The Cleveland Browns were able to defeat The Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night.
The Cleveland Browns are now 6-8 on the season after grinding out a slog against the Baltimore Ravens. Cleveland took the win, 13-3 in a game that was very hard to get through. The encounter lacked any real excitement and was exacerbated by bad weather and even worse quarterback play.
The best thing we can say about the disgraced Browns’ quarterback, Deshaun Watson, is that he looked better in Cleveland against the Ravens than he did against Houston. He did not look good, however. He looked very average. He held onto the ball too long, took the stat-padder throws, and didn’t really push the action. Watson wasn’t bad by any means. Tyler Huntley proved to the football-watching world what a bad quarterback looks like. Watson wasn’t bad, but he just wasn’t good.
Watson had a game you expect from the likes of a Case Keenum or Jacoby Brissett. He did just enough to put the Browns in a position to win, but not much else. Had the Ravens had a quarterback, any quarterback, even a “bad quarterback”, the Browns may have lost this game, but the Ravens forgot to pack a quarterback before they left Baltimore, apparently.
While Huntley may be a quarterback on the field, he sure didn’t play like one. In fact, he and the Ravens decision-makers held the Ravens back.
J.K. Dobbins ripped up the Browns’ defense, putting up 125 yards on just 13 carries. Did the Ravens keep running him? No, you silly goose, of course not, because John Harbaugh read Kevin Stefanski’s Play Calling for Dummies; which means no doing what works. Had the Ravens done what the Jets and Falcons did to the Browns, the Ravens may have won this game.
But instead, Harbaugh threw 30 times with Huntley. I all of a sudden have so much more appreciation for Stefanski; though I fully acknowledge that Stefanski has cost the Browns wins by doing the same thing. That’s because I expect more from a Super Bowl-winning coach, while I don’t expect much from Stefanski.
The Ravens’ lack of offense allowed the Browns to pretend they had a great defense for a week. It gave fans a chance to say “Denzel Ward isn’t overpaid!” and maybe even believe it this week. It also gave Myles Garrett fans a chance to say he’s the best defensive player in the NFL, even though he and his crew gave up nearly 200 rushing yards on the day, and Garrett didn’t make an impact until the last few minutes of the game.
So no, this is not a win to bask in. The Browns looked bad on both sides of the ball all game, and if it wasn’t for a poor Ravens offense, the Browns don’t win. There really isn’t much to celebrate today, but we still found some things
Good
Secondary steps up
Seeing John Johnson III and Denzel Ward have the game they had, with the season they’ve gone through was a sight to behold. Granted, both men have fallen dramatically and this game was more of a byproduct of the Ravens’ trash offense, but still, the Browns have been beaten up by bad defenses before, so it was nice to see Ward and Johnson have a get-right-game against a
A balanced offensive attack
While we can get into whether the Browns’ offense was good tonight (it was not), to see Kevin Stefanski actually run a balanced approach was needed. Granted, a lot of the running came at the end when Stefanski was trying to kill the clock, but earlier in the game the Browns couldn’t move the ball when they ran. So it all evens out. Stefanski called the game he needed to call and it worked out to a win.
The Ravens’ inept offense
Let’s be very honest here, the Ravens had no offense and it’s not because the Browns’ defense became the ’02 Buccaneers overnight. The Ravens have struggled all year offensively, and when you don’t have Lamar Jackson’s athleticism to make up for the offensive issues, this was always going to be the outcome.
Bad
Offensive execution
Yikes, this was a messy game. There were times when Deshaun Watson looked good, but the excuse of “he was out for 11 weeks” is over. At this point, he either knows the offense or he doesn’t. His completion percentage is inflated because of how many times he threw to the flats for little gain. The Browns running game was lucky to move at all, and really, the Browns only mustered one truly good drive all game, and that resulted in a touchdown to Donovan Peoples-Jones. The Ravens’ defense isn’t perfect, they’ve been beaten before, and to use that as an excuse for the Browns’ struggles would be dishonest. It’s obvious the team is better under Jacoby Brissett, at least for now but the team won’t go back to him unless there’s an injury.
Special Teams
Credit to the Browns for blocking a field goal, that should be noted, but Cade York shanked two kicks he should’ve made. I’m not a big York fan but I’m also not entirely disappointed by his outing against the Ravens. The weather wasn’t great on Saturday in Cleveland and that surely didn’t help things, especially with the way the winds swirl in the stadium. This is a growing pains season for the young kicker and it was expected. Don’t get down on him because the media overhyped him in the summer, kicking in Berea.
Enjoyability
Yeah, if you bought a ticket to the game tonight, you should demand your money back. After the Vikings and Colts went to overtime, capping off the biggest comeback in NFL history, to say the Browns and Ravens were a letdown would be an understatement. Most of the issues came while watching the Ravens on offense. They need to retool everything they are because it’s clearly a one-trick pony.