Browns studs and duds Week 4: Defensive issues lead to late loss

The Cleveland Browns have had defensive letdowns each week this season and it led to another loss as they couldn’t defeat the Falcons in Atlanta

After four games, the Cleveland Browns are 2-2 and have more questions than answers. They’ve been involved in several close games and while the first was a win in the final seconds, the next two one-score games ended with Cleveland hanging their head in defeat.

In Week 4, it was the Atlanta Falcons winning thanks to a Younghoe Koo field goal, followed by Jacoby Brissett being picked off while trying to move into scoring position.

Here we look back over the loss and identify a few studs and duds from Week 4.

Browns studs and duds Week 4

Stud:  Jacob Phillips, LB

When Anthony Walker went down, the pressure was on for Jacob Phillips. Of course, the talent was there for Phillips who was a third-round pick in 2020. What hasn’t been there is his health or consistency.

So far this season, he’s been able to make it to the field and on Sunday, he was all over the place. He was tied with Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah for the team lead with seven tackles. However, six of his were of the solo variety. It’s only one game but it seems as though he’s going to do just fine in place of Walker.

Dud: Jerome Ford, KR

The Browns kick return game has been a problem all season and it might be time to just start taking touchbacks every single time. On the opening kickoff, Jerome Ford ran it out of the end zone and was tackled at the 18 — seven yards away from where a touchback would have placed the offense.

After the first field goal from Atlanta, he again ran it out of the end zone and was tackled at the 16. Making it worse, there was a holding penalty that put them back to the eight-yard line. From there, he let all go into the end zone, and should do this going forward.