Browns Miss Opportunities in Loss to Dolphins, 20-3: Game Notes

The job was to keep the draft pick process moving and they did just that on Sunday afternoon.

(Photo - Getty)

What more is there to be said guys. At this point the Browns just need to lose and they showed up and got the job done. It’s all backward. We want them to win as our DNA is wired that way but we also know that losing is just the best case to make the future brighter. The 20-3 loss to a Dolphins team, who had to prepare on short notice to be without quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, sealed their way into the third overall pick through 17 weeks. The 3-13 record is likely to be 3-14 following the trip to Baltimore next weekend so the only place to go is up in the draft if the Titans or Patriots slip up.

To ensure they didn’t have something like what we saw in New York — as the Giants meaningless upset of the Colts dropped them from the first pick to the fourth pick — transpire in Cleveland, the offensive gameplan was built around having struggling Dorian Thompson-Robinson dropback in excess of 50 times and thus the offense never found much of any consistency in rough weather. That led to just three points on the day and now 13 games of 18 or fewer points on the season. As we say, tanking comes from those in higher positions.

It remains to be seen who returns for this organization following such a massive failure. Everyone could be at risk or there could be some kind of universal understanding of the reasoning behind the issues and jobs will be protected. I don’t know those answers but I do know 3-13 is miserable. In the most severe way possible. I suppose the only silver lining is this type of bad didn’t hit until the Browns owned their own first round pick again.

Without wasting anymore time, here are the brief Week 17 Game Notes.

• The Browns leaned into throwing more traditional looks with DTR and the results were rough. He is too inaccurate on the simple NFL throws that require spot accuracy and he missed opportunities downfield as well. He finished 24-47 on the day for just 170 yards. That tells a clear story. No disrespect here is intended at the young player but he doesn’t belong starting in NFL games at this time unless the gameplan is honed in on rush-heavy, including quarterback run game, with clock dominance the target. The way they are using him right now is about testing him overall and allowing the highest variance for losing.

• He too often makes panic decisions by throwing the ball into space, taking multiple intentional grounding penalties, and slides into pressure to take sacks. His favorable athleticism is rarely a positive trait for him.

• The offense ran for 114 yards on 28 attempts for the day. It was an average day for the group led by D’Onta Foreman’s 49 yards on 13 carries. Jerome Ford left early with a foot injury but appeared fine following the game in the locker room. They used a variety of RPO runs paired with gun gap schemes to get some results but the downfield passing game still fails to align with anything they attempt in the run phase.

• Due to the nature of the game’s heavy dropback scheme Jerry Jeudy had a whopping 18 targets. He hauled-in 12 of them for 94 yards. He started the game poorly with a missed catch on the sideline where his feet drifted out of bounds and dropped another slant, but he recovered well for some nicer efforts in the second half. Most of the targets were in the shallow portions of the field.

• Jeudy now has 1,166 yards on the season which is right on the edge of a top-5 Browns receiving yard season. Depending on how much he plays in the finale he could end up with a shot to pass Braylon Edwards 2007 results for the second best year for a Browns receiver. This is indeed a serious silver lining for the season.