Cleveland Browns: Grades from loss to Patriots

Wide Receivers: D

As a direct result of the lack of offense in general, Cleveland’s wide receivers were not placed in favorable situations in any sense. In fact, despite 35 pass attempts combined on the afternoon, receivers only accounted for 117 yards.

Leading the way was Andrew Hawkins, which is a bit of a surprise, though not stunning since he only recorded 56 yards. Hawkins did however catch a touchdown pass which evened the game at seven early on. Terrelle Pryor had a disappointing outing for the most part, finishing with just 46 receiving yards and rushing for only three. The only other receivers who played were rookies Ricardo Louis and Rashard Higgins. Louis caught two passes for 13 yards, and Higgins failed to make a catch on the afternoon. Other than these four players, no additional receivers even entered the Cleveland offensive huddle.

It wasn’t all the receivers fault of course, as too many throws were well off target and communication was far from smooth. But when given the opportunity to make plays, this unit failed to do so more often than not.

The Browns knew that they would need to score a lot to compete with the Patriots, and the lack of production from the wide receiver position contributed to the fact that they were not able to do so.