Browns Fall Short Against Eagles, 20-16: Game Notes

The Browns fall to 1-5 with a loss in Philadelphia and we're getting closer and closer to some uncomfortable decisions for those in key roles.

(Photo - Cleveland Browns)

We trudged through another Sunday with your Cleveland Browns. If you made it to this article, I am proud of you. Proud of us. Look, they’re not very good, folks, but they did battle today and that deserves some credit. The product is the product at this point. The offense was miserable for nearly the duration of the game. They have one non-garbage time touchdown over the last 12 quarters and just continue to make the game look as hard as possible.

The defense is good enough to win some games, but just not the elite unit that can carry an insufferable offense the way another team in the AFC North can. They deserve credit for keeping the group in the game but their 4th quarter blown coverage for a 45-yard touchdown, and inability to get off the field on the last drive, leads to the 20-16 loss. Again, good at times, but not good enough.

Let’s dig into the game notes.

• Deshaun Watson is at least consistent. He puts together these rough performances with somewhere between 16-24 completions and limps close to the 200 yard mark. The aDOT is usually quite low, and the Browns find themselves in awful third down situations. His deep ball is in rough shape as his arm doesn’t seem like it can drive the ball the way he once could and he is inaccurate far more than the contrary.

• The other problem big problem with the offense, as the Browns are 2 for their last 27 third downs, is that Watson just runs himself into far too many sacks.

• Watson had some decent second half moments but the data is starting to become overwhelming. Historic, even. But there seems to be zero intention of benching Watson for something else.