Cleveland Browns: Studs and Duds in Week 4 nail-biting victory

The Cleveland Browns defeated the Minnesota Vikings in a tightly contested game on the road. Whose play allowed the Browns to walk away with a victory, and whose play warrants criticism as Week 4 ends?

The Cleveland Browns took a trip to a familiar venue for head coach Kevin Stefanski, as they traveled to Minnesota to play the Vikings. Stefanski coached with the Vikings for 14 years before becoming the head coach for the Browns in 2020.

This was no homecoming for Stefanski, though, as he and his team came to town for a business trip. While it wasn’t pretty, he led the Browns to a 14-7 victory and moves them into a tie for first place in the AFC North with the Cincinnati Bengals with three wins in four weeks.

Although the Browns won, there weren’t too many positives to take away from this game. The running game was the primary focus of the offense, as is the Cleveland Browns specialty, but lacked any real splash plays.

The defense, however, played lights out as a unit, allowing a touchdown on the opening drive and then standing strong the remainder of the game.

Here are the best performers of the day for Cleveland, as well as those whose performance made the game as sloppy and unexciting as it was.

Cleveland Browns Stud: Andy Janovich

The Cleveland Browns have one of the long-forgotten positions in the NFL by employing a fullback on their roster. While there aren’t many in today’s game to compete for the title against, Andy Janovich is the best in the league at his position. He proved himself as that on Sunday against the Vikings.

Late in the second quarter, trailing by seven, Janovich blasted defenders back and opened a hole for running back Kareem Hunt to score a touchdown. After a penalty on the extra point by Minnesota, the Browns decided to go for two from the one-yard line, finding Janovich wide open in the flat on a play-action pass.

Janovich won’t get much love outside of Cleveland for his play on a week-in, week-out basis, but on Sunday, he was the main reason the team won. He cleared the hole for the team’s only touchdown, and help set up a few key runs that helped ice the game away in the end.