Cleveland Browns: Grades from home opener vs. Ravens

Secondary: D

At many points during the game on Sunday, the Browns’ secondary simply looked horrendous. Receivers were wide open all over the field, and the Browns were just not disciplined enough to stay with their assignments.

With that said, Joe Haden‘s two interceptions were the high points from the unit, critical plays which either led to points or prevented Baltimore from scoring points.

Still, these two plays are not an accurate reflection on the overall play of the secondary. The Ravens finished the day with 302 yards through the air, despite running just 45 passing plays. This is a direct reflection of numerous blown coverages leading to wide open receivers who burned Cleveland’s secondary all afternoon long. To make matters worse, a substantial portion of these blown assignments occurred on third down plays, opportunities for Cleveland’s defense to get off the field.

The problem could be just that Cleveland doesn’t have the personnel in their secondary to match up with the potent threats at the receiver position Baltimore poses. Regardless, this unit struggled immensely on Sunday, as something drastic must change for them to get any better.