Winners & Losers: Patriots Blow Past Browns 45-7

A look at who shined and who did not (many) in the Cleveland Browns lopsided loss to the New England Patriots.

Coming off their best game of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns were taken to the woodshed against the New England Patriots. Cleveland is back to .500 on the season after just one week back above the mark.

There was not hardly any good for the Browns on Sunday, in fact there was more bad than we could even mention. We’ll start out with just a couple bright spots that stood out.

Winners:

Jamie Gillan

Gillan sent three punts away for the Browns averaged 52 yards per punt. Gillan has been pretty solid after a bad start to the year and his job should not be in jeopardy, not that it ever was. When your punter has a good day, it’s likely a bad day for the team…

D’Ernest Johnson 

Johnson again did what was asked of him when asked to step up, he played well. 58 yards rushing on his first drive and finished with 99. Cleveland abandoned the run for a good part of the game, Johnson still finished with over five yards a pop. The third-string back was the team’s leading receiver with seven catches for 58 yards. That number says a lot about the rest of the team’s production.

Losers:

Kevin Stefanski

Whenever you go up against Bill Belichick you’re going to be the underdog in terms of the being the better coach. Belichick has seen it all and you can’t make mistakes against him. The Browns did plenty of that and their coach did not help them. Stefanski abandoned the run game that was working early, down two scores in the second quarter the Browns just would not run the ball. A huge play in the third quarter when Cleveland needed to convert a third down, Stefanski opted to run the same play they did on second. The run was stuffed and at that point it felt like the game was over for Cleveland who couldn’t do much on offense. Speaking of the offense, it was pretty predictable. A bad day at work for Cleveland’s head coach.

Anthony Schwartz

Schwartz has speed, likely the only reason the Browns drafted him and the only reason he was drafted anywhere. The rookie’s route tree is mediocre to this point and it showed today. Schwartz ran a route incorrectly that resulted in a ball nearly being picked off. There was next to nothing offered in the return game, besides getting his bell rung and sustaining a concussion that will likely keep him out next week. Schwartz is not ready for a role that the team needs production from, he’s just not capable to this point.

Ronnie Harrison

When Harrison is near the ball he likes to go for the big hit and it leads to him whiffing and missing tackles. This season Harrison has been a liability in coverage, potentially the worst defensive back on the field. The tackles are there, but so are the mistakes. Bad angles are the normal with Harrison and that was the case again Sunday.

Baker Mayfield

Sunday was not a good one for Mayfield, some of it his fault and some of it not. Operating with a backup right tackle and his left tackle was simply atrocious. Mayfield was 11-for-21 for 73 yards and a score. The Browns’ quarterback threw a bad interception into what was possibly a bad route, but it was double coverage nonetheless. Mayfield made some bad decisions and missed some guys. Injured or not, you can not have days like this. Simply a bad output and something that has to be fixed.

Overall the Browns had more negatives than we named. The secondary had lapses, even though Mac Jones was tremendous and simply made some great plays. The interior of the defensive line has it’s worst game of the year. Linebackers were a weak spot as they are notably.

Next week against the Detroit Lions is a chance for the Browns to bounce back. A game they’ll undoubtedly have to grab if they want to turn this thing around. At this time a 5-5 season is very concerning. 

Brandon Little is a writer for Sports Illustrated’s Browns Digest website and you can follow him on Twitter here. You can follow Browns Digest on Twitter as well here.