The Good:
- After continuing the Browns recent kicking woes with a missed PAT in week 1, rookie kicker Austin Seibert bounced back on Monday night going 3-3 on field goals including a 48-yarder to end the first half. Seibert also went 2-2 on PAT’s. Cleveland has been searching for an answer at the position ever since Phil Dawson left in 2012, and the Browns should be cautiously optimistic that they have found their answer. Rookie punter Jamie Gillan also had a fine game, putting five of his six punts inside the Jet 20-yard line.
- Despite the final score in week one, Cleveland’s defense put in a decent performance. Take away four plays and the Browns held the Titans to under 3.5 yards per play. Taking away those big plays was clearly the focus heading into week two. The Browns defense completely shut-down the Jet offense the majority of the night, albeit against the Jets second and third string quarterbacks. Myles Garrett finished with three sacks and was consistently wreaking havoc throughout the game. Linebacker Joe Schobert finished with 13 tackles and ended the Jets only chance at putting six on the board with a forced fumble on LeVeon Bell inside the 10-yard line late in the fourth quarter. The Cleveland defense now ranks seventh in yards allowed in the league and is currently the strength of the team heading into Sunday night against Los Angeles.
- Odell Beckham Jr had his first signature game with the Cleveland Browns totaling six catches for 161 yards and a touchdown in the stadium he used to call home. He got going early with a beautiful one-handed grab for 33 yards with the corner draped all over him along the sideline. He would go on to put the nail in the Jets coffin in the third quarter when he took a slant route 89-yards for a touchdown.
The Bad:
- After committing 18 penalties in week one, the Browns followed it up with another nine on Monday night. Even though Myles Garrett put on a great performance, he committed four of those, two of which were late hits on the quarterback and extended Jets possessions. Garrett also has had issues with timing the snap count and jumping offsides throughout his young career but you will take the good with the bad when it comes to a player of his caliber. You just hope that these penalties don’t offset all the good he does for the defense. The Browns did cut their penalties in half from week one, but 27 penalties and over 260 yards given to the other team in only two games is not winning football.
The Ugly:
For the second week in a row, Baker Mayfield and the Browns offense have yet to establish their identity. When the Browns offense took off under Freddie Kitchens direction in the second half of the 2018 season, we saw the Browns establish the run with Nick Chubb which opened up the play action passing game. Kitchens drew up plays to get the ball out of Mayfield’s hands quickly and into the playmakers. The offensive-line only allowed three sacks in those final eight games. So far this season, we have seen none of that. The Browns have allowed eight sacks through the first two weeks in large part to the long developing plays that OC Todd Monken and Kitchens have drawn up. Mayfield hasn’t played bad through the first couple of weeks but he certainly looks uncomfortable. Several of his passes sailed high on Monday night, which could be due to his wrist injury from week one, and can be easily fixed from a mechanics standpoint.
The Browns offense has become too enamored with the shiny new toys they have on the outside. Instead of building drives, it looks as if they are trying to score on every single play. With even more shiny toys like Rashard Higgins, Antonio Callaway, Kareem Hunt, and now David Njoku who went out with a concussion on Monday, expected to return over the next 6 games, the offense must stabilize and create its identity. That starts with playing through Nick Chubb. The passing game will undoubtedly improve throughout the season, but with five teams that currently sit at 2-0 coming up on the schedule, Cleveland must begin to forge its identity. That starts with the defending NFC Champion LA Rams who come to Cleveland to play the Browns in primetime on Sunday night.
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