Dawgs By Nature
A look at the Cleveland Browns offense through five weeks of the season doesn’t show a lot of variance between the group led by QB Joe Flacco and the one led by QB Dillon Gabriel. The big difference is the lack of turnovers in Week 5 after four straight weeks of giving the ball away (a total of eight in four games). The Browns defense continues to get very little support from the other side of the ball.
Moving forward, Cleveland’s offense needs some changes. Whether it is being more aggressive or throwing the ball deeper and all over the field, Gabriel needs to be the head of those changes.
The Browns offense can also be opened up by the quarterback’s legs and the threat of him running the football.
In Gabriel’s first start, Cleveland ran two zone-read plays where the QB is evaluating the defense to decide whether to pull the ball to run it himself or let the running back take the handoff. Gabriel did one of each on Sunday versus the Minnesota Vikings. The Browns new quarterback noted the importance of movement from his position when asked (by this writer) after the game about those two zone reads:
As Gabriel noted, it isn’t always just running the football that can help the offense. Even on his first touchdown, here to TE Harold Fannin Jr., you can see the defender who is supposed to be covering Fannin have to check if the running back has the ball, then look back to see if Gabriel might run before trying to get back to cover the tight end:
It is subtle, but Gabriel’s speed at getting through the play-action and into dual-threat position (run or pass) gives Fannin a second more to get into his route. Flacco, at his age and after not being very mobile for over a decade, would not only have taken longer in the process but also created no potential stress of running.
After one game, no turnovers, some good throws and the threat of his legs gives a glimpse of how Gabriel can elevate the offense. It will take time, if it happens, but the signs are there for the possibilities.
