Cleveland Browns: Making the wrong kind of history

The Cleveland Browns broke a modern franchise record in their season opener, just not the right kind. Sunday, the Browns had 18 penalties tallying 182 yards, the most by a Cleveland team since 1951. Let’s breakdown the 18 flags thrown at the Browns and how they affected the first game of the season.

First, the elephant in the room:

As always, the referees didn’t do the Cleveland Browns any favors. But in all fairness, have they ever? To expect that to change just because the outlook of the team has changed is unrealistic. Out of the 18 flags thrown, there were three that appeared to be egregious or not called with any consistency.

Greg Robinson was flagged with an illegal blindside block that was questionable, Damarious Randall was hit with a defensive holding call on a bang-bang play, and Odell Beckham Jr. was called for a preposterous offensive pass interference penalty. Outside of those three calls, the Browns earned the yellow laundry that was thrown their way Sunday.

Were there bad calls? Absolutely. Will the Browns be receiving their weekly “oopsy” letter from the league office? Most certainly. Will there be more bad calls awaiting us this season? You betcha.

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But…the referees were not responsible for two false start penalties and a neutral zone infraction. Nor did the refs make Greg Robinson attempt to hit Kenny Vaccaro with some sweet chin music. The Browns shot themselves in the foot at every turn and blaming the referees does not change that. Every team is expected to overcome the referees by raising their level of play and executing while staying in the confines of the rules. That’s just life in the NFL.

The breakdown: Nine penalties on offense, six on defense, and three on special teams

The Browns had a staggering nine penalties on offense. Eight of those nine penalties came on first down, placing the offense perpetually behind the sticks. First and a mile is the worst place to find yourself, especially when you’re already having trouble protecting your quarterback. Just due to the down and distance issues, the Browns did the Titans a favor and stopped their own running game for them. Predictability is truly certain death for an offense.

All six flags that were thrown at the Browns defense gave the Titans offense first downs. There were two roughing the passers, two defensive holdings, an unnecessary roughness penalty, and a neutral zone infraction. Extending the opponents drives only leads to fatigue and overexposure for a defense, which was exasperated by the Browns offense not being able to sustain drives. The Browns defense found themselves in a vicious cycle that was unforgiving and relentless by not being disciplined.

Of the three special teams penalties, two of them came in return situations. While that doesn’t put you behind the sticks, it does give you disadvantageous field position. On a day where the offense isn’t putting much together, the last thing you need is starting inside of your own twenty-yard line due to penalties.

The Browns penalties had penalties; literally. On two separate occasions, the Titans got to choose from multiple options which infraction they would accept. Things were ugly all over.

Takeaways

Cleveland had six penalties of the 15-yard variety, with five of those coming in the first half. The fact that they were only down six points heading into halftime was a miracle in itself. In the second half, the Browns were unable to get out of their own way and dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of. The mistakes combined with the lack of execution proved to be too much to overcome.

The Tennessee Titans are a good football team and when you play the way the Browns did Sunday; this is what happens. You get beat by 30. Furthermore, if you play the way the Browns did Sunday, you will struggle to beat any NFL team, even ones that are perceived to be tanking.

Freddie Kitchens tried to warn us that statistically, the first week is the most penalized week of the season. Although, I highly doubt this is what the first-year head coach had in mind. During camp, Kitchens preached that this team would not practice penalties. However, on Sunday, penalties were the only thing his team executed at a high level.

Next. Studs and duds from Browns Week 1 loss to Titans. dark

This needs to be fixed and fixed immediately, and it needs to come from the top on down. Yes, I’m talking about practice.

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