Browns offensive woes part injuries, mostly lack of clean football
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The Browns had a case of adding insult to injury when they played at the New York Jets.
The insult was the way the Browns fell apart in losing 17-12 to the Jets. The injury, or injuries, were the number of walking wounded they had by the time they got on the buses to leave the stadium.
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That list of injuries included ankle injuries to both running back Quinshon Judkins and linebacker Carson Schwesinger. Both players were seen in protective boots when they left the locker room after the game.
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Browns coach Todd Monken spoke to the media on a Zoom call Oct. 12, a day after the loss in New Jersey. The good news on that front was that he wasn't ruling anyone out just yet for the upcoming home game Oct. 18 against the Baltimore Ravens.
"I don't know that yet," Monken said. "I don't see anybody at this point that I know for sure will be out."
Monken also indicated there was a chance the Browns would be opening up the 21-day practice window for running back/kick returner Dylan Sampson. The second-year pro sustained a knee injury on the Jacksonvlle Jaguars' second kickoff, and was placed on injured reserve,
Sampson would be welcomed depth at the running back position behind Judkins, whom Monken said "had a little tweak of his ankle, and as a precaution, we put him in a boot." The Browns also had Raheim "Rocket" Sanders leave the game with a hip injury.
The Browns only have Jaleel McLaughlin among the healthy running backs on the active roster. McLaughlin has two carries for 31 yards on the season, although one of those was a 28-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of the Browns' Week 4 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
McLaughlin did not run the ball against the Jets. The Browns, as a collective, netted 96 yards on 24 carries, although quarterback Deshaun Watson's 40 rushing yards on six carries did a lot of work elevating the overall numbers in the run game as Judkins only had 44 net rushing yards on 14 carries.
"It's not just one thing," Monken said. "I said it last night. Having Derrick (Henry) and Lamar (Jackson) obviously is advantageous (for the Ravens), just like having Deshaun and his legs and having Quinshon Judkins. It's never just one thing. It's scheming, it's us running off the football, it's executing at a much higher level than we are right now. And until we do that, we will struggle. And it really wasn't that way in Pittsburgh. It felt like we had made some strides and the Jets have a good front and we just didn't execute and certainly didn't coach it well enough."
The injuries trickled into other aspects of the offense, which netted 198 yards on 65 offnsive plays. The Browns lost wide receiver KC Concepcion to a head injury on a high and violent hit by safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, which drew a personal foul penalty on Fitzpatrick.
The loss of Concepcion elevated the roles of Jerry Jeudy and, most notably, Isaiah Bond. Bond had three catches for 74 yards on seven targets over 49 offensive plays.
The issue with Bond was the good ― a 30-yard reception in the fourth quarter ― with the bad. The bad was really bad, two of the Browns' four credited drops according to Pro Football Focus.
"I don't know, you'd have to ask Isaiah," Monken said. "I mean, it's unfortunate. They had to deal with the elements like we did. We certainly had a couple other drops within that, but collectively as an offense, we have got to play cleaner and it's next man up. And we didn't do that collectively, whoever came in the game, and our skilled players being able to execute at a high level, and it showed."
Another part of the offensive struggles was the constant pressure the Jets placed on Watson. New York blitzed Watson on 63.6% of his dropbacks ― 28 in total ― and Watson was 6-of-21 for 93 yards on those.
It was just blitzing, but getting home, as Watson was sacked eight times by the Jets. Rookie edge rusher David Bailey had three of those sacks along with nine total pressures.
Bailey lined up over the right tackle for most of the game That was initially starter Tytus Howard, although he left with a knee injury after 35 offensive snaps and was replaced for the other 33 by Dawand Jones.
"I mean, I would say that the starting point is one, getting the ball out when we don't have answers," Monken said. "The other is our communication upfront, that we're on the right people, and missed assignments. There was a couple times where we might've just gotten beat, but the collective part was more get the ball out and communication. And that was what was most frustrating."
Chris Easterling can be reached at [email protected]. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns offensive woes part injuries, mostly lack of clean football
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