Kevin Stefanski's first game as Browns head coach/offensive play-caller could not have gone worse. (USA Today)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Baker Mayfield called it a punch in the face.
Maybe to them that’s all it was. Round 1 of a 16-round slugfest.
But to long-suffering followers of the Browns, this was just the latest of a series of head butts against a brick wall.
For the 16th consecutive year, the Browns failed to win their first game. It’s insanity personified. They do the same thing year after year and expect things to change.
And more times than not, the losses are like the one Sunday in Baltimore, 38-6 to the division champion Ravens.
There were a plethora of Browns physical errors (three turnovers), missed kicks (two), inexplicable play-calls (a fake punt from their own 31 in the first quarter), and penalties (eight). For the second year in a row, there was panic-stricken forcing of the ball to Odell Beckham Jr. (10 targets, three receptions for 22 yards, and one costly drop).
The defense got stomped for two touchdowns by rookie J.K. Dobbins of Ohio State, but mostly was strafed by pinpoint passing from league MVP Lamar Jackson.
Coordinator Joe Woods’ already-depleted unit gave up two touchdown catches to tight end Mark Andrews and one to slot receiver Willie Snead. In running his career record to 20-5, Jackson slithered out of the little pass pressure generated and sidearmed and whipped and laid in perfectly placed passes, 20 of 25 for 275. His passer rating was 152.1.
“He’s a talented player,” said Myles Garrett, who spun his wheels for one tackle, one quarterback hit and a fumble recovery of a fullback carry inside the 10. “He’s going to move the ball around. He’s going to escape, make things happen. Today, he put it on the money.”
This wasn’t totally unexpected, of course.
The Browns were breaking in another new coach, Kevin Stefanski, who, like his two immediate predecessors, felt compelled to call the plays rather than delegate it to coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
Stefanski proceeded to call a fake punt from his own 31-yard line in the first quarter (it failed badly), gave up on the run too easily (Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt averaged 6.5 yards in the first half on only 12 total carries in the first half), and then fell into the trap of forcing the ball to Beckham.
After a miserable first half, Beckham became the go-to receiver on the Browns’ first series of the second half. Mayfield threw low for one incompletion, overthrew another (while cornerback Marlon Humphrey was penalized for holding), tossed another off target (Humphrey penalized for interference), threw away a pass toward Beckham (getting yet a third Baltimore penalty), finally completed a short sideline pass on a rollout, which was nullified because Beckham stepped out of bounds before the catch, and finally was off target again to end the drive.
Late in the game, Mayfield overthrew Beckham who got behind the secondary at the Ravens’ 10.
And all of that came after Beckham dropped a 3-yard pass at the Ravens’ 20-yard line in the waning seconds of the first half which would have extended a possible touchdown drive.
Austin Seibert trotted in and missed a 41-yard field goal to the right, adding more deflation to his team. For the second year in a row, Seibert missed the season’s first PAT.
After Seibert's field goal miss, Jackson catapulted his team 69 yards in 35 seconds for a touchdown to increase the lead to an insurmountable 24-6 at halftime.
Stefanski wouldn’t say if Seibert might be replaced by Cody Parkey, who was stashed on the practice squad in case Seibert tested positive for Covid-19 this season.
On the fake punt, on which Jamie Gillan was blown up by linebacker L.J. Fort and coughed up the ball short of first-down yardage, Stefanski sounded like Hue Jackson when he said, “Yeah, listen, that is my responsibility. That is on me. That did not work out, and you can put that right on me.”
Mayfield (21 of 39, 189 yards, one TD, one INT, 65.0 rating) did nothing to instill hope that he was a changed quarterback from a year ago. His game resembled his training camp practices during the open media portion of the summer.
He was intercepted on his fourth pass after huge end Calais Campbell tipped the ball while dropping into coverage. Campbell also rejected a pass at the line of scrimmage on the previous play.
Mayfield did not distribute the ball to his new tight ends but did get a touchdown to David Njoku and a 28-yard completion to Njoku on a 50-50 ball.
Mayfield was 5 of 6 throwing for Jarvis Landry and 3 of 10 throwing for Beckham.
“I would like to watch the tape before I can really answer that in terms of the whole thing, but yeah, not good enough staying on the field,” Stefanski hedged in assessing Mayfield’s day.
“I thought we got into some rhythms in little spurts during drives,” Mayfield said, “but then a negative play would happen and we could not overcome those. The great teams do overcome those negative plays or they save the downs and move forward.”
The good news is the Browns have another game to play in four days against the Bengals at home.
The bad news is the Browns have another game to play in four days against the Bengals at home.
“Sometimes a wakeup call is pretty good for everybody – a nice punch in the mouth, and that is how we should take it,” Mayfield said. “We should not dwell on it, realize that we just got beat today, they played better than us, look at it, get better, move on and go play the Bengals. That is all we can do.”
The short turnaround makes it tough for players injured in the game to be ready for Thursday. These include rookie left tackle Jedrick Wills (leg), linebacker Jacob Phillips (knee) and Njoku (knee).
“[By] the time we touch the ground [in Cleveland], it will be out of my mind and on to the next one,” Garrett said.