Red Right 88

Some Final Thoughts on the Browns Win

Looking back (and ahead) at a few leftover items as the Browns hit the quarter mark of the season following their win against Cincinnati.

• Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan has got quite a conundrum on his hands. Through the first four games, the Browns have shown they can’t put serious pressure on the opposing quarterback unless they blitz – and even then they aren’t always successful. But that heavy blitzing has left the secondary in some tough spots, especially the last two games as the quality of the receivers has gone up considerably. So what to do? If the Browns don’t blitz, the quarterback will have too much time and someone will eventually get open. With four games in the books, hopefully the team has enough data to figure out what’s working and what to shy away from.
• Speaking of the secondary, the cornerback trio of Sheldon Brown, Joe Haden and Eric Wright have made their presence know each week, both good and bad. And safety T.J. Ward has been a big hit (ha!) so far. But you never seem to hear Abe Elam’s name called during the game. We had to look up his stats to see if he’s even been in the game on a weekly basis. Turns out he’s somehow accumulated 18 tackles on the season.
• Ward will surely be fined for his hit on Bengals’ receiver Jordan Shipley, and former NFL official Mike Pereira seems to be taking it personally, judging from his comments to The Plain Dealer. “Nobody in the league likes to say that somebody took a cheap shot at somebody. But I’m not in the league,” Pereira said in an interview. “And I think it was a cheap shot and I think he deserves to be hit and he needs to be hit hard. To me, I’d look at the severity of the hit and even the fact that it led to the concussion and this is just my opinion — but I’d start at the $25,000 mark. To me, I’d make it stiff. He needs to learn his lesson. If people say you’re making an example of T.J. Ward, I’d say ‘so be it.’ There’s no place in the game for that stuff.” Of course, he had no problem with the hit on Ben Watson. Look, we don’t want to see anyone injured, and Ward’s hit look in the flow of the game to us. As long as it doesn’t hurt the Browns, if Ward gets a reputation as a hard hitter than can only pay dividends. And if he can put a hit like that on Hines Ward in two weeks, we’ll make the first donation to help pay his fine.
• With Peyton Hillis emerging as a threat at running back – he’s 8th in the league in rushing and tied for first with four rushing touchdowns – the Browns seem to have embraced their offensive destiny as a running game. And while the playcalling has gotten better, there are still a few times each game where we have to call shenanigans on offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. After Cincy scored to cut the lead to 23-20, the Browns came out throwing rather than trying to run the ball and use the clock. After a three-and-out that took all of 1:10 off the clock, the Bengals had the ball right back. The defense held and, given a second chance to ice the game, Daboll again called for a pass play. After the incomplete pass, he finally fed Hillis the ball to close out the game.
• It was great to see Chansi Stuckey contribute in the passing game on Sunday, but the Browns are in real trouble with Mohamed Massaquoi, who pulled in his one catch and that was it. It’s clear he’s overmatched right now at the NFL level but there’s not much the Browns can do if they want to sit him. Moving Stuckey to the outside isn’t necessarily a good option and his skills as a slot receiver don’t translate to playing one of the outside positions. And Brian Robiskie can’t even get on the field because of injuries, not that he’s produced when healthy. With each passing week it’s looking more and more like the team has two more second-round busts from last year’s draft.
• The so-called “brutal schedule” is starting to look a little different as the second quarter of the season gets under way. Atlanta is a soft 3-1 and the same can be said for Jacksonville (2-2). Miami isn’t playing very well right now, Carolina and Buffalo both stink, and the Browns get a (potentially) rusty Ben Roethlisberger in two weeks.

The Browns have been trending upward all season; let’s just hope they didn’t peak with Sunday’s win against the Bengals.