The Cleveland Browns won their first game of the season on Sunday, though the offense was again an issue — a recurring issue of the last three weeks.
Cleveland topped the Green Bay Packers 13-10 in Week 3, but the team had zero points on the scoreboard more than 56 minutes into the game.
The Browns are currently averaging just north of 14 points per outing under the leadership of 40-year-old starting quarterback Joe Flacco, who has completed 61.1 percent of his 126 pass attempts for 631 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski announced after Sunday’s comeback win that Flacco will retain his position as the starter, despite the presence of rookie signal-callers Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders on the roster.
“#Browns Kevin Stefanski said he’s sticking with Joe Flacco going forward despite the tough sledding,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported via X. “He was without 2 starting tackles.”
During his postgame press conference, Stefanski justified his decision to stick with Flacco in Week 4 against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field by defending the quarterback’s circumstantial struggles against Green Bay.
“That’s a great defense. I’m confident in saying that’s a great defense. And those two edge-rushers are outstanding,” Stefanski said. “And then we had injuries early to our tackles. We were without Jack [Conklin] going into this game. So, they made life really hard.”
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Later in the interview, a reporter asked Stefanski bluntly why he didn’t pull Flacco, who was heavily booed on Sunday, from the game after throwing an interception and producing zero points until the final four minutes of the fourth quarter.
“I’m just focused on doing what I think is best for the team,” Stefanski responded.
Reading between the lines of his comments, Stefanski may not have wanted to expose Gabriel, who’s second on Cleveland’s depth chart, to such a stymieing Green Bay defense.
If that is, in fact, the case, then it also tracks that Stefanski may not want to hand a rookie his first start on the road against Lions, who were the No. 1 seed int he NFC last season.
Given that logic, it may not be until at least Week 6 on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose defense ranks in the bottom third of the league, before Cleveland’s coaching staff even considers pulling Flacco for Gabriel.