The Opening Drive 10/6: Browns Follow Blueprint But Fail To Finish
'Things I Think I Know About The Browns' after five weeks.
The Cleveland Browns played the kind of game that they had to play to give themselves a chance to win on Sunday. Rookie Dillon Gabriel made his first career start, going 19-of-33, 190 yards, two touchdowns, zero turnovers. The Browns’ offense was better, mainly on the back of their terrific rookie running back Quinshon Judkins. Judkins ran for 110 yards on 23 carries and took a good deal of the burden off of Gabriel.
In the first half, Stefanski did a nice job of using Judkins effectively while also mixing in some quick-hitting pass plays that enabled Gabriel to get comfortable and move the ball up and down the field. With three minutes left in the third quarter, Gabriel did an excellent job of looking left and then coming back to the middle of the field with his eyes, throwing a nine-yard pass between three Vikings defenders to David Njoku in the endzone.
The play gave the Browns the lead, 17-14, with just over a quarter of the game remaining. The Browns’ vaunted defense front never generated as much disruption as most expected against a depleted Vikings’ offensive line. Their Head Coach, Kevin O’Connell, had his offense ready to get the ball out quickly and created some big plays by giving their superstar wide receiver, Justin Jefferson, the opportunity to make some big catches for chunks of yardage. Still, the Browns had played well enough to win as they headed into the final minutes of the game.
The Browns have to find a way to finish these games. I will be interested to see the All-22 breakdown from Jake this week, especially regarding the offensive play calling in the fourth quarter. Stefanski has to be able to dial up a play that gets them a key first down when you have the ball and the clock is rolling under three minutes.
Here are some things I think I know about the Browns following their Week 5 loss in London.
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Quinshon Judkins is a certified star at running back. He was the Browns’ offense most of the day and seems to be getting better every week. His ability to run through arm tackles and finish downhill turns 3-yard gains into five or six consistently.
I don’t know if it was the travel - Jet Lag, or just some regression back to the mean, but the defense was not the same one we saw in the first four weeks. Give O’Connell and Carson Wentz credit for calling and executing a game plan that got the ball out quickly and protected well enough to get some timely throws downfield to their star wide receiver, Justin Jefferson.
I went into training camp thinking the Browns’ wide receiver room left a lot to be desired. However, with the addition of Isaiah Bond and a strong camp from Jamari Thrash, I felt better about the group as a whole. For five weeks, they have been tremendously underwhelming. The worst part is Jerry Jeudy’s poor performance and their lack of playmaking ability. They lead the NFL in drops. Jeudy lets everything into his body and tries to corral the ball instead of using his hands to catch the ball. He was high-pointing the ball at times last year, but not so much to this point in 2025. To make the situation worse, teams are playing more man-to-man defense against the Browns, and they have consistently struggled to win down the field.
Kevin Stefanski had the right idea with their game plan and did well to get Gabriel some easy throws early. He has to have a go to play when they gotta have a first down. The Browns have had multiple opportunities to put this one away in the fourth quarter and could not extend a drive. It should be noted that Pittsburgh had a lot of success against the Vikings using an extra tackle and a tight end. It created some creases in the run game and kept the Vikings defense off balance, leading to some play-action opportunities in the pass game.
On a day when the Browns struggled to protect and were looking for an answer late in the game, I am surprised they never tried to replicate that success by going big with an extra lineman. Deploying extra lineman is something Stefanski has done in the past, and it’s rather curious that it wasn’t implemented at all this week.
KT Levenson is a serious problem. We will see how Cam Robinson performs next week, but if I were the Browns, I would at least broach the topic of playing tackle with Teven Jenkins.
Dillon Gabriel did what we asked of him in this game. Most importantly, he committed no turnovers and made some timely plays to help the Browns score a couple of touchdowns. He had the Browns in a position to win, but coaching and defense let them down in the late stages of the game.
The Browns’ string of losses in Pittsburgh during the regular season is truly inconceivable and must end at some point. Pittsburgh will be tough to beat next week, but this is not your uncle’s Steelers. Let’s see if the Browns can learn from Dillon’s first start and get a better defensive performance next week. A win would have them right in the thick of the division as the schedule softens up. I can’t give up on this team now, especially when we have seen how dominant this defense can be.
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