Browns Winning While Passing Game Continues to Figure Itself Out
The Cleveland Browns are certainly playing smarter football on the offensive side of the ball, which is a big reason why they are 2-1, but they still have a significant amount of room for growth.
The performance against the Cincinnati Bengals showcased what the Browns can be. 7.5 yards per play, which is excellent efficiency. They had a great balance between the run and passing game, were able to put up 35 points and looked good doing it.
Running into a buzz saw against the Baltimore Ravens week one didn't help, but while the Browns capitalized on turnovers and protected the football, the overall offense wasn't particularly efficient against Washington.
Some of that might be a credit to the Washington defense, but clearly the Browns are still figuring things out, which was expected. Heading into the season, the Bengals and Washington stood out as teams the Browns could defeat and a means to build confidence in this team's vision. That appears to have been exactly what has happened.
The Browns only produced 300 yards of offense on 62 offensive plays at 4.8 yards per play. Washington had 5.0 yards per play, but obviously the five turnovers killed their chances of winning the game.
For the season, the Browns offense is averaging 5.5 yards per play on offense, which is 27th in the league. The Browns actually averaged 5.6 yards per play on offense in 2019, but they turned the ball over at a significantly higher rate.
Striking is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings under Kevin Stefanski as their offensive coordinator only averaged 5.7 yards per play in 2019. That was 13th in the NFL while the Browns were 14th.
Where the Vikings were better than the Browns was in terms of turnovers. The Vikings turned the ball over 20 times in 2019 and 12 of those were fumbles. The Browns offense gave the ball away 28 times and 21 of those were interceptions. Through three games, the Browns have turned the ball over four times - two interceptions and two fumbles.
Protecting the ball lowers the burden on the offense to move the ball as effectively, but there's no question this offense needs to continue growing and become more effective if they are going to have any meaningful success this season.
The Browns had just one explosive play against Washington, when Nick Chubb had a 25 yard run as part of their longest scoring drive of the game. The longest passing play was to Odell Beckham for 18 yards. That's a big reason the average is so low. Their first scoring drive resulting in a field goal went 42 yards, but it took 13 plays to get there. Hardly ideal.
Unless the Browns intend to play keep away in Dallas this week against the Cowboys, they are going to need to find ways to create instant offense and force the opponent to cover the entire field. They've got the Indianapolis Colts at home before they travel to Pittsburgh in their first matchup with the Steelers, so there will be increased pressure for this offense to deliver against more talented opponents.
Currently, the Colts are yielding the fewest yards per play in the NFL at 4.4. The Steelers are third at 4.8. So after the Cowboys, the uptick in competition defensively is significant.
The Browns are 2-1, but their offense needs to get better. Certainly, they'd rather do it while getting wins early in the year, so when this offense is really clicking, they aren't trying to dig themselves out of a hole in the standings.
The running game is impressive and even though Washington's defense flustered it at times, Chubb in particular was able to break through and had a good game overall. He's averaging an outstanding 5.7 yards per carry so far this season. On just 51 carries through three games, he is fourth in the league in rushing yards.
The passing game is the key. Baker Mayfield hasn't put up big numbers, but he's been reasonably efficient after a poor start against the Ravens. The stats aren't pretty, especially the passing yards. Mayfield has 564 through three games while Dak Prescott has 922 yards in his past two. Strangely enough, both quarterbacks have five touchdown passes and two interceptions.
Mayfield is averaging 191 passing yards per game. Kirk Cousins with the Vikings last year was averaging 244.4. Hopefully as the season progresses, Mayfield's average will creep up to where it's at least close to that number. The running game can certainly be the engine of this offense, but as happened with Washington, when the running game isn't having success, the passing game needs to be able to step up and move the offense.
For the foreseeable future, that's going to be the way teams try to stop the Browns. Stop the run and force Mayfield to beat them his arm. He was able to do enough in the game against Washington. Against better teams, Mayfield will need to be able to do more to punish defenses selling out to stop the run and thereby open up the running game.
Three weeks in, Mayfield is getting more comfortable in this offense, but there's so much more that he's capable of doing. The best is hopefully yet to come.
