Jacoby Brissett threw for 212 yards and a touchdown with Donovan Peoples-Jones his main target with five catches for ninety-nine yards.
Cleveland drops to 3-6 on the season and will travel to Buffalo next Sunday.
Brownie Bits
1) Before we dig into the loss, toss away any playoff hopes now.
Considering the final two games before DeShaun Watson's return are at Buffalo and Tampa Bay at home, winning both to reach the circled amount of five wins in the Jacoby Brissett zone.
It's not happening and while I'd take a surprise in winning both, I've seen little from this team to have hopes that could happen.
2) Kevin Stefanki's in-game playcalling continues to baffle me.
Stefanski's planned first drive (or more depending on the number of plays involved) is usually a pretty strong set and the Browns scored a touchdown on their first drive against Miami.
3) It is the disjointed decisions thereafter that mark the questions that I have.
For example, Amari Cooper after a great game against the Bengals will have only three passes to him.
Cooper caught all three for a mere thirty-two yards.
4) Compare that to the targets of backup tight end Pharoah Brown, who is known for his blocking and not his pass-catching and was thrown to five tines, catching two for thirteen yards.
5) As other teams have done, yet another squad uses a game against the Browns to turn into a ground game bully as the Dolphins rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns.
When teams use backs such as Jeffrey Wilson and Rakeen Mostert to batter you, you have a severe problem.
6) The Browns under Andrew Berry and Paul DePodesta have made it pretty clear that they don't value defensive tackles and linebackers as highly as other positions.
To a certain degree that's understandable as under a salary cap, a team can't be super at every position but the Browns are getting below-average production at these positions and their weakness at those spots is why the opponents are punishing the Browns run defense or lack thereof.
7) This makes me think of this- Will Berry/DePodesta admit in the off-season that perhaps their decision to devalue these positions and bargain shop (with the exception of the 2021 second-round drafting of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) for cheap alternatives hasn't worked out as planned?
Or will they double down and rather than try to upgrade, continue to stay with their position and hope for the best?
8) The defense was terrible as besides the 39 points allowed, Cleveland didn't force a Miami punt throughout the game and only made one stop on fourth down.
No excuses for that terrible performance.
9) I can't hammer Kevin Stefanski for not using Nick Chubb enough (eleven carries, sixty-three yards, and one touchdown) as the Browns trailed most of the game and needed to score quickly but I can about his lack of use for Kareem Hunt, who carried six times for nine yards but was thrown to only one time.
Wasn't the advantage of having Hunt around due to the various ways that he could be used in the passing game?
10) Offensive line issues were easy to see in this game as Wyatt Teller attempted to return after a two-game absence with a calf injury but didn't take long to discover that the calf was not in strong enough condition for Teller to play.
The Dolphins sacked Jacoby Brissett three times and pressured him constantly as Jedrick Wills and Jack Conklin struggled with the speed rushes of newly acquired Bradley Chubb and veteran Melvin Ingram.
I know this is a better run-blocking line than pass-blocking but Wills has disappointed in his last two seasons and Conklin seems to be breaking down at the end of a fine career.
11) This seems like someone has made mistakes in either team building, banking on the wrong coaches, or errors in talent evaluations.
No one is perfect and mistakes will always occur but the Browns sold the premise of being an elite team that was close enough to justify the three first-round selections etc package to land DeShaun Watson despite the baggage that arrived with him from Houston.
The flaws of this team don't make a strong case that the premise was a correct one.
Someone will likely pay for those errors unless DeShaun Watson gives the Browns a super-sized jolt over those final six games.
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