Cleveland Browns: 5 takeaways on offense from the loss in Baltimore

Questionable decisions by Hue Jackson

At some point this football team is going to have to run the football. I understand the game script dictates play calls to a certain degree, but sometimes I wonder if Hue Jackson is pressing too hard in trying to get back into these football games.

There needs to be more balance in the offense, and it starts with running the football. The Browns were out-possessed by 33:24 to 26:36 on Sunday. That largely has to do with the wide turnover margin, but it also reflects on Hue Jackson’s play-calling ability and inability to stick with the run. It simply doesn’t do DeShone Kizer any favors.

Staying in the realm of questioning play-calling, let’s talk about the first-and-goal at the three-yard line after a big Duke Johnson run. I’m really happy to see Hue Jackson busted out his good old high school playbook for a designed quarterback run that lost three yards. I used to watch my Mentor Cardinals run those same plays with Mitchell Trubisky at the helm, but they should not be used in the NFL at the goal line.

I mean seriously. You have a hard runner in Crowell, a decent fullback on the roster, and a rebuilt offensive line. Maybe try to give the ball to the running back a few times down near the goal line and see what happens. What happened Sunday was a loss of three and an interception in the end zone, thrown too late by Kizer into a window that wasn’t even there.

Can we also talk about the challenge on the Corey Coleman non-catch? The Ravens even called timeout to give the coaches an extended look to show that he didn’t make the catch. Yet they decided to challenge anyway to waste another timeout in consecutive weeks. I used to criticize Mike Pettine for never using timeouts, but at least he wasn’t wasting them on obvious challenges.