“Somebody has to make a play”: Week 4 Winners and Losers

In lieu of a narrative to describe how poor of a game Week 4 was for the Cleveland Browns, I will use this space to share some of my favorite quotes to come out of player and coach mouths following the obliteration at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals.

“In order to be successful in this league, it takes all 11 guys on one side of the ball working together to execute their job properly. We were not able to do that across the board from the first snap.” — DeShone Kizer

“You put countless amount of hours into this sport to be able to execute things that we do regularly do throughout practice, training camp and OTAs. All the time you spend not to feel that same success that you feel in practice does become a little frustrating.” — DeShone Kizer

“Today was not a good day for our football team. We need to get better. I just think we have to go in this room and there are some fundamental things that we have to do better across the board. It starts obviously with me, down through our coaches and the rest of our players, and that is what we have to do better.” — Hue Jackson

“I think Kenny [Britt] is trying hard. I do.” — Hue Jackson

“Have to get better when we are down there.” — Hue Jackson on red zone defense

“It pains me. It does. I see it all. I saw everything here today because we all want to give them what they deserve. We didn’t today. I understand our fans leaving. I probably would have, too.” — Hue Jackson

“The energy at practice was phenomenal. You would think that we were 3-0 at the time the we were practicing out there.” — Kenny Britt

“I do not think that we are in panic mode right now.” – Christian Kirksey

“Something has to happen. Somebody has to make a play, something.” — Emmanual Ogbah

“We have great guys in here.” — Jamar Taylor

LOSER: DeShone Kizer

It’s becoming impossible to grade Kizer at this point, weighing his holding of the football with his passing numbers being wholly inaccurate due to all of the drops and interceptions that are deflecting off the hands and chest of his receivers. This said, we’re looking at a kid who has seemingly regressed, and one who when we’re looking for rays of light, we point to things like his competitiveness and his unwillingness to give up regardless of what the scoreboard is telling him. Kudos to him for not entirely throwing his front office under the bus, but it was very tough to not listen to Kizer postgame and sense some frustration with the lack of talent around him when it comes to play-making options.

LOSER: Hue Jackson

While we’re going to credit Kizer for not throwing his front office under the bus, Jackson needs to start. He’s locked in to a contract and is perpetually the subject of reports that say he has time to get this Browns team on track, but until he’s given the weapons, he’s going to be fledgling. Both teams heading into Week 4 were winless, but one was clearly much better positioned to break that streak than the other. As much as it’ll pain the Browns apologists to have to keep defending them amidst more Jason La Canfora articles, the only thing that will make this better is winning—and winning will not take place until this team has play-making talent on both sides of the football.

LOSER: Sashi Brown

As I tweeted early on Sunday, anything shy of Sashi Brown taking to the podium to admit how badly they botched the signing of Kenny Britt as a replacement of Terrelle Pryor is unacceptable. Pryor is not exactly using his one-year deal in Washington to springboard him to DeAndre Hopkins money, but Britt is clearly not the answer and I feel for Hue Jackson as the injury to Corey Coleman has left him with Britt and a bunch of guys who wouldn’t see the 53-man on another NFL roster.

Not helping matters: Carson Wentz is thriving in Philadelphia with very little in the way of a backfield or a consistent downfield option¹, Deshaun Watson was one of the best quarterbacks in football this past sunday, and Malik Hooker already has three interceptions while Jabrill Peppers is consistently being misused.

This is on Brown.

LOSER: Kenny Britt

Speaking of, it doesn’t get much worse than this…

WINNER: Shon Coleman

On the field for all 51 pass plays, Coleman allowed just three hurries while being tasked with blocking Carlos Dunlap. Not bad, kid. Not bad.

WINNER: Emmanual Ogbah

Easily Ogbah’s best game as a professional football player. He had a sack and a hurry as a pass rusher while tallying three stops in run defense. He also forced two fumbles including this one mid-way through. Great to see this kid ball out, especially as the return of Myles Garrett will only serve to help him.

LOSER: Gregg Williams

I can’t wait for Gregg Williams to get on the podium this week and defend his horrid play call against a player going 61 yards untouched on a screen pass. I’m a big fan of his hiring, but this sort of play is beyond unacceptable.

And now, the fans…

Text

Losers: The Cleveland Browns
Winners: Jason LaCanfora

— Dan Carroll (@clesports44) October 1, 2017

Winners=front office for continuing to make millions of $ while putting that crap on the field…Losers=fans

— Eric J Livingston (@EricJLivingston) October 1, 2017

https://twitter.com/drewpelto/status/914582868843728896

Winner: Deshaun Watson for not getting drafted by the Browns.

— Derek DuRoss (@The_Real_Du) October 1, 2017

Losers – everyone. Winner- Deshaun Watson

— Matt Borngen (@Borney25) October 1, 2017

Winners- Everyone who attend the Tribe game over going to/watching Browns

— KJ in CLE (@KJCLEWFNY) October 1, 2017

Winner: Tim Couch. Kizer is further proof that no QB can be successful on the Browns and his career shortcomings weren't his fault.

— Matt Fantone (@Fantone) October 1, 2017

Winners: me. I've decided that I'm no longer wasting my time on this awful product.

— T.D. Dery (@TD1TribeKU) October 1, 2017

1. If you’re going to point at Zach Ertz as said option, I’m already laughing at you. [↩]