Jaguars Provide Massive Opportunity For Browns Passing Game
For the past month, the Cleveland Browns passing game has been characterized by missed opportunities and flashes of what's possible through the filter of wind and rain.
A depleted Jacksonville Jaguars defense is the final opportunity to gain confidence in a game environment before facing off against the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, which could be the most meaningful competition the Browns face before the postseason.
The Browns still may not be able to escape the rain in Jacksonville, but they will be facing a defense that is missing its top three corners in Sidney Jones, C.J. Henderson and D.J. Hayden as well as their best pass rusher in Josh Allen.
The Browns will be without Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward among others and the Jaguars defense may be in worse shape. They still have Myles Jack and former Brown Joe Schobert at linebacker and are getting pretty productive play out of their safeties, but what's left of the defensive line and corners are a significant disadvantage.
When the Browns have had issues moving the ball through the air, it's been due to near misses. A missed throw. A dropped pass. The weather has certainly played a role, which is part of the reason the passing game feels close to a breakthrough, but the Browns need to make the most of their opportunities starting Sunday.
The scheme is sound. There are plays to be had. Baker Mayfield is seeing the field well and making the right reads. The ball isn't being placed in jeopardy and there are plenty of examples where Mayfield looks fantastic and his receivers make big time plays.
The Browns are also showing more in terms of their passing game and the level of trust they have in Mayfield, regardless of the weather, something offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt hinted at coming out of the bye week. Those results were mixed against the Philadelphia Eagles. The most notable example was running play-action rollouts to the left, which is the setup that enabled the 42-yard reception to KhaDarel Hodge.
It's also the concept that saw Mayfield miss an opportunity for a touchdown in the red zone. First, underthrowing a poor pass to Harrison Bryant that resulted in defensive pass interference and then overthrowing a wide open Austin Hooper the proceeding play.
The failure of the play was in Mayfield not getting his hips and shoulders around properly to make the throw. In trying to get the ball out quickly to take advantage of the situation, he threw it before he had a proper platform, resulting in the poor throw.
The most frustrating part with Mayfield is the fact he's clearly capable of being deadly accurate and making outstanding throws. To go from that to then throwing a remarkably poor pass like the one to Bryant can be downright maddening.
The good news is that there is significant potential to improve. Even on some of the plays the Browns are making, there are subtle adjustments away from even more.
For example, on the 43-yard completion to Rashard Higgins, if Mayfield throws the Higgins further to the right, away from the defender or Higgins doesn't have to dive for reception, he could then score. Mayfield's hips aren't around far enough to really move this ball further to the right, making it a pretty remarkable pass.
After drawing the Eagles offsides, setting up 2nd-and-2, the Browns took advantage of the situation, being aggressive resulting in a 21-yard completion to Hooper.
If Mayfield puts a little air under this and leads Hooper down the field more, he is out of his break cleanly, so he can catch the ball and gain additional yardage. Instead, out of concern that his feet would tangled up coming out of the break and opted to leave his feet to secure the catch.
These two plays combined for 64 yards. The Browns will happily take those results, but they aspire to be at a point where those plays combine are for at least 80 yards and a touchdown. That is their yet unrealized potential.
The Jaguars defense will do its best, but they may not be in a position to provide much resistance. There is every reason to believe the Browns running game will be able to thrive in this game, but they have significant incentive to give the Titans and Ravens more to consider in preparing to stop their offense as well as giving themselves more reason to be confident in their still developing passing attack.
