Browns: 5 players who didn’t suck in embarrassing Cardinals loss

The Browns had at least five players who didn’t suck against the Cardinals

The Browns had a terrible, no good, very bad day against the Cardinals, and that all falls on the shoulder of Kevin Stefanski. Perhaps unsure of how to coach without his best running back, he was hesitant to use Kareem Hunt at all other than a receiver, and the offense largely fell apart due to Stefanski’s game-plan. The defense fell apart again, as usual, with this regime. So that didn’t help anything.

The Browns still need some work, obviously. Sitting at 3-3, the Browns are very much in danger of falling out of the playoff race before they get to their bye-week. Cleveland has to recover and bounce back against the Broncos on Thursday.

Luckily, while the Cardinals game was bad as a whole, some players on the Browns did show up and we’re going to talk about them.

These are five players who didn’t suck against the Cardinals

Myles Garrett

Myles Garrett had a sack and a tackle for a loss and while it looks good on a stat sheet his play yesterday didn’t really make a difference.

J.C. Tretter

The only offensive lineman to not give up any pressure was J.C. Tretter. The other four linemen helped contribute to Baker Mayfield getting knocked around and suffering a dislocated shoulder.

Jadeveon Clowney

Jadeveon Clowney is not the sack-master he was drafted to be, and he’s dang sure not worth his price tag. He is, however, the best run-stopper on the line. Clowney’s day was fruitful and he played very well. The problem is that the Browns defense played like a bunch of passive posy’s all day. They kept Kyler Murray maintained most of the day (just six yards rushing) but he still ate up the defensive secondary, making the gameplan moot.

Baker Mayfield

I tend not to look at injury-related turnovers the same way as everyone else, so I don’t like to think of Mayfield having a three-turnover game. He did have two turnovers, which is just one more than the times his left shoulder got dislocated during the game. All together his day sounds like a new verse to the Twelve Days of Christmas song. Three turnovers, two touchdowns, and a dislocated non-throwing shoulder. Despite the injury, he played well. The coaching staff gave him no help by abandoning the running play until late in the second quarter, but Mayfield found his receivers, had a high completion percentage, and threw two touchdowns. His lone interception though was an ugly play that falls squarely on him.

Donovan Peoples-Jones

The young receiver had a career day against the Cardinals, topping the most yards in a single game (101), the most touchdowns in a single game (2), and the second-most receptions in a game (4). Sure, these are Hall of Fame, game-breaking numbers but considering how much pressure Peoples-Jones has to be under filling in for Jarvis Landry, the fact that he produced as well as he did after so many weeks of unimpressive play is a great thing. Hopefully, this is the start of something and not a David Njoku-like aberration.