Pre-season: Browns Recap

Edition #449

Good morning!

I’m going to need to grab an extra cup of coffee this morning after staying up into the early hours for the Hall of Fame game, but we have some football to talk about.

If I don’t see another screen pass all season, I’ll be happy. As usual, the first game was full of them. There were a lot of good things and some bad things, and as the clock was ticking down, I spent the majority of my time with my head in the media guide checking on player numbers, trying to pick guys out.

There were a few surprises for me with the inactive list last night on the offensive side of the ball with Ruckert, Carter and Knight sitting.

• Becton was supposed to play 20-25 snaps but only appeared in 7. He looked good in the plays he was in though.

• I thought some linebackers really popped last night. Sherwood, Surratt and Barnes all had their moments. Then late in the game, Claudin Cherelus flashed some talent.

• Isn’t it nice to have solid special team players like Thomas Morestead and Greg Zuerlein? Feels good to have confidence in the kicking game, Zuerlein was in mid-season form making multiple kicks from 50+ yards.

• Tippman looked good in pass protection, but some work is needed in generating that push in the run game. Really good start for the rookie though.

• The blocking in the run game looked pretty suspect to me throughout, but I’d want to watch it again and focus on the guys up-front.

• Brandin Echols had a couple of bad penalties and didn’t look overly convincing in coverage either. Too early to read much into it.

• OLB Caleb Johnson had a bad late hit penalty on a third-down incompletion which extended the Brown’s drive, that’s a good way to get yourself cut.

• I like the look of Israel Abikanda, that speed will be dangerous

• Speed, speed and more speed. This is the fastest Jets group I can remember, on both offence and defence.

• Craig James got beat on the 4th-quarter DTR touchdown, just got fooled on the route.

5 Memorable Plays

Israel Abanikanda - TD

This is how you want to start your career if you’re a rookie. Who needs a lead blocker when you have pace like this? In this system you’re going to get plenty of opportunities like this, it’s a basis of the outside zone, what you need is the speed to win the race to the edge, and Izzy showed a ton of juice. He had anther nice carry where he bounced off some players for an inside run.