Wasted: Browns miss upset opportunity in Rams loss

All Pictures: Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Cleveland Browns were given a phenomenal effort by an injury savaged defense against the powerful offense of the defending NFC champion Los Angeles Rams and could have pulled a franchise defining upset on Sunday Night Football.

Instead, play-calling that was so awful that it's almost beyond description and when you add a quarterback that is inaccurate more than he is on the money and a severe lack of time for said quarterback to get rid of the football led to a 20-13 defeat that has many members of the media and many non-media observers wondering if Jimmy Haslam has made yet another mistake among the hundreds that he has made as owner of the franchise.

Baker Mayfield threw for the Browns only touchdown to Demetrius Harris, Nick Chubb ran for 96 yards on the ground and Austin Siebert was two for two on field goals in connecting from 23 and 35 yards.
The now 1-2 Browns travel to Baltimore next week in what could make or break the AFC division race against the 2-1 Ravens.

Brownie Bits

1) The playcalling in this game was so terrible that there are some chants that Freddie Kitchens is over his head in this job and some are already beginning to question his future employment as head coach.
I'm not there yet or even close to that.
I remember the early struggles of Joe Gibbs in Washington as a first-time head coach trying to call plays and it can be a process.
Still, you can't excuse awful and last night was just that.

2) The call that has so many Browns watchers howling was a 4th and nine on the Rams 40 with nine minutes remaining and the Browns down 17-13 still makes me just sadly tap my fingers in puzzlement.
The draw play to Nick Chubb gained nowhere near that and the Rams took over with excellent field position and the resulting drive ended in a Greg Zuerlein field goal to boost the Rams lead to seven.
Other than the "element of surprise", I just cannot imagine any other reason for that call.

3) But almost as bad on a scale that meant the game, Four shots from inside the Rams five yards line and holding all three timeouts, the Browns didn't attempt one time to run Nick Chubb and see what happened with the Rams perhaps expecting a run.
I know that sounds a lot like what I criticized above, but there is a difference.
Four plays to try something unexpected and the ability to stop the clock, if it is not effective and yet
the Browns threw four passes with a quarterback that has been less than dependable with his accuracy this season.

4) Let's talk about young Mr.Mayfield.
Some of the offensive issues are not his fault, but some do belong to him and he has managed to avoid many criticisms better than he has avoided opposing pass rushers.
The biggest has been when Mayfield faces the rush and in the first three games, the problems have been different ones.
At times, Mayfield tries to do too much and holds the ball too long and yet at others he seems cognizant of avoiding the rush and in the process, rushes through his reads too quickly and throws the ball inaccurately.
At the same time, Mayfield still shows why he was so highly regarded by some before the 2018 draft with some throws that shows what he can do.
His 3rd and 15 throw on the game's final drive to Jarvis Landry for 27 yards was as good as you'll see from a young quarterback.
You have to hope that these are the struggles that young passers face and that Baker Mayfield will work his way through them, but after three games that haven't been anything special, you would have to be very happy wearing crimson and cream glasses to see that he'll need to improve for the Browns to live up to expectations.

5) There are things to be critical of Baker Mayfield for as far as poise in the pocket, but one can easily understand why he cannot feel comfortable- the offensive line isn't giving him enough time.
The Browns tackle situation wasn't great entering the season, but the injury to the generally mediocre Chris Hubbard forces a natural guard in Justin McCray to play tackle and even though McCray has been better than expected, the line still has been subpar.
When you can't protect a young quarterback, they can take a beating and Baker Mayfield isn't the biggest passer to start with and what can often follow is developing a lot of bad habits.

6) Joel Bitonio is the best and most reliable member of the Browns offensive line, but he was badly bullied by Aaron Donald last night.
Now, there is a reason that Donald is the best defensive lineman in football and arguably the best defender in the game period, so Bitonio won't be the first or last interior lineman that will be savaged by Aaron Donald, but the Browns can only hope and I think it's very likely that Myles Garrett can have a similar effect on the game, but wow, what a disruptive player Aaron Donald is.
Just so you can groan- The Browns had two shots at selecting Aaron Donald in 2014, passing at 4 (traded the pick to Buffalo) and then at 8 with the disastrous pick of Justin Gilbert.

7) The news wasn't all negative as Nick Chubb had his best game of the season with 96 yards against the Rams.
Chubb can run inside or around the corner and simply never takes a carry off.
Love Nick Chubb and this team needs to see more of Chubb in the offense, which hopefully would relieve some pressure on Baker Mayfield.

8) Give the defense so much credit and they deserved to earn the win.
The Los Angeles Rams have one of the better offenses in the game and they were held to twenty points and only two touchdowns.
That's a phenomenal effort and if you would have asked me before the game, would you take your chances with the Rams scoring only twenty points, I'd take it.

9) Remember earlier when we mentioned that we hoped that Myles Garrett could develop into the type of force that Aaron Donald currently is?
Garrett showed on one play just what havoc he can bring to an opposing passer when he reached around a block and just with his hand knocked the ball from the grasp of Jared Goff.
The play would result in an eventual Austin Seibert field goal and Garrett can be such a special pass rusher that can impact a game even when double-teamed.

10) The Browns have to be very pleased with a secondary that played an entire game missing their entire starting secondary.
Denzell Ward and Greedy Williams both were injured in practice on Thursday, Damarious Randall missed his second game in a row and Morgan Burnett injured a quad muscle against the Jets.
T.J. Carrie and Juston Burris each intercepted Jared Goff and other than a problem knowing where Cooper Kupp was on a few occasions (Kupp caught both Rams touchdowns and caught eleven passes for 102 yards), it's tough to be too critical against an excellent passing game with all backups (The Browns usually play five DB's so technically all the starters were not out of the lineup).

11) Wrapping up, the Ravens game is big, but could have been bigger had Baltimore not lost close to Kansas City to fall to 2-1.
Win this game in Baltimore and the Browns finish a rough first month 2-2, which I think I would have taken before the season and move into a tie for the first spot in the division.
Lose it and the division is Baltimore's to lose after just one month as the Ravens would be 3-1, the Browns would be 1-3 tied with the winner of next Monday's battle between the 0-3 Steelers and 0-3 Bengals.
As big as it could be in the divisional race, the Browns knew that a 1-3 start wasn't out of the question.
What they didn't expect was how bad the offense was going to play in the first three games and I'm betting that Freddie Kitchens knows this has to be largely on him.
I think the Browns are going to be a much different team offensively in Baltimore and time will see how effective those differences will be.