USA TODAY Sports
I spent much of Monday reviewing the official Browns-Chiefs game book, thinking carefully about how best to criticize the way the Browns handled the game after Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes came out with a concussion.
The Browns ‘safety, Karl Joseph, picked up a can of corn from the Chiefs’ quarterback, Chad Henne, in the Cleveland end zone, with exactly eight minutes left. Facing 19-10 when Patrick Mahomes left and 22-10 at the end of the race that Henne finished, the Browns scored a touchdown and reduced the margin to five points, 22-17. Joseph’s interception pushed the momentum pendulum directly in favor of the Browns.
That’s when things set aside for Cleveland. In seven moves (and despite losing time along the way), the Browns advanced 12 yards, from their own 20 to their own 32, burning three minutes and forty-one seconds of clock time. Facing the fourth and nine, the Browns went to Kansas City instead of trying.
The reasoning makes sense. If Mahomes was still playing, the Browns should definitely have risked fourth to nine. With Henne, why not kick and then play defense?
One reason not to punt, of course, came from the fact that the Browns only had a timeout remaining, due to a reckless replay challenge and the timeout that had to be used to avoid a lack of game delay during what to be the final thrust of Cleveland. It was Cleveland’s final blow because the Chiefs successfully milked the remaining 4:19 to seal the victory.
Thus, the fair criticism of the Browns comes from the failure to move more quickly after Mahomes went to the locker room. Before Mahomes got hurt, it made sense to minimize possessions and shorten the game. After Mahomes, the total talent gap narrowed, if not it disappeared. At that point, the Browns should have done everything more quickly, in order to increase the number of times both teams had the ball – because in a battle between Baker Mayfield and Chad Henne, the Browns are more likely to score more points than the bosses.
Consider the first trip after leaving Mahomes. The Browns used eighteen moves, consuming eight minutes and seventeen seconds of clock time.
Drop of 12 at the time the unit started, why not force the problem? Move faster. Perform more moves. Return the ball to the Chiefs, and hope for a mistake that could lead to an opening to win the game.
If the Browns had simply shown a greater sense of urgency during the past two trips, the Browns could be heading to Buffalo this weekend.