Joe Flacco and that sputtering offense are giving Browns serious consideration for a QB change

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

DETROIT, MI

Can a quarterback change eliminate miscommunication on receiver routes, dropped passes, and repeated breakdowns on special teams?

That’s what the Browns have to decide as their point total went down again as a result of miscues all over the field and not just at quarterback.

But Joe Flacco gave the Browns more reason to make the inevitable shift to rookie Dillon Gabriel with three more turnovers, giving him eight in four games.

A cut-off route by Cedric Tillman resulted in Flacco’s first interception, which Flacco took the blame for, and back-to-back drops on catchable deep balls by Harold Fannin and Jerry Jeudy in the fourth quarter ended any hope of competing with Detroit’s high-powered offense.

The inevitable special teams breakdown – a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown by Kalif Raymond – turned it into a Lions rout, 34-10, on another miserable day in Motown for the Browns. The Browns are 1-11 here in franchise history, an inexplicable record even though the Lions are certifiable Super Bowl contenders now.

It was the ninth game in a row dating to last season in which the Browns scored fewer than 20 points. Their point totals have been 16, 17, 13 and 10 this year. Amazingly, they are 1-3.

Coach Kevin Stefanski no doubt infuriated the team’s fan base with the familiar lamentations.

“It’s frustrating because we know you can’t do those things and expect to win on the road,” he said.

“So we – me, I’ve got to get it fixed.

“We all own it and we all have to be better.”

And, of course, he committed to keep Flacco as the starter. Kind of.

“That’s not our focus," Stefanski said. "We didn’t do enough on offense. We had too many things that caused us not to have success.”

But there was one time that Stefanski might have left the door slightly ajar to make a change, perhaps as the team prepares for its date in London against the Vikings. Asked if the challenges of taking the whole operation across the pond is a reason not to make a change to Gabriel this week, Stefanski hesitated.

“Yeah, I think for me, I’m just focused on this game right now,” he said. “I can’t – got to look at the tape of this one first.”

For the second blowout loss in a row on the road, Flacco was pulled late in the fourth quarter with 3:59 to play and the outcome long decided. This time, Gabriel did not produce a touchdown like he did in Baltimore. He threw one incomplete pass in his lone three-and-out possession.

But Flacco is not oblivious.

Despite a 5-for-5 hot start on the Browns’ opening scoring drive, Flacco’s two interceptions and lost fumble on a strip sack were the dominant themes of the game. After his first possession, Flacco was 11 of 29 for 114 yards. His 39.3 passer rating was the seventh-worst in his 18-year career and lowest since a game in 2017 – when Flacco was a relative spring chicken at age 32.

“Listen, it’s one of those things. You can’t think about when you’re a player,” he said of the noise surrounding an inevitable QB change. “I know what I signed up for. I signed up for coming in, competing for a job and then leading this team to victories. And you know that everybody’s always being evaluated in this league, and that’s no different for any position. So, it’s disappointing to go out there and play the way we did today. Other than that, I’m not really worried about all that other stuff.”

The opening drive gave the Browns only their second in-game lead in the first month of the season. But the Lions quickly adjusted after that and Flacco’s two interceptions led to 10 Detroit points. Even after Detroit added a field goal in the last minute of the first half to go up, 20-7, the game seemed still within the Browns’ reach.

But they failed to capitalize fully on Denzel Ward’s interception in the third quarter, settling for a field goal when the drive stalled at the Lions’ 15.

The defense was still playing hard. Detroit’s vaunted running tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery was “limited” to 103 yards on 24 attempts – more than a yard below their combined season average of 5.4 yards. Jared Goff completed 59.2% -- much less than his season mark of 77.9%.

And when linebacker Devin Bush beat Jahmyr Gibbs to the right sideline and stopped him short on a fourth-and-2 run from the Browns’ 24, the raucus crowd in Ford Field expressed, well, maybe not worry but surely disappointment.

Then came the final Browns’ miscues as the fourth quarter opened.

On second-and-7 from the Browns’ 26, Flacco’s deep pass for Harold Fannin beating linebacker Alex Anzalone came in perfectly over his shoulder and slipped through his hands. Very next play, Jerry Jeudy beat cornerback D.J. Reed and Flacco’s slightly underthrown pass was dropped just outside the Detroit red zone.

“I didn’t see the one I threw to Harold. I couldn’t tell you what ended up happening on that one,” Flacco said. “And the one with Jeudy, it’s just one of those things that I would’ve liked to get it out a little bit earlier, but I think [edge rusher] Aidan [Hutchinson] was able to get a little bit of a hand on the ball, so it took a little bit longer.”

Hutchinson played havoc over Cornelius Lucas, who was shifted to right tackle for the matchup after Jack Conklin was idled a third game in a row with an elbow injury. Hutchinson had two sacks, one resulting in the Flacco fumble, and four quarterback hits.

“When you’re playing in these tough games, sometimes you don’t make those plays,” Flacco said of pair of drops. “I think the bigger thing is just to put ourselves in more positions to make those kinds of plays, and right now I don’t think we’re getting a ton of shots like that. And when we do, maybe we’re not executing them quite as well as we should.”

Will that change with Gabriel at the helm? We may find out sooner than later.