On a team void of any playmakers at the wide out spot, Sunday Kizer did the best that he could with the talent around him before being shown the baseball cap again.
The team ran for just 66 yards on 26 carries (2.5 yards per carry), and Isaiah Crowell, the person though to be the teams workhorse back, averaged just 2.1 yards per carry.
On the Browns field goal drive that tied the game up at three in the second quarter, the quarterback threw three passes to running backs, and attempted one pass in the end zone to rookie tight end David Njoku.
Consider out of 22 completions by Browns quarterbacks Kizer and Cody Kessler, only seven of them were completed to wide outs. The longest play to a wide out was a 19-yard play to Bryce Treggs, after that the longest play to a receiver was 11 yards.
Not much to work with.
Kizer tried to look downfield, and what he did better than his other starts Sunday was avoid pressure by stepping up in the pocket.
Most of the time he threw check downs to the running backs (11 of the 22 completed passes were to running backs), but those plays turned into nice gains, as Duke Johnson and Crowell were both able to make something out of nothing on screens and check downs.
What seemed to irk Jackson the most was the Browns chance before the half to try and convert a possession into points. Kizer, as he’s been prone to do, threw a bad pick on a drive that was promising and got the team down to the Tennessee 28 before he tried to force a pass to wide out Rashard Higgins.
With the success that the offense was having with throwing short passes to the running backs and tight ends, it would have been better to stick with that game plan than try an ill-advised throw into traffic that was an easy pick.
“That ball was in a two-minute situation right before the half. We had a chance to score points. Let’s be honest, we all saw it – the guy was open. He missed him. That has been our issue,” Jackson said.
“It is not about throwing the ball short, here, there, wherever. It is me throwing the ball to you, and he missed it. We can’t sugarcoat that. That is something that he has to improve at. He has to continue to work at that and continue to get better.”
How can a player like Kizer get better watching from the bench? Simply put – he can’t.
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