Browns Week One Takeaways

The Cleveland Browns were defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 33-17, in Week One of the NFL season. Here are some key takeaways from their performance. Starting off with Deshaun Watson, he completed just 53 percent of his passes and had 169 passing yards and two interceptions. In context, Watson’s first interception was a pass batted down at the line of scrimmage by Micah Parsons, which was caught by Eric Kendricks for a pick. Watson’s second interception came when he threw it to Elijah Moore. The pass hit Moore’s hands and he could not pull it in, which resulted in Trevon Diggs catching the football for the interception.

Watson was inaccurate throughout the day. Even with time in the pocket, Watson missed a few throws that went behind his target. He also had a few passes that were open and it was just a misfire. Watson taking six sacks was a combination of him holding the ball for an extra count and the offensive linemen surrendering pressure in less than three seconds post-snap.

The Browns’ defense was subpar. Myles Garrett was held in check, coming up with just one sack on the day. Garrett had many one-on-one pass rush opportunities throughout the day, but could not make a bigger impact in the game. Denzel Ward had three pass deflections, defending his side of the field. On the first touchdown that the Browns’ defense gave up, it was a busted coverage as Brandin Cooks got behind the defense for a wide-open touchdown. 

The Browns’ special teams were just flat-out dominated. Brandon Aubrey made all four of his field goal attempts, including a 57-yard field goal. The Browns gave up a punt return touchdown to KaVontae Turpin. Turpin went 60 yards untouched to swing momentum into the Cowboys’ favor. Moving forward, the Browns’ offense can look to be more methodical in order to sustain drives of double-digit plays and double-digit yardage drives. The Browns’ defense can look to clean up their communication on the back end. The Browns’ special teams did have a hiccup on the Turpin punt return, but that’s usually an outlier.