Browns lose to Rams, 5 takeaways
Oct 25, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Cleveland Browns inside linebacker Tank Carder (59) tackles St. Louis Rams running back Benny Cunningham (36) during the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
That loss was uglier than…
The Cleveland Browns fell into an early 10-0 deficit against the St. Louis Rams en route to an embarrassing 24-6 final score.
Before a long rant breaks out, let’s look at five takeaways from Sunday’s loss.
1. Josh McCown is running out of time
Josh McCown likes to do this thing where he stands in the pocket until it ultimately collapses upon him. When this happens, fumbles often occur.
The veteran quarterback lost two fumbles as a result of not getting rid of the ball when facing pressure. The Rams only managed three points from McCown’s two fumbles.
The other two fumbles resulted in 14 points, with seven of those coming on a fumble return.
But McCown is not only literally running out of time in the pocket. He is on a short least in the starter’s role.
Johnny Manziel entered the game late due to a shoulder injury/general beating sustained by McCown, but that did not signal any beginning of a Manziel era. Rather, it was giving a banged up player a rest at the end of a meaningless game.
But Manziel may see the field soon. As much as I hate to admit, both Manziel and McCown each have one win on the season. The circumstances are different in every game, but McCown will not continue to start if he keeps ending up on the losing side, whether benching him is fair or not.
Which leads me to…
2. Johnny Manziel may start in two or three weeks
The Browns take on the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday. That is, the soon to be heavily favored Arizona Cardinals.
After today’s performance, I do not see the Browns standing a chance against Arizona. This does not bode well for McCown’s chances of being the starter going forward.
The Browns then take on the Cincinnati Bengals the following Thursday, Nov. 5. Could Manziel make his triumphant return on national television?
Barring an injury to McCown, it may not be the best of ideas to have the young quarterback make his debut with only a few days of preparation. But a long week follows the short one, so it is possible Manziel could prepare to be the starter for the game on Nov. 15 against the Steelers.
3. Gary Barnidge is the only real threat on offense
Gary Barnidge recorded his third 100+ yard game of the season with 101 yards against the Rams. His streak of four consecutive games with a touchdown reception ended as the Browns failed to score one of those elusive touchdowns in St. Louis.
Barnidge has established himself as McCown’s go-to target on offense, and has earned that role by making catches on every ball thrown his way.
The only problem is that Barnidge being the top option shows how weak the Browns’ receivers are as a unit. This is not to take anything away from Barnidge, but he is not a big-play receiver.
All his work is greatly appreciated by myself and Browns fans alike, but it would be nice if Barnidge’s work complemented that of a strong receiver on the outside.
But with Ray Farmer making the decisions, more money is spent on inactive receivers than active ones.
4. The defense is improving
It is hard to blame the Browns defense for the 24 points scored by the Rams.
The first ten points of the game were the direct result of fumbles on offense, with seven of those being scored on that painful fumble return. The touchdown followed a three-and-out by the Rams offense.
The Rams were only up 10-6 until the 2:14 mark of the third quarter when Todd Gurley rushed for his first of two touchdowns of the game.
The Rams offense only recorded 308 total yards, although it came in only 24:27 of total possession. And even though Gurley ran for 128 yards, the lack of any scoring of offense did nothing to help the defense who had to play from behind for 57 minutes of the game.
The absences of Joe Haden and Tashaun Gipson did not make much of a difference, but their returns will only help out this defense who had no help from the offense on Sunday.
5. We are in the midst of another losing season
A win against the Denver Broncos would have given the Browns a record of 3-3, along with a signature win over one of the top teams in the league.
Instead, the Browns fell to 2-4 only to make that 2-5 after a visually disturbing loss to the Rams.
Seven games in and the Browns already need to win out just to have a legitimate shot at a playoff berth. But for that to happen…it won’t.
It is just tough to watch a team lose so many winnable games early on just to play nine or ten meaningless games to end the seasons. Victories are nice, but are much less exciting when the team is 3-7.
But there is good news. The Cavs start Tuesday.