Cleveland Browns: How bad was the OL vs Buccaneers?
By Joel W. Cade
The first sack of the game came on a third-and-ten on Tampa’s 16-yard line.
On the play, the Browns were running long, developing routes due to down and distance. On the snap of the ball, Austin Pasztor dropped into his pass set. He landed off-balance, as he had done in previous games, and was easily beat around the edge by Jacquies Smith. Pasztor immediately held the defender, as he should have to prevent a hit on the quarterback.
Griffin saw that Pasztor was beaten. He ran around Smith then attempted to scramble for yardage. He ran out-of-bounds one yard behind the line of scrimmage. Because he ran for a one-yard loss on a pass play, it is technically considered a sack.
The Buccaneers declined the holding penalty. Accepting the holding would put the Browns on the roughly 26-yard line with another change at third down. This is still well within field goal range for both Patrick Murray and Travis Coons. Declining the penalty forced the field goal.
Sack 1 is a result of no open receivers combined with a bad pass set. Pasztor needs to improve in pass protection if he wants to remain the starting right tackle.
Next: Sack 2