a bruising runner like Foreman, then I’ll continue to scratch my head in disbelief.

2nd and Goal: Mr. Watson needs to play better

No kidding! I bet that’s what you just said when you read that headline. Watson has been playing very poorly and entering the third year of this arranged marriage between the team and him, things aren’t getting any better. That has to change fast, or this season may get away from Watson and the team. The “Boo Birds” have been vocal at the first two home games and chants of “Jameis Winston” have been heard too.

This week, Watson tried to excuse his execution of a vital fourth-down play late in the loss to the New York Giants by describing the open wide receiver as a “Decoy” in the play. Fans are tired of hearing Watson and the team’s excuses. They just want to see good football, and that’s been missing badly so far.

Watson has only completed 57% of his 116 passes for 551 yards and three touchdowns. He’s also only thrown for 22 first downs and his yards per catch is only averaging 8.2 so far well below his 12-yard average in his career.

In addition, before Watson came to Cleveland, he was averaging 270 yards passing a game. Now he’s only averaging 184 yards a game. Another area in the passing game that has been a struggle for Watson is throwing touchdowns. When he was in Houston, he threw 104 touchdowns, but here in Cleveland, he’s only thrown 17 in 15 games over three seasons. These types of stats describe Browns quarterbacks of the past when the team rolled through 30 plus starting quarterbacks since 1999. It’s just awful quarterbacking and I don’t think it’s going to change much moving forward.

3rd and Goal: Is Stefanski ordering Denny’s when he’s looking at the play sheet on Sundays?

I’ve already mentioned the 37 passes to 12 rushes by the Browns running backs in last week’s loss to the Giants. The inconsistencies on the offensive side of the ball are because coach Stefanski has not been calling good games and it seems like he’s trying too hard at times. In the lone win against Jacksonville in Week 2, Stefanski tried having Watson throw the ball on a critical third downplay late in the game. If he just had his running back run the ball, the clock would have kept running and given the Jaguars little opportunity at trying for the comeback. The Browns got bailed out by their defense at the end of that game, but it shouldn’t have ever come down to that.

The bigger concern to me is that Stefanski is in year five with the Browns and yet he still doesn’t seem to be able to call a good game consistently or manage critical moments in games well. This is why many fans and analysts have been calling for Stefanski to give up the “Denny’s menu” and pass it along to the actual offensive coordinator of the team.

Will he ever do that? My guess is he won’t and that could be a reason to part ways with him if this season goes South.

 

4th and Goal: Lots of history with the Raiders

 

I wrote an article recently about the legendary 1981 AFC Divisional Game between the Browns and Raiders. The Browns lost that game 14-12 on the frozen tundra at the old Municipal Stadium after then Browns quarterback Brian Sipe threw an interception in the closing seconds. It was my first taste of heartache as a young fan.

Back in 2018, Nick Chubb was introduced to us fans for the first time out in Oakland when he ran wild. On just three carries he went for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Thank you, Hue Jackson, for wasting Chubb’s talents early in that year.

Winning against the Raiders is going to be tough just because it’s out in Vegas. The Raiders hold a 17-10 lifetime record against the Browns. The last game Cleveland won against the Raiders on the road was back in 2012 and before that it was 2006. So, the odds are not in this team’s favor.

If the team can come together and play well then, those odds will improve but I’m not convinced they can get on the same page. Let’s hope I’m wrong.