The Giants kept bringing the heat, and Cleveland had no answer.
Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 3 game against the New York Giants.
- QB: After taking one small step forward last week, Deshaun Watson took another step back this week. I know the stats will indicate that he had a decent game, but the ball placement was back to being bad on several open plays, he fumbled, was taking longer to get the ball out again, and had some throws that were just way off with poor mechanics. As indicated below, yes, it’s tough to play at a high level when the offensive line and pressure was as bad as it was, but I wholeheartedly believe that one of the reasons the Giants kept bringing pressure was that they had no faith Watson could consistently make quick decisions to recognize what was happening. Watson could have mitigated a fair amount of the damage, but he didn’t.
Wild stat…
The #Giants had 36 pressures against the #Browns.
The Giants have never had 36 pressures in a game since @PFF started charting pressures. This includes Osi Umenyiora’s six-sack game vs. PHI in Week 4, 2007.
He had 14 pressures that day—35 total for the team.
— Nick Falato (@nickfalato) September 23, 2024
- RB: This week, the Browns went back to playing Jerome Ford for most of the game. However, against one of the worst run defenses in the NFL, Cleveland opted to barely run the ball, and went pass-heavy against a defense that was killing them up front.
- WR: It was a great bounceback game for Amari Cooper, who looked just like the elite player we’ve come to know and love. He had 2 touchdowns and made some difficult grabs near the sideline while keeping his feet in bounds and a defender all over him. He was the Browns’ top-graded player on offense, grading out to a 78.4. Jerry Jeudy had an ok game, and reliably caught the two-point try in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, Cedric Tillman couldn’t hang on to the threaded ball to keep the game alive. He gets a share of the blame, but that’s certainly not the play that lost this team the game, and Cleveland would’ve still needed to drive down the field with no timeouts anyway.
- TE: The Browns are working with a skeleton crew at tight end, but Jordan Akins continues to do what he can. He’s a serviceable target who will catch the ball, but isn’t stretching the defense, especially when he’s needed to help with blcoking.
- OL: The PFF grades for the Browns’ offensive linemen weren’t kind. Zak Zinter (58.6), Joel Bitonio (54.5), Jedrick Wills (51.9), Dawand Jones (48.7), James Hudson (46.4), Wyatt Teller (44.3), and Ethan Pocic (40.6) all graded terribly, and that’s not a surprise. It was as bad as it looked, as the Giants registered 8 sacks and 17 quarterback hits. With that said, it is still a combination of things, as there were several plays that Watson was sacked on, but had players open and just didn’t get the ball out quick.
This was a sack pic.twitter.com/9FNY2zbXpz
— CLEology (@_CLEology) September 23, 2024