Browns Must Solve Myriad Of Problems To Keep Winning

On Sunday, the Cleveland Browns came out on top of an 18-13 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road. The good news is that the Browns evened their record at 1-1.

The bad news is, they kept shooting themselves in the foot. Bleacher Report published an article about observations of the Browns in this game.

“The good news is that,” B/R wrote, “for a team with a good defense and a functional rushing attack (125 rushing yards), average quarterback play is enough to deliver wins.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson was pretty average, but he got into the endzone for his first rushing touchdown of the season. He completed 22 of 34 passes for just 186 yards but did not turn the ball over, which is a huge plus.

The bad news is that if Cleveland can't stop hurting itself with avoidable mistakes, winning consistently will be difficult,” B/R continued. “Cleveland was flagged a whopping 13 times for 100 yards against Jacksonville, and penalties nearly cost the team a chance to seal the game late.”

The sheer number of penalties in this game should have been enough to doom the Browns. They came up big at the right moments. The sack of Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence for a safety.

Related: Browns Sneak Past Jags, Lose Myles Garrett?

Lawrence drove the Jags into striking distance with eight seconds remaining in the game, but was unable to get a ball into the endzone and the Browns came out on top.

This defense has to be better; penalties have to be better, and Watson has to get better despite a shoddy defensive line.

They will get another chance next week when they are back home to take on the New York Giants. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.