CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Browns lost to the Cardinals on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium, 37-14. But that’s just what the scoreboard said.
Here are the real winners and losers.
LOSER: Kareem Hunt’s time to shine
By most measurements, Kareem Hunt was off to his best season with the Browns and might’ve been putting together his best season since he led the league in rushing as a rookie. He isn’t likely to reach the 1,327 rushing yards he had in 2016, but he has been as efficient as ever.
But, just like last season when he took the reins following a Nick Chubb injury, Hunt started on Sunday without a healthy offensive line in front of him. Then things just got worse. The Browns fell behind early and the running game lost its impact.
Hunt finished with 14 carries for 66 yards and a respectable 4.7-yard average. He also had three catches for 12 yards. His day ended in the fourth quarter when he was helped off the field and into the locker room with a calf injury.
Going into Sunday, Hunt ranked sixth in yards per carry this season (5.4) among running backs with at least 30 carries, not far behind Chubb’s 5.8, which ranked second. But Hunt ranked ahead of Chubb in multiple efficiency metrics such as DVOA (seventh), rushing yards over expected (second), success rate (11th), expected points added (EPA)/attempt (first) and total EPA (first).
Hunt also led the league in EPA/target in screen passes.
The Browns weren’t able to turn Sunday’s game into a showcase for all that.
WINNER: Donovan Peoples-Jones
Donovan Peoples-Jones has 26 career catches, but he might already have the best pound-for-pound highlight reel in league history.
On Sunday, he did this.
And then he did this.
But then, that’s what Peoples-Jones does. He makes highlights. He did it last season with big catches against the Bengals, including a game-winning touchdown, and he did it against the Titans, with a momentum-swinging 75-yard touchdown catch and run.
He only had 14 catches as a rookie but it felt like 74. He was just super efficient. He ranked second in receiving DVOA among those with fewer than 50 catches last season. If you count the playoffs last season, 11 of his 16 catches went for first downs.
Through five weeks this season he ranked 16th in DVOA, but that is likely to change after Sunday’s performance of four catches for 101 yards and two scores.
Nine of his 13 catches this season have come over the last two weeks. At this rate, his efficiency will be measured against the league’s best before too long.
LOSER: The argument that the Browns defense hasn’t played together enough
In the search for reasons why the Browns defense has struggled with consistency this season, we’ve often seen things land on questions about chemistry, continuity, and needing time to gel, etc…
When the Browns put together back-to-back dominant performances against the Bears and Vikings, all that talk went away. Whatever new faces and injuries the defense had dealt with, it had been overcome.
Or so it seemed.
On Sunday, after a second straight rough performance by the defense, questions about chemistry, continuity and needing time to gel were back. Denzel Ward and Myles Garrett pushed back against those theories.
“It is tough. We practice with everyone. Through training camp and throughout the year, everybody plays a role in practice. They have shown they can make big plays in games,” Garrett said. “Right now, we have to find ourselves. We are not rushing like we are supposed to. We are not covering like we are supposed to.”
Said Ward: “We all played together since camp. We had rotations and everybody played with each other. This is just communication. We’ve all got to be on the same page and spread the call across the field and execute our assignment.”
WINNER: Keeping a bad thing going
I wrote last week that Kevin Stefanski has been the best in the NFL at going for it on fourth down when that’s what the data suggests. Also included in that story was how bad the Browns have been at executing on fourth down.
Both trends continued Sunday.
The Browns were 1-of-4 on fourth-down attempts against the Cardinals, dropping their conversion rate this season to 40% (ranked 22nd). They still lead the league in trying.
Over the last four games, though, Mayfield has been sacked four times on fourth-down attempts; Odell Beckham Jr. has two drops; and five of the failed attempts have come in the red zone.
“We have not been good on fourth down. It is frustrating,” Stefanski said Sunday. “It is another one that we have to fix. We have not done a good job. I have to get guys open is the truth.”
Combined with last season, the Browns are 14-of-39 on fourth downs (35%).
LOSER: Keeping track of DeAndre Hopkins
DeAndre Hopkins leads the Cardinals in targets, catches and receiving yards this season. And while you could argue that holding him to three catches on four targets like the Browns did Sunday was a success, the passes Hopkins did catch were daggers.
There was a blown coverage on a touchdown pass. There was a 33-yard reception on a field goal drive, another play where he ran free.
But then, getting close to Hopkins didn’t always work, either. He drew two pass interference penalties on Ward.
And there was this.
WINNER: Myles Garrett’s sack rate
Myles Garrett got his league-leading eighth sack of the season by taking down Kyler Murray. That pushed Garrett past 50 career sacks with 50.5 in just 57 games.
Garrett is the third-fastest to reach the milestone, trailing only Reggie White (40 games) and Derrick Thomas (54).
With 11 games to play, Garrett is headed for his fourth straight season of 10 or more sacks. Also, Michael Dean Perry’s tenure as No. 2 on the Browns’ career sacks list is nearing an end (51.5), and Bill Glass’ single-season franchise record of 14.5 is again in jeopardy.
WINNER: Flags
The Browns and Cardinals combined for 10 penalties in the first quarter. None was declined.
The Browns rank 23rd in penalties per game (6.7), but have been worse over the last three weeks, ranking 29th with 7.7 per game.
They had nine for 88 yards against the Cardinals, including four for 43 yards on a first-half scoring drive. Ward had two pass interference penalties on that drive, giving the Browns seven for the year, which is third most.
At least one fan was into it.
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