The Cleveland Browns will open Week 4 of the NFL’s regular season playing host to division rivals Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that will start to bring some clarity to the AFC North’s standings.
The Browns arrive on a two-game winning streak after an opening season loss, but are also riding a seven-game win streak on Thursday night games, dating back to 2018. Meanwhile, the Steelers are 0-4 all time on Thursday night games played in Cleveland.
But as positive as the start of the season has been for the Browns’ there’s still a ton of things that the team has been able to get away with and will need fixing as the season goes by. Here are three things that the team needs to address right away if they want to keep their current win streak alive beyond the Week 4 contest:
Get the ground game going
The Browns haven’t been able to move the ball on the ground, at all. Part of it has to do with blocking up front, but the club’s running backs carry some responsibility, as well.
So far, Cleveland ranks as the fourth-worst team in the NFL with 87.7 rushing yards per game, and is also the fourth-worst team in the league with an average of just 3.5 yards per carry, a number that’s gotten some help from Deshaun Watson’s scrambles. The Browns have still not found the end zone on a rushing play, either.
Watson has played well during the team’s last two fourth quarters, but he’s still struggling with accuracy for the most part. Not having a run game to support him and allow him to find a rhythm earlier in the game could end up costing the Browns dearly.
Keep the drives alive
The Browns are tied dead last with the Packers in third down conversion rate with just a 30.6 percent of success converting those third downs.
Once again, the lack of a reliable run game gets compounded with Watson’s accuracy issues and some of the struggles blocking up front, but Cleveland is having a hard time keeping drivers alive once they fall behind of the chains.
One one hand, this translates to the Browns not finishing a ton of drives like they would like, as the team ranks on the low end of the spectrum with only five touchdowns scored through the first three games, but it also adds to the defense’s fatigue as they have less time to catch their breath between one possession and the next one.
Find some pressure off the edge
Mason Graham has been a revelation with 4.0 sacks already to his name, and Maliek Collins continues to be one of the most underrated interior defensive linemen in the league. But Cleveland has failed to come up with big plays from the outside on passing downs.
Once Myles Garrett was sent away and Alex Wright went down with a season-long Achilles’ injury, it was clear that Cleveland wouldn’t have the same sack production as last year, but to have only 1.0 defensive end sack so far (Isaiah McGuire) is ridiculous. Heck, even the safety unit has double that total, with Grant Delpit and Ronnie Hickman each having 1.0 sack so far.
Jared Verse leads the team with nine quarterback pressures so far, but Cleveland still needs him to get home and finish the play in order to leave a bigger impact on the game, especially if he can force turnovers. Late additions Sam Williams and Derek Barnett really need to take a step forward when they rotate in, too, because it will be hard for Graham to keep this level of production through an 18-week season once teams zero in on him in pass protection.
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