Cleveland Browns: Studs and duds from Preseason Week 3
By Dan Justik
Dud: The red-zone offense
The Cleveland Browns offense struggled the entire game, rarely creating a lot of opportunities to score points. The offense did not get into the red-zone often against the Eagles. But when they did get inside the 20-yard line, the offense continued to struggle.
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The first time the Browns offense reached the red-zone was when the first-team offense was able to march down the field fairly easily. After a pair of big runs from Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb, the Browns made it all the way down to the one-yard line.
But after attempting four consecutive passes, the Browns were unable to score any points. It seems that Todd Haley wanted to work on their goal line passing, but not being running the ball just once to get points was surprising. And the Browns did not come close to scoring a touchdown on any of their passing attempts.
The next time that the Browns reached the red-zone was with Mayfield under center, and it did not equal any better results. The Browns did not have much time in the red-zone the second time, as Mayfield threw an interception before they got close to the end-zone. Although Mayfield’s interception was created by an Eagles linebacker knocking wide receiver Derrick Willies off his route, turnovers in the red-zone are never good.
The Browns offense has showed progress in the first three weeks of the preseason, but still needs some work in the red-zone. Hopefully Thursday’s performance will help the team become more urgent in cleaning things up inside the 20-yard line.