3 massive Browns storylines to watch against New England

Sitting at 2-3, the Cleveland Browns welcome the New England Patriots to FirstEnergy Stadium for a Week 6 AFC matchup. Here are three storylines that fans need to pay attention to.

The NFL season is full of ups and downs and the Cleveland Browns are experiencing a full dose of the latter. The Browns come into their Week 6 matchup with the New England Patriots having lost three of their last four games. However, the Patriots come into Cleveland with a 2-3 record themselves and could be without their starting quarterback for the second straight week.

For the Browns, a win against New England could stop the bleeding and get them back on track. But given Cleveland’s issues on defense, and in particular, in stopping the run, Bill Belichick isn’t going to make it easy. If the Browns are going to put the Patriots away, they are going to have to prove that they can stay fundamentally sound for 60 minutes.

Belichick’s teams don’t beat themselves, but this 2022 Patriots team is beatable. It will all come down to the Browns enforcing their will and overcoming the self-inflicted issues that have plagued this young season. Here are three major storylines to monitor in this Week 6 matchup.

3 major Browns storylines for Week 6

Storyline No. 3: Can Cade York overcome his case of the yips?

The Browns entered the 2022 NFL season believing they could hang their hat on a few things: an outstanding run game, a top-10 defense, and a solid kicker. Unfortunately for the Browns and their fans, only one of those beliefs has actually proven to be true. The latter has gone from genuine concern to an outright problem.

Cade York looked the part of a legitimate NFL kicker throughout training camp. That belief was only strengthened after York’s first regular season game when the rookie split the uprights on a 58-yard game-winner in Carolina.

However, since the win against the Panthers, York has been shaky at best. First came the costly missed extra point against the Jets in Week 2. Then York followed that up by missing another extra point the following week against Pittsburgh. But it was the two missed field goals last week against the Chargers, including a potential 54-yard game-winner, that puts the rookie kicker situation into full panic mode.

Because of how they handled York’s transition into the NFL, the Browns have no other option but to let York work through his struggles. Cleveland used a fourth-round pick on York and cut the other kickers on the roster and handed him the job. Now it’s up to York to figure it out and there is a chance that it could get worse before it gets better.

With the Patriots coming to town points will be at a premium at FirstEnergy Stadium this Sunday. There is a 100 percent chance that York will be called upon and how he responds could dictate the fate of the Browns’ season. No pressure, right?

Storyline No. 2: Will Nick Chubb be more involved at the end of games?

The Browns have found themselves in fiercely contested games that have come down to the final minute in every contest so far this season. When the offense needed a final drive to win the game, there has been one common denominator: Nick Chubb’s absence from the field.

Chubb leads the NFL through five games in both rushing yards, with 593, and rushing touchdowns, with seven. In fact, Chubb has more rushing yards after contact (416) than the Dolphins, Buccaneers, and Rams have total team rushing yards. Chubb is on pace to run for over 2,000 yards and 25 touchdowns.

So why isn’t he involved in these attempted game-winning drives? It all comes down to sub-packages, namely the two-minute offense. When Cleveland goes into their two-minute offense, Kareem Hunt is the running back because of his ability as a pass protector and his effectiveness as a receiver.

While there can be no argument that Hunt is the better choice as a receiver, as well as a pass protector, taking your best offensive weapon off the field with the game on the line is always going to be questioned.

For Chubb to supplant Hunt in those two-minute situations, it would take a change in philosophy from head coach Kevin Stefanski. Not all two-minute drives are created equal. One in which you would have to go 70 yards to get a touchdown with a minute on the clock would call for a running back with Hunt’s skillset.

But a drive, like the final one against the Chargers, where you just need to move the ball 20-yards to get in field goal range could benefit from Chubb’s chunk run ability. There’s also the theory that playing the hot hand will lead to more positive outcomes than negative ones, and Chubb certainly has a hot hand. Just Chubb’s presence on the field makes a defense approach the Browns offense differently.

Cleveland will certainly find themselves in numerous close games just due to their style of play. But only time will tell if Stefanski stays beholden to his time-slotted sub packages, or if he recognizes that if you are going to lose, you should at least go down with your best player on the field.

Storyline No. 1: Can the Browns defense stop the bleeding?

It wasn’t just Browns fans that thought Cleveland’s defense would be one of the best units in the league. The NFL community at large was sold on the fact that their defense would be the strength of the team, and potentially a top-five unit. But then the season happened.

Cleveland’s defense has been one of, if not the most, disappointing defenses in the NFL this year. With the entirety of their starting defense and defensive coaching staff returning, it’s actually staggering the regression that this unit has succumbed to. In typical fandom fashion, everyone is looking for a scapegoat and many seem to have found one in defensive coordinator, Joe Woods.

The reality of the situation is that Woods isn’t going to be fired in season and that it is going to be up to Woods and the rest of the coaching staff to get this unit back to the level of the expectations that were set upon them. Now they may not get there, but in that pursuit, they might be able to become a respectable unit again.

Their first order of business is to play together and play for one another. It all starts with three fundamental rules: alignment, assignment, and keys. That’s the basis for any successful defensive unit. That has to be the foundation of their success, and from there they can build and add elements.

There have been four fundamental flaws that have plagued this defense: miscommunication, blown assignments, inept tackling, and poor effort. The good news is all four of the flaws can be fixed. The bad news is that it isn’t going to be corrected overnight.

It will be up to the coaches to put a plan of action in place and up to the players to execute that plan. The leaders in the locker room need to put it on their shoulders and see to it that everyone is all in. This is where Myles Garrett gets to prove that he is who he portrays himself to be in the media. Garrett’s role in the locker room is equally as important as his role on the field in times like these.

With New England coming to town, their tackling and their effort are going to be put to the test. We are going to learn a lot about the character of this defense by how they respond to last week’s performance. It only goes two ways from here, either they start to turn it around or it goes south. If it goes south, it could take the entire team down with them.