CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Following a disastrous day in Denver, the Browns got some good news Monday.
Here’s our top Brownie Bites from the west coast.
Sigh of relief – The MRI on defensive end Myles Garrett’s left shoulder came back without showing a structural problem according to head coach Kevin Stefanski. “Myles with the shoulder, is sore,” Stefanski said via Zoom, “but [we] feel good about where he'll be. But [he is] day to day.” Considering the Browns have already lost right tackle Jack Conklin, running back Nick Chubb and quarterback Deshaun Watson for the season, the exhale out west could be felt in Cleveland. “A big relief,” linebacker Sione Takitaki said. “A key piece to our defense, to this organization, just his presence and his playmaking ability and what he does is from a leadership standpoint. So hearing the news is definitely a relief to everybody in this organization to know that he's healthy, he's fine. And obviously he's banged up still, but it's something that we could work through. It wasn't bad news. So yep, we're all happy.” Garrett bounced in and out of the lineup for much of the afternoon in the 29-12 loss to the Broncos while favoring his left arm and he left the stadium wearing a sling after telling reporters he heard a “pop” during the game. “He's a leader of this football team. He was elected captain for a reason,” Stefanski said. “He plays hard, that's what we're going to have to do this week. So he sets the example that way, but it's the NFL. Almost December guys are playing banged up. That's just how it works. But he sets a great example for this football team.” Garrett slipped to second behind Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt for the NFL lead in sacks this season. Watt has 13.5 and Garrett 13 along with Khalil Mack of the Chargers.
QB limbo – Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson is in concussion protocol after taking a vicious hit from Broncos linebacker Baron Browning, who was flagged for a personal foul, with 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Thompson-Robinson was drilled as he threw the ball after scrambling on third-and-12 and he left the field with his mouth bloodied leaving the team in QB limbo, again. “It's the same way we've been dealing with it, knowing that there's a job to do and that we have more games to play and that whoever's up at quarterback, we're going to rally behind them and trust that they can do the job and just believing the coaches in the coaching scheme that we have,” running back Jerome Ford said. Stefanski maintains his belief in the rookie fifth-round pick out of UCLA’s ability to lead and play at a high level. “I think with any young player you're always going to bring them along at a specific pace,” Stefanski said. “I thought he did some really good things yesterday. Obviously there's always things that you can clean up and it's rookie stuff. There's different reads and footwork, whatever it may be. But played, he made a bunch of plays for us, so unfortunate to lose him due to injury.” Thompson-Robinson completed 14 of 29 passes for 134 yards with a touchdown before departing. Walker went 6 of 13 for 56 yards in relief. If Thompson-Robinson is unavailable, P.J. Walker or Joe Flacco, signed to the practice squad on November 20, could be called upon to start. “He works very hard at it,” Stefanski said. “Again, PJ went through a very similar thing where you get here and it's crash course and you spend extra time with the playbook and with the coaches and get up to speed as quickly as you can.”
Second guessing – Despite facing the No. 32 ranked run defense, Stefanski chose to go pass heavy Sunday against the Broncos. Prior to departing, Thompson Robinson threw 29 passes against just 15 rushes combined for Ford and Kareem Hunt. “I think we go into every game, and you have a plan for things that they're going to do and then sometimes they show you things that you have to adjust [to],” Stefanski said. “We felt like we had some good opportunities there both in the run and the pass game. We had some missed opportunities unfortunately. And that's the frustrating part of, we have to hit some of those opportunities again, both in the run and the pass to score more points.” Through three quarters Stefanski called for 13 passes against eight runs on first down and just six of those throws were completed for 78 yards. Ford got just nine touches on the ground but averaged 7.2 yards per carry. “I thought Jerome gave us some really good moments in the run game, in the pass game,” Stefanski said. “Had a couple nice plays there in a two minute drive. We're going to count on him every single week as you know. We like our running back room and we like to share the ball for sure.” While fans and media might question Stefanski’s ball distribution and run-pass balance, Ford isn’t one of them. “Not really paying attention to carries or who gets the ball or how the ball's distributed or what plays we run,” Ford said. “It's more so of when a play is called doing my job. I feel like we're in good hands when Coach Stefanski and those guys are upstairs calling the plays and we just follow their lead and trusting them and that's what's been helping us so far. So pretty much going to continue to do that.”
START ‘em up – The Browns have embraced an acronym this season – S.T.A.R.T. Ford explained the meaning behind it. “Smart, Tough, Accountable, Resilient, Team,” Ford said. “And I think resilience has been showing up for us and resiliency has been showing up for us. And I think the most important one to us is the word team and us all being together. If you walk through our facility, you'll see that we have a ‘T’ on the wall and we all signed it because we're all here for each other. And as long as we have each other's back, we feel like we win a lot of games and we'll be a very good football team.”
Playoff picture – Sunday’s loss dropped the Browns to the No. 6 seed in the AFC and third place in the AFC North. Pittsburgh, who beat the Bengals to improve to 7-4, is in second and the No. 5 seed in the AFC. Indianapolis is the seventh seed at 6-4. The top four seeds are Kansas City, Jacksonville, Miami and Baltimore.
Injury report – DE Myles Garrett (left shoulder) is day-to-day; QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson (concussion protocol); WR Amari Cooper (ribs) should be OK after x-rays were negative; DT Jordan Elliott (ankle) is day to day