Grades from the Week 6 loss to the Titans

Special Teams: F

One of the most frustrating elements of Sunday’s game was the horrendous play of the special teams unit. An area which is widely overlooked, it could be argued that the little plays which weren’t made by this group added up to make the difference in the end.

It is not necessary to look any further than the field-position battle. Not to say that the special teams is solely responsible for field-position, but they definitely do have an impact on it. Through the first three quarters, the Browns’ best starting field-position was equivalent to the Titans’ worst starting field-position. This means that the 25-yard-line served as the most favorable place to start for Kessler and Cleveland’s offense during this time, while it served as the furthest away from the end zone for Tennessee. This stat is very eye-opening as to what truly went wrong in the game, fueled by a ridiculous amount of penalties on punt returns and inability for Cleveland to avoid the shadow of their own goal line.

In fact, both teams played so much on the Browns’ half of the field, it appeared that the turf was wearing down. Thankfully, the teams switched ends at halftime.

On a brighter note, kicker Cody Parkey was two for two in field goal attempts, and punter Britton Colquitt had a solid game, averaging over 50 yards on his seven punts. In the end though, these two players had very little impact on field-position or any of the other duties of the special teams. It was a lost cause as far as they were concerned.