Cleveland Browns: 3 good things and 3 awful things from Week 1
By Chad Porto
Bad
Odell Beckham looked disinterested.
Whether it was a facemask call, a drop pass, or not paying attention to his positioning on the field, Odell Beckham Jr. looked disinterested in playing. Targeted a team-high ten times, Beckham only had three catches, one of which was a drop and another two looked like plays that could’ve been made if he ran his routes with more crispness and effort. This is now year four that he’s looked less-than-what-was-promised.
The Defense looked awful.
Credit where it’s due, Larry Ogunjobi looked good. That was it. Olivier Vernon gave up on tackles whilst in the process of making them, the linebackers were making tackles eight yards downfield (gee, sure glad we got rid of Joe Schobert and Christian Kirksey). The secondary was all over the place, letting Lamar Jackson carve them up like ham on Christmas, and worst yet, Myles Garrett wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He had one tackle all game. He’s 4th highest-paid player in the NFL. He no longer gets to have bad games, where he doesn’t show up. He took the contract. Time to show up.
He should send the team his game check from Week 1.
Baker Mayfield fell apart
Baker Mayfield was a tale of two halves. Yeah, he looked good in the first part of the game (save for an interception) but he has got to stop letting Odell Beckham get in his head. At the end of the first quarter, the Browns and Mayfield started calling up Beckham’s number and that’s when everything fell apart. Mayfield needs to know when to tell Beckham to sit down and run with what’s working.
Mayfield also threw behind some guys and threw some ugly looking duck-passes. The offense looked bad all training camp, so hopefully, that’s all this is but it was not something anyone wanted to see unfold in Week 1.