Browns Week 2 Grades: Defense, special teams fail in epic collapse

The Browns had one of their more epic collapses in their loss on Sunday to the Jets. The grades are in and they aren’t good

The Cleveland Browns had an epic collapse late in their game Sunday against the New York Jets and lost 31-30. The stunning defeat leaves the team at 1-1 instead of 2-0, which was almost a guarantee after they went up 30-17 with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter.

However, they fell apart again, as they did a week ago against the Carolina Panthers. Fortunately in that game, the team got bailed out by Cade York’s winning kick. In this game, there was no good fortune.

Following Cleveland’s final score to put them up in commanding fashion, the Jets were able to connect on a quick-hitting 66-yard pass for a touchdown. There were no Browns defenders within 20 yards of Corey Davis who walked in for six.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Jets successfully recovered the onside kick. From there, they went down the field again against the ravaged Cleveland defense, making it look easy and scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 22 seconds.

The horrific ending was in stark contrast to the team’s impressive offensive performance on the day. It certainly was a wasted effort and one that both defense and special teams units should be embarrassed about.

Let’s look at all three phases of the game and give them their well-earned grades.

Browns Week 2 report card

Offense Grade: A

This group should be requesting the other units on the team to buy them dinner for a week and apologize as well considering their failures.

Jacoby Brissett was great going for 229 yards on 22-of-27 passing with one touchdown to wide receiver Amari Cooper. Brissett also had a few good runs that kept the chains moving.

Cooper was great catching nine passes for 101 yards. The No. 1 wideout looked comfortable in this game and was on the same page as Brissett after just missing on a few connections in Week 1

Both tight ends Harrison Bryant and David Njoku had decent efforts as well. They combined for six receptions and 77 yards.

The Cleveland ground game was again the centerpiece on offense as Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were outstanding in their efforts. They combined for nearly 200 yards of offense as Chubb finished with 87 yards on just 17 carries and a season-high three touchdowns.

Hunt ended up running for 58 yards on 13 carries. Brissett even got into the act as he had six scampers for 43 yards and even made a few Jets miss on tackles as he juked around them.

The team is averaging 28 points a game and that should spell victories. Unfortunately, the rest of the team couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain in this loss.