Browns: Recapping the Vikings game with the 3 good and 3 bad of Week 4

The Conclusion

The Browns shouldn’t panic over the offense and Browns’ fans should keep their hype over the defense a bit more tepid than normal. Yes, the offense was bad, especially passing the ball and yes, the Browns’ defense was great, especially against a big-time offense. It is, however, only one game.

The Browns offense needs to correct some of the issues we saw against the Vikings but a lot of those issues will either be not relevant in future weeks or ironed out through chemistry and team-building.

The Browns’ offense is plagued by the fact their receivers are not as good as advertised. Guys aren’t looking for balls, they’re getting trapped up in coverage, and largely just aren’t very effective. Mayfield has got to build a better report with them, or demand more reps for Rashard Higgins; either-or. The lack of chemistry with the receiver is obvious. Mayfield doesn’t seem to miss with the tight ends or running backs, but for some reason, the deep ball is just not there this year. At least not yet.

The other big issue the Browns offense faced was the noise. The Browns offense runs so much on rhythm and when that rhythm is disrupted through false-start penalties or holding calls, then that’s just going to cause more problems down the line.

Defensively, the team looked very good against a very good team. A reputation is not born in one game, it’s a good start but if the Browns defense wants to continue to show what they can do, then they need to do it more often against more teams. A very realistic idea that can happen but one that needs to in fact happen before we deem the defense as a “great” unit.