The NFL world is very much what have you done for me lately? So through that lens, Todd Monken earned all the skepticism after his first game as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns had 11 accepted penalties and 14 first downs in that game. The quarterback play was poor. The running game was non-existent. The defense struggled to stop anything in a 34-10 loss to Jacksonville that wasn’t even that close.
It took one stellar half — and a record weather delay — for Monken to show Browns fans what kind of head coach he could be.
Cleveland committed zero penalties in the second half as it erased a 10-point deficit in Sunday's 23-19 upset win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The offense found a rhythm behind the efficient play of quarterback Deshaun Watson, and Monken showed off his play-calling prowess on the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter — scheming No. 2 tight end Blake Whiteheart wide open on a leak-out the Buccaneers did not see coming.
But the most telling sign wasn’t the team’s gritty comeback on the road or Monken’s now-viral “f— that” comment postgame. It was how the Browns attacked a 2-hour, 12-minute weather delay, the longest recorded in NFL history, and used that time to their advantage as Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers prepared to continue a drive that was already well into Browns territory with 2 minutes remaining on the game clock.
Monken told reporters that the team kept the music on and the vibes high in the locker room throughout that delay. Zac Jackson of The Athletic painted a much more strategic picture of how Cleveland’s new regime handled a unique situation.
“During the delay, Monken ran through every possible scenario for what might happen when the game eventually resumed at the two-minute warning with Mayfield and the Bucs inside the Browns’ 30,” Jackson wrote.
“The Browns scripted a quick-strike series in case the Bucs scored but left time on the clock. They scripted a conservative, time-killing series in case the Bucs scored quickly or turned the ball over immediately. They also clearly went over their defensive assignments, and the pressure Mayfield felt all day returned for the final plays.”
Todd Monken shined when the Browns faced his most telling test yet
It’s still very early in Monken’s Browns tenure, but Sunday’s finish should resonate more with Browns fans than the team’s uncompetitive season opener.
While the Browns had a four-point lead when play was suspended, it’s worth noting that the Buccaneers also had over two hours to pore over the entire game and craft a plan to score a touchdown.
There was rain and whipping winds when play resumed, but in a situation like that, when both teams returned to the field mostly cold after a 10-minute warmup period, the side that doesn’t have to hit people should have the advantage.
When Mayfield slipped out of the pocket looking to make one of his patented scramble plays with the game on the line, he was squared up by Carson Schwesinger and pushed out of bounds for a gain of 3 yards. There was a key holding penalty called on the drive that might have saved Mayfield from getting sacked.
The Browns were all over the six plays that wound up turning a potentially devastating loss into a galvanizing win. They avoided penalties. There were no breaks in coverage. They got ball carriers on the ground. They applied pressure on Mayfield when they needed it most.
The players were ready to finish the game, and that’s a great look for the new head coach, his coordinators, and everyone involved.
Add us as a preferred source on Google