The Cleveland Browns have dropped to 2-2 on the season after a Week 4 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns had their backs against the wall from the beginning as starting quarterback Deshaun Watson could not give it a go and rookie fifth round pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson was given his first career start.
And it did not go well.
Thompson-Robinson finished the game 19-of-36 passing for just 121 yards and three interceptions on the day. On the flip side, Lamar Jackson looked like his MVP self, completing 15-of-19 passes for 186 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for another 27 yards on the ground and two scores against the daunting Browns’ defense.
There is not much to take away from this game. It is too early in the season to push the panic button. However, we can peel back the onion a bit and look at the layers of this game.
Here is your Week 4 edition of 4 Downs.
1nd Down: Guess what? A handful of teams have serviceable backups
Do we think the Browns win this game with Joshua Dobbs? Is losing this game 17-28 worth giving a fifth round pick back? There are three serviceable backup quarterbacks in the NFL right now. Four if you want to throw Dobbs into the conversation.
Unless you have a Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston, or Taylor Heinicke, a backup quarterback is not moving the needle in an NFL game. Sam Darnold does not win this game, Dobbs does not win this game, and Marcus Mariota does not win this game.
As Tom Moore once said why he does not give his backups reps:
“If [Peyton Manning] goes down we’re [expletive], and we don’t practice [expletive].”
This is the situation the Browns are in. If Watson goes down they are done for anyway. No backup quarterback is leading this team anywhere.
2nd Down: The run game struggles are the biggest issue to take away
There is one real takeaway from this game, however, and it is the lack of a run game is catching up to the Browns. They brought Bill Musgrave in as an analyst this year to help out, and it was cooking before Nick Chubb went down with an injury. However, something has to change.
The Browns now go into their bye with the space to really get back in the lab and figure out how to get it cooking. Jerome Ford has not been efficient outside of a long run from Pierre Strong in garbage time. Something has to change.
I’ve written on it, I’ve podcasted on it, and there are answers out there. But the Browns need to figure it out fast.
3rd Down: San Francisco is beatable. The rest of the AFC is beatable.
Look what happened with the Miami Dolphins a week after hanging 70 points in an NFL game. Look at the rest of the AFC North. There is not an unbeatable team in the NFL. There is very little to take away from this loss to the Ravens.
Even look at the Ravens a week ago, who lost to the Indianapolis Colts without their starting quarterback. There is no need to overreact to a loss to the Ravens today with a rookie quarterback making his debut. No reason to.
Take a beat, and rest up on the bye week. Brock Purdy makes five turnover-worthy throws per week. They will have opportunities to win.
4th Down: Lose the battle, win the war
The Browns did not leave this game unscathed. Not only does Watson have a shoulder to recover from, but starting center Ethan Pocic and linebacker Sione Takitaki also left the game in this one. They now have two weeks to not only get healthy, but they have two weeks to prepare for Kyle Shanahan and the undefeated San Francisco 49ers.
Lose the battle of Week 4, but keep the war of a 17-week season wide open. Four weeks into the season is too early to force your quarterback to play early. This was not a must-win game and truly only has tiebreaker implications.
The Browns have 13 games left with a favorable schedule. Go out and win games to where the tiebreaker scenario is not even an issue.
