We Take Those: Takeaways from the Browns’ 31-21 win over Houston

I’m sure there were plenty of people out there, including me, that were hoping for, and to a certain extent banking on, an easy viewing experience on Sunday afternoon. After all, the Cleveland Browns had just played the Chiefs as well as fans could have possibly hoped for only to still lose the game last weekend and the Texans were coming to Cleveland with an average-at-best roster to face the full might of a Dawg Pound crowd that hasn’t had this kind of team to cheer for in decades.

Maybe Sunday’s game was a reminder to over-excited Browns fans that anything is possible in this league…who knows. All that’s going to be important a few months from now is that there’s now a W next to the Texans’ name on the schedule instead of an L. 

But, even with that, there can still be things that we can take away from the Browns’ 31-21 victory over Houston.

• As a bit of a continuation of what I was getting at in the intro, how many times over the years have the Browns’ role in a game exactly like this one been flipped? Even in my roughly 17 seasons of watching this team play football, or something slightly resembling football, they were the plucky underdog that was doing just enough to make the team that was clearly better than they are sweat a little bit. The fact that we all can acknowledge that Cleveland did not look their best today, but I don’t think many of us (I have some neurotic friends) really ever put much thought into the possibility of the Browns losing. The game last week plus the opponent led to a lot of decently well-placed confidence and Vegas labeling the Browns as 13.5-point favorites certainly helped that, but not every game is going to go smoothly. While Sunday was one of those days, it also showed how far the Browns have come in the last few years.
• All that being said, there are certainly some serious gripes to toss out there from this game and I’ll lead with the one that we all will likely share. The defense simply didn’t play at the level that Cleveland needs them to if they want to have the deep playoff run that we all envision. Giving up seemingly effortless yards to Tyrod Taylor isn’t good. The Texans QB (10/11 for 125 yards, two total touchdowns) diced up parts of the Browns defense, namely Denzel Ward, that many would have thought would be immune to any struggles that the defense may have. Texans wideouts were running free too often and the Browns vaunted edge rushers weren’t getting home. Going into the game, I never would have thought that there would be a large contingent of Cleveland’s fans that would breathe a sigh of relief when he was ruled out for the second half. Despite the Texans barely breaching the 300-yard mark on the day, it was evident that there is still much work to be done to get this defense where it needs to be. Luckily, it’s only week two. There is plenty of time for this defense to come together as a unit and improve.
• Can someone take Baker Mayfield over to Progressive Field and get him a sliding coach? Every single person that has ever rooted for the Browns probably wondered this at some point during the game on Sunday, especially after we all had our hearts sink down through the center of the earth when he came up holding his shoulder limp after a tackle attempt in the second quarter. Obviously, we would all like Baker to protect himself a little better going forward, and I’m sure that is something that he’s going to have a rather frank discussion about with Kevin Stefanski this week, but it also just may not be in his nature – and it’s exactly that nature that made Browns fans gravitate towards him in the first place. Going forward, I imagine he’s going to be more careful with how he handles tackling, but this may just be something we have to live with regarding Baker. But that was literally my only gripe with Baker today. He was nearly perfect (19/21 for 213 yards, two total touchdowns, and one interception) in every other aspect to me, someone who doesn’t have access to the film. Through two games, he has completed 75% of his passes. The improvement he’s made in this offense is evident.
• If I told you that Demetric Felton only touched the ball twice on offense today, would you believe me? That’s how much of an impact the Browns’ rookie hybrid speedster was able to have on the game. He caught just two passes on the afternoon, but they both were highlight-reel plays to a high degree. His first touch was a screen pass that he took 33 yards to the house for his first career touchdown, authoring the greatest spin move in the state of Ohio since Braxton Miller. In his second, he caught a swing pass and made a Texans linebacker leave his soul somewhere near the near side 40-yard line with a quick juke. Last week was Anthony Schwartz’s chance to show what he has for this offense, this week we got to see what Felton has. These are both incredible toys for Stefanski and his offensive coaching staff to get to play with going forward, especially as these guys get more comfortable with their roles in the offense.
• Do you know what no one noticed today until they were able to look back at it after the game? Cleveland’s special teams. Jamie Gillan had a nice bounce-back day catching and punting the football, Chase McLaughlin hit all of his kicks in a drama-free fashion and the coverage units never gave Texans’ return men any room to create something problematic for the Browns, even recovering a muffed punt in the first quarter. Special teams and offensive linemen…the less you have to think about what they’re doing, the better.