Cleveland Browns Week 7 Studs and Duds: D’Ernest Johnson breaks out

Cleveland Browns Dud: Discipline

Perhaps the most frustrating part of any football game is the penalties. Every fan feels like their team gets the bad end of the stick with penalty calls, and that goes no differently for Browns fans. The last few years, they’ve had reasons to gripe, with several bad calls going against them, or blatant penalties against the opposing team going uncalled.

On Thursday night football, however, the Cleveland Browns racked up nine penalties for 60 yards, and all of them were the right call by the officials. This lack of discipline falls squarely on the coaching staff’s shoulders, but some of the blame still goes to the players.

The majority of the penalties came on pre-snap penalties, such as false starts and illegal formation penalties. The most inexcusable illegal formation penalty came on a simple punt formation by the Browns, as they simply mis-aligned and had too many players lined up off the line of scrimmage.

While there were no back-breaking penalties, like egregious pass interference calls or personal foul penalties that could flip the field at a moment’s notice, the small penalties still add up over time and could be seen as a key reason the Broncos were allowed to get back into the game.

It’s up to head coach Kevin Stefanski and his staff to get better discipline instilled in his team. It doesn’t matter that many of the players were backups, as they need to always be prepared for any situation as a professional athlete, which includes avoiding senseless penalties.