The Cleveland Browns traveled to Kansas City and took on the heavily favored Chiefs. Cleveland faltered in the second half leading to their 33-29 loss. Even though the Browns lost, there are some takeaways from what was a surprising overall performance from the team.
The Browns were perfect until they weren’t
There is one thing that the Browns had to be if they were going to at least be competitive in this game, perfect. Cleveland played about as perfect as they could have in the first half. The problem is that it did not carry over to the second half as they were outscored 23-7 in the final two quarters, turning the ball over twice and once on downs due to a botched punt.
The fact that once the Browns stopped playing perfect they were outplayed is hardly surprising. Kansas City is still the class of the AFC, playing imperfect for large portions of the game and still coming out on top. The difference in perfection vs imperfection shows that while the Browns are an improved team on the rise, they still have some ways to go to compete with the best in the league.
Defense surprisingly slowed the Chiefs down in the first half
First things first, the Browns were never going to stop the Chiefs. Their best bet was to slow them down and they did that quite well in the first half. The problem is that predictably Kansas City found their groove in the second half as the Cleveland defense was no longer able to slow them down. Combined with the offense faltering in the second half this proved to be quite problematic.
The main takeaway from this is that there was some sort of success on the defensive side of the ball that they managed to find in a unit that was integrating new players for the first time in a regular season game. This provides some hope for potential in regards to an overhauled Browns defense.
Wide receiver snaps
Odell Beckham Jr. was notably inactive for this game. This led to an opportunity for snaps at the wide receiver position for players not named Jarvis Landry or Donovan Peoples-Jones. To the surprise of many it was Anthony Schwartz receiving a ton of snaps (31) while Rashard Higgins saw only four.
Browns snap counts from Sunday pic.twitter.com/FFVGJUxVs9
— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) September 13, 2021
The snap differential is not surprising as Higgins skillset is redundant when compared to everyone else at the position while Schwartz provides something no other receiver has, speed. Just the pure presence of Schwartz makes the defense account for a pass that will test the back end of the secondary. This is why someone like Schwartz is not only important to begin with, but in a game not featuring OBJ.
Final thoughts
The fact of the matter is that nobody really expected the Browns to win this game. Kansas City is the superior team, playing at home, and has accomplished a whole lot more. The effort from Cleveland cannot be discounted as they actually had a few chances to win this game, the issue is really the failure to convert when they needed to late. This is something that needs to be rectified immediately if this team is going to live up to their lofty expectations.
