Browns downed by Packers, playoff hopes alive.

   After Saturday's 24-22 loss by the Cleveland Browns in Green Bay, I vented with an all-Baker Mayfield post with thoughts on number six and decided on a follow-up with other thoughts in a later post.

1)  Chase McLaughlin had been struggling in the kicking game over the last month but his placement on the illness list resulted in a huge loss for the Browns.

It would have been interesting to see how McLaughlin handled Lambeau in light of his problems of the late but at least McLaughlin had some experience in actual games.

2) That left the Browns with untested rookie Chris Naggar from the practice squad to replace McLaughlin.

With the differences in the practice squad requirements in the Covid era, I have thought having a veteran available in the event of a kicking need (especially at kicker) would have made a lot of sense.

Instead, the Browns decided to go with an inexperienced kicker and it bit them with Naggar badly missing the extra point after the Browns first touchdown.

That led to the Browns trying the two-point conversion after their second touchdown, which they failed to convert.

Two points are given away in a game lost by two points. Hmm...

3) Naggar did bounce back in hitting his other extra point and his only field goal attempt from thirty-seven yards away but Naggar's presence was still felt at the end of the game.

On the Browns final drive and needing just a field goal to win, Kevin Stefanski stated that he was playing for a touchdown, not a field goal, and I'd have to think that having Nagger deciding the game rather than McLaughlin was on the mind of Stefanski and how he called the game/

4) In between the Browns loss to the Raiders and their loss in Green Bay, the Browns decided to waive the "Scottish Hammer" Jamie Gillan upon his return from Covid protocol and keep his supposed to be temporary replacement Dustin Colquitt as the regular punter.

Gillan had struggled this season but was quickly signed to Buffalo's practice squad and the unusual thing was that Gillan had won the punting job over Britton Colquitt and lost it to Dustin- Britton's brother.

5)  What I don't understand about this offense?

Yes, the Browns were behind most of the game but never by enough that they had to throw the ball on every down and the running game was unstoppable by the Packer defense.

Nick Chubb finished with 126 yards and a touchdown on seventeen carries and D'Ernest Johnson added fifty-eight more on only seven carries.

SO between Chubb and Johnson, the Browns AVERAGED 7.67 yards per carry and yet you throw the ball thirty-six times with Baker Mayfield?

And considering the lack of big-time targets at wide receiver?

6) Speaking of D'Ernest Johnson, the Browns are going to have a tough decision to make with him.

Johnson has 398 yards on the season on seventy carries which comes out to a 5.7 yards per carry average.

Johnson has made it clear that he is an NFL quality running back but he will be a restricted free agent at the end of the year and will be in line for a large raise from his current 850,000 yearly salary.

Can the Browns match an offer to Johnson from a team that may pay him as a number one running back when Cleveland will still have Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt ahead of him?

That will be a very interesting situation to watch over the off-season.

7) Myles Garrett didn't make an impact on the scoresheet as he notched a single tackle and one hit on Aaron Rodgers but consider the man played on one leg in the game.

Garrett's groin injury suffered against Las Vegas would have likely sidelined him for the Green Bay games and possibly the Pittsburgh games this week as well had it occurred earlier in the season and not in the playoff rush, so give Garrett tons of credit for sucking it up and playing through a tremendous amount of pain.

8) M.J. Stewart played much of the game at safety and it was your good news/bad news scenario.

The good news was that Stewart finished with ten tackles.

The bad news is Aaron Rodgers threw to his man eleven times and completed ten of them.

9) The Browns coverages weren't prepared for Davante Adams, who caught ten of the thirteen passes thrown his way for 114 yards and two scores.

On both scores, Adams used favorable coverage matchups to easily break away from overmatched Browns defensive backs, rookie safety Richard LeCounte received no help on the first Adams score, and M.J. Stewart was just plain beaten on the second.

10) Pass rush stats.

Baker Mayfield was sacked five times while Aaron Rodgers wasn't sacked at all.

Tough to be overly critical with Myles Garrett playing on one leg and Jadeveon Clowney out for the game due to Covid protocol.

11) Even still the Browns can control their own destiny if the Bengals lose to the Chiefs and the Ravens lose to the Rams, both very possible.

Should that happen and then the Browns win in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the Sunday finale against the Bengals in Cleveland would be winner take all for the division title and the playoffs as the losing seems unlikely to make the postseason.

Nick Chubb to IR, Looking at the schedule

 The Cleveland Browns looked to be as equipped as any team in the National Football League to survive an injury to a star running back.

The Browns and their fans are about to find out as Nick Chubb was placed on injured reserve, but that's the downside as Chubb's MCL was sprained, not torn and as a result Nick Chubb's season is not over as he is expected to miss six weeks, but not the remainder of the year.

Chubb suffered a severe knee injury during his time at Georgia that ended his 2015 season and even though Chubb bounced back to rush for over 1,000 yards in the following two seasons, he shared rushing duties with Sony Michel and it was the knee injury that caused Chubb to fall to the second round in the 2018 draft.

The unusual feature of the 2020 season is the increased injured reserve and practice squad, so the Browns would have had to have made a decision on Nick Chubb's status for the season or carried him on the roster as an inactive player.

Chubb will be eligible to return in three weeks, although he will likely be placed again with the six-week expectation before a potential return for the stretch drive.

The Browns will turn to Kareem Hunt as their workhorse and no team has a better second back than a player that has led the league in rushing and is in his prime at twenty-five.

The immediate problem for the Browns is that Hunt is dealing with a groin injury.

Hunt rushed for two touchdowns against Dallas with the injury, so it wasn't a problem against the Cowboys, but the Browns did manage to keep his carries down with eleven so it is an issue,

Can former Orlando Apollo D'Ernest Johnson repeat his performance against Dallas with 95 yards rushing?

If Hunt is able to run as he has in the past, Johnson won't have to be depended on as often, but the Browns will likely have to add a running back to the practice squad after the promotion of Dontrell Hilliard to the main squad.

The loss of Nick Chubb is a huge loss, but the Browns can handle it.

The question is can they handle the newfound prosperity that comes with 3-1?

I'm excited and hopeful, if they can make it to 4-2 or heaven forbid 5-1, I'll be a believer.

Why then?

Well, they will have gotten past two more games against good teams, and let us look at the schedule after week six.

At Cincinnati

Las Vegas

Bye

Houston

Philadelphia 

At Jacksonville

At Tennessee

Baltimore

At NY Giants

At NY Jets

Pittsburgh

Even if the Browns fall to 3-3, Cleveland should be favored in their next five games.

Run the table, that's 8-3.

Be conservative at say they win four of five (any less would be disappointing), that's 7-4.

At Tennessee will be tough and the home games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh will be as well, but

you hope you win both games in New York.

Your worst-case scenario is 9-7.

That's if the Browns are capable of doing that.

Two of their three wins are against two of the worst defenses in the league and the other win is against a

questionable offense, so I'm still a little uneasy on saying this is a playoff team yet.

BUT the avenue is there to become one...

Beckham leads Browns, Dallas falls 49-38!

Odell Beckham scored three touchdowns and carried the Cleveland Browns to a surprising 49-38 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas.

Beckham scored the trio of trips to the end zone via a reception from Baker Mayfield, a reception from Jarvis Landry, and the game-ending end around rushing touchdown that clinched the win to avoid what would have been a franchise-crushing collapse as Dallas roared back in the fourth quarter to get as close as three points late in the game.

Beckham finished with 81 yards receiving and 75 yards rushing on two carries to lead the Browns offense and D'Ernest Johnson led Cleveland in rushing with 95 on a day that saw the Browns rush for over 300 yards while Baker Mayfield threw for two touchdowns to go with 165 yards through the air in the win.

The Browns move to 3-1 with the win and remain tied for second with Baltimore, a half-game behind 3-0 Pittsburgh, who received an unexpected bye with the Covid-19 wave hitting their scheduled opponent, the Tennessee Titans.

The Browns will go home for next Sunday's game against the visiting 3-1 Indianapolis Colts, who like the Browns have won three in a row after dropping their opener.

Brownie Bits

1) What can you state about Odell Beckham?

This is the electrifying player that the Browns thought they had acquired from the Giants and Kevin Stefanski did a good job involving him in creative ways.

For all of the good things that Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt do and as exciting as they can be, neither can be the game-breaker that Odell Beckham is, and that says a lot considering the talents of those two players.

2) The two gimmick plays that Kevin Stefanski called on the game's first drive and the game's final drive involved Odell Beckham on both plays.

And both plays brought different reactions from me as I watched!

On the touchdown reception, it was a joyful reaction as I screamed "He's (Jarvis Landry) gonna throw!" as I could see that Odell Beckham was open.

On the end-around at the end of the game, I loudly yelled "Oh...." as Aldon Smith beat his man to appear to be in a position to slam Beckham to the turf for a large loss.

Instead, it was Beckham hitting warp speed to avoid Smith and blow by everyone else for the clinching score.

Playcalling always comes down to success and failure by your players.

If Beckham is tackled by Smith, Kevin Stefanski is being grilled for being too cute.

Instead, we all are hailing him- Football is a funny game.

3) How about that running game?

I'll get to Nick Chubb in a minute and maybe Dallas couldn't stop a backfield consisting of myself, Fred Landucci, Battlin' Bob, and Ryan ( Although as Ryan can attest, I can run a pretty mean option offense), but even considering all of that, the Browns ran for 307 yards!

Yes, that number and the 7.7. yards per carry is inflated by the late game run by Odell Beckham, but even erasing that run, the Browns would have still finished with 257 yards.

The Browns were using Chubb before his injury, Kareem Hunt, D'Ernest Johnson, and even the practice squad promoted Dontrell Hilliard and all were effective, so the line was moving some beef.

Johnson rushed for almost one hundred yards and Hunt scored twice, so even without Chubb running the ball wasn't an issue in this one.

4) The loss of Nick Chubb to a knee injury that I haven't gotten word of its seriousness with Chubb undergoing an MRI tomorrow will be a huge one.

Now any team that can turn to a Kareem Hunt is more than fortunate, but the possible loss of Nick Chubb will hurt any team.

Fingers crossed that the Browns will see Nick Chubb return later in the season.

5) Baker Mayfield did throw for two touchdowns and it's hard to argue with 49 points.

Still, Mayfield's 19 of 30 performance featured far too many high throws and yet another overthrow of an open Odell Beckham that cost the Browns a sure touchdown.

The good thing about the current Browns building around the running game means less Mayfield throws and an improved chance of winning.

What I am intrigued by is the offseason decision by Andrew Berry and company on Mayfield's fifth season option status.

Can the Kevin Stefanski offense get by with average quarterbacks until they have an opportunity to grab a great one?

Is Baker Mayfield good enough for the Browns to take a huge salary hit eventually that the Browns think in a conference that will go through Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes for his career (Mayfield is older than Mahomes by six months), that Mayfield can eventually get them through?

Fascinating...

6) Mayfield did show signs of catching on to the offense as he completed nine passes to tight ends Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant, one of those a touchdown pass to Hooper.

The tight ends in this offense are your safety valves, finding them and hitting them accurately is very important and Mayfield is improving in that area.

7) The defense.

I know some of the Dallas comeback is on the soft coverages that every team uses when they have a sizable lead, but this defense, particularly the back seven, just cannot allow chunks of yardage as they did even with such a lead as they had against Dallas.

How much of that is on a back seven that has only Denzel Ward and maybe Mack Wilson that would start on a decent team or what Joe Woods was calling for them, I'm not sure, but it was crazy how easy Dallas had been moving up and down the field against them in the fourth quarter.

8) I know the secondary is battered with Greedy Williams continuing to miss time and the season-ending injury to Grant Delpit was a huge blow, but games aren't over until the final gun.

Terrence Mitchell and Kevin Johnson are fine to be your 4th cornerback, but right now they are your two and three and Andrew Sendejo is just awful.

Sendejo did force a fumble from Ezekiel Elliott, but it seemed that was more from Elliott falling on top of Sendejo than anything that he really did to make the play.

Twice, Dallas struck for touchdowns that you didn't see Sendejo on coverage until the replay, and both times he's the sad trailing culprit.

I'm not sure if this is that Sendejo is too slow or isn't in the right coverage, but not only shouldn't Sendejo be on the field, you could make a real argument that Sendejo is so bad that he shouldn't even be on the team.

He's that awful.

9) However, no complaints about the defensive line.

Myles Garrett is a force off the end, he forced another strip-sack and fumble on Dak Prescott and he is dominating more each week.

Sheldon Richardson and Larry Ogunjobi each played well inside, although Ogunjobi left the game and will be undergoing an MRI, and Olivier Vernon returned from injury and recovered the fumble caused by Garrett.

The line is going to have to continue to play at such a high level because of the bunch behind them. 

Well, let's say there is cause for concern.

10) Two weird plays in the fourth quarter.

Donovan Peoples-Jones was returning kicks and punts in place of the injured JoJo Natson and he did fine for the most part, but in the fourth quarter the Cowboys kicked a bouncing ball to the end zone and Peoples-Jones allowed the ball to bound by him and didn't chase it down.

For a fleeting second, it looked like the ball wouldn't hit the end zone and would be a live ball with Dallas racing down to recover.

Fortunately, the ball did make it across the line for a touchback.

11) The other was after the Odell Beckham touchdown run late in the game.

Cody Parkey attempts the extra point and it's blocked by the Cowboys.

The ball bounces around and Dallas tries to pick it up.

As soon as a Cowboy touches the ball (other than the initial block), the football is live and after some hops and miscues, Stephen Carlson falls on the ball in the end zone.

As I'm saying that's two points ( as I remember the combination of the Clyde Simmons game and the Leon Lett game for the rule even before the two-point conversion began), the referees confer among themselves and then rule it is two points for Cleveland.

Shouldn't have taken that long.

12) The Browns now have a good victory.

I wondered about the legitimacy of the team after home wins over Cincinnati and Washington because even though those games were winnable, they are wins that you use as a foundation of a program.

Dallas may be 1-3, but they score points like crazy and they are never out of a game.

Combine that with beating them at Dallas and this is an excellent win.

13) The Browns finish the first quarter of the season at 3-1 and I would have been happy at 2-2.

Now the 3-1 Colts in Cleveland and this is the type of game that playoff teams win.

The Colts have played well on defense, but haven't rallied around new quarterback Phillip Rivers as much as they had hoped.

Win over Indianapolis, move to 4-1, and the grudge rematch against Pittsburgh could be the biggest game for the Cleveland Browns since at least their one playoff appearance in 2003 and possibly their playoff loss in 1994- both in Pittsburgh.

Lose to the Colts, a damper goes around this win, and it's likely the Browns are 3-3.

Don't look past the Colts and next Monday at this time, there could be as much excitement around the Browns as there have been in years.