Cleveland Browns: 3 Overreactions after 3 Weeks of play
By Nick Swanson
Second Overreaction – The Cleveland Browns fourth-down offense needs to stop
Going into the week, the Browns had found success on fourth down, that success ended early against the Bears. The aggressiveness that Kevin Stefanski showed to go for it on fourth down was admirable, unfortunately, it just wasn’t working.
On back-to-back fourth-down conversion attempts, the offensive line got blown up and the play was over just as quickly as it started. The offensive line completely fell apart and looked lost on the field as they let the otherwise non-existent pass rush of the Bears get into the backfield. The nagging injury to offensive tackle Jedrick Wills definitely had an impact on the line’s performance throughout the game but it showed when it really mattered.
In the end, the inability to convert those two fourth downs didn’t impact the game in the long run as the Browns still came out with a win. In the moment, with a potentially potent Bears offense, it was something to be concerned about. The issue isn’t with the play calling, if anything that was impressive, it’s with the execution of the plays. Cleveland’s offensive line didn’t play how they did last season so we can’t expect them to be the same group every week. The idea is there, the execution is not which means there needs to be a change made.
Every game this season is bigger than the last, if the offense is going to execute fourth downs the way they did against the Bears, then the team should punt every down. The defensive lines that Cleveland faces in the upcoming weeks are headlined by Danielle Hunter, Joey Bosa, Chandler Jones, JJ Watt, Von Miller, and TJ Watt. If the Browns offensive line can’t stop a past his prime Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn, they’re in for a tough stretch.