The Opening Drive 9/18: The Offensive Line Controls Everything, and NFL's Copycat Nature Hurt the Browns in Week 2
I need the Browns offense to dial up more of these.
The Browns ability to bounce back from their Week 2 loss and play a more complimentary brand of football hinges on the offensive line. No one way around it. They have to protect the quarterback and they have to run block more efficiently. Through two games, they have been one of the worst units in football — something none of us anticipated.
While we anticipated the struggles of offensive tackles, to an extent and expounded by missing Jack Conklin for a large stretch once again, we didn’t anticipate the struggles of the interior group. Wyatt Teller has been especially uneven in both phases and given how well he is paid, and how much stress the Browns put on their guards inside this system, this does not bode well for where things are going.
The group is certainly capable of playing better football — given that Joel Bitonio’s back injury isn’t too serious — but there is no guarantee that is coming. The challenges from the opposing fronts in the next four weeks are going to be among the toughest for any team this year.
There is no magic remedy, no schematic change. They either play better or the Browns will have to turn to younger talent in-house. None of which promises a return of better play. No pressure, the season truly hinges on it.
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There are days where I will watch other teams around the league — especially the AFC North — just to get a gauge on how offenses are performing, and how the Browns compare. Last week I found myself watching the Steelers/Jets game and trying to understand how both offenses went nuclear. The Steelers found some success in running in a way that Sean McVay started to make popular last season.
They were using “inserts” in their run game. There are elements where you take tight ends, or the now popular wide receiver style, and place them inside the tackles for better angles on second level defenders. Too often wide receivers, or wing tight ends, don’t have the best angles too root out those second level players in the box. These insets help solve the problem.
The Steelers used it in a variety of ways in Week 1, and even turned to former Ram Ben Skowronek at receiver (15), to insert on the second level safety or linebacker.
They would even use him on lateral schemes to get another body to the playside.
Then, off those insert looks, to test the Jets cornerbacks, the Steelers were even using Calvin Austin (19) to insert and sell the same concept. The first touchdown pass of the game for Pittsburgh they used Austin to insert and it pull the playside cornerback deep and the backside shallow to Skowronek was wide open.
But then the Steelers kept running inserts throughout the game. Making the cornerback replace and fit the run over and over again and in a variety of ways. When the time was right, they returned to the same run-action scheme with an insert in the 4th quarter. A full game of this will have a cornerback getting eager and chasing the concept inside. Watch it happen here, and watch Austin break wide open for the winning touchdown.
The problem for the Browns, is the Ravens watched it. They took in what Pittsburgh did there in Week 1 and just used their own version on the Browns. It victimized Cam Mitchell. Following the punt block, the Ravens came out and ran a similar insert concept off a “trap” scheme that was meant to test how Mitchell would handle the design.
They knew Mitchell would get nosey as he did the play before so the very next snap they went back to the look paired with a play-action tag. They just booted off wide zone and Mitchell got too shallow and lost leverage. Simple touchdown.
This is the type of copy/paste on effective schemes I would love to see the Browns using week to week. You don’t always have to create the wheel, simply recreating it can be enough in this league.
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