CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Luckily for the Browns there isn’t much time to dwell on the 38-6 shellacking they got Sunday in Baltimore.
That’s the good news.
The bad: they have to fix everything that went wrong against the Ravens by Thursday night when they host the Bengals.
Despite the 32-point beating, and lackluster debut for what was expected to be a stacked and power-packed offense, quarterback Baker Mayfield remains positive.
“Obviously, there is a ton of room for improvement,” Mayfield said. “It is not just false hopes. It is there.”
Mayfield completed just 21 of 39 passes for 189 yards including a touchdown and interception in Baltimore.
The Browns, who were out-gained offensively by 71 yards despite running 10 more plays, were dismal on third down converting just 3-of-12.
“Baker and all of our players, we know that we have to play better, and we have to coach better,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “That is the beauty of this thing is that we have an opportunity to do that Thursday night.”
Tuesday afternoon’s practice in Berea was the only real on field work they’ll get outside of a walk through on Wednesday before having to host the Bengals.
If you’re looking for a bright spot from the opener, the run game was solid.
“I thought we ran the ball well early on,” Mayfield said. “We got away from it because of the score was a little bit different. The flow of the game forces you to do that.”
Both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt averaged at least 5.5 yards per carry and the Browns out-rushed the Ravens 138-107.
Unfortunately, being down 24-6 by halftime forced Stefanski to change plans.
“I think we all know we can run the ball. It is just we kind of got away from it in the game,” Chubb said. “Running the ball have never been a problem for us here. We just have to stick to it and get in a rhythm. We know we can run the ball, so we just have to get better at other things.”
The one thing the Browns aren’t doing is making excuses, and it would be easy for them to considering it’s another year with a new coaching staff and they were still doing on-field installs just 2 weeks before the opener.
“Everybody had the same scheduling and setup,” receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who had three catches for 22 yards off a team-high 10 targets, said. “It just comes down to producing and making those plays on Sunday. I could sit here and tell you it was tough, but I am sure it was tough for everybody to get out there and play a full game.”
Since 1999, the Browns, who were expected to be an offensive juggernaut this year, have averaged over 20 points per game just four times, including the last 2 seasons.
No one needs to tell the Browns what a flop the opener was but with 15 games left on the schedule, there’s plenty of hope they’ll be able to hit their goals, and possibly pull off the first winning season since 2007 or make the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season.
“We have the players, and we have the coaches,” Chubb said. “We just have to put it together. There is no excuse for us with who all is on our team to go out there and put up one touchdown. That is unacceptable. We know it, we accept that, and we are looking to get better.”
