For each game, Dawg Pound Daily strives to identify three Cleveland Browns who starred on the offensive unit. After a defeat, it’s harder to see, but there were some good performances.
The Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills came into the unfamiliar confines of Ford Field in Detroit to escape the deadly snowstorm that has gripped western New York state. The Browns’ offense had the almost equally deadly task of facing the No. 2 defense in the NFL in the Buffalo Bills, who were giving up only 16.8 points per game coming into the contest.
Looking at it that way, the Browns’ offense was okay overall, though a case could be made that they played just well enough to not come home with a win. Believe it or not, they put up 396 yards of total offense, compared to only 357 for the Bills. But the Bills’ drives extended into the end zone more often than the Browns.’
By far the brightest spot in a dismal team performance was the individual effort by Amari Cooper, who has shown himself to be a true competitor all season long.
3 Cleveland Browns who shined on offense
3. Amari Cooper came up big
The Bills, as expected, sold out and played eight in the box to stop Nick Chubb. Well and good for them. However, that meant they did not have safety help to use against Amari Cooper, and Cooper made them pay.
Cooper shredded the Buffalo defense in the first half and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 25-yard hookup from Jacoby Brissett, a skidding catch in the right corner of the end zone.
Cooper added another 24 yards on a sideline pattern later in the second quarter. In the first half, Cooper had 91 yards by himself compared to 84 receiving yards for the entire Buffalo Bills team. That is a dominant No. 1 receiver, folks.
In the second half, Brissett continued to target Cooper, but many of his passes were out of bounds and there was no opportunity for Cooper to make the catch. Finally, however, Cooper came down with a ball in the end zone in the fourth quarter.
He almost had a two-point conversion, though the officials ruled that he had stepped out of bounds and then came back in. From the TV replays, it was difficult to see whether his heels were actually touching the ground, or whether he had avoided contact with the turf by stepping on tip-toes.
The announcers didn’t call attention to this possibility either, so perhaps this was just a figment of the imagination of a disgruntled Browns fan. It does not matter, ultimately, because they weren’t really in the game, but you like to see an athlete’s efforts rewarded.
On the day, Cooper caught eight balls in 12 targets for 113 yards and two TDs. Unofficially, he now has 698 yards for the season and seven TDs. He looks every bit like the Pro Bowl player he was for the Dallas Cowboys.
Next up for praise was the man who fed Cooper the football, starting quarterback, Jacoby Brissett. JB will probably keep his job for one more game, and then the Deshaun Watson era will begin.
2. Jacoby Brissett set season highs
Once again, Jacoby Brissett was outstanding at the beginning of the game, but as things progressed, his performance leveled off. Relatively speaking, Brissett shined compared to his teammates, but angry fans might be justified in complaining that his teammates were lackluster rather than Brissett really playing an excellent game overall.
Ultimately, he finished with a season-high 324 yards passing on 28-of-41, with no INTs and three TDs. His passer rating was 116.3. He added 29 hard-fought rushing yards on 7 carries. Normally that should be good enough to win.
Much of his work was under duress, as the offensive line was banged up. Ethan Pocic had to come out with a knee injury, and Jack Conklin was hobbled by a foot injury. Wyatt Teller seemed to be not at full speed with a calf injury that has kept him out of games recently.
Though Buffalo doesn’t have the size of the Miami Dolphins who the Browns faced last week, they are very quick and swarm to the ball. Hence, Brissett had to throw on the run all game long. With better protection, his numbers could have been even better.
Brissett benefitted from the extra attention paid to the running game. With Nick Chubb at running back, Brissett and the Browns can pretty much count on facing eight in the box most of the time, meaning that the wide receivers will face man-to-man coverage.
He hurt the Bills but didn’t plunge the dagger, and they came back to life as the game went on and eventually took control.
Brissett, lest we forget, is the backup for superstar-in-residence Deshaun Watson, and his job is not necessarily to come up with 400 yards passing every week. If he manages the game, limits turnovers, and gets the ball to Chubb, then the theory is that Joe Woods’ defense is supposed to limit the opposition to under 20 points and the Browns are supposed to be competitive. That hasn’t happened recently.
Looking at it that way, Brissett is doing his job. Not everything is the quarterback’s fault. There are plenty of disasters elsewhere on the team but the quarterback has been everything you could hope for from a backup, short of Kurt Warner.
This team is just weaker overall than we thought. We ought not to hang that on the quarterback. Similarly, Nick Chubb is still the star of the Cleveland Browns, even if it did not appear so the past two weeks.
1. Nick Chubb was still the focal point
Nick Chubb had a horrible game statistically. However, the Bills are a top-ranked defense (second overall and focused their resources to stop him. They pretty much showed why they are ranked so highly, holding him to 19 yards on 14 carries. The Browns did score 23 points, however, so the Bills did not completely shut down the Browns’ offense.
Still, like it or not, a good defense can probably take one part of the offense away from their opponent, and the Bills keyed on Chubb, just as Miami had done the previous week. However, it cost them as they diverted resources from pass coverage, so perhaps Chubb deserves partial credit for the outstanding statistical day that the passing game has versus the Bills.
A weakened offensive line also contributed to the Browns’ woes on the ground. As mentioned above, the Browns were playing without starting center Ethan Pocic. Tackle Jack Conklin and guard Wyatt Teller were dealing with injuries. The Browns linemen will not use injuries as an excuse. That is definitely the job of the writers, however, and the opinion here is that the offensive line was not nearly at normal strength.
Credit also the Bills for an outstanding effort. It’s a winning organization with a great coaching staff and players who care and play hard.
The poor rushing stats should not be translated to mean that the athlete wasn’t performing. Chubb was still the man, even if the box score does not show it.
Chubb, incidentally, had three catches on three targets for 48 yards, good for third on the team in receiving yards. Not coincidentally, this is the second week in a row that Chubb had three receptions. The halfback pass is a standard countermeasure when the defense keys against the run. Maybe the Browns should try it more often.
Overall in the past two games, they targeted him seven times and gained 66 yards. That’s 9.4 yards every time the quarterback throws the ball to him (or 11.0 yards per catch, if you prefer). Cleveland might benefit by looking at the Steelers’ playbook to figure out how to use the running back as a dual threat (Le’Veon Bell and now Najee Harris).
Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt should know all about that from his time in Green Bay, where they specialize in the short pass to running backs to foil the overloaded boxes. This isn’t rocket science. It’s a classic West Coast Offense, that was actually pioneered in Cleveland for the likes of Leroy Kelly and Greg Pruitt. There is nothing wrong with throwing the ball to a destructive running back with 4.4 speed.
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