The Browns get back to action against the Dolphins on Sunday and they have a chance to pick up the win if they can continue to improve in these areas
Despite the Cleveland Browns recent win against the Cincinnati Bengals, they still has several areas to improve on if they want to get back into playoff contention.
Deshaun Watson will return to practice on Monday and can begin to play in Week 13 but at 3-5, they likely need two wins in order to give him a shot at guiding them into the postseason.
To get to that point though the Browns will need to clean up areas that could stall out their attempt at winning ball games in this key stretch of games that they battle the Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
3 areas the Browns need to improve in Week 10
No. 3 area needs to improve: Defense
In the last two games for the Browns, the defense has improved overall. They’ve cut down on mistakes in the secondary and have been better at the fundamentals of the game like tackling.
While they lost to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 7, they came back and beat the Bengals the following week. In both games, the defense kept their opponents to only 254 yards and 229 yards respectively of total offense. They also created turnovers in both games, which hadn’t happened much in previous games.
Against the Bengals, they were able to put pressure on the quarterback as well. The emergence of linebacker Sione Takitaki, who strip-sacked Joe Burrow, has helped this defense more than expected. He was credited with 13 tackles in that game.
The play of rookie cornerback Martin Emerson has also been impressive as he’s been knocking down passes targeted to his opponents pretty consistently. Cleveland also gets cornerback Denzel Ward back this week after recovering from a serious concussion. He will be able to provide even more support on the back end of the defense.
No. 2 area to improve: Limit turnovers
Back in Week 6, the Browns had a game to forget when they turned the ball over four times in their loss to the New England Patriots. Since then, they have cleaned things up and Jacoby Brissett has found a way to start protecting the ball again.
Throughout the course of the season, Cleveland has had several opportunities to win games late. Some of those opportunities shouldn’t have even to have occurred if the Browns defense had done a better job of protecting leads.
But nonetheless, they had chances and under pressure, Brissett made mistakes. In both the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons losses the veteran quarterback threw interceptions as the offense attempted to either tie or win the game with a late drive.
With the next three games against some of the toughest teams on their schedule, it will be imperative that they can reduce the turnovers. The Dolphins haven’t recorded too many turnovers with their defense only having seven takeaways.
Cleveland hasn’t been much better either, with only eight forced turnovers. The Brown’s biggest hurdle might be against the Buffalo Bills in their Week 11 matchup as the Bills have forced 15 takeaways already this season.
No. 1 area to improve: Offense efficiency
The Cleveland offense looks from the outside as though it’s functioning pretty well and for the most part it is. Some have pointed to the play calling in certain scenarios and others have noted that it’s more about the lack of talent on the offense.
Cleveland is ranked fourth in the league, averaging a whopping 385.8 yards a game at this point in the season. Only the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Philadelphia Eagles stand ahead of them. So, the idea that there’s anything wrong with the offense seems to be unfair. Still, there are times when they just can’t get the clutch drive to seal the deal.
The Browns coaching staff has taken note of this over their bye week as offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt noted where the team is offensively.
#Browns OC Alex Van Pelt said one conclusion during the bye week self-scout was to get to third-and-6 or less more often. That's because Cleveland ranks No. 1 in the league in offensive efficiency, No. 1 in QBR and 7th in first-down conversion rate on third-and-6 or less.
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 10, 2022
Limiting the mistakes and penalties on crucial drives will be key for this team going forward. We’ve all seen the frustration called when offensive linemen get called for holding, putting the team behind the chains. As Van Pelt shared, when the offense does get to those short-yardage downs, they are very good — so avoiding the self-inflicted third-and-longs will be huge.
This year, the Browns are ranked sixth in the NFL in fourth down conversions with a 62.5 percent average. That’s up from only a 41 percent average a year ago.
Limiting those early downs mistakes will be very helpful moving forward this season for the Browns’ offense. It’s been the best unit of the team to this point, but it still needs to get better if they want to challenge down the road.
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