What’s the season for? Watching games that no longer mean anything? OMG…will the season continue in 2025?
For Cleveland Browns fans, we’re waiting for Santa to bring us a playoff-caliber roster that we can love, hold and laugh about when it gets wet and show it off to our friends.
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Related: Browns VS. Beal’s final score: Not up to par
It’s hard to watch when your team loses a game by double digits. But when this happens again and again, you have to question everything.
Do we really need this intensification? Wouldn’t it be simpler to say that I’m a Mike Vrabel fan, so my team this year is the New England Patriots?
We all want to plan how many playoff tickets to buy and where the best seats are. Instead we ended up with fig pudding and a box of fruit cake. Make it a box of gooey, disgusting stuff that no one wants anyway.
So we bought season passes and stuck with them. Tried to sell them game by game, but few accepted. And every piece of information that comes out is so cheap that it would be cheaper to just go to the game and boo and boo.
On the final shot, the playoff-bound Buffalo Bills won 23-20, leaving Cleveland with points on the field.
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So who is doing well for the Browns? Who doesn’t?
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Browns start – Every play, every block, every catch and run and every decision at the start of the game was flawless. RB Quinshon Judkins scored a third-and-goal, followed by an 11-yard pass to TE Harold Fannin. Then quarterback Shedeur Sanders hit WR Malachi Corley, who lateraled to Isaiah Bond for 21 yards. WR Jerry Jeudy had a 7-yard completion and then Judkins had a 3-yard completion. Sanders then found Fanning alone on the right wing and Fanning did the rest, finding the end zone and a 7-0 lead. Eight plays, 69 yards, 4:18 on the clock and a three-point conversion. A thing of beauty.
RB Laheim Sanders – Sanders is listed as the fourth linebacker on the Browns’ official depth chart. But after Quinshon Judkins went down with a leg injury, Sanders was thrust into the starting role. And did he perform? The third quarter was nothing short of a “Laheim Sanders show,” with the back being the Browns’ primary engine inside the five-yard line, ultimately leading to Cleveland’s second touchdown. He broke three tackles and entered Buffalo territory with 8:23 left in the third and second quarters. On third-and-1, he scampered three yards up the middle and then nine yards to the four-yard line behind the blockers of TE Blake Whiteheart and Brendan Bates. On the next play, Harold Fannin scored another 3 yards. Then all of a sudden, the offense stopped using him. He finished with 11 passes for 42 yards and one reception for 4 yards.
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The third reduction in efficiency – The Browns actually got a positive result on third down, taking the game-winning 8-14. No, it’s not a typographical error. Entering this game, Cleveland ranked 30th in third down conversion rate at 31.6%.
LB Carson Schweizer ——Don’t rookies appear in almost every game? It seems so. There were 13 total tackles, plus a valuable sack that forced a punt. Two quarterback hits. TE Dalton Kincaid forced an incomplete pass on third-and-eight with 9:50 left in the third quarter. He even got tackled on the kickoff.
LB Devin Bush – Had a serious missed tackle early in the second quarter but was a force in pass coverage. WR Khalil Shakir gained an 18-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. Early in the third quarter, tackle RB James Cook gained just two yards. Finished with nine tackles.
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Invoicing drive – Buffalo started with a gain of its own 20, then had consecutive runs of 7, 8 and 15 yards before completing a 6-yard pass. Then, Browns linebacker Mohamoud Diabate missed a tackle near the line of scrimmage and Cook came on, and Cook completed a 44-yard score in just 2:55 of game time.
RT KT Leviston – One possession returned Judkins to a great performance, a fumble then led to LDE Greg Rousseau having a stellar day with 2.5 sacks. Horrible attempt to stop a pass. Good against the run, but no matchup against quicker defensive ends. Leviston completely missed Rousseau when Sanders went down at the one-yard line. With 9:26 left in the third quarter, Leviston missed a block by blitzing safety Jordan Poyer, who easily sacked Sanders. Rousseau finished with three tackles, 2.5 sacks and seven quarterback hits.
Lack of run defense – Bills RB James Cook just got his wish with the Browns. In the first half alone, he rushed for 100 yards nine times and scored two touchdowns. His biggest gain is within. He totaled 133 yards rushing in the first half. The defense made adjustments in the half, and Buffalo managed just 29 yards in the final two quarters.
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Missed tackle – Bush, Rex Sunahara, James Harden (2), Schweitzer, Diabate, Tyson Campbell, Alex Wright.
Lacks catcher play – Is the game plan to not throw the ball to the receiver at all? Why are they no longer a part of the offense? None of the top three receivers in the game are wide receivers. Jeudy had four targets and three catches for 12 yards. Yes, size 12. Cedric Tillman? One catch eight yards. Malachi Corley had two catches for 11 yards. Browns receivers totaled nine targets, six catches for 31 yards and zero touchdowns. oops.
red zone – Cleveland left a lot of points on the field. After Sanders left the game with an injured pinky finger, quarterback Dillon Gabriel came in to score a field goal, but went down during the scramble and kicked a field goal. Williams hit his third three-pointer in Cleveland’s 16 games against Buffalo and ended the game with three more. Punter Corey Bojorquez fumbled on the final play before halftime and could have had three more punts. Cleveland is 2-4 in red zone appearances.
long pass – Does Sanders’ scouting report indicate he has a weak arm? The Browns never shoot deep. Jedi and Kohli were so fast but did not pose a serious threat. sad.
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Lieutenant Cam Robinson – Played well in the first half, but fell apart in pass protection as the game wore on. He is easily fooled by what’s going on inside. He completely thumbed his nose at Poyer, who scored Cleveland’s first-and-10 with 2:36 left in the game. His partner, Matt Milano, finished with nine tackles and two quarterback hits.
Milk Bones – Which List? naughty? OK? Or “I can explain”?
RB Quinshane Judkins – Made some big strides in the first half and was used a lot in the passing game before getting hurt. Eight runs for 22 yards, two of which converted into first downs. Caught a short pass and converted it for 9 yards on second-and-8 with 10:58 left in the first half. Then another pass was completed for a 16-yard gain, taking the ball to the Buffalo 20-yard line. Had 5 catches for 29 yards.
Myles Garrett first half – Everyone knows Garrett needs one more sack to tie the single-season record for most sacks. But Buffalo doesn’t want that record to be tied or held against them. They use tight end to cut him down almost every game and then use left guard to help out LT Dion Dawkins so Garrett is no longer a factor. That’s just him. Garrett had zero interceptions, zero sacks, zero quarterback hits and one pressure in the first half. The closest he came was when quarterback Josh Allen went down in the end zone and defensive tackle Mason Graham touched him first, but Garrett was later declared to have had half a sack. Buffalo’s strategy was to turn the offense on the other team, and it worked very well. He finished the game with a tackle, a quarterback hit, a pressure and half a sack.
RB Trayvon Williams – With Sanders running the ball successfully in the third quarter and the fourth quarter starting, Williams stepped in and responded well. He completed a 26-yard pass to set the Browns up, then added an 11-yard rush into Buffalo territory. Three catches for 17 yards, but four catches for 38 yards led all receivers and essentially did a quarter of the job.
QB Shaddell Sanders – Two interceptions that changed the game. He threw a bullet behind Judkins, and the bullet ricocheted to an easy catch. On his second interception, he passed the ball directly to DeJoy Bosa, who was already in the air for an easy hit. Sanders could run and gain valuable space and put in quite a bit of effort to get good going, as he led all Browns runners with 49 yards. Fanning’s first possession pass was a strike. But he checked too many running backs coming out of the backfield for minimal gain and struggled to find the receiver beyond the stick on the long downs, which would have turned into a punt. The scramble in the second quarter was great as he ducked under Rousseau and then Sanders gained 13 yards.
In the fourth quarter, as defensive tackle Deone Walker was about to tie Williams up, he made a nice touch on a screen and passed the ball to Williams for a 26-yard gain. It will be interesting to see what he can do without the “B” team offensive line in front of him. Finished with a 20-29 record, 157 yards, a completion rate of 5.4 yards, one touchdown, two catches, two sacks, and a quarterback rating of 64.9.
Who are the Browns’ winners and losers in Week 16 against the Bills?
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