Browns vs. Titans: Cleveland Browns' 5 Biggest Holes Exposed

The stage was set for disappointment by the change in temperature, rain and sudden optimism in the air in Northeast Ohio as the Tennessee Titans headed into Cleveland Browns Stadium Sunday morning.

Unfortunately for the Browns, the cooling temperature could not cool down the red-hot Titans and resurgent QB Matt Hasselbeck.

The biggest question heading into Sunday was whether or not the Browns could rise over the hump and become a true winning ballclub. The Titans not only dismissed the upstart Browns, but revealed some very glaring holes in several key parts of the organization.

Jeff Schudel of the Northern Ohio based newspaper The News-Herald quoted Head Coach Pat Shurmur following the loss: "You can boil it down however you want to boil it down," Shurmur said. "You can talk about usage of players and plays and stuff, but at the end of the day, we lost."

Sorry if I disagree Mr. Shurmur. The "stuff" on the field today was lackadaisical and sub-par. The "performance" was definitely not the effort of a well-prepared and -coached football team.  

The gameplan, and Shurmur's personnel decisions during the bye week need a once or twice over in order to fix and prepare this team during the next two weeks for the Oakland Raiders.

Questions in the Secondary

Long gone are the days of Abram Elam, Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright missing tackles and coverage assignments.

Or are they?

Today the Browns secondary digressed significantly, failing to tackle, cover, and do pretty much everything that it takes to play competitive defense in the NFL. 

Free-agent acquisition Usama Young looked lost repeatedly throughout the game, allowing a 80-yard touchdown on a missed tackle. Sheldon Brown continues to show he is a liability playing in an NFL secondary. Not only is he getting beat, he’s getting beat consistently and for touchdowns.

According to Browns head coach Pat Shurmur via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Joe Haden, “sprained his knee” in the 4^th quarter of Sunday’s game. In any other situation this would spell doom for the Browns moving forward. 

Luckily, Haden and other injured Browns have an extra week to prepare as they enter into their bye week.

Pass Rush

Adding rookies Phil Taylor and Jabaal Sheard to the defensive line has seemingly bolstered the team’s attitude and effectiveness at controlling the line of scrimmage. 

Going into Sunday’s game, defensive tackles Ahtyba Rubin and Phil Taylor both ranked in the top five in tackles among defensive linemen in the NFL according to NFL.com. 

Not only that, rookie defensive end Jabaal Sheard and veteran end Jayme Mitchell were tied for 11^th in the same statistical category.

Despite these impressive improvements and the number of sacks the defense has amassed (11.0 per ESPN.com, zero on Sunday), the defense still fails to effectively pressure the quarterback. This is a glaring deficiency when watching game film. 

The amount of defenders used to pressure Hasselbeck on Sunday ranged from four to seven.  When pressuring with additional players, holes are opened up in the secondary.  Thus, the importance of sacking or disrupting the play is even greater given the decrease in defenders sitting in coverage.

To emphasize my point, according to ESPN.com stats, Hasselbeck completed 6-of-11 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns when the Browns rushed five or more defenders Sunday afternoon.  

Prior to Sunday, he had only thrown three touchdown passes with added pressure on the season up to that point.

Simply put, the Browns blitzed and just could not apply the pressure needed to help out the secondary. Tennessee handled the blitzes nicely and gave Hasselbeck plenty of time to throw. 

The Browns recorded zero sacks, and only hit Hasselbeck once.

In today’s pass driven NFL, performances like that are not going to cut it.

Young Quarterback

The saying, “stats can be deceiving” is paramount when examining the performance of Colt McCoy in Sunday’s 31-13 loss. McCoy looked indecisive, uncertain and uncomfortable in the pocket all game. Not only that, he frequently checked down immediately while feeling the heat from the Titans front.

Sometimes, he checked down, just to check down it seemed. 

Some of you may call it a “symptom of the West Coast Offense (WCO) system,” that Pat Shurmur has installed under Mike Holmgren’s oversight. However, the WCO and Shurmur’s philosophy call for plays that can stretch the field to keep the defense honest and allow for the execution of underneath routes. 

These underneath routes are only successful when the quarterback throws pinpoint strikes allowing the receiver to catch and run with the football.

Today, Colt McCoy was far from pinpoint with his accuracy.

Not only that, questions continue to arise concerning McCoy's decision making and arm strength. This was visible throughout the afternoon, but apparent on the severely under-thrown pass in the third quarter. 

His throw, while rolling out of the pocket towards the sideline, was 15 yards short and lacked any velocity whatsoever.

It floated right into Titans safety Jordan Babineaux's arms. Then, Babineaux floated right through the Browns for 93 yards and a Tennessee touchdown.

Wide Receivers

The clamoring of many pundits and fans heard in the preseason for an upgrade at the wide receiver position seems to be valid at this point in the season. 

Rookie wideout Greg Little and third-year flanker Mohamed Massaquoi have shown consistency reeling in throws over the middle and short slants, but fall short at getting separation downfield.

A legitimate downfield threat, a quarterback that can deliver, and a gameplan designed at getting the ball to him would significantly improve the effectiveness of the Browns offense.

Where will this player come from? 

It remains to be seen how the rest of the season plays out. With that in mind, there are several high-caliber prospects in the 2012 NFL Draft that could immediately impact the Browns passing game.

That, however, is another story for a different day.

Pat Shurmur and the WCO

Perhaps the biggest downfall of the Browns on Sunday just may be rookie head coach Pat Shurmur. 

Despite deficiencies at wide receiver, quarterback, in the secondary and in the pass rush, Shurmur consistently calls questionable plays with even more questionable personnel packages.

This was apparent with the continued struggle of Montario Hardesty, and the absence of Peyton Hillis from the gameplan. Also, on fourth-and-one in Tennessee territory, Shurmur called for a fake dive to Hillis and pitch to undrafted rookie Armond Smith.  

While Smith shows some promise, how can there be no confidence in the offensive line and Peyton Hillis to cover one yard of grass with two attempts?

Sometimes coaches outsmart themselves.

Secondly, the offensive play-calling is lacking a true definition and goal at this point in the season. Consistently dumping the ball over the middle and to the sidelines along the line of scrimmage is not, in itself, going to move the chains in today’s NFL; ESPECIALLY when the down to go is more than five yards. 

Is it that hard to understand that in order to cover eight yards, the ball should be thrown near that marker? Expecting non-playmakers to make a play and gain those yards after the catch is just not going to happen. 

Until Holmgren and Heckert realize that playmakers are needed for their system, the Browns will continue to look flat, and their WCO system will continue to dismay the Browns faithful.

Heckert landed DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy in Philadelphia. Where are the Browns's playmakers they so desperately need?

Has the rookie coach bitten off more than he can chew with the double hat of offensive coordinator/head coach?

With Oakland on the horizon in two weeks, we will see what, if any, adjustments he makes and what direction this team goes from there. It will be a long, long season until January if some of these very important dilemmas are not addressed.