Cleveland Browns: 3 biggest questions needed answered vs Detroit

The Cleveland Browns need to figure things out in a hurry if they want to salvage this season and it starts this Sunday against the Detroit Lions.

The Cleveland Browns are one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL mainly due to their complete inconsistency. One week they are masters of their domain and the next they are simply flat and unmotivated.

This past week was the latter as the Patriots protected home field and blasted Cleveland to the tune of 45-7. A week prior, the Browns beat the Bengals senseless 41-16, but could not sustain the momentum.

Several players and coaches have tons of questions they need to answer and this team collectively needs to find answers and solutions to said questions or this season could get even uglier than it already has gone.

The craziest thing about the Browns being 5-5 and nowhere close to where they set out to be is the fact that they are still very much in the thick of the playoff race. As I have said on this site many times this season, the best cure for all of the hoopla is winning.

Here are the biggest questions the Browns need answered this week against the Lions and beyond.

Will the real Cleveland Browns defense please stand up?

I repeat, will the real Browns defense please stand up?

For the third time this season, the Cleveland defense allowed at least 37 points. When that has happened, the Browns have lost each of those three games.

The Browns gave up 45 on Sunday in Foxboro and gave up 45 combined in the three weeks prior combined.

Cleveland dropped to 0-4 when surrendering 100 or more yards on the ground, as they let the Patriots rumble for 184 yards, including 100 (and two touchdowns) from Rhamondre Stevenson.

The Pats scored early and often against the Browns last Sunday, and have scoring drives of 99, 95, 92, and 83. That’s completely unacceptable for this defense that got a major overhaul in the offseason.

Another area of concern is third down. New England kept the Cleveland defense on the field seven times on nine tries on third down. You aren’t going to be very successful in this league if you continuously cannot get off the field on the money downs. The Pats started six-for-six on third down.

After the game, defensive leader Myles Garrett – who recorded another sack in the game – called out the coaches, saying that the defense “didn’t make any adjustments on the sideline or when we had time to.”

This is not a good look, but hopefully, the coaching staff took notice and will work on improving the schematics of how this defense operates. According to Stefanski, he and Garrett spoke privately about what Garrett said after last week’s game.