3 Good & 3 Bad: Miami Dolphins dunk on the Cleveland Browns
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Browns got their butts kicked by the Miami Dolphins
The Cleveland Browns fell to 3-6 on the season, after the Miami Dolphins whopped the Brownies 39-17. Heading into half it felt like the Browns still had a chance, down just 17-7, and a bad play-call away from being 17-10 but the Browns absolutely fell apart after the second half. The Browns gave up three touchdowns in the second half alone, and could barely respond when forced.
The issue is clearly the defense, they can’t stop anyone or anything for that matter. So when you consider that we know this, we’ve known this and will continue to know this, we have to ask why hasn’t Kevin Stefanski adapted to this. I don’t blame the coaches for how bad these players are, that’s on Andrew Berry for bringing in better talent. No, I blame the coaches for failing to adapt to this.
The Browns’ offense is methodical, and when you’re playing with a lead, that’s great. It’s a slow, time-consuming, and very simple offense. You run the ball, throw underneath, rinse, repeat. Remember what Coach Boone said in Remember The Titans? “I run six plays, split veer. It’s like Novacaine. Just give it time, it always works“.
That’s the Browns’ offense, in a nutshell. The problem is, the Browns’ offense only works with a great defense. When you can limit a team to just 17 or 20 points, the Browns’ offense is very good. When you’re forced into a shootout, the Browns’ offense is highly inept. It can’t keep up. People keep saying “you can keep up with just Nick Chubb” but you can’t. The Browns’ offense just can’t keep pace.
If they tried to be different, that’d be one thing, but they haven’t. They still call stuff underneath. They still call six or seven-yard routes. That’s fine if you have the lead but you have got to eat up more yards than the Browns do in a drive.
Look at the facts from this game alone. The Browns had 62 plays, the Dolphins had 67 plays. Fairly even. The Browns had 297 total yards, the Dolphins 491. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that the Dolphins only had the ball for about seven minutes more than the Browns. They had nearly the same amount of plays, but the Dolphins were able to maximize their time with the ball. They didn’t try to run the clock down. They had one goal; score.
The Browns don’t have the offense needed to compete with teams like the Dolphins and a change at quarterback may not help with that issue, as the problems are about the scheme and philosophy, not about the talent.