Browns: 5 players who need to step up against the Patriots

These are five players who need to step up against the Patriots.

The Browns were able to hand the Bengals their butts in their 41-16 beat down on Sunday. Now Cleveland is going up to the land of Dunkin Donuts and clam chowder, as the Browns take on the Patriots in New England.

Patriots’ quarterback Mac Jones is having a big rookie season and their defense is pretty solid. They’re on a three-game winning streak and currently sit at the same record the Browns have, 5-4. This is a big game for the playoff hopes of both teams, and are very similar in a lot of ways.

To beat the Patriots, the Browns will need to clean up the errors they were making against the Bengals and hopefully can see a few players who played badly step up and make huge plays. If the Browns can defeat the Patriots, then they’ll be right back in the driver seat of their playoff future.

Five players who need to step up against the Patriots

Jadeveon Clowney

Two offside penalties is unacceptable. You literally see the ball, you’re aware of where it is and you’re awfully close to it. It’s not a depth perception issue. Maybe if you’re a corner, sure, you’re not exactly sure where the ball is, so you do your best, but that’s not an excuse for a defensive end that can literally touch it with his fingers. This is unacceptable by a veteran player.

Jarvis Landry

The botched option play was bad enough but his overall day was just bad. I’ve mentioned before and I’ll stand by it that it looks like Jarvis Landry has lost a step since his hip injury. He’s still good, clearly, but after the last few games, it’s hard to say I have the same confidence in him to have big games as I did in 2019.

D’Ernest Johnson

The eventuality of playing next to Nick Chubb has come to pass. No matter how good D’Ernest Johnson looks against bad teams, he’s no substitute for Chubb, or Kareem Hunt for that matter. With the Patriots being one of the more well-rounded teams in the league, the Browns are going to not over-burden Chubb. That means Johnson has to actually have positive yard plays.

Austin Hooper

Largely inconsequential in the passing game, and responsible for at least one of the sacks that befell Baker Mayfield on Sunday, Hooper has got to do something different. He’s a non-factor in the passing game and has been that way since he joined the team last season, plus his blocking isn’t as reliable as its needed to be to offset the lack of receiving production. If he was really good at one of those two things, I’d be fine with him, but he’s not. So here we are.

Denzel Ward

Unlike the other four people on this list, Denzel Ward didn’t have a bad game against the Bengals; in fact, it was easily his best game in nearly three years (at least). No, Ward is on this list because Greedy Williams just went down with a shoulder injury and as he was one of the better corners the team had, this is a big blow. Ward has fallen off some (maybe a lot) since his Pro Bowl rookie year, and with Williams hurt and his contract coming to an end, Ward needs to repeat his Bengals’ performance as often as he can throughout the rest of the year.