Cleveland Browns offense goes cold after hot start in Week 17 vs Steelers

The Cleveland Browns’ offense was great in the first half, but particularly the first quarter, where Shedeur Sanders had already thrown for over 100 yards and was making some great throws. The Browns scored 10 points in the first quarter, and had 210 yards of offense in the first half. In the second half, they had 52 total yards of offense, with three punts, an interception, and a field goal (which involved no work of their own). In the fourth quarter, on four drives to try closing out the game or bleeding clock, they had zero first downs. But, the Browns still won.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 17 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Quarterback

• If only we could take that first quarter version of Shedeur Sanders and deploy that for the rest of the game. Those throws he was making were as good as you can get. In the second quarter, through, he was hit as he tried to throw, and it led to an interception. On the next series, he then made a bad decision on a dropped pick six. It’s seemed like a lot of interceptions from Sanders have some from tips as opposed to decision-making, but it has seemed to stall his passing success after the interceptions. He received a grade of 52.2 from PFF this week.

Running Back

• The Browns didn’t have a high yards per carry average, but Raheim Sanders continued to have some tough runs for the second week in a row. He was the Browns’ third-highest graded player on offense, per PFF, with a grade of 70.5. He also graded well in his two pass blocking reps.

• Dylan Sampson made a return this week and led the Browns in carries with 11 — although he was stonewalled in the receiving game, having no yards on 3 catches.

Wide Receiver

• The connection between Shedeur Sanders to Jerry Jeudy was successful early on. Jeudy did have one second half catch in which he was stopped shy of a first down, although it appeared as though he could have gotten it had he not cut back inside. Jeudy was the Browns’ second-highest graded player on offense, grading out to a 75.2 by PFF.

• Cedric Tillman had a nice catch in the first quarter that went for 42 yards on the catch-and-run. Other than that, the receivers weren’t too involved this week. There weren’t any end around of reverse plays this week, a chance of pace from its success in previous weeks — although there was one play in which Malachi Corley was about to get the handoff in the backfield that was blown dead due to a false start.

Tight End

• He didn’t get much playing time before exiting with his lingering injury, but Harold Fannin still had a profound impact, scoring the team’s only touchdown of the game with a nice adjustment to a floated pass in the first quarter. In that short time, Fannin was the Browns’ top-graded player on offense, per PFF, grading out to an 82.0.

• Sal Cannella, just called up from the practice squad, saw 4 targets go his way, and hauled in 2 targets. He seemed to be the guy who Shedeur Sanders was looking for in third down situations.

Offensive Line

• The Browns had a mess at right guard. Teven Jenkins left early with a concussion. Wyatt Teller, who returned after missing a couple of games, was intended to rotate with him. However, he only played 9 snaps before reaggravating his calf injury. Zak Zinter finished out the game — he did well in pass protection, per PFF, but struggled in run blocking.

• Joel Bitonio (65.3), Lule Wypler (64.7), Jenkins (64.2), and KT Leveston (63.5) all received decent PFF grades. Cam Robinson was the lowest-graded player on offense, grading out to a 45.5, and had several penalties.