Browns’ offensive snap counts, stats, and notes: Week 8 – Winston takes charge

Cleveland’s top three receivers combine for a big day.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 8 game against the Baltimore Ravens.

• QB: This is the type of performance I expected from Jameis Winston. I said it was going to be more along the lines of what Joe Flacco did, in the sense that he’s going to push the ball down the field, and let it rip. The downside to that is that he’ll end up making some mistakes with that gunslinger mentality, and there probably should’ve been two or three interceptions on his game log, especially on his second-to-last past that would have made this a loss instead of a win. He got a re-do, though, and delivered the game-winning touchdown moments later.

Winston isn’t going to be a perfect quarterback, but as you can see, any quarterback not named Deshaun Watson thrives under Kevin Stefanski. I also have to say one other thing: I always thought Winston was a bit goofy, and I didn’t get it — but after seeing his demeanor more, he is totally a guy who I can immediately root for as a fan and get behind, and I think that spread to the rest of the players in the locker room. Winston was PFF’s second-highest graded player of the game and top-graded player on offense, scoring a 78.5 grade. You also love hearing something like this:

• RB: We saw a few more signs of Nick Chubb getting back to his former self on a few runs, although later in the game, I continue to resent the decisions to have the running game operate mostly from Shotgun. I also did not like the weird 4th-and-2 handoff to Chubb, acting like he was a fullback and not letting him build up any momentum. So what I saw was positive glimpses from Chubb, but me still not liking some of the formation stuff. He did get more reps this week with 61% of the snaps.
• WR: What a game for the wide receivers. Aside from one snafu that saw a pass go off of both Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore, the trio of them and Cedric Tillman had a great game. Now, granted, they were probably going up against what is the worst secondary in football, but still — they combined for 20 catches for 263 yards. All three had solid days, but it was great to see a glimpse of the third down timing routes to the outside with Moore — which was the whole reason I thought we acquired him — and then Tillman’s confidence growing as he had two touchdown catches. Moore (77.0) and Tillman (75.9) were the Browns’ second- and third-highest graded players on offense, per PFF, and Jeudy (73.3) was right up there.
• TE: He didn’t get a ton of catches, but a 5-catch, 61-yard day — including the first touchdown for the offense — made it a nice game for David Njoku. Jordan Akins almost came down with a nice catch in the game, but couldn’t hang on as he landed to the ground.
• OL: The offensive line seemed to play their best game of the season, and that included Wyatt Teller pancaking players. Teller looked off even before his injury, but this looked more like the Teller of old. I was also pleasantly surprised with how Dawand Jones looked at left tackle.