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

How does it feel that through two weeks of the season, the Browns are one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL?

Pending the MNF game, who would've thought that the #Browns would be the AFC's 2nd highest scoring team (53 points for CLE, 55 for DEN)?

— Dawgs By Nature (@DawgsByNature) September 15, 2014

Looking thru some status this morning, and what team is the highest rated squad on offense per @PFF? The Cleveland Browns by +8.2

— Brent Sobleski (@brentsobleski) September 15, 2014

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	Alex Mack	John Greco	Mitchell Schwartz
100% 75/75 plays	100% 75/75 plays	100% 75/75 plays	100% 75/75 plays	100% 75/75 plays

Thoughts: All five members of the Browns' starting offensive line played the entire game. The unit as a whole yielded one sack to the Saints.

Running Back / Fullback
Terrance West	Isaiah Crowell	Ray Agnew
63% 47/75 plays	37% 28/75 plays	36% 27/75 plays

Terrance West: 19 carries, 68 yards, 3.6 YPC, 1 touchdown. 2 catches, 22 yards (2 targets).
Isaiah Crowell: 11 carries, 54 yards, 4.9 YPC. 1 catch, 3 yards (1 target).
Ray Agnew: 0 catches (2 targets).

Thoughts: Overall, it was another solid day for the Browns running backs. They ran with power, moved the chains when they needed to, and even caught a couple of passes this week. West's best run came on his touchdown run when he saw the cutback lane to pay dirt. Agnew dropped one pass from Manziel, but it was lofted a bit and he took a shot as the ball was coming.

Wide Receiver
Andrew Hawkins	Miles Austin	Taylor Gabriel	Travis Benjamin
84% 63/75 plays	69% 52/75 plays	67% 50/75 plays	31% 23/75 plays

Andrew Hawkins: 6 catches, 70 yards (12 targets).
Miles Austin: 6 catches, 44 yards, 1 touchdown (10 targets).
Taylor Gabriel: 3 catches, 13 yards (4 targets).
Travis Benjamin: 1 catch, 6 yards (4 targets).

Thoughts: What a day for Andrew Hawkins; it had to be a pretty special day for him too, because this is a guy who has been overlooked for most of his NFL career, and the Browns were the team to really put him in the spotlight. Now, he's catching passes with the game on the line. Miles Austin performed exactly like the player one could hope for, so it's a welcome surprise to see him actually pan out. Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin weren't big factors as receivers, but I still support the even distribution of reps.

Tight End
Gary Barnidge	Jim Dray	Gerrell Robinson
57% 43/75 plays	55% 41/75 plays	1% 1/75 plays

Gary Barnidge: 4 catches, 41 yards (4 targets).
Jim Dray: 1 catch, 5 yards (2 targets).
Gerrell Robinson: No stats registered.

Thoughts: When Rob Chudzinski brought Gary Barnidge to Cleveland in 2013, and before Jordan Cameron broke out, we wondered if Barnidge could end up being the starting tight end. Because of how poor the pass protection was in 2013, Barnidge was forced to be a blocker more times than not. This year, he's getting a chance to contribute as a receiver, and he came up with the catch of the game on fourth down on Cleveland's game-winning drive. Gerrell Robinson had a stray snap somewhere.

Quarterback
Brian Hoyer	Johnny Manziel
96% 72/75 plays	4% 3/75 plays

Brian Hoyer: 24-of-40 (60.0%) for 204 yards, 1 touchdown.
Johnny Manziel: 0-of-1 (0.0%).

Thoughts: The "Johnny" package would have seemed stupid had we lost. Because we won, though, it works out great -- the seed is planted so that defenses have to waste time game-planning for it, and that could allow Kyle Shanahan to sneak some new wrinkles in to future offensive gameplans. Brian Hoyer remains turnover free and is such a good leader for this team -- well done to both guys for how they conducted themselves.