Who Is To Blame For The Browns 43-13 Opening Day Loss To Tennessee

Looking to get away this winter but don’t know where to start? Too busy to plan that next vacation but still want to go badly?

Stop stressing and call Michele Benard with Michele Marvelous Memories Travels and she will handle it all for you!

VISIT THEM BY CLICKING HERE

https://www.facebook.com/michelemarveloustravels/

The Browns have now lost 19 of their 21 season openers since returning to the NFL in 1999.  Their one win coming in 2004 against the Baltimore Ravens, and their one tie coming last year against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Perhaps what makes this one the most painful of all, (and that is saying a lot), is the simple fact that this is by far the most talented team of the bunch, so for them to lose this badly, 43-13 really hurts.  The Titans are not that good, and the Browns are not that bad.

It was 15-13 late third quarter when everything fell apart and the blitzkrieg of points for Tennessee began as they finished the game on a 28-0 run that no one saw coming.  For the Browns, it just got worse from there as they proceeded to turn the ball over 3 times on 3 Baker Mayfield interceptions.

The story has been since 1999, that the Browns can’t run the ball, and they can’t stop the run.  Today was no different.  Titans feature back Derrick Henry finished with 84 yards on only 19 carries, scoring once on the ground.  He also caught a touchdown for 75 yards that began the 28-point explosion.

The crazy stat is that Marcus Mariota finished with 248 yards passing, and 3 touchdowns.  But when you go back and look at the tape, he didn’t look impressive at all. 

The one was a dump off that Henry took 75 yards, the other two were more or less in garbage time with Delanie Walker so wide open anyone could have thrown him the ball.

Mayfield will take a lot of heat this week from national and local media, not to mention crazed fans, but he didn’t play that bad either.  He took a beating as he had no protection all game.  The play of the Browns O-Line was horrendous. 

He got sacked 5 times, and got knocked down over a dozen times.  Despite all that, he still managed to throw for 285 yards and a touchdown, despite no blocking and little to no running game.  A big concern coming into the season was the line, and they looked terrible. 

Not to mention sloppy, committing one penalty after another.  Including left tackle Greg Robinson getting ejected for kicking another player right before the half.

The bottom line was penalties, and that may be the biggest knock on rookie head coach Freddie Kitchens.  They had no discipline and looked poorly coached.  The Browns finished the game with a whopping 18 penalties for 182 yards. 

You can’t get off the field on defense doing that, and you sure as heck can’t convert third downs doing that.  That was proven as the browns went 1 for 10 on third downs.

Perhaps what jumps out the most is that the Browns had more yards from scrimmage then the Titans, moving the ball for 346 yards, as opposed to 339 yards from Tennessee.  What does that tell you cost them the game? Simple, poor field position due to constant penalties, and three turnovers.

Another big concern was the Browns kicking game, which also looked horrendous today.  Austin Seibert didn’t have a single touchback, and also missed an extra point. 

A lot of hype was behind “The Scottish Hammer”, punter Jamie Gillan, but he didn’t look good enough to make a high school team this week.  Averaging a very poor 46 yards a punt.  The “Hammer” looked like a plastic mallet today.

Perhaps the Browns can hang their hats on two things moving into week two.  One was is that OBJ played well, catching 7 balls for 71 yards.  Also, the defensive line forced 4 sacks.  They will look to rebound from this disaster, 8 days from tonight on Monday Night Football at the new York Jets.