Browns’ offensive snap counts, stats, and notes: Week 13

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 13 game against the Tennessee Titans.

• What a first half and what a game for Baker Mayfield. His accuracy was great throughout the game, and he had the right mix of sitting in the pocket and maneuvering around it. Even on the drop that Donovan Peoples-Jones had in the first quarter, it was a great pump and throw by Mayfield. His footwork and ball fakes on playaction passes continues to be impeccable too. Pro Football Focus gave him a grade of 91.1, the highest on the Browns’ offense.
• Per PFF, “Mayfield generated a 90% adjusted completion rate for the game, and the team averaged almost an entire expected point per pass attempt.” More from PFF:

Baker Mayfield has improved his passing grade from 57.3 in the first six weeks of the season (fourth-worst) to 90.6 since Week 7 (third-best). He has also gone from third-to-last to sixth in turnover-worthy throw rate, as well as jumping from 20th to second in big-time throw rate. Mayfield is consistently making the right reads while not inviting in pressure as often as before. And he’s making fewer poor decisions under pressure, too.

Most importantly, he has been accurate. Against the Titans in Week 13, Mayfield had the most pass attempts without an uncatchable throw since 2017. The Browns’ offensive line has played a significant role in the success, as well. The unit has cut its pressure rate allowed in half from the early part of the season — 28% in Weeks 1-6 to 12% since then. The latter rate is the best in the NFL by over 5 percentage points.

• If I had to nitpick a few things: we’re still seeing too many intentional grounding penalties on Mayfield, and this is now twice he fumbled to the outside on a keeper while going to the ground. Against the Eagles, Mayfield was fortunate that the officials blew the play dead early. Against the Titans, instead of a two-score lead being secured, the Titans basically returned it for a touchdown and had a fighting chance to win it if they’d converted the onside kick.
• Mayfield spread the ball around to nine receivers and also caught a pass himself.

• Teams are gearing up to stop the run, and in a game like this, the work that Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt put forth was still very valuable. Hunt only received a grade of 54.1 from Pro Football Focus, though.
• Chubb had some key runs, and both backs picked up nice yardage on screen passes. The threat of that running game is what sets up things like Peoples-Jones being wide open on his touchdown catch, or the wide open eligible lineman for a touchdown.
• D’Ernest Johnson played two snaps and caught a pass on the team’s first drive.
• Andy Janovich returned to action and played 18% of the snaps. He also recovered the final onside kick.

• Rashard Higgins had another great game, catching 6 passes for 95 yards and 1 touchdown. That chemistry between he and Mayfield is on full display. Jake Burns from the OBR notes that Higgins had a run blocking grade of 89.4 in 19 blocking snaps. He had a grade of 81.8 for the game.
• Jarvis Landry is clearly having fun, and it’s great to see him get involved in the end zone. Utilizing his arm remains an asset as well; and the great thing about those plays is if the receiver isn’t open, Landry can still just take off and run it if need be.
• All three of the team’s top receivers had solid games, but they each also had a big drop. For Donovan Peoples-Jones, it came on a missed touchdown on the opening drive. For Higgins and Landry, it came on second half third down passes that they dropped.
• Fun fact about the Peoples-Jones touchdown: that play was repped to KhaDarel Hodge during the week, but the rookie receiver stepped up and ran it perfectly for the score.
• JaMarcus Bradley played 11 snaps.

• It was a quiet game for the tight ends. Austin Hooper had two catches in the third quarter to help the offense at least get three points, but that was about it. Hooper only received a grade of 50.0 for the game.
• David Njoku caught one pass and hurdled a defender. I thought he was going to break his wrist again.

• Mayfield wasn’t sacked once and only took one quarterback hit all game.
• Wyatt Teller (83.6) and Joel Bitonio (88.8) continue to be perhaps the best guards in football, receiving high marks from PFF.
• Kendall Lamm only played one snap, but he made it count, catching a touchdown pass. And, to show off the multi-week planning for that, the team has often let Lamm be a sixth lineman for a snap here and there, so it wasn’t an out-of-the-blue personnel change down at the goal line. It’s too bad Joe Thomas couldn’t get one after all his years with the team.