As we get ready to turn the page on Steelers’ week, we take one last look at just how the Cleveland Browns have been able to find success offensively. On an EPA per play basis, only the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens tout a higher success rate.
One reason for the success of the offense in Cleveland is due to the run game, which currently leads the league. However, the passing attack is just as efficient through three weeks with Jacoby Brissett under center. He is not just a quarterback sneak artist, even though he may be dynamite at them.
Instead, we turn our attention to when Brissett puts the ball in the air, and specifically the success he and the Browns and head coach Kevin Stefanski have found when throwing out of empty looks (nobody in the backfield with the quarterback).
Why throwing out of empty is so efficient
Many groan when the Browns come out in empty looks, especially when the likes of running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt are split out wide. However, running empty with running backs split out wide is quite efficient and helps a quarterback discern what the opposing defense is sitting in right away.
The Browns used to run empty with former fullback Andy Janovich out wide, and for the same reasons they still throw backs out there with great success. A good place to start as to why this is so efficient is because it allows for Brissett to know if the opposing defense is in man or zone pre-snap with a high frequency.
Sure, opposing defenses could be running man coverage when they leave a cornerback out wide across from a running back, but this would be incredibly inefficient defense as someone inside would have their hands full with a gifted receiver. So most of the time when the Browns split out a running back, it is to see who aligns overtop of them.
If it is a cornerback, then it is more than likely zone coverage. If a linebacker or safety follows the back out, then it is more than likely man coverage. Another advantage to this is if Brissett sees a matchup he likes, as he did in Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers, with a running back across from a linebacker, he can take that mismatch. Against Carolina, he narrowly missed Hunt down the sideline as he dusted Panthers’ linebacker Shaq Thompson in coverage.
If the quarterback reads zone coverage out wide, then he knows he has the ability to pull the middle of the field horizontal as they try to pattern match and defend concepts,…
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