Bengals vs. Browns: Analyzing the Snap Counts (Offense)

The Browns' offense was awful against the Bengals. The Browns only ran 41 plays, according to the NFL Gamebook. Immediately after the game, ESPN Stats had logged them at 38 plays, noting that would have been the fewest by the team since Week 1 of the 1999 season when they ran 28 plays against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 43-0 loss.

This is not an expansion team in 2014, but the Bengals made us look like one. Check out the snap distributions below for the offense, and let us know what your reactions are in the comments section.

Offensive Line
Joe Thomas	Joel Bitonio	Ryan Seymour	John Greco	Mitchell Schwartz
100% 41/41 plays	100% 41/41 plays	100% 41/41 plays	100% 41/41 plays	100% 41/41 plays

Thoughts: Overall, the Browns' offensive line allowed three sacks. All of the starters played the entire game. The offensive line certainly didn't have their best effort on Sunday, but it didn't appear as though they were completely overmatched. It's hard to get into a groove when the offense can't complete a pass beyond the sticks on third down.

Running Back / Fullback
Isaiah Crowell	Terrance West	Ray Agnew
49% 20/41 plays	46% 19/41 plays	29% 12/41 plays

Isaiah Crowell: 7 carries, 17 yards, 2.4 YPC. 2 catches, 10 yards (3 targets).
Terrance West: 5 carries, 23 yards, 4.6 YPC.
Ray Agnew: No stats registered.

Thoughts: This will be a running theme in today's "thoughts" sections -- you can't really judge the individual statistics of these players. With so few plays and being 1-of-10 on third down, you're not going to get the pretty stat lines. West had a play where he went the wrong way on the read-option, and the pitch or stretch plays were removed from the playbook this week.

Wide Receiver
Josh Gordon	Andrew Hawkins	Taylor Gabriel	Travis Benjamin
85% 35/41 plays	71% 29/41 plays	63% 26/41 plays	32% 13/41 plays

Josh Gordon: 3 catches, 48 yards (4 targets).
Andrew Hawkins: 2 catches, 7 yards (4 targets).
Taylor Gabriel: 1 catch, 2 yards (2 targets).
Travis Benjamin: 1 catch, 9 yards (1 targets).

Thoughts: In the days of Weeden, he'd at least say "screw it" and throw it on a rope to Gordon all day. The best play of the game offensively came on a late catch-and-run between Manziel and Gordon, but the drive stalled after that. Hawkins didn't have any redemption against his former team as he had a drop on third down early in the game after taking a shot to the back. Gabriel flaunted his arms in the end zone in traffic, with Manziel throwing a pick before the end of the first half. Benjamin had his only catch on the final play of the game, which was used just to get Cleveland over 100 yards of total offense on the day. Kyle Shanahan didn't want that "below 100" figure on his resume.

Tight End
Jordan Cameron	Jim Dray
83% 34/41 plays	41% 17/41 plays

Jordan Cameron: 1 catch, 4 yards (1 targets).
Jim Dray: 0 catches (3 targets).

Thoughts: One catch for Cameron won't get it done, but again, it comes down to the rather horrendous playcalling that saw everything change in what we ran. If the Bengals prepared for Manziel's Texas A&M days, why not throw a curve ball at them and still run our same offense, just with a different quarterback?

Quarterback
Johnny Manziel
100% 41/41 plays

Johnny Manziel: 10-of-18 (55.55%) for 80 yards, 2 interceptions. 5 rushes, 13 yards.

Thoughts: I am disappointed that Manziel couldn't be a hero for the Browns, but my depression focuses more on the fact that the complete egg laid by the team in general has eliminated Cleveland from playoff contention. When I put a level head back on my shoulders, I'm willing to be patient with Manziel because that's the only fair thing to do. I remain adamant that the offensive playcalling should be closer to what it was in Weeks 1-14. If we want to incorporate the read-option or other elements, those can be sprinkled in for effectiveness. They should not be the primary focus of the offense from Day 1.