In four of Cleveland’s last five games — and five of the team’s last seven — the Browns have failed to score 20 points.
The club’s offense currently ranks 18th in scoring and 11th in total yards, in large part because its rushing attack is second in the league. But the passing game has sputtered, as the Browns are 26th in the category.
Part of the issue has been the inability to get receiver Jarvis Landry consistently involved. he has just 23 catches for 219 yards in six games this season with no touchdowns. In last week’s 45-7 loss to New England, Landry had four catches for 26 yards on five targets.
“When you play a team like the Patriots, they take your strength away, so things like that and the running game, they’re going to try and do just that,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said, via Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal. “We’ll find ways to get Jarvis involved back in the game plan. There’s no doubt about that. He’s a tempo-setter for us. He’s an extremely good leader and locker room guy for us. Everybody knows that.”
Landry is one factor in getting the offense going, but he’s not the only one. Mayfield noted there are a lot of things Cleveland is doing to right the ship.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Mayfield said. “Yeah, changes need to be made, but ... there’s plays to be made that we haven’t [made]. That’s where we’re at right now. It’s not where we have to sit down and do everything completely different. We need to be able to execute and put the ball in our playmakers’ hands and let them go to work.”
Cleveland has a chance to start doing that at a better level with a matchup against Detroit on Sunday.