Cleveland Browns: 4 offensive takeaways vs. the Atlanta Falcons
By Joel W. Cade
The running game made an appearance last night at FirstEnergy Stadium as Duke Johnson and Isaiah Crowell both looked impressive running the ball as the Browns finished with 102 rushing yards and averaged 5.1 yards per carry, highlighted by Robert Griffin III’s 22-yard run.
Making a name for himself in the running game is tight end Randall Telfer. His strength coming out of USC a year ago was his in-line blocking, and after missing his rookie season with an injury, Telfer is starting to demonstrate those blocking skills at the NFL level. He also had a great reception in the red zone and his stock is rising.
Perimeter blocking was also much improved against the Falcons. Perimeter blocking refers to blocking by the wide receivers and tight ends, and last night the wide receivers had better effort and results in blocking corners and on crack blocks. The tight ends also showed improvement blocking in-line, but more work is necessary.
“Nobody wants to get the ball run on them,” Griffin said. “It’s not just me running, but Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson and Terrell Watson and all these guys are doing a great job of picking up the dirty yards. Everybody sees the sexy run of the quarterback going down the sideline, but they don’t see those nitty gritty runs that those guys make all the time so I’m appreciative of that. I know the offensive line is, too. Those things don’t happen if everybody isn’t on the same page.”
Next: Third down? Not so much