How the Cleveland Browns Can Fix Their Repeated Early-Game Troubles

It is a problem that every coach has encountered for at least a portion of his career. The Cleveland Browns and head coach Mike Pettine are battling the dreaded “slow start” through five games. This, however, is a dilemma that has no easy fix. The resolution is as complex as the problem itself.

Even though their record is 3-2, the Browns would probably have at least one more victory if this issue was resolved. In Week 1, the Browns fell behind 27-3 at halftime. They came roaring back in the second half and even tied the game late in the fourth quarter. The Steelers stole that victory with a game-ending field goal.

When the first quarter ended Sunday, the Browns found themselves down 3-0 and had a total of -1 yards of offense. This fell right in line with the rest of the season, because up until that point the Browns had been outscored 78-36 in the first half of their games.

That was when everything changed. The Steelers muffed a field-goal attempt, the Browns caught fire and they rattled off 21 unanswered points to close out the first half. The problem was solved quicker than usual, but the problem was still present.

How can the Browns fix their slow-starting woes? To understand the answer you first have to understand the issues.

Hoyer and the run-first offense

The Browns currently have the ninth-ranked offense in the NFL, scoring 26.8 points per game. This is significantly better than 2013 when they finished 27th, scoring just 19.3 points per game. The offense is obviously working, so why is it taking so long to kick into gear on Sundays?

The answer can be found in a common drug called Novocain. The Browns offense is very similar to the drug used in surgeries across the globe. Give it some time, it will work.

Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan is operating a run-heavy offense with the Browns this season. So far, 52 percent of their plays that have been called are runs. It seems to be a fairly balanced offensive attack. The run works to set up the play-action pass and downfield attacks.

The only exception to this was against the New Orleans Saints. In that game the Browns threw the ball 41 times and ran it just 30. Up until this week it was also the only game in which they were leading at halftime.

The issue is that in order for a zone-blocking, misdirection running game to work, it has to wear down a defense. It has to get them thinking one way and attacking them the other. It has to make them sick and tired of trying to tackle a running back barreling through the hole.

“I mean you couldn’t draw up a worse first quarter for the offense,” said tackle Joe Thomas after their victory Sunday. “But we wore them down, we responded. We were able to make the important plays.”

It may take a while, but it always works. The Browns are currently the third-ranked rushing attack in the NFL, averaging 146.4 yards per game on the ground.

The fact of the matter is that rushing teams have a hard time lighting up the scoreboard early in the game. Most of their scoring comes once the defense has been battered and cannot bear to try and stop another rush.

The other issue with the offense is quarterback Brian Hoyer. He is having a fantastic season. It is better than anyone ever expected heading into 2014. He currently has the eighth-highest quarterback rating in the NFL at 99.5 and is fourth in the league at yards per attempt with 8.2.

As good as he has been, the one knock you could have is that Hoyer seems to be a slow starter. The chart below shows his numbers by quarter this season, and, as you can see, he has his lowest yards, rating and yards per attempt in the first quarter.

	Comp %	Yards	TDs	QBR	Yds/Att
1st Q	59%	199	1	91.0	7.55
2nd Q	54%	295	2	98.4	9.05
3rd Q	68%	409	1	112.7	11.29
4th Q	61%	334	3	95.7	7.59

This does not mean he isn’t good in the beginning of the game. It actually means that Hoyer is the type of quarterback that feels out a defense before he starts attacking its edges. This is a huge part of the reason he takes care of the football so well. Hoyer won’t make a decision unless he is sure that it has good odds of turning out in his favor.

So how do you fix this issue? The same way they did in the second quarter on Sunday when they outscored the Steelers 21-0. The defense needs to give the ball to the offense with decent field position, the run game needs to kick in as quickly as possible and the Browns need to pick up yards in chunks.

In the second quarter alone on Sunday, Hoyer has completions of 51, 42 and 24 yards. The passing game doesn’t seem to click very well until the running game is becoming dominant. So they need to continue to get bigger chunks of yards and loosen up the defense.

Finding early pressure

Another issue that has plagued the Browns so far this season has been the lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks in the first half. Once again, heading into the second quarter of the game Sunday, the only time the Browns led at the half was against New Orleans. That was also the only time they were able to get consistent pressure on a quarterback early in the game.

Teams usually have about 15-20 offensive plays scripted entering the game. They know what defenses your team’s runs best, and they have planned to attack them. This is when offenses tend to have a high rate of success.

The best way to negate the predetermined game plan is to disrupt the timing of the play by putting pressure on the backfield. The Browns have failed to take teams out of their 15-20 scripted-play comfort zone in every week except for Week 2 against the Saints.

If the Browns can begin to create more pressure in the first quarter and force opposing coordinators to abandon their script, it will help the defense limit scoring against them. The Browns currently have the 17th-ranked defense in the NFL, allowing 23 points per game.

We know that they are better than that based on what they did against the Steelers in the second half of Week 1, the Titans in the second half of Week 5 and the entire game against Pittsburgh on Sunday.

If the Browns can ratchet up that pressure earlier in the game, they will continue to climb the defensive rankings and become that much more dangerous of a team overall.

Learning experiences

The last issue, and possibly the most important, is the lack of experience throughout the roster and coaching staff. The Browns are filled with guys who are very young or have never played relevant football in their career.

The offense alone has Hoyer, two rookie running backs, an undrafted wide receiver, a tight end who has never seen winning football and an offensive line that that is filled with rookies and guys who have never really won anything. These are the types of players who have no idea how to start a game with the intensity needed to win every week in the NFL.

The coaching staff is similar. Sure, Pettine and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil have coached for quite some time but never in their current capacities. They too are learning how to fully prepare their guys to be firing on all cylinders when the game begins.

The Browns began the fix of this issue during the offseason when they signed linebacker Karlos Dansby and safety Donte Whitner. Veteran leadership and experience winning are the only things that can guide a young team toward playing better right out of the gate.

We actually saw it on Sunday. The Browns had been struggling for the entire length of the first half this season, and then all of a sudden they had a great second quarter against the Steelers. It was a baby step, but it was a step nonetheless.

As for the coaching staff, they need to do a thorough examination of the days leading up to each game. There is obviously a fundamental flaw in something they do. The flaw is magnified when the team has extra time to prepare like in Week 1 and Week 5 when they fell way behind by halftime.

Overall, being 3-2 and trying to find a way to start a little faster is a nice problem to have. If they can find that early consistency and the defense plays near the level it did on Sunday, the rest of the year could be interesting.

Good teams do not need complete overhauls midseason; they just tweak things to fine tune themselves for a playoff run. The Browns need to get out their wrenches and start tuning if they want to be in that conversation.

All quotations obtained firsthand.