The Cleveland Browns had what was arguably their worst game of the year when they lost to previously winless Jacksonville Jaguars this past Sunday. The Browns could not muster a touchdown versus a Jaguars defense giving up 30.8 points per game in the first six games of the season—this while being the benefactor of multiple turnovers. The Browns defense kept the team in the game for most day, but they still gave up 26 points to a bad offensive and allowed former college quarterback (and current wide receiver-numbered) Denard Robinson to rush for 127 yards. Not much went well. This week did not have much positive moments, so I am going to highlight (actually lowlight) the bad, worse, and worst aspects of last Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars.
So take a seat and grab some popcorn for Week 7’s film room. Afterwards, we can hash it all out in the comments. Enjoy.
The Bad
This week’s bad is the Browns run defense. This has been a huge problem for the Browns all season, giving up the most rushing yards per game in the entire NFL. The lowly Jaguars gained 185 total yards rushing on Sunday. It might have reached its lowest depth’s when they gave up 127 yards to former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson. This performance more then doubled his season total of 94 yards in the first six games.
One of the biggest problems of the run defense has been the outside rushers keeping contain. The Browns have lost contain on a lot of run plays throughout the season. The defense’s contain issues continued last Sunday versus the Jaguars. Here is an example of this big problem, this one against the not-so-fleet-of-foot Blake Bortles.
This play just shows how undisciplined the outside rushers are on run plays. This six-yard run by Bortles really shows the lack of contain the defense has allowed throughout the season. Here is how the play transpired.
The play is a read option play by Blake Bortles. He will choose to either keep the ball or give it to the running back. The Browns defense has four rushers on the line with two linebackers and two safeties deep.
The key to this run stop is Barkevious Mingo. Mingo is in charge of contain on the end of the left end here. He has to stay disciplined and keep everything inside. Bortles is reading Mingo and deciding to handoff or keep the ball based on Mingo’s movements.
As you see here, Mingo completely bails out on the edge and follows the back to the inside. He loses contain allowing Bortles to get the edge for the six-yard gain.
This shot shows what Mingo moving inside and leaving the edge does to the defense. The Browns only have a safety Tashaun Gipson and corner Joe Haden on that side of the field. Bortles has a free six-yard run without getting touched once. Mingo completely destroys the defense because of his undisciplined rush towards the middle of the line.
The Browns have had this problem too many times this year. It has nothing to do with talent or the offense outperforming the defense. It is all about knowing your assignment and being disciplined. The Browns defense has given up contain on too many plays. It must improve this aspect in order to improve their run defense.
The Worse
This week’s worse is quarterback Brian Hoyer and his accuracy. Hoyer struggled greatly versus the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. On Sunday, Hoyer only completed 16 of his 41 pass attempts for 215 yards and an interception. This 39% completion percentage was his worse of the season. Here are some plays where his inaccuracy really hurt the Browns.
This was probably one of the biggest incompletions of the game by Brian Hoyer. This 3rd and 4 play in the second quarter could have put the Browns up two possessions at 10-0. Hoyer misses tight end Jordan Cameron and forces the Browns to kick the field goal.
This shot shows the throwing lane and the open area tight end Jordan Cameron is in. The back of the endzone is completely vacant. The linebacker that is in charge of covering Cameron is completely fooled by Cameron’s fake to the outside and then cut to the inside route. This quick V-in route loses the linebacker and gets Cameron wide open. The linebacker inside of Cameron is too far over to really disrupt the pass. The video below shows Cameron’s perfect route to get open.
Brian Hoyer simply overthrows Cameron and misses out on a touchdown. An NFL quarterback needs to make this pass and Hoyer just did not do it. In the NFL, Cameron is wide open and an easy throw for a touchdown.
This play was the first play of the fourth quarter and could have been a huge play to take back the lead from the Jaguars. The Browns were in striking distance down 10-6 at this point of the game. Brian Hoyer extended the play well, but he missed an opportunity for a possible touchdown pass to receiver Taylor Gabriel.
Wide receiver Taylor Gabriel is able to beat the corner covering him. This shot shows Gabriel getting past the deep safety and running to the left wide open. The play was long developing but Hoyer was able to extend the play with his legs. Check out the route by Gabriel that allowed him to get open.
The pass was about 50 yards, but Hoyer was able to set his feet and fire the ball. He completely underthrows this pass and it lands incomplete. His ability to set his feet should have given him the ability to rifle this ball to Gabriel for the big gain and maybe a touchdown. It shows that the arm strength question many had with Brian Hoyer is a legit question mark.
Quarterback Brian Hoyer has struggled with his accuracy in the past three games, completing fewer than 60% of his throws in all three games. He must be able to complete these passes in order for the Browns to help out the injured offensive line. His inaccuracy will allow defenses to stack the box against the run and slow down the team’s biggest strength. The Browns need the threat of the pass in order to run the ball.
The Worst
The Browns worst of the week is the play of the offensive line, especially by the right side of the line: right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, right guard Paul McQuistan, center John Greco. The injury of center Alex Mack completely destroyed the cohesion of the offensive line and versus the Jaguars it caused two holes in the line. The Browns right side of the line allowed rushers to get to the backfield and disrupt the Browns offense. Here are a couple examples of the poor blocking by the Browns offensive line versus the Jaguars.
This play is a 4th-and-11 on the Browns final drive of the game. The Jaguars are rushing only four players against the Browns five-man offensive line and running back Isaiah Crowell. So the Browns have six men to block the four rushers, but right tackle Mitchell Schwartz is completely beat by defensive end Chris Clemons. Clemons does not do anything special. He simply uses his speed to beat Schwartz off the corner and causes the pocket to collapse on quarterback Brian Hoyer.
This play was a 2nd-and-8 in the first quarter of the game. The Browns call a run play with running back Ben Tate running towards the middle of the right side of the line. The whole play is completely blown up instantly when center John Greco whiffs on his block. Defensive tackle Roy Miller brushes up Greco’s block and gets his hands on Tate in the backfield. Greco tries to regain the block, but Miller is already in midst of taking down Tate. This missed block by Greco causes a loss of three yards on the play.
This play was a 1st-and-10 in the fourth quarter of the game. The Browns call a run play with running back Isaiah Crowell running to the right end of the line. The play is completely disrupted by one man. Defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks makes right guard Paul McQuistan look like a fool on this play. Marks smashes McQuistan into the backfield and then sheds him to make the tackle on Crowell. McQuistan allows one man to disrupt the whole play cause the four yard loss.
The Browns offensive line is in complete disarray because of the injury to center Alex Mack. Mack’s injury caused two holes because it made Greco move to a position he has never played before. The right side of the line was so leaky on Sunday that the offense could never really get anything going for an extended period of time because of the penetration to the backfield by the Jaguars’ defense. It was an ugly day for the offensive line and will probably result in roster changes for this coming game versus the Oakland Raiders.
Highlights
This week’s highlight for the Browns was the Cleveland Cavaliers’ preseason game on Monday versus the Chicago Bulls. Yeah there were not highlights in the Browns’ loss on Sunday. The whole team played down to the competition and lost to a winless Jaguars team. The Cavs game was way more of a highlight then the Browns game. The Big 3 playing against their biggest competition in the East was a great showcase of the season to come.
Lowlights
There were many lowlights in the game, but the two I want to hit on was running back Terrance West and the coaching decisions. West followed up his benching with a lackluster performance. West has been way too indecisive and is not running downhill like the zone blocking scheme asks for. In the second quarter, he had two straight plays where he danced around the backfield and gained no yards. He has two chances at gaining two yards for the first down, but only gained one yard.
These two runs lead me to the other lowlight. Mike Pettine’s decision to go for the 4th and 1 in the redzone and not kick a field goal was a huge game changing play. Pettine has made good gameday decisions for most of the year, but this past game was one of his worst games as coach. This decision changed the momentum of the game and took away the chance to go up two possessions to the Jaguars. Nothing went right for the Browns on Sunday, so the whole the team was the real lowlight.
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